Using Postcards to Follow Up

I have found postcards to be a great way to find leads and follow up with leads. It can be a very inexpensive way to reach out to your leads and let them know what you do or remind them of what you do. Your prospects will have a greater tendency to retain these marketing pieces them many of the other marketing pieces you will use.

The following tips will help you get the maximum response from postcards at the lowest cost.

Make sure your postcards go to prospects that meet your investment criteria or are warm leads. You can get all of these lists from most mailing list brokers or from your own personal contact database.

Set up your postcard to look at first glance like a message from a friend instead of like a magazine ad printed on a postcard. It will boost the number of replies you get. A postcard that looks like a friendly message will get looked at more often and in more detail then the alternative.

Don't try to close sales directly from your postcard. You don't have enough space to provide all the information most prospects need to make a decision. Instead, use your postcard to generate inquiries about what you can do for them, etc. It should be all about them and not focus on how wonderful you are.

Begin your postcard by briefly stating how you can help them or addressing a fear of theres and offer a solution when they call you. Then use the remainder of your postcard to motivate readers to get more information with a motivating call to action.

Postcards are delivered "ready to read". Take advantage of this. Get right to the point to capture the reader's attention immediately. This makes it difficult for prospects to avoid reading your postcard - especially if your entire message is brief and easy to read.

Send your postcards by First Class Mail. It costs only 28 cents in the US if make them at least 3 1/2 by 5 inches but not over 4 1/4 by 6 inches.

This gives you all the benefits of First Class Mail for just a few cents more than Standard Mail ("bulk rate mail") ...and it produces a lot more replies.

Send your postcards so they arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday. The volume of mail delivered in the US on those days is usually light and your postcards won't have to compete with a lot of other mail delivered at the same time.

Try to avoid having your postcards delivered on Monday. It's usually the biggest mail delivery day of the week and a very busy day for most people.

MAke sure your phone system is ready to receive calls from your prospects. Track who you mailed these postcards out to and when.

You might even consider using services that USPS offers that can "scrub" your mailing list to make sure the mailing addresses are correct and complete, so you reduce your waste on mailing postcards to the wrong address or that is undeliverable.

Happy hunting!!!