4. Postcards are versatile and flexible

Your yellow page ad can be a great ad. But you have one time a year to make changes. If you make a mistake, you pay for it whole year. Postcards are much more flexible. If one doesn’t work, you can do another.

You can use postcards for many purposes. To get a boost in sales, you can use postcards to make special offers to your customers. You can use postcards to keep in contact with your current customers so competitors don’t steal them away. You can use postcards as a lead generator for new prospects. You can use postcards in conjunction with other forms of marketing in a follow up process.

5. Postcards get attention

The biggest challenge you have with marketing today is getting people’s attention. With over 3000 advertising impressions hitting each of us every day, you need something that gets people’s attention.

Unlike a letter, there is no envelope to open. No time consuming effort. You pick up a postcard and turn it over. You can read it in a matter of seconds.

That’s exactly what other people do. Unlike many letters that immediately end up in circular file, postcards get read. People are curious and they know it will only take a few seconds to read postcard. Study your own behavior next time you get a postcard in mail. Ask yourself, would you like customers and prospects to give same attention to your postcards?

Conclusion

I hope this article has given you enough reasons to look again at postcard marketing as a powerful tool in your efforts to make more profits. Don’t let simplicity of postcard marketing fool you. Many companies have used postcards as their only means of marketing to build very successful businesses. Take another look at how postcards can be used effectively in your business.

This article has provided benefits of using postcard marketing. If you would like Free step by step information on how to create your own postcard, email me al@hanzal.com with subject “Postcard Marketing.” I will send you a Free Report.

Copyright Al Hanzal, 2005. All Rights Reserved

Hanzal Enterprises, Inc. 4191 Granite Court Eagan, Minnesota 55123 651-485-3340

5. Join a link co-op. Co-ops such as one found at http://www.digitalpoint.com/ are an amazing source of valuable back links and free advertisement. What is a co op network? A Co op network is a network of site owners/webmasters that offer ad space to network. In return, ads they define are displayed across entire network. The best part of ad networks such as one found at digital point, is, they are free. Having your site in a co-op can literally mean thousands of back links for your site.

6. Buying ezine ads is a paid method of advertising, but it works, because it is most targeted of these approaches. Write a concise ad for your business, and link to either a lead-capture page or directly to your autoresponder. Then, begin contacting ezines to place your ad. (Do a search for “ezine directories,” and you will find enough lists to keep you busy.) When you contact an ezine, look for rates for both classified ads and solo ads. The advantage to a solo ad is that your ad goes out by itself in a separate email, but they can be more expensive. Because these ads are targeted (you should NOT advertise in an unrelated ezine), you will definitely see traffic, but you will need to track your results to see which ezines bring you most and best traffic.

7. Ad Swaps can be an exellent source of advertising. Start by writing some killer copy (to coin a phrase...there are many free articles and ebooks writen on subject). Simply use your favorite search engine and type in...how to write ad copy. I googled this as I am wriying this and it showed 12,400,000 results. WOW! Once you have your ad written, search out Ezines that are in same catagory as your business or service. Again use your favorite web search. Build yourself a list of ezines and then email them asking if they except ad swaps. Include your ad in your corrospondance with ezines so they can see what you are offering. Another place to check for ezines is to type in Ezine directories in your seach engine. Look up ezines in your catagory of business or service. Most listings will tell you if they except ad swaps and peramiters of ad such as how many lines and how many characters per line. Don't forget to ad your website url in your ad.

If you want to have a successful site, whether-it-be a hobby or for business, you have to understand how search engines work. Part of that understanding, is knowing about link development. Maybe in early 90’s idea of “if you build it they will come” might have been true. But in year 2005 internet is a far more competitive and complex place. To be successful today, you have to work at it. Without a quality source of back links search engines will all but ignore your site.