by Linda Westphal

A postcard is one of those versatile marketing tools you can use whenever you need to reinforce an idea, push a product, or announce an event.

Think of a postcard as a mini roadside billboard that allows you to shout a message to the right people, i.e., your mailing list, without spending a lot of money.

With a postcard, there’s no envelope to open, so your audience is instantly exposed to any message you wish to communicate: “3-Day Sale”; “New! Just Arrived”; “Buy One Get One FREE during the month of October”; “Now! Order From Our Website.”

Postcards can push people to take action
A postcard is a convenient mailing piece that most people will hang onto if it contains a coupon or announces a special sale they don’t want to miss. An open-faced postcard sitting on a counter or table reminds them to take action in the next day or two.

Consider a series of postcards
One creative challenge when producing a postcard is your message; it has to be billboard-like. Keep in mind you don’t have a lot of space for detail as you do in a brochure or on a website. However, during the planning phase of creating your postcard, if your message can be broken down into segments and communicated over a short period of time, consider a series of postcards. This method is particularly successful if you are trying to attract your prospects’ attention, or strengthen your bond with your customers.

More ways to use postcards
If you sell home furnishings, use a postcard to welcome new residents to the neighborhood, then, over the next year, offer them special incentives to visit your store.

Reward your best customers by sending them a “special” postcard that notifies them of unadvertised discounts on items you know they have purchased in the past.

If you are opening a new store, use a postcard to announce your grand opening. Offer a free gift to anyone who brings the postcard to the event.

Since your customers need to be reminded why they buy from you, use a series of postcards to remind them and to generate more store traffic.

Here’s an example of a postcard series in action.

Terry is head of marketing at Cherry Hill Hospital. The hospital’s new cancer treatment center is opening in July. She needs to inform people in the community of the new center and explain what it offers, such as highly skilled doctors, a cancer information hotline, and free information booklets about various types of cancer.

Terry decides to add a three-month postcard campaign to her marketing plan; the campaign will support her other marketing efforts. One postcard in the series provides the center’s new cancer information hotline phone number. To emphasize the message, the hotline number is printed on a magnet that is super-sealed to the postcard. The copy urges recipients to remove the magnet and place it on their refrigerator so the phone number is available whenever they need it. Another postcard features some of the center’s experienced doctors. And another postcard offers free information booklets.

Here’s another example of postcards in action.

Pat is a natural health care product provider. His primary business is selling herbs and vitamins. He mails a catalog four times a year to his in-house mailing list and to prospects who respond to his ad for a free catalog. To encourage more sales between mailings, and firmly establish his company as a trusted expert, he decides to also mail a series of educational postcards. Each postcard answers a question about an herb or vitamin that his telephone operators have been asked by customers when they call to place orders.

If it has been a while since you incorporated postcards into your marketing plan, consider one of these ideas and watch how postcards can reinforce your message.



Linda Westphal is a freelance copywriter who works with advertising agency creative professionals, business owners and other marketing professionals from her office in Sacramento, California. She can be reached at Linda Westphal Copywriting, P.O. Box 2033, Citrus Heights, CA 95611, (916) 752-5443, E-mail: LindaWestphal@earthlink.net, or visit her Web site at www.lindawestphal.com