Use Postcards for Low Cost, High-Impact Marketing

Postcards have been around for as long as there has been a post to send mail by. Traditionally sent from vacation spots around the globe, they have expanded into widespread business and marketing usage. Postcards are glossy and printed on two sides, which allows for one side to contain the recipient’s address and your contact information with a little more content, while the other can be purely visual, like vacation postcards, but it is more usual to use the other side for your main message.

One main reason to market with postcards is that they are inexpensive to print, and when they arrive in the mail, they are open and ready to read, so it is less likely that they will be tossed aside with the “junk mail.”

Another advantage to marketing with postcards is the lower cost of mailing. It currently costs only twenty eight cents to mail a standard sized postcard, as opposed to forty-four cents for a letter. A postcard has a maximum of 3 ½ by 5 inches to qualify for the special postcard mailing rate; otherwise, it costs the same as a letter.

Double Postcards Save Doubly

A double postcard can be sent for the postcard rate if it meets the postal criteria.
What is a double postcard? It is, as you would expect, two cards that are attached, so from a printing perspective, it is a folded card that is the size of two postcards and is designed so that the recipient can cut or tear it in half and send one side back. Perforation is allowed but not required. To qualify for the special postcard mailing rate, no enclosures are allowed, and the two sides may be fastened only on the top or bottom, but not on the side, with plain stickers, seals, or a single staple. They must be attached in a way that allows the post office to see the inside of the cards.

The return address on the reply side of the card must be folded to the inside so that it cannot be mistaken for the delivery address, and when it is returned it must be separated from the original postcard. The reply half can be used for Business Reply Mail or as a merchandise return service label, among other things.

Look into Online Printing Companies

The printing industry is thriving online, and 123print.com is an excellent place to order postcards. They have 5,476 postcard designs to choose from. The collection includes invitations and “save the date” cards, in addition to general information cards. Fortunately, there is a multi-tiered selection tool available. You can elect to see cards that have been chosen specifically for their relevance to your profession, their style, or by the designer that created them.

Styles include everything from Asian to Patriotic, and there are categories for solid colors and patterns for those who want something very plain to work with. Professions include such wide-ranging areas as agriculture and spas.

You can have label printing done at the same time, and you will have labels that match your mailers. In fact, one of the ways online printing companies can offer so many templates is that they take a single design and make a version of it that works for business cards and one for postcards, another for labels, and yet another for flyers or letterhead.

Postcards are a proven way to reach people and are the cheapest way to do that by direct mail. Get online and make up some for your business today.