Why do so many postcards fail at driving web traffic?

 If you haven't done a lot of direct mail, you might be tempted to consider a postcard for driving web traffic.  It's what one company did recently, with disastrous results.

The company was trying to drive traffic to an e-commerce site -- a site for which no marketing had really been done to date.  So awareness of their premium product was non-existent, and the web site didn't really tell the story of why the product was unique.

The company asked us for a mailing list recommendation, and we developed a full direct mail plan, suggesting they test an envelope package and two different mailing lists, with separate landing pages to track results.

They didn't take our advice.  They mailed a postcard that never addressed the "why should I buy yours" uniqueness of their product.  They used one mailing list, and drove traffic to the home page of their web site.  And as a result, they completely wasted every cent they invested in that direct mail effort.

Direct mail is selling.  If you're going to consider using a postcard to sell someone on going to your web site, you have to think about whether you're going to have enough room to tell enough of your story to motivate the prospect to take the action.

If you were going to tell me, face-to-face, what unique products I would discover by going to your e-commerce web site, exactly what would you say?   Would those exact words fit on a post card?

The words you would say to me face-to-face are likely the same words you should put on that postcard.  If you need to say more than a few sentences to convince me to visit your site, then you might not be able to use a postcard to effectively drive traffic. 

And so it was with the premium product that had yet to do any marketing.  They used the postcard "front" -- the side with the mailing address (it's the "front" because that's the side the US Postal Service delivers "face up" in your mailbox) -- to talk about a satisfaction guarantee and other "credibility" points that should come AFTER you've told me why I should care about your product.

They used the "back" (the side with the beautiful visual) to show a beautiful photo.  But the minimal copy didn't convince the prospect of the premium product's uniqueness or value.

Postcards rarely are as effective as envelope packages, even when you factor in the higher cost of the envelope package.  Most often, the more expensive envelope packages generates so much more response than the postcard that it more than compensates for the extra cost.

Rather than starting out with a tactic -- "I think we'll do a postcard" -- start out with a plan.  Figure out what type of offer is going to motivate your audience to take the action you want them to take.  Then determine how much you're going to need to tell them to get that action.

If you're selling a premium product, consider whether a postcard makes sense for your audience.  Most premium products find that postcards don't convey the right image, don't give enough room to sell the uniqueness and value, and rarely end up being the most cost-effective solution.

 

 

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