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Title: Postcards - Picture Perfect Promotion
Author: Joy Gendusa
Article:
There is a simple but almost mystical law which governs
promotion and marketing and their relationship to the amount of
business generated: business will come in to the 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, the activities of your
competition, acts of terrorism, time of year, the alignment of
Mars with Jupiter and all the 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 often the 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 up the promotion, not cut back.
The trick is to find ways to get the maximum results with the
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 as the best form of direct mail. It's time
to pass on the information for those who haven't yet discovered
this cost-effective way of getting the word out and the business
in.
This is especially timely advice as the 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 of the postcard is that it doesn't
have to be opened - there is nothing hidden about it and nothing
to be scared of.
Quite aside from the anthrax angle, the 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 into the garbage
can as "junk mail." An envelope can be tossed in the trash
without even being opened, allowing the 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 on the 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. If
the 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 when the
economy is sticky or business is slow, that doesn't mean you
can't cut costs in the process.
Many brokers are convinced that a full-color postcard with the
right message on it, mailed out to previous clients (for
re-financing for example) or to prospective borrowers gets the
most bang for the advertising buck of any form of promotion,
even when they also advertise in print, on the 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
than the lowest letter rate which is 19¢ - 24¢ and that's for
standard, bulk rate, not first class. If you find the 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, the company's owner. He buys 6,000 postcards at a
time and sends out 400 every month to highly targeted mailing
lists. He leaves the back of the 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 at the time the 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 at the 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 do
the 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 on the rise. One
of the principles that Forest learned and really put into
practice was the 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
for the loan reps to pick up the 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 on the 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 for the 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 in the past) and will limit the search to
specific categories to make sure that the mailing hits home.
Getting the mailing labels free of a charge represents a
considerable saving.
Then Sun Pacific will send out mailings of a couple of thousand
postcards once or twice a month to current or past clients, and
another 3-4,000 to prospective borrowers every week, handling
all the mailing in house. They use large (4 1/4" by 6")
full-color, laminated postcards which look very attractive.
"We went to postcards a few years ago because I got sick of
doing the bulk mailings using envelopes," Forest admits. Folding
letters and sealing envelopes is pretty labor intensive.
Postcards cost less and the mail costs are lower.
Forest attributes a full 20% of his business to the postcard
mailings which account for the majority of their spending on
print advertising/promotion for the year. "Because of the magic
formula that business comes in in proportion to the postcards
and other forms of promotion that go out, we get results from
all quarters," he says.
Outsourcing:
The above example includes networking with title companies and
handling large mailings in house but this is something to work
up to if you want to go that route. Few mortgage brokers have an
in-house marketing department and it can be time-consuming and
overwhelming to take on all of these aspects of getting
postcards mailed out using existing personnel who are already
busy dealing with loans and paperwork.
A good postcard company can handle the entire mailing and save
you money in the process. They make their money from printing
postcards, not from consulting, selling mailing lists, mailing
and so on. So they can give you better deals on these other
services where needed.
Having the postcard company do the mailing from you has an
additional benefit of saving on shipping. Printed matter is
quite heavy and shipping 10,000 postcards across country is not
that cheap. If it is mailed from the postcard company direct
these shipping charges are avoided.
Sharp Mortgages Inc. of Jacksonville started using postcards in
2001, having used every other form of advertising and promotion.
They sent out two initial mailings of 10,000 postcards each and
have ordered another 50,000 so it must be working. "We let the
postcard company handle the mailing," says Bill Sharp Snr. who
handles their advertising. "With all the other things we have to
do, we find that it's easier to let them handle the mailing than
to tie up our time in here."
Don't be put off by the thought of all the extra work involved
for your already too busy personnel. In the long run it might
save you a lot of money to pay a little extra for the postcard
company to take the entire process off your hands from design
and print through to mailing.
How to get going with postcards.
So, assuming postcards are the way to go, where do you start? A.
Find a postcard company to help you.
This company must:
1. SPECIALIZE IN POSTCARDS, not just do postcards among other
printing jobs. You will get better service and a better product.
It will cost much less because they are printing your postcard
along with many other customers' postcards and can "gang print"
them which means they print many different postcards on one
large sheet of card and it's only one press run.
2. Have some MARKETING KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE. They should be
able to advise you on mailing lists, design, quantities and so
on. The better ones offer a full range of services from advice
through design, assistance with photography, printing and
mailing.
3. Postcards they produce should be UV COATED (laminated), FULL
COLOR, 4 1/4" x 6" so you get the biggest size card you can for
the lowest mail rate and they really look good. The UV coating
is essential for a very high gloss finish that really makes the
postcard stand out and attract attention.
4. Above all you need to know that you are going to get RESULTS.
Percentage of response is not the real measure of success as
this varies from industry to industry and area to area. What you
want to determine is return on investment. If you spend $2,500
all inclusive to send out a 10,000 postcard mailing and get 200
calls as a result, and convert even 10 of those into mortgage
purchases, then the mailing was a terrific investment. So you
need to look at the big picture and check for results in terms
of return on investment.
When choosing a postcard company to handle your mailing, it's a
good idea to get some names and phone numbers of their customers
and call them up to get some first hand information on how good
the company is: do they deliver good service and value for money?
Once you have found the right provider (it doesn't have to be
local - the better ones work on a national basis and do business
with companies all over the USA) get their advice on producing
the postcard. They will help you with all the steps.
B. Decide whether you want them to handle the mailing for you
(see section above on outsourcing).
C. Decide whether you are going to mail to your existing
customers or to mailing lists of potential customers or both.
Procurement of mailing lists an important point. Sending out
postcards to 10,000 random homeowners by zip code is not going
to get the same response as sending 10,000 postcards to
qualified homeowners of the type that you specialize in
(conventional, subprime, refinances, etc.). You can buy mailing
lists that are quite specific. Your biggest expense is going to
be postage. It's worth spending a little extra money to make
sure your message gets to qualified potential mortgage
purchasers in the category that you want to deal with. The
postcard company should be able to help you with the choice and
purchase of mailing lists.
D. Decide on the content of the card. Again, a good postcard
company will have experience with this and can offer valuable
advice. They've probably worked with other mortgage brokers and
know what works and what doesn't.
E. Get the card produced. They will send you proofs. Get any
needed corrections made so that you are happy with them.
F. Get them mailed out.
G. Sit back and make the most of the response.
H. Plan your next mailing and repeat the steps.
After you've done a few mailings you will get a better idea of
what works and you can refine your campaign.
This is a proven, tried and tested, workable approach to
increasing sales through direct mail using color postcards.
About the author:
Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998, her only assets a
computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did $9 million in
sales and employed over 60 people. She attributes her explosive
growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate
marketing savvy. Visit <A
HREF=http://www.postcardmania.com>http://www.postcardmania.com</A
>
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