5 Things to Know BEFORE You Start Your Next Postcard Campaign

Marketing is just like any other skill:

The more you do it, the better you will be at it!

And if you pay attention to what works and what doesn’t, over time, you can definitely become an expert.

Here at my company when we hire a new staff member they do an orientation where they get to meet all the executives and managers and eventually make it to my office. I had one of these brief meetings yesterday.

At the end I always say, “Would you like to ask me anything?”

Yesterday I was asked, “How do you learn about all the new marketing trends?”

My answer:

I read, I get on all the newsletter lists of all the marketing software companies and marketing companies I can (and read), and massive trial and error with my own marketing to see what works!

It’s my personal passion to educate as many business owners as possible in marketing so you don’t waste your precious marketing dollars.

Having said that:

There are a handful of things you should know right off the bat. I mean, before you even START a campaign. Read on and I’ll explain…

The first thing to know is which marketing channel will produce the most leads for your business.

As you know…

I’m a big fan of direct mail!

And it works for MOST small businesses. Our 82,401 clients span more than 350 different industries!

But here’s the thing:

What works for one company or industry may not be ideal for yours.

That’s why you need to collect some data on YOUR SPECIFIC BUSINESS before you start your next postcard campaign.

So grab a pen and write down the answers to these 5 questions:

1. What is the lifetime value of a customer of mine?

You need to understand your average customer lifetime value to be able to properly gauge your campaign’s performance.

Customer LIFETIME value is not the same thing as immediate revenue.

Here’s what I mean:

If your postcards bring in 30 new customers who each spend $100, you’ve generated $3,000 — great!

Is that your campaign revenue? Not necessarily…

You need to think beyond that initial sale.

How often do your customers buy from you? How many years do they stay with your business? Do they spend the same amount every year, or more upfront and less later on? Vice versa?

These questions will help you calculate your customer lifetime value!

It’s different for every industry…

Say you sell RVs, for example. MOST customers probably only buy from you once and then perhaps trade in for an upgrade once — maybe.

But if you’re in the RV-repair business, your customers — I hope! — come back to you again and again, at least for maintenance.

So, say you’re that RV-repair shop owner and your postcards generated $3,000 in immediate revenue.

But your customers usually have their vehicles serviced once a year for $200, and they stay with you for 5 years.

That makes your customer lifetime value $1,000, not $100…

Which makes your campaign revenue $30,000!

Whatever your customer lifetime value is, it’s a much better measure of campaign performance than response rate or even immediate revenue.

Don’t know your customer lifetime value? Use our calculator!

2. Who are your ideal prospects?

Without knowing who your ideal prospects are, it’s easy to waste marketing dollars.

When I first started out I bought one of those yellow pages CDs from Office Depot and mailed to every single business on the main drag in my town, Clearwater.

I had no idea which type of businesses would need or want postcards! And I didn’t get many calls!

That was 20 years ago…

And for another example, if you own a pool service business, you wouldn’t send postcards to people who don’t have a pool, would you?

Those postcards would all go directly in the trash, because those people have no need for what you offer!

Targeting is the key to cost-effective marketing, and knowing who your ideal prospects are helps you be more precise with your targeting and eliminate waste!

Say you’re the pool service business owner, for example:

You would target homeowners with pools, of course…

But you could get even more specific than that.

Say your best customers tend to have children and live in homes valued at $200k or more.

Other people who fit those same demographics are your ideal prospects!

But what if you don’t know who your best customers are?

Finding them isn’t hard…

Set aside a couple of hours and go through your last year’s worth of invoices. Pull your most profitable jobs and see what those customers have in common.

• Are they homeowners?
• Are they married? With children?
• What is their income bracket?
• What are their interests? (Yes, you can target people this way!)

You can actually take those records and append data to them to get all the info you don’t know yourself (like household income). This is something we can help you with.

Once you know who your ideal prospects are, you can purchase a high-quality mailing list comprised of people who match those demographics and send them postcards!

3. What sets you apart from your competitors?

Unless you don’t have any competition (which is rare), you need to find a way to stand out.

Give your prospects a reason to choose you over your competitors!

What do you offer that they don’t? Can you promise what they can’t or won’t?

If you haven’t already, spend some time coming up with a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that you can include on your postcards (and all of your marketing!).

And don’t say “We have the best customer service,” because everybody says that!

It’s not always easy…

Here’s the story of our USP:

When I started PostcardMania, I was the only postcard marketing company selling directly to small business owners and handling everything in-house. But as competitors started popping up, I knew I needed to come up with something to set us apart.

So I created a full-time results manager position, so we could track our clients’ successful campaigns — and share that data with our prospects and clients so they can experience similar results!

PostcardMania’s USP is: The ONLY postcard marketing company that creates your campaigns based on the proven results of 73,792 customers.

Need help coming up with yours? Download our free USP worksheet!

4. What are the benefits of your product or service?

How does your product or service improve the lives of your customers or solve their problems?

In other words:

What do YOU do for THEM?

For example, say you’re a landscaping company, and you want to tell prospects that you offer lawn maintenance, xeriscaping and sprinkler installation.

Those are features. Features are nice…

But what do your prospects get out of them?

Increased curb appeal, a beautiful lawn without the work, lower water bills — those are BENEFITS.

Put those on your postcard!

5. What do you want your prospects to do once they receive your postcard?

Before you send out a campaign, you need to decide how you want your leads to respond.

This will help you formulate your call to action (CTA)!

Every single marketing piece should include a CTA. People need — and actually appreciate — being told what step to take next!

“Visit our webpage to see our inventory!” or “Call today for a FREE estimate!” Are calls to action. Then…

Make sure that next step helps push those leads through the sales cycle.

What I mean is:

If you are directing prospects to your website, make sure it continues the communication started with your postcard.

It should include similar language and design elements so visitors know they’re in the right place.

It’s a good idea to create dedicated landing pages for each of your campaigns for this reason.

If you send a lead to your homepage and they have to click around to find the product or service or special offer you advertised on your postcard, they may get frustrated and leave.

Bye-bye, lead!

And if you are asking your prospects to call your business, make sure the person answering the phone knows how to handle those leads! (If you use a call tracking number, you can listen to calls that come in to quality control your reception and sales process!

Once you know these five things, you’re ready to start your campaign! Call 800-628-1804 and one of my marketing consultants will help you with a results-generating mailing list and postcard for your business!

Not sure how to answer all of these questions? They can help you! Just call — it’s FREE! Or email me at Joy.Gendusa@PostcardMania.com.

Best,

Joy

PS – Have you signed up for our Small Business Owners Growth Summit, September 25-27? I go over all of this data in greater depth, plus you get a chance to talk one-on-one with our marketing experts. Oh, and it’s also a really good time! These events sell out fast, so check out the agenda and sign up today!