Postcards can drive a huge amount of traffic to your web site, generate a flood of new sales leads or produce a surge in any business activity you want. And you don't have to spend a lot of time or money on them ...if you apply these four little-known postcard marketing secrets.

Postcard Marketing Secret #1: Keep Your Message Very Brief

Don't try to close sales with postcards. You don't have enough space to provide all information needed to close sales.

Instead, briefly state major benefit(s) you offer to attract reader's attention. Then focus on motivating them to get more detailed information from a source where you can close sales. For example, send them to your web site or give them a phone number to call.

Postcard Marketing Secret #2: Design Your Postcard To Look Like A Message From A Friend.

Most postcards I see look like an ad in a magazine. But when a postcard looks like advertising, people react to it as advertising. They don't pay much attention to it.

Instead, set up your postcard to look like a brief personal message from a friend. This attracts attention and lures prospects into reading your postcard ...even though they realize it is advertising. It generates a lot more replies than postcards that look like an ad.

Postcard Marketing Secret #3: Don't Spend a Lot on Printing

Postcards that look like a personal message can be very inexpensive to print. For example, here are 2 ways you can do job on any computer with a printer:

* Print postcards on plain (no printed lines) 4 x 6 inch index cards. Cost: about 1.5 cents per card.

I recently returned from a vacation. I was fortunate enough to leave heat and humidity of Memphis and go back to my home state of Colorado and spend time with my extended family. While I was in laundry room ironing a shirt, my Mom walked through and said "are you going to iron that shirt backwards?"

Of course, I immediately thought "what is this, I have to get ironing advice from my Mom? I'm a grown man, I think I can handle something as simple as pressing wrinkles out of a shirt. I have, after all, ironed a few shirts since I left home for college nearly 20 years ago!"

I started getting irritated and grumbling to myself that there is no such thing as ironing backwards. "Hot iron, ironing board, wrinkled shirt, what difference does it make from which direction you approach this simple job?"

And then I paused, and realized, my Mom has been ironing shirts her whole life. In fact, she was a home economics teacher. She *taught* people how to iron for a good portion of her teaching career. This is a woman who knows how to iron. Who am I to argue with an expert?

So I promptly stopped and realized that if I turned shirt around and got on other side of ironing board, I could much more easily complete job because cord would not be constantly getting in my way. All was well in laundry room as I was reminded, once again, that it pays to be open to new information.

This experience helps to illustrate a key concept that has a lot of value for marketers.

Always send your shirts out for cleaning. It's worth a couple of bucks not to have to stand in front of an ironing board. ;-)

Nah, just kidding. True as that my be, I actually do have a relevant concept to discuss with you.

FIRST AN EXPERT...ZEN A BEGINNER