Postcards: The Unbeatable Vehicle For Driving Traffic to Your Website
Websites are an integral part of any marketing plan. And if you’re not using them to generate traffic for your business, then you’re already losing out on a significant opportunity to grow your customer base.
In this post, we’ll share why postcards are the most effective way to drive traffic from offline networks and media channels back to your website or blog page. We'll also go in depth about the benefits of postcards for driving search engine rankings and reviews. Plus, we'll provide real examples of companies who've achieved success with postcards by increasing their customer bases and adding new products/services.
And if you’re ready, we’ll also walk you through how to launch a postcard campaign that converts at the highest possible rate.
So let's get started.
Why Postcards?
There are many reasons why postcards are such a powerful marketing tool for generating traffic for your website, blog or landing page. But first and foremost, they offer unparalleled flexibility and control because of their physical nature: they're small, lightweight and can easily be moved from one location to another.
Now, postcard marketing is not a new concept. The staggering number of direct mailers that are sent out every single day show us that postcards are still a very popular choice for businesses looking to reach out to customers and prospects.
There’s just something about postcards that make your brand come alive.
Unlike a boring email campaign, the physical nature of a postcard can spark an immediate reaction in your audience: excitement, curiosity, surprise or even fear - all of which can lead to an elevated interest in what you have to say. This is the real power behind postcard marketing: it's personal and intimate even though it doesn't have a face. Your audience can feel as if they're in direct contact with you and your brand, which increases trust and credibility.
As a matter of fact, a 2014 online survey from PurchasePro.com found that 81 percent of people prefer to receive postcards over email or digital marketing channels.
But that's not all. Postcards also improve click-through rates (CTR) by making your content more available to your target audience. Instead of searching your website to find out what you can offer, they can simply drop by and pick up an envelope in the mail, read it at their leisure or take a picture of it with their mobile device.
So what makes a good postcard? Given the wide range of formats you could use, it can be difficult deciding on an optimal format for your campaign. Here are three important factors that should be part of the equation:
1. What's In It For Them? — Start with a clear ROI objective before moving forward with any new marketing initiative. It’s important to know why you’re doing the campaign, the outcome you’re trying to achieve, and what the ultimate benefit will be for your target audience.
2. Who's Your Audience? — Before delving into postcard design and production, it's also important to have a clear picture of who your audience is and where they spend time. Knowing their demographics and psychographics will enable you to use relevant messaging that speaks directly to their needs and interests.
3. What Channel Are You Using? — Depending on who your audience is, what type of business you have, etc., there are many offline channels that can be used for driving traffic back to your website or blog page. Postcards are perfect if you’re currently using traditional offline channels such as direct mail, email marketing or social media marketing campaigns.
For example, if your audience is online, you could use direct email marketing as a stepping stone before launching a postcard campaign. Or if you're looking to grow your business by making new connections with potential customers, then a postcard campaign would be best.
With that being said, let's explore how to quickly and effectively launch an effective postcard campaign that converts at the highest possible rate.
Step #1: Define Your Campaign
To ensure your postcard campaign is a success, you first must define the objective for that specific campaign. The most important part of this step is to set a clear goal for the campaign and ensure it aligns with your overall marketing strategy for building your business. The goal should be easy to measure, and you should have a concrete way to track its success or failure at the end of the campaign.
Here are some sample goals that most local businesses can achieve through postcard marketing in order to increase their revenue:
Reach potential new customers on an offline level.
Optimize and track email marketing results.
Increase online presence and reach.
Increase awareness and loyal brand followers.
Boost overall brand strategy by increasing customer base, revenue, or profitability metrics.
In addition to your short-term goals, it’s also important to set long-term objectives for postcards: the year of your business in which you plan on having a significant increase in revenue or profit. Or for example, if you want to see a 50% increase in online presence in the next 12 months, then you need to define that goal too. By defining your campaign objectives clearly before moving forward with planning your postcard marketing campaign, you can achieve any targeted goal you set out for yourself.
Step #2: Determining Your Budget
The next step is to determine how much you’re willing to spend on this particular campaign. If you’re running a local business, it might be difficult to predict what the return would be on any given campaign. But, if you’ve done your homework and have clear goals, then you can make a good estimate of what kind of return to expect. However, it never hurts to overestimate and not meet your target revenue or profit goals so that you don't fall short of your marketing budget.
As an example, let's say that you want to reach new customers through postcards (which is our initial case study).
Conclusion
That's it. We've created a basic outline that you can use to structure your postcard campaign and reach your marketing goals. We also just went over how to quickly and effectively launch an effective postcard campaign for your business so that you're able to convert new prospects into actual customers, loyal brand followers or active evangelists.
Have any questions or comments? Let's discuss in the comments section below!
Want to learn more about postcard marketing? Watch our video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/pUZd5U6vKYU
About the Author: Aimee Martyn is a freelance writer, blogger and content marketer.