 |
Print Your Marketing Postcards For A Penny, Address Them For Free, and Automate the Whole Process
This article will show you how to cut your printing costs to a penny and have your postcards addressed for free without doing it all yourself, reducing the time you invest in your mailing to almost nothing. So, you have a list of hot prospects in hand; you need a way to get your marketing message in front of them with the hope that a reasonable percentage will call you. You decide that you want to send a postcard to each prospect. You open the yellow pages and randomly select a printer. After explaining what you want, she gives you a quote of eleven cents per postcard. That seems like more than you wanted to spend, so you call a few more printers. Several phone calls later, you finally get a quote that meets your budget--six cents each. A week later you have the postcards in hand. You sit down with your list on one side and a pile of hundreds of postcards on the other side (if you aren't sending at least hundreds at a time, don't expect much of a response). You pop a couple of your favorite DVDs into the disc changer and settle in for an evening of addressing your postcards. You finish the first and cross it off your list. After scribbling through the first fifty, you look at the clock and realize this is taking much longer than expected. All the same, you are determined so you continue. Two movies, two pens, and one band-aid later (for that pesky papercut), you finally reach the end. The smile that cracks on your face is broken by the thought that you still need to stamp them. One movie, one sponge, and hundreds of stamps later, you really reach the end. Despite the feeling of accomplishment, you can't help feeling dread at the thought of going through the process again in two weeks when you mail to the list again (if you are not following up with your prospects multiple times, again, you are wasting your time). There must be a better way. Does this scenario sound familiar? If so, then keep reading. I am about to show you how you can change that. You will be able to quickly setup multiple mailings in advance, sit back, and just wait for them to go out on the specified date. For those who haven't yet experienced preparing your mailings by hand, feel free to try it for yourself once and then we'll see you back here in a couple weeks when you are ready to appreciate what I am about to share. Leveraging Your Time Effectively Time is as precious as your cash flow and it should be leveraged just as carefully. Developing efficient systems and automating repetitive tasks is essential to your success as a business. When it comes to postcards and other similar mailings, the United States Postal Service has taken care of this for you. The postcard mailing system I am about to share with you is based on a service available online at: http://www.usps.com/mailingonline The first time you visit the Mailing Online web page, you will need to click on the Sign-Up button. Signing up for a personal account allows you to save postcards and mailing lists so that you can easily reuse them in the future. Now let's talk about some of the benefits that this service has to offer. A Penny per Postcard for Printing Normal postage for a postcard is twenty-three cents. The cost of mailing out a postcard through Mailing Online is twenty-four cents. This is like getting your postcards printed for a penny each and addressed for free. Avoid Numerous Steps and Saves Hours of Your Time Avoid picking up your cards from the printer, addressing and stamping them by hand, and delivering them to the post office for mailing. The money saved is significant and the time saved is huge. Use Ready-Made Templates to Create Your Mailing Pieces Mailing Online provides templates for you download and open in several popular applications such as Microsoft Word. This makes designing you postcard easy. Then you upload the postcard to Mailing Online to use in your mailing campaign. Easily Upload Your Mailing List Mailing Online allows you to easily upload your mailing list from several different file formats including Excel and MS Word. Verify Your Addresses against Official Post Office Records Mailing Online will automatically check you mailing list against official post office records. You will be told if any of your addresses do not match. Then you can decide whether to eliminate these addresses so that you don't waste money on invalid addresses. Choose from Several Mailing Formats You can also choose to mail a variety of other mailing pieces including brochures, letters, and self-mailer flyers. Mailing Online provides the templates you need to create these mailers. However, I suggest using this service primarily for postcards. I have not tried their flyers, I think brochures are pointless, and I imagine their letters are label-addressed which is puts your mailer in the junk pile as soon as is seen by your prospect. Saving Mailing Lists, Postcards, and Mailing Campaigns for Future Use You can save your lists and postcards to be easily reused for future campaigns without uploading them again. Schedule Mailing Campaigns to Go Out at a Future Date You can pick a date in the future for you mailer to go out. You could even set up an entire sequence to go out on autopilot. For example, you could schedule a postcard to go out right away, another one in 10 days, and another in a month. This allows you easily follow-up with your prospects. Your Postcard is Only as Good as the Marketing Message it Delivers Without getting into a discussion on copywriting, I want to make the following points about your postcard design: 1. Your postcard will only be as good as your marketing message. You have about two seconds to attract the reader's attention before your postcard ends up in the garbage. The best way to accomplish this is with a well-written headline. 2. Don't waste a lot of space on your logo or other fancy graphics. Don't waste a lot of space on your company's name or your contact info. Focus on telling the reader what you have that can benefit them. 3. Make sure you make it clear what you want the prospect to do next. Most likely this will be to call you or a message hotline. 4. Since postcard space is limited, just share the most important aspects of your marketing message. Tell the reader how they can get more info if they are interested by sending them to a web site or by asking them to call you to receive more information (i.e. the rest of your marketing message). This is called two-step marketing. About The Author Jason Van Orden www.jasonvanorden.com "Discover how to attract more leads and maximize revenue with a minimum investment of your time and money."
