How to Send Direct Mail Postcards

Once you determine your objectives, you can prepare your postcards according to the USPS-approved guidelines. Then, list down the names and delivery addresses of all the people you want to mail. Address your postcards properly and affix adequate postage before shipping the letters.

You can use automated direct mail software if you want to save time and money, skip these elaborate steps, and streamline your mailing tasks.

As you know postcards are a tangible, memorable, inexpensive, and effective form of direct mail marketing. Adding the offline and human touch to your marketing strategies is always a smart way to attract more prospects and expand your customer base, and there is no better way to do that than postcard marketing.

This blog covers how you can best use postcard marketing and more importantly, how to make your campaigns a success! Let us get started.

Direct mail has been doing really well in the marketing industry. Its response rates are setting new records every day. There is no doubt that direct mail can deliver excellent results when done right. Companies should use direct mail postcards in their marketing strategies as this form of marketing can gather more responses and drive better conversions.

Moreover, 57% of direct mail recipients say that postcards make them feel appreciated and can form authentic relationships. Hence, it is clear that people value postcard marketing and are even looking forward to getting postcards in the mail. Some more reasons for knowing how to send direct mail postcards are:

• Postcards are creative. They offer the scope to show more creativity in less space and at less cost.
• They are highly appealing. They can easily grab anyone's attention.
• Since postcards don't require envelopes, their open rates are quite high. Recipients just flip over the postcard and view the contents.
• Postcards can drive online traffic. Use a QR code or pURL to make people visit your website and social media handles.
• Postcards are long-lasting. Their shelf life is much longer than any digital marketing advertisement or email. People tend to stick postcards to their refrigerators or pin them to their boards. It increases brand visibility and spreads awareness.

💡 Also Read: Bulk Or Mass Mail Services

How to send direct mail postcards, and what are the steps involved? Read further to understand the basic steps along with some tips to make your postcard mail marketing campaign a big success.

1. Determine Your Marketing Goals

Before planning your direct mail design and other things, you need to plan and make a list of your marketing objectives. What is it that you want to achieve? Sometimes the goals are general, and sometimes they are highly specific. In either case, you need to be clear about your goals before you send advertising mail.

General goals include:

• Generating new leads
• Spreading brand awareness
• Improving brand reputation
• Getting repeat business

Specific goals include:

• Making sales worth $5,000
• Converting 100 hot leads
• Convincing 500 people to RSVP for an event

2. Create Your Direct Mail Postcards

The USPS offers postcard mailing at very affordable rates. But, you need to take care of the USPS postcard dimensions to avail of those rates. They should be rectangular and at least 3.5″ wide and 5″ long. Plus, they should be at least 0.007″ thick. The maximum dimensions cannot exceed 4.25″ x 6″ x 0.016″.

How much is it to send postcards to businesses? The USPS rates start at 32 cents per postcard but can increase according to the size and weight.

Make sure that you follow all the instructions to be able to send postcards through First Class mail. This option is faster and cheaper than others and is perhaps the most effective mail option for sending advertising mailers.

Avoid attaching stickers and magnets to your postcards. These things make your postcards non-mailable and can end up getting them wasted. Also, take care to place the mailing and return address on the same side as the postage.

3. Build Mailing Lists

There are many ways to go about mailing lists. Whatever way you choose, remember that mailing lists make up about 40% of the campaign's success. You can put together a house list of all your prospects that you have been trying to convert. Depending on your message and objectives, you can choose to include or remove your already existing customers from the mailing list.

If your mission is to get repeat business or to increase visibility generally, you can mail to your customers. But, if you want fresh leads, you can use a prospects list. A lot of times, companies want to target new people but don't have any data to put together a mailing list.

In this case, they can rent or buy lists from a third party. If it is rented, take care to clear the terms of use along with the time duration up to which you can mail to the addresses in those lists. It is recommended to buy lists rather than rent them.

However, these lists are not always accurate or targeted. Hence, they might or might not be of any use to your campaign. Again, remember that 40% of your campaign's performance is decided by the people you mail to. Keeping this in mind, PostGrid enables you to build mailing lists from scratch—you can select certain

You can also build a lookalike audience by analyzing your best customers and acquiring a mailing list of people who match their demographics and behaviors. This increases your chance of targeting high-potential prospects.

💡 Also Read: B2B Business Mailing List

4. Address Your Postcards

While conducting mass postcard mailing campaigns, you also have to take care to address your postcards properly. You need to follow the USPS address format and not make any mistakes. If you don't follow the right format, their address reading machines will not be able to process your mail items and it can affect your deliveries.

Print four lines for your address labels. These four lines should include the:

Recipient's name
Company name
Street address and apartment number
City, state, and ZIP code.

Type all the letters in capital and avoid using punctuation marks. Write in clear and neat handwriting.

💡 Also Read: What is the Fourth Class Mail Postal Service?

5. Affix Postage

This part might be the most confusing one for you. When marketers learn how to send business postcards, affixing the right postage becomes a challenge. This is because calculating postage is not always a piece of cake.

It might be complicated, and you ought to make mistakes. Hence, it is advisable to take your postcards to the post office and let the postal workers simplify the task for you. Otherwise, you can use PostGrid's print and mail API that assists you in everything, including affixing the right postage.

You can affix stamps worth 32 cents on each postcard. However, a lot of companies have started using different ways to pay postage and have already ditched stamps. Affixing stamps is time-consuming and monotonous.

Hence, several companies now use print permits to pay postage. You can acquire a permit from the post office and print permit information right on your postcards to save time. Another option is to use metered postage—which is again time-saving and efficient.

