One of the most powerful marketing channels is use of a direct mail postcard to promote your business. Direct mail postcards are an affordable form of marketing that allows you to promote your business to a large number of people without a major expense that other forms of advertising and marketing tend to have. One of the best aspects of postcards is their ability to gain new customers, while encouraging your current customers to return for more.
The layout and design for postcard printing is vital to their success, and one of the more important aspects of the design is the copy or text on the card itself. Your design may be graphic heavy with lots of colors, which is an excellent method for effectively directing customers to the exact move you want them to make. Even so, whether your postcards include only a few lines of text or a few more, the copy must be clear and move customers to action to really be effective.
Clear and Concise
While direct mail postcards can be an affordable method of marketing for any business, big or small, it is important that the copy makes sense and is easy to read for just about any consumer. The first step is to remember to keep things as short as possible, while being informative. You want consumers to understand what you are offering, but you do not want to provide too many details and too much information that would bore the consumer or confuse them or even prevent them from reading the postcard in the first place. Have a clear and concise content message – such as a limited time offer.
Glowing Headlines
Headlines are a prime example. In just a few words, you want to capture the attention of the consumer yet make your singular offer clear. Too much and you just have a really big font that is actually a paragraph or sentence. Statements like “Huge Sale” or “Limited Time Offer” are examples of how to quickly communicate a central message. You can provide more details in a smaller font, but even this information should be kept simple yet informative.
Extra Information
Make sure your extra information, the details of your headline offer, only gives consumers what they need to know to take action. For instance, if you are promoting an event, give them details such as the time, date, and location. Put other extra incentives, such as door prizes or giveaways, as well, but again say it in as few words as possible. Your contact information should always be included, but you can place this on the back. Only include the contact information your customers need for this particular event, coupon, etc.
Call to Action
Never forget to include a call to action. The call to action is essential because it tells the consumers what they need to do after having received your postcards. “Drop by our store today”, “Give us a call now”, or “Visit our website for more details: www.YourSite.com” are just a few examples.
Easy-to-read Fonts
Legibility is critical. As fun and fancy as those script fonts look, they’re not always ideal when it comes to the detailed information on your postcards. Use easy-to-read fonts, remembering that your postcards have to get attention and communicate a lot of information quickly. It’s fine to use fancy fonts on certain elements, but the sections of the design that have more than a few words should be very easy to read. Your basic Arial, Times, Trebuchet, and Georgia fonts give you access to free and common fonts with which people are visually familiar.
Check, Check and Recheck
Because your postcard copy is so short, it is vital that it be completely error free as well. Make sure that you run your copy through a spellcheck and grammar check as an initial method of proofreading. Have a detail-oriented co-worker or friend review prior to finalizing; looking for errors in copy, layout, and even the design itself. And don‚Äôt forget to review the contact information to make sure it is correct. If your postcards include even a simple error, many consumers will have trouble taking your business seriously.{{cta(‘dcfff314-4c21-4b15-8651-2de71f181c1f’,’justifycenter’)}}