Postcard Marketing Success!

[lbwardellsr]

I'm sure every of you noticed the sudden popularity of postcard marketing. It's seems that everyone big name internet marketer is trying it.

I wanted to start this thread so that those that are being successful with postcard marketing and help those (like myself) that are thinking of trying postcard marketing to be successful.

If you have tried postcard marketing an had any success at ALL (meaning you've made any money even a small amount) please post to this thread with the answers to the following question:

(1)What source(s) do you get your mailing list from?
(2)How many postcards do you mail out weekly/monthly?
(3)What kind of profit do you see month? (just profit not expenses)
(4)What price range is the product your promoting?
(5)What niches work best for you? (biz opp, health, wellness, etc.)
(6)Where do send prospects that answer to your postcard? (1-800 voice mail box, squeeze page, affiliate site, etc.)


Warriors these are all the questions I came up with so far. Please! add questions if you have some.

Let's all try and succeed in the postcard marketing game

[Scott Ames]

Personal thought: It would be best to test and be successful with something online before trying post cards.

[joshril]

To get accurate ROI's and stats with direct mail, you must have a budget that enables you to mail tens of thousands of postcards.

If you're only going to do one mailing and "see how it goes" (I'm not saying that is your plan, lbwardellsr), your money needs to be spent elsewhere. There is a lot of trial and error that comes into play with direct mail.

There are many factors to consider as well:

-The sales copy of the postcard
-The copy of the sales page if you are directing to a website
-The list you are using
-The target market
-Seasonal and timing issues

If you don't have the budget to do a mailing, track, resend, and track, it's not advisable to get involved with.

I've been involved in direct sales since 2002, and I know companies that use only direct mail, but they are spending countless thousands to test their campaigns and can afford to lose $10,000 on a "bad campaign". The law of large numbers definitely comes into play with this type of marketing.

[joshril]

Postcard marketing is one of the hardest forms of marketing to get started with successfully unless you have pretty deep pockets, but once of the easiest methods to utilize once you've done adequate testing.

Originally Posted by explicit080

HI
I am interested in postcard marketing business.postcard marketing may be the easiest way to get success.please help me to get started with postcard marketing business.
Thank you

[lbwardellsr]

Can the postcard marketing experts on here please help me out with & give me the answers to my questions in my first post!!

[dv8]

NOTE:: These answers are from when I did postcard marketing a few years ago. In a niche that has nothing to do with IM/making money.


(1)What source(s) do you get your mailing list from?
Data Warehouse

(2)How many postcards do you mail out weekly/monthly?
Varied. Key thing is to test small. If it works, then roll out a bigger campaign. If not, something needs to change.

(3)What kind of profit do you see month? (just profit not expenses)
(4)What price range is the product your promoting?
Not fair to answer these because I was "selling" something that made me a few grand per client. Which is not typical.

(5)What niches work best for you? (biz opp, health, wellness, etc.)
Kind of irrelevant I think. Good marketing works in any niche.

(6)Where do send prospects that answer to your postcard? (1-800 voice mail box, squeeze page, affiliate site, etc.)
I was sending them to either my free recorded message or website.


Overall, I LOVE postcard marketing. I don't think it's as hard as others make it out. But it can run your bank account dry if you don't know what you are doing. Hence testing small. And perhaps why some people think it's "hard".

Keep in mind, you can reverse engineer a campaign to see what numbers you need to get in order to get a positive ROI. Just add up all of the costs. Take how many you are mailing and times it by 1% (or 1.5%) for your repsonse rate. Take that number and multiply it by your profit per sale. Is that number higher than what it costs to do the campaign? If so, roll out a larger mailing.

Example...

1,000 postcards mailed = $600 (60 cents a piece)
1% response rate (rather be conservative)
10 sales (then again, don't forget just because they call your free recorded message doesn't mean they will end up as a paying customer)
$50 profit per sale
$500 total (10 X $50)

In THIS example, you lost money (assuming you have no backend). So it was a good thing you tested small. But there are so many variables, this was just a basic example.