MORE RESOURCES:
Up in Smoke: Tobacco AdvertisingMSNBC - 23 hours agoBy Kyle Reyes In 1998, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company was one of many that agreed to a settlement, essentially removing its creative marketing arm. ... |
Advertising - Google News
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Information To Include On Your Business Card
The logo and graphic elements that you include on your business card are quite important, but having the right text and contact information on the card is equally important. Here are our tips about the elements to include:Your name - Consider whether you want to include your middle name or initial, degrees or professional credentials that are unique to your field.
Promote yourself on radio for free
Unless you have become extremely popular in your personal or business name, you likely need all of the marketing and promotion you can get. Now, you may say, of course, I'm aware of this, but who has the money? This a good and fair question.
God Bless The Refrigerator Magnet!
Ah, my very favorite promotional product of all, the refrigerator magnet. They are my favorite, because they are so extremely inexpensive, and extremely effective in getting your company name seen in countless locations.
How To Write Kick-Ass, Profit Pulling Adverts For Your Business?
Doesn't that just grab you by the eyeballs and make you stop dead in your tracks? I mean it's a little harsh - grammatically speaking - but holy smokes, it does it have 'stopping power'..
How to SAVE Yourself from Spending too Much Money on Advertising!
How much money have you spent in Advertising, Promotion & Marketing? If you're like most people you've probably spent over $1000 or more. Many individuals and companies have spent $2000 to $50,000 in Advetising within a course of 1 Year.
5 Newspaper Advertising Myths Revealed
What I'm about to reveal are myths that most people thinkare 'true.'They seem set in stone yet they are deadly to theadvertiser.
Become a Storyteller Not an Advertiser and Watch Your Traffic Increase
When you read the newspaper, do you read advertisements as closely as you read news stories? Do you believe advertising as readily as you believe news stories? I don't and neither do most people I know.Because we have advertising shoved at us from every angle we tend to ignore it, but we pay attention to news or public interest stories.
5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Website's Success
Without a powerful headline, your message stands little chance of being noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your headline doesn't capture attention and pull prospects into your sales copy, than your marketing effort is a total waste of energy and resources.
What Makes A Winning Online Ad?
Most people who have been involved with sales & marketing for any length of time have heard the axiom, "Sell them what they want. Then sell them what they need".
7 Essential Elements for Profit-Pulling Ads
Advertising will make or break your business. It is crucialto your success that you learn to write great ad copy.
Make the Right Advertising Decisions
Advertising is a powerful and somewhat frustrating marketing tool. It enables us to launch new products and services, increase sales, and increase awareness.
Top 9 Reasons To Advertise
Advertising is not for every company. But some require it because their market is big and constantly changing and evolving.
Do Your Radio Ads Work?
Most small businesses don't have a high poweredadvertising agency to produce selling radiocommercials for them and end up with somethingakin to a high school play, or with the businessowner reading tired copy.The radio salesperson knows that by suggesting theowner be the star, visions of Dave from Wendys orthat guy with the talking dog who says "roll thatbeautiful bean footage" come to mind.
Why Hire an Advertising/Marketing Consultant?
As a business owner, you have the option of taking several different approaches to handling your Marketing and Advertising. You may choose to handle the responsibility yourself, with the idea that no one understands your business quite the way you do.
Marketing Messages with Add Zest & Appeal
Boring is one thing you can't afford to be when it comes to marketing your business. With more than 3000+ marketing messages pummeling consumers on a daily basis, you need to be more, and do more, if you want to be heard above the racket.
Using Ad Agencies and Designers
Advertising and promoting your business is expensive, so it's important to get the most from your advertising budget. That means understanding how to get the most from your ad agency or graphic designer.
Attention-Grabbing Fixes that Make Your Yellow Page Ad Leap Off the Page
Stand Out in Ways that Matter to Directory UsersA Yellow Page directory presents a difficult challenge foradvertisers. All the competitors are packed together, withinthe space of a few pages.
Which is Better Digital or Offset Printing?
As technology continues to improve, the quality of digital prints also improves. Technology advancements have also made it easier for more and more businesses to enter the printing industry.
Create Your Dynamic Elevator Speech
So, what's an elevator speech, and how do you get one?What Is It?An elevator speech is a short (15-30 second, 150 word) sound bite that succinctly and memorably introduces you. It spotlights your uniqueness.
I Dont Want to be Different
To succeed in today's crowded marketplace where most of the products and advertising look exactly the same, a small business owner must stand out, shouting above the din with a message so clear and compelling that prospects stop and take notice. It's a matter of business survival.
|
