Postcards – Picture Perfect Promotion

Written by Joy Gendusa


There is a simple but almost mystical law which governs promotion and marketing and their relationship torepparttar amount of business generated: business will come in torepparttar 150425 degree that you get your message out, promote, let people know you are there, advertise, write to people, call people, e-mail people and generally communicate to existing or potential clients. It isn’t a fact that registers easily and it almost takes faith to follow this dictum until you have seen it work over and over in all sorts of different businesses and organizations (as I have).

This law transcends market conditions,repparttar 150426 activities of your competition, acts of terrorism, time of year,repparttar 150427 alignment of Mars with Jupiter and allrepparttar 150428 million and one explanations we frequently fall back on when business is slow. All these conditions may be present but there is still a way to rise above them: just promote more heavily and frequently and business will start to pick up again. It never fails.

It’s almost a natural instinct when times get a little tight or business is slow to cut down on expenditure. You hear people talking about tightening their belts. Too oftenrepparttar 150429 first expenditure companies seek to cut is their marketing and advertising dollar, and that is a serious error, a guarantee of contraction. You have to step uprepparttar 150430 promotion, not cut back. The trick is to find ways to getrepparttar 150431 maximum results withrepparttar 150432 minimum expenditure, but never to cut back and promote less. That’s suicide. Here’s one way to increase promotion while keeping costs down.

You don’t have to open a postcard!

We have found more and more brokers are turning to high quality, four-color postcards asrepparttar 150433 best form of direct mail. It’s time to pass onrepparttar 150434 information for those who haven’t yet discovered this cost-effective way of gettingrepparttar 150435 word out andrepparttar 150436 business in.

This is especially timely advice asrepparttar 150437 national anthrax scare – whether you give credence to it or not – has resulted in a certain caution when it comes to opening envelopes from unknown sources. One great advantage ofrepparttar 150438 postcard is that it doesn’t have to be opened – there is nothing hidden about it and nothing to be scared of.

Quite aside fromrepparttar 150439 anthrax angle,repparttar 150440 fact that a postcard doesn’t need to be opened has another advantage: it has a chance to get its message across before it is dropped intorepparttar 150441 garbage can as “junk mail.” An envelope can be tossed inrepparttar 150442 trash without even being opened, allowingrepparttar 150443 hard-hitting promotional material inside no chance at all to get its message across.

The chances are fairly high that if you have a brightly colored image onrepparttar 150444 front of your postcard it will attract enough attention to get an initial glance. If your headline is a good one and invites further interest, then your postcard will be read and you will have succeeded in delivering your message. Ifrepparttar 150445 reader is even vaguely interested in what you are trying to sell, you may well get a visit or a call.

Cost-effective!

Even though it is imperative to promote more than ever whenrepparttar 150446 economy is sticky or business is slow, that doesn’t mean you can’t cut costs inrepparttar 150447 process.

Many brokers are convinced that a full-color postcard withrepparttar 150448 right message on it, mailed out to previous clients (for re-financing for example) or to prospective borrowers getsrepparttar 150449 most bang forrepparttar 150450 advertising buck of any form of promotion, even when they also advertise in print, onrepparttar 150451 radio and TV, sky-writing, you name it.

You can mail out a postcard up to 4 1/4 inches by 6 inches for between 17.5¢ and 19.5¢ first class pre-sorted. This is cheaper thanrepparttar 150452 lowest letter rate which is 19¢ - 24¢ and that’s for standard, bulk rate, not first class. If you findrepparttar 150453 right company you can get 5,000 high quality, full-color, laminated postcards printed for under $400.

Warren Financial Corporation of Dunedin, Florida, is an example of a company who rely entirely on postcards (and referrals) for new business. “The strange thing about postcards is that I’ll have people who will call me 6 or 8 months after I mailed them out and say, ‘I got one of your postcards and kept it.’,” says Jim Warren,repparttar 150454 company’s owner. He buys 6,000 postcards at a time and sends out 400 every month to highly targeted mailing lists. He leavesrepparttar 150455 back ofrepparttar 150456 cards blank so that he can get a different message printed on them when he’s ready to send them. This allows for rate changes and other time-sensitive messages to be printed on atrepparttar 150457 timerepparttar 150458 postcards are going to be mailed.

He used to use very basic, black and white postcards run off by his local printer but has now gone to full-color, 4 1/4” x 6” cards (the largest size you can send atrepparttar 150459 lowest mail rate) which has improved his response rate. “I have a rifle rather than a shotgun approach to marketing,” he says. “For what I dorepparttar 150460 four-color postcards are perfect.”

A case in point…

Sun Pacific Mortgage of Santa Rosa, California have been in business for 14 years, specializing in giving loans to people who have been turned down elsewhere. Owner Forest Tardibuono came across some management technology in 1997 and since then their income has increased by 900% and is still onrepparttar 150461 rise. One ofrepparttar 150462 principles that Forest learned and really put into practice wasrepparttar 150463 fact that if you want more business or new business, you have to promote. “We’re one big marketing machine,” he says. “We promote heavily and it’s then an easy job forrepparttar 150464 loan reps to pick uprepparttar 150465 loans. The sale is easy.” The company spends 14% of its gross on promotion. With an annual income of close to $2 million, that’s a sizable budget for promotion. But it is also a major factor in their continued growth.

Sun Pacific order 50-60,000 postcards at a time with a selection of several different images onrepparttar 150466 cards. They have an arrangement with local title companies whereby these provide Sun Pacific with mailing lists already printed in mailing label form at no cost as an incentive forrepparttar 150467 mortgage company to use them for title work. They provide these labels as often as needed and targeted as narrowly and specifically as required. For example, Forest will ask for homeowners of a specific zip code (one that has proven profitable inrepparttar 150468 past) and will limitrepparttar 150469 search to specific categories to make sure thatrepparttar 150470 mailing hits home. Gettingrepparttar 150471 mailing labels free of a charge represents a considerable saving.

Marry Your Marketing Plan

Written by Joy Gendusa


Make a vow to keep up your marketing schedule in good times and not so good times.

I have said it time and time again that marketing, no matter what type you choose, is a building process. Here isrepparttar whole thing summed up in one situation:

Assume for a moment that you had never heard of this thing called "Cola". You go to your mailbox and get your mail only to find a postcard that says "New Fizzy Drink! You'll Love It! A Taste Like Nothing You Have Had Before!" You might run right out and try it, but more than likely, not. Most people won't.

So you get a second postcard.

Still you do nothing.

Then you are talking to you’re a friend from across town who says "Hey, have you tried this Cola thing?" It turns out that after he got his second postcard he went out and got a bottle to give it a try.

Nowrepparttar 150424 Third postcard shows up and you're thinking "OK, fine, I'll give it a try." And you do, and you do love it, and it is like nothing else. So now you have to tell your brother about it.

You see where this is going. Ifrepparttar 150425 makers of "Cola", whoever they are, had sent cards torepparttar 150426 whole town one time and then abandonedrepparttar 150427 marketing due to a lack of response they would have missed out.

So, now that you can no longer argue withrepparttar 150428 fact that you need to keep up a steady stream of marketing torepparttar 150429 same people multiple times you are obviously thinking "How do I keep up withrepparttar 150430 whole thing while I am closingrepparttar 150431 customers that I am already getting?" The honest answer is get a direct mail company to help you.

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