Key Things To Keep In Mind...

Test small - No use in spending a ton of money on something that may not get results.

Track exactly what you are doing. How else can you accurately test if you don't track? What gets measured can be improved.

Test

CLEAR call to action - The ONLY job of your postcard is to get your prospect to call you/your free recorded message, or visit your site. It's not to sell them something right there on the postcard.

Use a free recorded message - Can be had for a few bucks a month. Kall8.com is a service I've used.

Test

A great postcard selling a great product/service to a bad list is worse than an ok product/service and ok marketing sent to a great list. What I mean is your list is the most important piece of the puzzle.

Test

If you're only going to mail once, don't bother. Direct mail 101 here. It can take several "touches" before someone finally decides to take action. Only mailing once is a waste, so don't bother doing it.

Ugly can outpull pretty. Some of the best postcards are plain. I reccommend using goldenrod card stock and black ink. This also helps keep your costs down since color adds a lot to the printing price. Simple, CLEAR messge, list the benefits, anda CLEAR CALL TO ACTION! Tell them EXACTLY what you want them to do next. Assume they won't know.

Did I mention test?

[kenj]

I am not sure about postcard marketing. I don't use postcards
I know a lot about leaflet marketing as I use it with my offline business.

If my business goes quiet I know that I can deliver 50,000 leaflets and get 150 - 400 new orders. My average order value will be £551. You need to test your copy and presentation over and over again to get it too the point that you KNOW it will work.

So if things go quiet I ring my printer up and say "Another 50,000 please" He prints and delivers the leaflets and I get on with my business.

Fortunately I rarely have to do this as I have so much repeat business and lots of customer referrals. But it is great to have this in reserve if my business needs it.

[bobsedge]

I am not an expert, but I'm not sure there is such a thing since each market requires its own testing and formula, but here is what I know.

Based on some research, Vista Print was the least expensive source I was able to find. For a print and mailing of 1,000 oversized postcards (8.5" x5.47"), the cost would be $539.00. You then need to add approximately $100 for a pin point list (there are a few companies but Edith Roman is a good one). The best list though would come from your internet marketing by enticing them to provide their mailing address.

So the cost would come to about 64 cents per lead for a postcard mailing. So at a 1% conversion rate ( it would be unrealistic to expect more starting out and even that is high), your acquisition cost is $64 per sale.

Personally, unless I had some bucks to play with, I would stay away from post card marketing starting out if my net profit were less than $100 per sale.

That is my two cents.

[jaggyjay]

To DV8,

Holy moly - you sound like you could be my identical marketing twin ; )

[TimCastleman]

I laugh when I hear how hard postcard marketing is and how you can't make money with it.

If that was true I'd stop mailing them tomorrow.

Postcard marketing is easy once you have an offer people want, a price that makes it profitable, and a system to rinse and repeat.

You shouldn't be selling anything that is low 3 figures with postcard marketing - in fact you shouldn't be selling anything at all. All postcards are meant to do is get people to take action - go to website, call for more info, etc.

Use the 4x6 type and it will cost you less than 40 cents a card.


Tim

[dv8]

Originally Posted by jaggyjay

To DV8,

Holy moly - you sound like you could be my identical marketing twin ; )

Perhaps we have a similar marketing background. 90% of my marketing knowledge was learned from Dan Kennedy.

[joshril]

One of the more concise posts I've seen on the topic of direct mail marketing. Great post dv8!

I think dv8 forgot to mention that you need to test... just kidding.

Testing is crucial. Sending 1000 postcards once will never give you legitimate numbers. Do 50 drops of 1000 and you can start to refine the process.

Although postcards are cheaper, I've had the best success with sending mailings in an envelope that look hand addressed. It definitely depends on the offer though...

I wasn't trying to be negative in my post, but so many people think they can drop 100 or 200 postcards and get a response and make money. When a fluke happens and they actually make some money from a 200 piece mail drop they brag about how powerful direct mail is and lead other people on (most of which will lose money).

