Article Surfing Archive

If you're currently involved in a postcard marketing campaign or just thinking about starting one, here are some significant tips you can add to your knowledge base that will help make your mortgage marketing efforts a real winner.

1. A black and white postcard always gets a better response than a full color one. Yes...there are experts in the field that recommend black and white versus color. Here's the logic: color can many times be distracting to the reader especially when it's crammed into a relatively small area like a postcard. Most color cards are just too busy resulting in your mortgage message being lost in the shuffle. Leave the color cards for the biggies that can spend tons of dollars to make color work effectively for them.

By using black and white you can drastically reduce your postcard printing costs. Instead, use text boxes in your layout and incorporate shadings and shadows to highlight important sections of your offer and your advertising message.

2. Repeat postcard mailings are an absolute must. So many times I have been told the following: "I tried postcard mailing once and it didn't work for me." Well, they're right, and it probably won't work well for them the second or even third time.

Why are repeated mailings and contacts so important? The numbers provided by National Sales Executive Association remind us why:

2 % of all sales are made on the 1st contact,
3 % of all sales are made on the 2nd contact,
5 % of all sales are made on the 3rd contact,
10 % of all sales are made on the 4th contact,
80 % of all sales are made on the 5th thru 12th contact.

Need I say more! If you're not willing to do a campaign (multiple mailings), then don't do a mailing at all. A one shot postcard mailing will not change your mortgage business, your bottom line, or your life in any way.

Sorry to be so harsh, but there are some things that just must be said!

3. Never allow an outside company to physically mail your postcards. A couple of years ago I contracted with a company to provide a mailing campaign for me to include the actual mailing service.

On the advice of a friend, I had embedded names and addresses of friends throughout the list to check the deliverability. This is a common practice in the industry and is called "salting the list." When you rent a list (you never own a contracted list) they "salt" the list so that they can be sure that you only use the list once.

To make a long story short, over 50% of my salted addresses never received my mailing. Did my mailing company charge me for the entire contract including postage and only deliver half of it? There's just no way to know. The Post Office is always the easy and convenient culprit but, there's just no way to know for sure.

Always maintain 100% control of the most expensive part of your postcard campaign!

4. Postcards are read 99.9% of the time. I'm really sorry to be the one telling you this...the Postman (Postperson if you prefer) is reading your postcard...and, so is everyone else that touches that card. In fact, your card is being read even if it's a lousy one!

If you don't believe this fact, test it yourself. The next time you receive a postcard just throw it away without reading it. It's almost impossible. The first thing you do is check to make sure it was addressed to you and then you flip it over to quickly read the message. Or, you read the message and then flip it over. Either way it's like a magnetic...people need to read it. And, the really great thing is...there's no envelope to open.

With a postcard, even if they throw it away, they already saw your message regardless of whether they think they did or not. They saw it enough to throw it away, didn't they? The fact remains...junk mail gets thrown away. And postcards are really junk mail to a lot of people.

This fact is...although they may be junk mail to some people...postcards get read no matter what...even if they get thrown away without fully understanding them...postcards do get seen. It's really the only advertising medium that can't be ignored.

5. Always run a split-test with your postcards. Yes...every market is a little bit different. What works in one area doesn't necessarily work for another. Change the headline or even the message and send two separate mailings.

Measure the response you receive and compare the two mailings. Keep track of your results and use those results in subsequent campaigns. Your mailings will continue to improve and so will your mortgage business.

Continuous testing and experimentation should be an integral part of your direct mail program.

6. You can grow a business using only postcards. Many years ago I started a company using postcards as the primary marketing method to employers. The business idea: provide company recognition to employees on their birthdays and hire anniversary dates using...you guessed it...postcards.

The company was sold within two years with over 200 customers (including one Fortune 500 account) helping to fund my next project.

I love postcards and the business they can generate. I still use them in my mortgage business today. Give them a good chance, and they'll work for you too! Follow these tips and your postcard marketing program will be in a class by itself.