💡Also Read: Best Direct Mail Marketing Companies

Your postcard copy depends on your message and target audience. If you are a B2B business, you would want to learn how to send postcards to businesses only and make use of a highly-targeted B2B marketing copy.

An effective copy is persuading, creative, attention-grabbing, and result-driving. It should contain everything that you want to communicate in a well-flowing pattern. The first aspect of your postcard marketing copy is the headline. It is the first thing that recipients read, so take care to use a good one. The headline should create desire, command attention, and motivate recipients to read further. Some headlines also convey the entire message in one line.

List all your benefits, not features. While sending advertising mailers, use your benefits as strong points to convey your message. You can reinforce the headline through these points. Make them concise. Instead of big sentences, you can use bullet points.

The next step in writing your copy would be to present an offer along with a call to action. Oftentimes, the offer and the CTA are present in the same sentence, for example—Sign up before 20th July to get a discount of 30%. Your offer and CTA must complement each other.

💡 Also Read: What is a Mailing House?

Your choice of postcard printing options can also affect your campaign performance. Hence, use these printing tips to ensure that you select the best.

• It is said that the bigger, the better. But, you need not always send oversized postcards. Larger sizes are definitely performance accelerators, but they should go along with your message. You need to have enough content to accommodate the entire postcard. Hence, choose a size that fits your message.
• For an elegant look, choose matte coating. It makes your postcards look professional. However, for a more sophisticated and exciting look, go for a glossy coating. Also, remember that glossy finishes provide an extra protection layer to make your postcards durable.
• Restrict yourself from using extremely lightweight paper stock to print your postcards, as it creates a bad impression. Using a thicker option can add to your credibility.

💡 Also Read: How to Ensure Efficient Dental Postcard Marketing?

For smooth campaign execution, use a postcard mailing service. They can guide you throughout the mailing process and help you get your postcards delivered faster.

If you do not have the necessary budget, you can always opt for Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). It lets you mail to every house in a neighborhood or ZIP code. This way, you can saturate certain neighborhoods or localities and conduct location-based targeted marketing campaigns. You need not have a mailing list for conducting an EDDM campaign. Moreover, the rates offered by the USPS for an EDDM campaign are relatively low.

Privacy and Compliance Tips

You must adhere to privacy standards and comply with data protection rules, such as CAN-SPAM and GDPR, as well as other regional laws. Start by ethically sourcing your data. Ensure that you have obtained proper consent to use the customer’s data. If you use a third-party vendor or data provider, ensure they follow strict compliance protocols. Do not share customer information without authorization, and ensure that all sensitive information is encrypted and stored securely.

Additionally, always provide clear opt-out options. These can include a printed QR code, a URL directing recipients to an unsubscribe page, or a detailed list guiding them on how to stop receiving mail. By upholding privacy and being transparent about how customers manage their preferences, you reflect that your company respects its audience.

💡 Also Read: Direct Mail for ABM Campaigns

Fail to Proofread

Don't conduct a campaign before being 100% sure of everything. Your design should be on-point, and your mailing lists should be well-prepared. Make sure your postcards can convey your message properly and are simply convincing. Ask your coworkers, employees, and third parties for feedback to understand things better and make the necessary changes.

Forget to Follow Up

Once your postcards are delivered to the intended recipients, it is the commencement of the next stage of your marketing plan to follow up. Instruct your sales team to follow up with the recipients, especially in the case of account-based marketing.

💡 Also Read: Color Psychology in Direct Mails

Postcard marketing can do wonders for your brand. It serves more purposes than one, but you need to do it smartly. Follow the tips mentioned in this blog and pay attention to the details. Use PostGrid's postcard print and mail API to do everything in the right way.

PostGrid's direct mail API can help businesses send out well-designed, effective, and persuading postcards—without going anywhere and doing anything. Automate postcard mailing and sit back.

Set Your Goals

Decide whether you want to generate leads, boost traffic, or increase brand awareness. The specific goal will help you design your campaign, understand whether it made the intended impact, and determine how to improve it. This clarity aligns your camping with measurable business outcomes.

Incorporate Trackable Elements to Monitor Responses

Add promo codes, QR codes, URLs, or dedicated phone numbers to attribute results accurately. When someone scans the QR code or enters the PURL or promo code, it will immediately register as a digital interaction. The timestamped data, along with the customer’s location, will provide instant visibility into which regions are engaging more and when. You can use these insights to optimize your messaging, design, and targeting in future campaigns.

Calculate Campaign Costs

Break down every cost involved, including printing, postage, design, copywriting, data purchase, and software or platforms. This will give you a clear picture of how much you are spending to acquire each lead. Using this, you can optimize your budget allocation and identify future cost-saving opportunities.

Measure the Revenue Generated

Track the amount of money that came directly from your postcard campaign. This can be made through online purchases using promo codes or long-term customer value if the postcard leads to a subscription. By assessing the dollar value for each conversion, you can justify your campaign spend and understand the financial impact of your efforts.

Calculate Return-on-Investment (ROI)

Use the formula mentioned below:

ROI (%) = [(Revenue – Cost) / Cost] × 100

A positive ROI means that you have made more than you have spent. However, a negative ROI means you need to reassess your strategy. By calculating the ROI, you can determine whether or not your campaign is generating more revenue than the amount spent on it.

Track Response Rate and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

These metrics will give a deeper insight into campaign performance. For instance, if your response rate is high but the conversion rate is low, consider improving your direct mail strategy. With CPA, you can understand how efficiently you are acquiring new customers. You can use these insights to fine-tune your messaging, targeting, and design for better performance in future mailings.