What's small and gets read all over?

Postcards. Are they dead as part of the marketing mix. No way!

They have become an alternative electronic marketing tool as well as an offline one.

Lot's of businesses still use Postcards, via snail mail, as an integral part of their marketing mix. Estate Agents (one of the areas I work in) use them a lot, mostly to good effect. Many other businesses ignore them. I am still amazed why so many do.

Those with poor experience of failed post card campaigns are usually down by poor layout, wrong message and because they are not used sequentially.

If the mailing was not to a known list then, like any direct mail piece, it is reliant on the quality of the list selection. Responses from known lists are often lower than expected if the objective has no been fully clarified or if the response "offer" (read premium or discount) was not good enough. Like any campaign a post card needs careful planning - the key message, the layout, the objective, the timing and what it asks the prospect to do. For many campaigns rarely are they all right.

Postcards can be used to drive additional traffic "offline" to an "online" lead or sales capture "mini site" or sales landing page. As long as the goal is to elicit ONE action and does not try and suggest too many things, the graphics can be targetted and so can the message for better response overall.

If you have any kind of business or venture that can use leads then have a re think about postcards as part of your lead caprutre solution.

If you are short of ideas may be I can help. Just drop an email to webmaster@livewiebusiness.com or visit the web site www.livewirebusiness.com and see the menu.