LMC

Hello Warriors,

I'm looking to do a mailing offline to a list of business's.

I will hit the big G, but wanted to see if anyone here personally
reccomends any company for the production of post cards to mail to business's.

I'm looking for a company that will allow me to design the post card too.

Thanks!

bsmith

Click2Mail - Index

Nothing super fancy as far as postcard design goes but it gets the job done.

Loren Woirhaye

You can get postcards printed and cut at most any local
printer. Smaller ones are cheaper because they can put
4 on a sheet instead of 2. A larger print-shop will be
able to run them on larger sheets and maybe save
you money if you want color.

You can get them online of course but your local
shop may well be competitive and cards are cheap
anyway unless you need color.

Ty Hall

Hi,

To get the best price on postcards, you want to use a printer that does "gang" printing. They will put your job on the press with 19 other jobs, and run all 20 jobs at once, lowering their production costs. The 2 up versus 4 up printing mentioned by another member is still used, but the "postcard printers" that have popped up everywhere over the last 5 years all use gang printing.

You need to also be aware that some of these "postcard printers" are actually brokers, and dont do any printing themselves. Just an fyi.

I have used several different printers to print postcards for offline marketing over the years. I have been very happy with the service and quality from discounted printing dot com I've used them for about 2 years now.

They do an excellent job and are very, very reasonably priced. For example, you can get 5,000 6"x4" 4/4 postcards for $110.00 plus shipping!

Remember that the size of your postcard will determine your postage cost. You can use a card that is up to 6" x 4.25" and mail it for the "postcard" rate. Currently that is 27 cents per postcard. If you go bigger than that size, you jump to 41 cents per postcard. And if you go really big, it gets more expensive than that.

Of course if your mailing is large enough, you can do some things to get your postage cost down too.

If you have any other questions, PM me and I would be glad to help.

Best,

Ty Hall
Direct-Response Copywriting and Consulting

profitgenie

Try send out cards, its a mlm program will cost about 60-70c per card posted but you can customise your card including your handwriting and signatures. keep reports and client files and have cards sent out automatically on important dates.

PG

Joe McVoy

Hi,

I also love Send Out Cards. I don't use it for postcard mailings in any kind of quantity, but it's great for greeting cards in that you can send one greeting card for less than one dollar with your own photo uploads and it is mailed for you the next day. Great for birthday card mailings and anything else where you mail one at a time automatically.

For postcards, I use a local printer who also addresses and mails with their postal permit to get discounted postage. They don't use a printing press, but rather a high speed copier that can take variable data and run gang runs super cheap ($41/M) - My most recent mailing went to 1,100 people, got 9% response (inquiries, not orders) and was black ink on bright yellow Astrobright stock. When you use a large, well written headline, it stand out from all the other mail that is full color.

It's all about the numbers, and whether you use full color or one color, your biggest cost by far is postage, not printing.

Joe McVoy

Bald Brit

www.printfirm.com in California do pretty good work. I've used them for the last two years. Swift turn around and they'll print from a PDF. They also ship and cover all fulfillment including mailing, but that's extra.

aboutalhah

I also hear good things about sendoutcards and many marketers will use it because it will works like an autoresponder.

Would you recommend discounted printing or sendoutcards?

Franck

Joe McVoy

The best way to go printing-wise will depend on your quantity. Send Out Cards wins in small quantities (under 100) and if you want them in the mail tomorrow, digital printing or copying in medium quantities (1,000) and offset printing with gang runs in larger quantities (5,000).

How many do you want to mail.

If you are looking for the equivalent of an autoresponder for print (sequential campaigns printed and mailed one at a time), SOC is the only choice I know about.

Joe

Ty Hall

Hi Franck,

I had not heard of sendoutcards until I saw the posts here. I went and took a look at their site and the service they offer.

I think discountedprinting is still the best option. Here are a couple reasons why:

1. Another member mentioned getting postcards photocopied for $41/M, saying that was "inexpensive". Discountedprinting will print them for $22/M even at a quantity of 5000 postcards, which is considered a small job by printing standards. Remember, printing costs go down on a cost per thousand as the volume increases. Since these arent photocopied, they are a much better quality end product.

2. sendoutcards appears to me to be a service designed to primarily send greeting cards. Its an interesting service, but not what you are looking for if you want to send marketing postcards. Someone mentioned that the greatest expense in doing a mailing is the cost of postage. Very true. There are some things you can do to lower that cost, but it will still be the most expensive part of your campaign. If you want to learn how to lower the postage cost, it is important that you contact me BEFORE you get your job printed.

3. Getting Your Mail Opened - when sending direct mail, the hardest thing to do is to get your mail opened. How many times have you stood at the waste basket, gone thru your mail, and thrown out mail, unopened, because it "looked" like "junk mail"? We've all done it... right? Is that how you want YOUR direct mail handled? If so, send a mail piece in an envelope and then check your response.

Now I will admit that over the past couple years, more people are doing direct mail campaigns in envelopes that appear to be greeting cards. No one wants to throw away a greeting card, or party invitation by mistake. So we open it to see what's inside and bam... they got us. I'm sure it works, but I dont think it can work as well as a postcard.

With a marketing postcard, you do not have to worry about the envelope getting opened... and if you create an eye-catching postcard it will get read.

My thought is that you use a company that specializes in postcard printing if you want to get the best quality job, and best price. There are dozens of companies that specialize in postcard printing. Do a Google search and you will return them all.

Over the last 14 years of marketing my Internet businesses with postcards, I have used 6 - 10 different companies, and have found that discounted printing does the best job, at the best price.