As I mentioned above, after you've refined your process (which is done through adequate testing), direct mail is one of the simplest ways to market. But until you've done enough mailings to thoroughly test response rates, ROI's, variations of ad copy, where to direct your prospects, etc., it can be a very hard and expensive form of marketing.

Originally Posted by dv8

NOTE:: These answers are from when I did postcard marketing a few years ago. In a niche that has nothing to do with IM/making money.


(1)What source(s) do you get your mailing list from?
Data Warehouse

(2)How many postcards do you mail out weekly/monthly?
Varied. Key thing is to test small. If it works, then roll out a bigger campaign. If not, something needs to change.

(3)What kind of profit do you see month? (just profit not expenses)
(4)What price range is the product your promoting?
Not fair to answer these because I was "selling" something that made me a few grand per client. Which is not typical.

(5)What niches work best for you? (biz opp, health, wellness, etc.)
Kind of irrelevant I think. Good marketing works in any niche.

(6)Where do send prospects that answer to your postcard? (1-800 voice mail box, squeeze page, affiliate site, etc.)
I was sending them to either my free recorded message or website.


Overall, I LOVE postcard marketing. I don't think it's as hard as others make it out. But it can run your bank account dry if you don't know what you are doing. Hence testing small. And perhaps why some people think it's "hard".

Keep in mind, you can reverse engineer a campaign to see what numbers you need to get in order to get a positive ROI. Just add up all of the costs. Take how many you are mailing and times it by 1% (or 1.5%) for your repsonse rate. Take that number and multiply it by your profit per sale. Is that number higher than what it costs to do the campaign? If so, roll out a larger mailing.

Example...

1,000 postcards mailed = $600 (60 cents a piece)
1% response rate (rather be conservative)
10 sales (then again, don't forget just because they call your free recorded message doesn't mean they will end up as a paying customer)
$50 profit per sale
$500 total (10 X $50)

In THIS example, you lost money (assuming you have no backend). So it was a good thing you tested small. But there are so many variables, this was just a basic example.


Key Things To Keep In Mind...

Test small - No use in spending a ton of money on something that may not get results.

Track exactly what you are doing. How else can you accurately test if you don't track? What gets measured can be improved.

Test

CLEAR call to action - The ONLY job of your postcard is to get your prospect to call you/your free recorded message, or visit your site. It's not to sell them something right there on the postcard.

Use a free recorded message - Can be had for a few bucks a month. Kall8.com is a service I've used.

Test

A great postcard selling a great product/service to a bad list is worse than an ok product/service and ok marketing sent to a great list. What I mean is your list is the most important piece of the puzzle.

Test

If you're only going to mail once, don't bother. Direct mail 101 here. It can take several "touches" before someone finally decides to take action. Only mailing once is a waste, so don't bother doing it.

Ugly can outpull pretty. Some of the best postcards are plain. I reccommend using goldenrod card stock and black ink. This also helps keep your costs down since color adds a lot to the printing price. Simple, CLEAR messge, list the benefits, anda CLEAR CALL TO ACTION! Tell them EXACTLY what you want them to do next. Assume they won't know.

Did I mention test?

[dv8]

Originally Posted by joshril

One of the more concise posts I've seen on the topic of direct mail marketing. Great post dv8!

Thank you. If you can't tell, I LOVE direct marketing. More than IM.

I think dv8 forgot to mention that you need to test... just kidding.

Although postcards are cheaper, I've had the best success with sending mailings in an envelope that look hand addressed. It definitely depends on the offer though

I've also had a lot of success with that as well. I used both regular sized envelopes and the smaller, invitation sized ones. REAL handwritten address. No return address. Real stamp. Post-it-note inside attached to letter with a short, REAL handwritten note on it.

I wasn't trying to be negative in my post, but so many people think they can drop 100 or 200 postcards and get a response and make money. When a fluke happens and they actually make some money from a 200 piece mail drop they brag about how powerful direct mail is and lead other people on (most of which will lose money).

I agree. You make a good point.

