A list of direct mail ideas that are getting results.

Anniversary:
Send your customer a postcard celebrating their anniversary of the first order with your company. It may sound silly, but if the customer has been with you for several years, they will be impressed to the attention that your company gives to their clients. If they haven’t ordered with you in a while, the postcard campaign should be a free or aggressively low priced offer to come back! If they’ve used your services before, there is a great chance they’ll need you again in the future.

Grand Opening/Open Houses:
Grand Opening postcards or open house postcards are a great way to drive traffic to your local business. If your customers are any resident in your local area—Saturation direct mail campaigns are a great way to deliver your marketing message to everyone in your neighborhood. The best part about Saturation mail programs is that it is the lowest price postage that you can get from the post office at 13.9 cents. That’s 70% less than the cost of a stamp!

Announcement:
Do you have a new product or service to unveil? A postcard is a great way to release the news! The benefit of mailing postcards is that the message is read by the recipient even if they end up throwing the mail piece away. You can’t say the same thing about letter mailers because they have to be opened to be read. One of the best things that we’ve seen marketers do is to follow an announcement postcard with an email to their customer on the same day. Combining both direct mail mediums provides an explosive increase in response, guaranteed!

Birthday:
Restaurants see huge success with birthday greeting postcards. The postcard marketing piece should include a birthday greeting, and a discount coupon only to be used on the recipient’s birthday.

Mini- Newsletter:
Don’t have the budget to send out a full newsletter? A large 6x11 postcard can fit as much information as a 2-page newsletter if done correctly. Mailing a 6x11 postcard will cost less than a traditional newsletter for a variety of reasons. Postage will cost less, and you won’t have to fold and stitch like you would a newsletter.

Bring a friend:
If your business is salons, fitness centers, health clubs, tanning salons the “bring a friend for free” promotion work is an amazing tool to generate a lot of interest. You’ll find the best results using this postcard on your internal mailing list.

Catalog requests:
Instead of sending out expensive catalogs to a large list, send a postcard with a tear-off stub, and your customer can return the stub for a catalog. Don’t forget to put your web address on the postcard with a special form to go online and request the catalog. This little trick will save you thousands of dollars in wasted catalog mailing expenses.

Survey:
Customers like to know that their opinion matters to the people they do business with. Sending out postcards to get feedback shows that you want to meet their needs. They can either go to your website or using the postcard with a tear-off stub like the catalog request, they can fill out the survey and send it back to you. You’ll find the best results when your customer can fill out the survey online.

Thank You:
As the old saying goes—a little thank you can go a long way. I don’t know about you, but I do business with companies that are appreciative of my purchase. Sending a hand written thank you card to a customer for their order is a great way to show appreciate. Additionally, it’s also a good time to ask for a referral or feedback regarding the customer’s experience.

Website:

Drive traffic to your website by putting the address on your postcards. Also, let the customers know the benefits of using your site, whether it’s an excellent support/service section, or maybe “web only” specials that your company runs.

Author's Bio: 

Stan Coyle has 25 years experience in Direct Mail marketing. He has taught seminars from New York to London and has settled in Tampa, Florida for a semi-retirement of fishing and relaxation. Not being able to leave work alone, he contributes to the success of postcard marketing customers all over the U.S. with his work at SonicPrint.com.

SonicPrint.com can help you with your Every Door Direct Mail marketing postcard programs. We have helped thousands of businesses with their postcard marketing and we are experts in the Every Door Direct Mail program.