I have a lot more that I could share on how to use postcard marketing successfully. Matter of fact, I've considered putting together either an ebook or an online video training course on successfully marketing your Internet business with inexpensive postcard marketing. I've been doing it for 14 years so I have a vast amount of information that I could share.

I would be interested in getting everyones feedback on this...

It would take quite a bit of work to put this together, record the videos, etc. I already have more projects than I should already going. But... if I can help a fellow warrior to build their business using the specialized knowledge that I have in a certain area, then I feel its my obligation to help out.

So do you think a course on successfully marketing your Internet (or offline) business with cheap little postcards would be useful information to grow your business?

Let me know either way... I would like to hear from everyone. I'll set up a blog page for you to post your comments on and give me your feedback.

Give me 15 minutes to have the blog set up. It will be at www dot tyhall dot com /blogs / postcardmarketingmillions

Best,

Ty Hall
Direct Response Copywriting and Consulting

David Ogden

I have used a couple of options with great success, as I live in Malaysia and my main market is the USA Direct Mail Postcards - Printed and Mailed in 24 Hours has fairly basic services but sendoutcards.com has a great service where you can customise or create your own cards and they can incluude you own signature and handwriting.

For me it has been the perfect answer with low costs aad in addtion to postcards you can mail out an assortment of folded cards along with gifts.

If you have any question please feel free to contact me

Regards

DukeNasty

Great information here! Thanks!

E.

Robert_Rand

I've looked around a lot and there's definitely plenty of options. It also depends how many you want to send. VistaPrint is actually a decent place to start. I've used them a couple of times. It's pretty cheap and you can easily upload your own list - you just use the excel format they provide.

You can create a new campaign in a matter of minutes so it's a great place to go if you want to test something. And yes, you can design the post card via WYSIWG. They have tons of designs to choose from.

AdamHolland

I've heard good things about PostcardMania.com ..

I actually just placed a deposit for my first campaign today. The total cost INCLUDING the leads I got from my 'top secret' leads broker was $2624 for 5000 postcards (around $0.45 per postcard). This is w/ a custom design I got from a biz partner of mine, and a list purchased at around $110 CPM.

Adam Holland

Chris Lagarde

Recently came across this company. It appears to be a direct competitor to SendOutCards (SOC) without all the MLM trappings that SOC wraps itself in.
Remarkable Selling - RemarkableMail Products

DialerDamien

Not a card company but a piece of advice if sending them yourself. You will get a far better price for mailing if you drop them off at a post office dist center organized by zip code as opposed to sending at your local post office.

Hope this helps

Rainer

Just came across this thread. Thought I'd add my 5-cents worth.

I've been in the direct mail business for almost 30 years, almost all of it on the production side. I owned a mailshop with 50 employees (known as a lettershop in the industry) for 25 years but needed a lifestyle change 5 years ago.

Nowadays, I work mostly as a print broker specializing in the dm market -- yes, there is a specialty niche that not every printer is experienced with. Many times I witnessed a client providing stock that was printed by a commercial shop with the cheapest prices or worse, printed by the 'mom & pop' corner printshop. Stock that was completely unusable by the lettershop for either laser-printing or even automated inserting.

Sometimes it cost thousands of dollars just for re-printing, of course paid by the CLIENT. What do you think that did to their ROI?

So what does this have to do with postcards?

Although I have a site of 200+ pages, it's not a true online business because my business is derived offline through referrals, direct mail, telemarketing, and a LOT of repeat business. But since I am ON-line, people find me, especially the ones who want postcards printed up & mailed.

The first thing I always ask is -- HOW are you going to mail them, i.e. how is the name and address being applied? If the quantity is large enough, they can be run 2-, 3-, 4-up or more on a sheet.

Who is going to mail them for you?

What kind of equipment are they using?

Do they have the software AND expertise to to run these multiples on a sheet?

What about postal regulations?

Or... are you planning to do it yourself? GOOD LUCK!

Postcard printing is a VERY competitive market. I'm here to say that I would not be the cheapest. But I would GUARANTEE that it gets out in the mail. Believe it or not, that's a value-added proposition.

I'm not posting to dig up business (unless of course you want to mail 50,000 per month, then call me) because most IM people are only interested in doing hundreds or maybe 1,000 at the most.

My real purpose is to see if there was an interest in a course or ebook on how to do proper postcard marketing with recommendations for specific services and/or products.

There seems to be a need for it based on the emails I get for quotes. I usually have to let these go because it's not my bread-and-butter market which usually involves personalized mailings in the hundreds of thousands.

Direct mail is, and will remain, a foundation of marketing and postcard marketing can be very effective at a reasonable cost -- IF it's done right.

Dedicated To Your DM Success,
Rainer

MicahF7

Gotprint.com!

AdamHolland

FYI - bulk mail tends to get lost at the processing centers... It's better to mail first class if you can...

DHPeck

Just an FYI ....With the advent of the new intelligent barcode, bulk mail can be tracked.

equity

gotprint.com
5000 4x6 full color postcards for $95.55
Cheapest printer I have found by far.
They also have mailing and list services.

cscarpero

Sendoutcards is great. They do postcards and greeting cards.

Heidi White

eI think there's always room for another good course or ebook with original content and ideas. Certainly there are many offline businesses that might need the information (Real Estate, Insurance, Consulting, Cosmetic Surgery, etc.) "The Small Business Guide to Profitable and Effective Postcard Marketing" or something along those line.

If you've more ideas for courses, ebooks, perhaps you can start your own PLR line.