As I mentioned above, after you've refined your process (which is done through adequate testing), direct mail is one of the simplest ways to market. But until you've done enough mailings to thoroughly test response rates, ROI's, variations of ad copy, where to direct your prospects, etc., it can be a very hard and expensive form of marketing.

More good points. Although I still think it's easier than IM. I could sit down with someone and in 10 minutes tell them enough about using postcards to market that they could get a good message to the right market.

At the same, as you are alluding to, there are so many variables that one could test and tweak that it can be a bit of a challenge.

[dwilk12]

If any of you havent seen it yet a guy named Vincent James has alot of good products on direct mail marketing. He made over 100 Million Dollars in 16 months usiing his techniques

[dv8]

Originally Posted by dwilk12

If any of you havent seen it yet a guy named Vincent James has alot of good products on direct mail marketing. He made over 100 Million Dollars in 16 months usiing his techniques

Yup, his book is called The 12 Month Millionaire. GREAT read! The numbers he was doing were insane! And yet doable.

[Instructor]

Wow. Was he selling his own products or pushing aff offers?

[freudianslip27]

I made the mistake of trying postcard marketing with an offer that was didn't pay high. I'm discouraged but still see the potential of selling higher end items. I plan on trying it for my offline business in the future.

Matt

[dv8]

Originally Posted by Instructor

Wow. Was he selling his own products or pushing aff offers?

Mostly pills starting out. Like diet pills and such. You know, things that people consume and MUST order more of if they still want the results.

Even if he broke even on the first mailing (in fact, he may have lost some money on the 1st mailing, I forget), it would put a ton of money in his pocket in the coming months when the repeat orders came in (with no additional marketing expenses to get them).

[TracyNeedham]

I think the cost can be super affordable depending on how you do it and how many you mail. After all, you can make the cards yourself on cardstock and just pay for ink and postage. And the number to mail depends on what you're trying to get leads for and your list.

I did a mailing a few years ago--just 10 postcards via the USPS.gov site to generate leads for my copywriting services. And I got a 30% response. My problem was I stopped following up so I didn't end up converting them. But I handpicked the names from a financial services marketing directory.

Overall, the better your message to market match (there's a Kennedyism for you!), the more potential a smaller mailing can have.

Tracy

[joshril]

Pretty impressive results. If you have a higher quality list and a very targeted message, your response rates can trend higher. 30% response rate is incredibly high!

I would be interested to see your copy (you may be the next Dan Kennedy with conversions like that) and your offer, as this was either extremely targeted or lucky...

Great job either way!

Originally Posted by TracyNeedham

I think the cost can be super affordable depending on how you do it and how many you mail. After all, you can make the cards yourself on cardstock and just pay for ink and postage. And the number to mail depends on what you're trying to get leads for and your list.

I did a mailing a few years ago--just 10 postcards via the USPS.gov site to generate leads for my copywriting services. And I got a 30% response. My problem was I stopped following up so I didn't end up converting them. But I handpicked the names from a financial services marketing directory.

Overall, the better your message to market match (there's a Kennedyism for you!), the more potential a smaller mailing can have.

Tracy

[dv8]

Originally Posted by TracyNeedham

I think the cost can be super affordable depending on how you do it and how many you mail. After all, you can make the cards yourself on cardstock and just pay for ink and postage. And the number to mail depends on what you're trying to get leads for and your list.

I did a mailing a few years ago--just 10 postcards via the USPS.gov site to generate leads for my copywriting services. And I got a 30% response. My problem was I stopped following up so I didn't end up converting them. But I handpicked the names from a financial services marketing directory.

Overall, the better your message to market match (there's a Kennedyism for you!), the more potential a smaller mailing can have.

Tracy

You make some good points. And ones I meant to touch on.

I mentioned earlier about ugly/basic is sometimes better. Another benefit to this is the fact that you can make them at home. Blank ink for my Oki printer is about $55. Cardstock is about $15 for a ream. Fire up publisher and make the card. Hit print. Gather them up and cut them with a cutting board....you can get them at Staples. I think I paid about $30 for mine.

