Graham McGregor: Memorable marketing with postcards

Post cards are a handy marketing tool that could be worth using in many businesses. Photo / iStock

I had an interesting experience a few days ago.

I went to the letterbox to clear the mail and found a colourful postcard addressed to Daisy McGregor. (Daisy is the name of our little Bichone Frise Dog.)

On the front of the post card there was an image of a dog with sun glasses and the words 'Woof'.

The postcard was sent from the United States and had a handwritten message on the back that said...

'Hi Daisy Hope all is well.
Just a quick 'Hello' from sunny
Hershey USA!
See you when I get back
Sonia'

The post card was sent by Sonia the owner of a dog grooming firm called The Pet Stylist. (I take Daisy to Sonia every 5-6 weeks to be groomed and she does a nice job.)

Sonia was visiting the United States to attend a conference for dog groomers so she could stay current with the all the latest trends and equipment in her industry.

She thought it would be fun to send a post card to a number of her dog grooming clients while she was overseas.

So she took the names and postal addresses of a number of her clients with her and sent each of them a personal post card.

However she addressed each post card with the name of the dog and not the owner.

I've had great fun showing this post card to a number of people.

It makes an interesting story when I can say 'my dog got a post card from the United States.'

I then show people the post card.

What Sonia has done is some very clever marketing that makes her memorable.

Best of all it is very inexpensive when compared to the amount of money a client spends each year on grooming their dog.

Sonia's fun little post card was a reminder to me that post cards are actually a handy marketing tool that could well be worth using in many businesses.

There are two advantages in using post cards in your marketing.

Advantage1: They are very inexpensive to produce.

You can contact your local digital printer and ask for them to print a small number of post cards for you. You can start with 50-100 postcards if you like.

If they work well you can always print more in a future order.

Advantage 2: They are quite noticeable and memorable when they are posted out.

I've personally received about 3 post cards in the last 3 years. (So at one a year they are definitely not that common.)

Here are two ways you might use post cards in your marketing:

1: Send a post card inviting your clients to check out a special website offer that you have.

You could easily send 50-100 of your best clients a short promotional message on a post card that says something like this...

===============================================================
Hi John, thanks for being one of our valued clients.
If you go to this special page on our website (put in an easy to remember website address) you'll see how you can take advantage of something we are doing for the next 7 days only.
This offer is only being shared with a small number of valued clients like you.
(We hope you like what we are doing.)
Kind regards
Barry Business Owner
==============================================================

You might have a catchy image on the front of the post card that says something like 'For your eyes only'

2: Send a post card inviting your clients to give you referrals.

You might test sending a post card inviting 100 of your best clients to give you referrals to other people that might be interested in what you offer.

You might have an image on the front of the post card that has the words
'Fun Competition'.

You then explain that you are running a referral completion for 10 days and every person your clients refer gets a special offer of X. Plus they will get a small gift for every referral they give you and they are also in a free draw for a luxury weekend for two. (Or some other attractive prize.)

You could test something like this with 100 clients and if it works well you might like to test your referral competition with a larger number of clients.

There are actually dozens and dozens of ways to use post cards in your marketing.

A great resource on how to do postcard marketing is 'The Post Card Marketing Handbook' by copywriting expert Bob Bly.

It's jam packed with advice on what to say on your postcards, who to send them to and how to make them work like magic to boost your sales.

Post cards can be a low cost way to do memorable marketing for many businesses.

You may like to try them in your own business.

'Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.' Leo Burnett

Take Action:

If you are considering post cards as a marketing tool in your own business then 'The Post Card Marketing Handbook' by Bob Bly is well worth reading.

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. Download his 396-page Unfair Business Advantage ebook at no charge from theunfairbusinessadvantage.com.