Mailing postcards can be an effective way to garner business, if you do it correctly. If you spend more money on the postcards than the response they are bringing in, that is obviously a problem and all your hard work will have been for nothing.
To remedy this, you need to lower your postcard printing costs and shorten the time you spend on your postcard marketing techniques.
Time is money, which means you need to effectively use your time. Don’t waste time licking stamps and driving your postcards to the post office. You need an efficient system that automates repetitive tasks to save you time (and muscle aches!). Luckily, the United States Postal Service can give you a hand. They have a postcard mailing system on their Web site:
www.usps.com/mailingonline. This article will tell you how to use this service, called Click2Mail, to save yourself time and money.
The first time you go to the Web page, you need to sign up for the service. Click on the New Customers button to sign up. Signing up allows you to save your mailing list so you can reuse it in the future. This feature will probably save you hours of time in itself! Do not be intimidated, the process is easy! Here are a few benefits of using Click2Mail:
Your printing and mailing costs are included in one price. For postcard printing through the USPS Web site, you will pay .23 cents, vs. .27 cents retail. You get the lower rate by qualifying for the lower Commercial Rates.
You save time. When your mailing list has standard addresses, the USPS can sort, prep and process them so that your bunch qualifies for automation and presort discounts. All of this automated sorting and prepping time is out of your hands! You can run your business while the USPS is basically running your postcard marketing campaign for you!
You do not have to be creative all on your own. The online service also includes templates for you to download. You just add your own text, graphics or photo, and submit your order. In addition, this helps you to avoid messing up your postcard by putting text or graphics where the return address or bar code is supposed to be. You simply are not allowed to put any text or graphics in these areas with the template.
You upload your mailing list once. When you create an account, you upload your mailing list once. The Web site supports several different file formats including Word and Excel. Another nice feature is that the Mailing Online publisher will standardize the addresses by matching them to valid addresses in the USPS’s database. It will make corrections if necessary.
You can plan for future mailings. You can decide when you want your mailing pieces to go out in the future. You can easily plan for follow up postcards to be sent out on whatever dates you choose. You can send out a postcard to go out tomorrow, another one in two weeks, and another one in four weeks. It is an easy way to follow up with your potential customers.
Katie Marcus writes about the
postcard printing industry and
postcard marketing technologies for businesses.
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