Depending on the size, you can get 4 postcards to one sheet. So a 250 pack of paper is actually good for 1,000 postcards.

Smaller postcards allow cheaper postage. A larger postcard allows more room for your messge, but postage goes up 16 cents per piece.

With a clear message, benefits, and a clear call to action, there really is no need to go with a larger postcard and pay more in postage.

And about lists, yes, you can make your own. I have done this. Time consuming. But at least you know it's accurate information and very targeted.

I actually perfer to use a smaller list and mail more often. Using this method, get/make the most targeted and accurate list you can. This way you don't need 1,000's of addresses to make some money. Not to mention it's easier to keep track of.

[TracyNeedham]

joshril--I'd actually be embarrassed to show the copy since I was fairly clueless about direct response back then! While it was certainly well-written, there's so many things I would have done differently now...

I imagine it had more to do with the fact that I chose companies that specialized in mutual funds marketing, which probably don't get contacted often by freelancers with real mutual fund industry experience. Because of all the regulations, it's one of those rare industries where you can't just pretend to know what you're doing when you don't.

dv8--I agree, small and targeted is the better way to go unless you've got money to burn or need to blanket the country. I've done my own in the past and found it much easier to just do the cardstock and use a paper cutter than to try to use those Avery postcards.

For some reason, the margins never seem to line up right--especially when you're printing something front and back. With cardstock, you don't have as many margins to work around!

(I actually took my printer, cardstock and a paper cutter to a seminar in Atlanta a few months so I could make postcards to hand out while I was there!)

Tracy

[lbwardellsr]

What do you guys think about this idea for a postcard campaign offer:

Let's use an information product for example and say you sent out 1000 postcards to a targeted list of proven buyers of the type of information product you're trying to sell. And you make a good sell pitch with videos and the whole nine. And you offer a 14 day free trial of the product and all the customer would have to do is pay (let's say) $10.00 shipping. They have 14 days to try the product free if they like (after the 14 day free trial is over) you bill them $197 for the cost of the product, if they don't like they just send it back with in the 14 day free trial period and they want be charged anything other then the $10.00 shipping cost.

Did you think a postcard campaign like this work? If so how well?

[lbwardellsr]

Can someone please give their opinion of my last post?

Originally Posted by lbwardellsr

What do you guys think about this idea for a postcard campaign offer:

Let's use an information product for example and say you sent out 1000 postcards to a targeted list of proven buyers of the type of information product you're trying to sell. And you make a good sell pitch with videos and the whole nine. And you offer a 14 day free trial of the product and all the customer would have to do is pay (let's say) $10.00 shipping. They have 14 days to try the product free if they like (after the 14 day free trial is over) you bill them $197 for the cost of the product, if they don't like they just send it back with in the 14 day free trial period and they want be charged anything other then the $10.00 shipping cost.

Did you think a postcard campaign like this work? If so how well?

[dv8]

Patience my friend. Your posts are 64 minutes apart.

It is a decent plan. I would go a little longer than 14 days. Shipping it to them will take a few days. Then if they don't like it they may think it has to be back in your hands by the 14th day. So between those two things, in their head they may think it's really like a 8 day trial.

And I assume you will be directing people to your website. Remember, the ONLY job of your postcard is to get the person to take some form of action.

So in the example you are asking about, I wouldn't call it a postcard campaign. It's more like using postcards as a way to communicate to someone to visit your site. That's where the selling is going to take place.

Make sure to track how many people hit your site. Use Google Analytics for this. I say this because you can send out 1,000 postcards and get zero sales. But when you check your stats you had 20 unique visits. Which would mean a 2% response rate to your postcards, which is very good. BUT, since you had zero sales it would be easy to dismiss the postcards as a failure. When in reality, it was the message on he website.

That is a good reason why I said earlier that you need to track everything! If you didn't track in your above example, you wouldn't know the truth.

Also, what is your gameplan AFTER you send the first batch of 1,000 cards? What do you plan to do a week later?