Postcard Printing Services: Raising Brand Awareness

To design an effective postcard for your direct mail campaigns consider some of the following postcard sizes. Some postcards are printed on a small 4 x 6 sized paper – 4x6 postcards can ONLY be mailed at first class rate. Because they are smaller there is less room for text and graphics and more importantly they can easily get lost in a stack of mail. Simply put, they are the least effective type of postcard.

Postcard printing services is inexpensive so consider printing larger size postcards that can be mailed at standard rates. 8.5x5.5 postcards and even larger size postcards such as 6x9 or 6x11 can be mailed at standard class postage rates. Keep in mind that the postage cost for 6x9 or 6x11 is the same as 8.5x5.5. The most obvious advantage of a larger size postcard is that it will get noticed.There are many different paper options, paper weights, coatings, and graphics available to design an interesting and well received postcard. For example, printing on a 16 point paper with a UV coating finish or even a nice foil finish can be good options to create a great looking postcards. Postcards are generally printed in high quantity to save you money. Most printers start at 1,000 quantity and go up; but generally cost is more economical when you print more than 2500.Consider hiring a professional graphic designer, printer, and mailer to complete the job in its entirety - this will save you time, frustration, and money. A good graphic designer and copywriter can help you design a mail piece that will :

1. Grab the reader’s attention

2. Is relevant to your overall product or service

3. Correctly communicates your offer

4. Gives an incentive to purchase

Once you have a mail-piece designed, you will need to test it to attempt to reach industry standard response rates. When getting started test the results of your postcard mailers by the number of inbound calls; if you are not reaching 0.5% to 1% response then try redesigning your postcards and re-mailing to the same list. Use a targeted mailing list with addresses that have been CASS certified and scrubbed against the National Change of Addresses (NCOA) database this will ensure the highest percentage of deliverable addresses. When using postcard mailers to advertise your products and services remember that they are not hidden from the human eye, so be cautious not to offend people when you are addressing certain types of negative personal issues. A clever and appealing postcard design will grab the reader’s attention, generate incoming calls and increase your potential sales.