Many small businesses turn to postcards as an alternative to the high-cost of display advertising, Yellow Pages ads or full-blown direct mail pieces. Small businesses use postcards as part of a direct mail marketing campaign to help promote their business, events or reach a targeted audience. Once you've decided postcards are the way to go:
Determine if postcards are right for you
Assess your marketing needs to see if business postcards will help you achieve your goals. Postcards can help you test market a new product or offer, as well as drive traffic to your Web site. You can also track the results of your mailing campaign by assigning a specific discount code or sending potential customers to a unique page on your Web site created specifically for a particular offer or product.
I recommend: Check out
Postcard Marketing Secrets and
Chuck Green's Ideabook for templates and creative ideas for your marketing campaign. Find direct-mail marketing consultants at
Business.com.
Get postcard design help
Take advantage of Web sites offering postcard design help. Your postcard shouldn't try to include every detail of your offer. Eye-catching graphics and a brief summary of the main points of your offer are more likely to get the attention of potential customers.
I recommend: Get professional help with your postcards through a full-service shop such as
Track Marketing Group,
Creativepro,
Positronic Design,
PostcardMania and
Small Business Printing.
Compare postcard prices
Post card design and printing prices will vary according to the size of the postcard, whether it is going to be printed in black-and-white or color and the print quantity. Some sites even offer free printing to attract you as a customer.
I recommend: If you're looking to have business postcards printed for free try
VistaPrint or
Bestprintingbestprice.com. For a list of competitive postcard printers, see
Business.com.
Make your own printable postcards
To make your own printable postcards, download templates from the Internet that will work with design software such as InDesign and Quark. Or take advantage of free online postcard templates to make printable postcards.
I recommend: PsPrint offers free postcard templates for printable postcards. Try
OvernightPrints if you want 24-hour turnaround on your postcard order. For a 48-hour turnaround, use
48hourprint.com.