Sending Promotional Postcards? Don’t Make This Mistake.
In the spirit of the last blog post on embracing failure, I’d like to share with you a blunder I made when creating promotional postcards. While I’ve written countless pieces of direct mail, this is the first time I’ve made my own. I designed the postcards in Adobe Photoshop, and ordered the cards through VistaPrint. Looks pretty slick, right?
Here’s the back. It has a color logo, contact information, a giveaway to inspire immediate action, and room for a personal message. Notice anything wrong?
I didn’t. I thought I had all my bases covered. Then, a day after sticking a handful of them in the mail, I received one back because of an expired forwarding address. No big deal.
But when I looked closer, I realized I had made a mistake.
See those black stamps? They’ve completely obscured both my contact information and the details of the giveaway! While I’ve succeeded in contacting my prospects, I’ve made it almost impossible for them to take any action.
Granted, I already got one job from this batch of 50 postcards, so I’m not considering this a wasted effort. But the next time I order promotional postcards, I’m going to make sure I leave plenty of room for all those stamps.
What about you — do you have words of wisdom regarding postcard marketing? Have you made any mistakes you’ll never make again? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
15 Responses to Sending Promotional Postcards? Don’t Make This Mistake.
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Not to make this an “I told you so” moment, but… these are the types of issues graphic designers face all the time. As designers it’s not just our job to “make pretty pictures.” We spend a lot of time figuring out what the final product will look and how it should function. That includes things like USPS regs. I’ve certainly made mistakes in my career (remind me to tell you the “get you tickets now” story sometime) but I’ve also learned a lot from those mistakes. My point? Self marketing is great, especially for small business, but there are times when you need to hire a professional.
Nice card, by the way. Overall you did a good job. And if you do future promos and need and “expert opinion” before you send it to press I’d be happy to lend a hand.
Aaaaaand, to prove my point: I should have hired a writer to proof the copy on my first comment. I found an obvious error AFTER i hit sent. Oh well.
Postcards and I do NOT get along. I once ordered beautiful glossy cards, but to my dismay – the ink from the mail machine rubbed right off. I had to hand stamp over 2,000 cards.
Max — your comment made me laugh but you hit the nail on the head. I’m a “do-it-yourselfer” to a fault. It would have been much smarter to run them by a graphic designer like yourself before getting them printed.
I have a feeling my other graphic designer readers are rolling their eyes at me …
Erica — what an awful surprise! You’d think the vendors would have warned you. But what do I know?
I’ve also made the mistake of getting some last minute, self-designed postcards done at Kinko’s and finding out I must have checked the wrong box (head-to-toe) or something, because the backside printed upside down from the front.
Not a critical mistake, but still, I’ll be careful what I check next time!
Tracy
You’ve also made another mistake…
You seem to think that your logo is the most important element on the card since is takes up the majority of the space…on both sides.
Your readers would be much more interested in a BENEFIT of doing business with you, or an encapsulated USP.
Ugh! I’ve had the same thing happen! Great article…thanks for posting.
Meggin
My students and I use targeted postcards with a very high success rate to promote upcoming seminars (and so should you), and one of the things you should – dare I say must – do, is keep it plain.
Sure, put some color to catch their eye, but the bottom line I’m getting at is that your postcard should be as plain-jane as possible otherwise it screams “junk mail” and I bet you, like me, open your mail over my trash can right next to my shredder.
Oversize, glossy, slick, lots of cachy graphics…. all screams junk mail. Barely gets a glance.
Normal sized, plain white, some color just to catch the eye, maybe a pic of me for personalization…
Not theory: this works!
Hope that helps!
Best,
David
PS: get out from behind your postcard, promote seminars to your target market, do at least one per month.
Along the same lines…
Don’t forget that 15% of the population moves every year. Depending on the age of your list and whether or not you’ve passed it by the National Change of Address file before printing, a lot of your mail could get forwarded.
Those large yellow USPS stickers can also obscure important information on your piece.
And be sure you understand endorsements like “Address Service Requested” or “Change Service Requested” before including them on mail pieces. The fees charged and the services provided vary by postal class and other factors.
I had a client once who sent out postcards (without asking for my advice) via Standard Mail with such an endorsement. They were buried with returned mail and the fees for the address change service were substantial. To top it off, they didn’t even use the updated addresses, they just recycled all the returned postcards!
There are also size and aspect ratio dimensions to consider. Exceeding the USPS limits can result in substantial surcharges on every single piece.
Handling the project over to a lettershop who is an expert in preparing mail can actually save you time and money over doing it all yourself. Once your mailing list is large enough to justify outsourcing, find a competent service provider and let them handle the details.
Another common problem is not leaving enough room on right back side for stamp alongside return address label. Even worse when postage goes up, then extra stamp has to go vertical!
Funny I use vistaprint for bus cards and other things but have found 48hourprint better for postcards (and I know there are others cheaper than them too). 48hr gives clear guideline for this postal required space at bottom etc. I believe they can even be rejected with insufficient space, but usually they just go over text…
Ha! Loved this. My best ever was not knowing the exact character limit on the fields for name and address. I sent a card to someone who works in “Capital Assets” but instead it went to (insert name here), Capital Ass…oops.
I have used premiumpostcard.com with great success. The cards are expensive but they have very particular space requirements and take care of all postage and mailing for you. Just make sure you PROOFREAD first.
For printing resellers, check out GRPrint.com as well. A great company I have really enjoyed working with.
I've also made the mistake of getting some last minute, self-designed postcards done at Kinko's and finding out I must have checked the wrong box (head-to-toe) or something, because the backside printed upside down from the front.
Not a critical mistake, but still, I'll be careful what I check next time!
Tracy
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Haha!..The same mistake with mine. So, I decided to go on plain.
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