Alice Designs - Clearing up your postcards

This article was first posted in thebestofreading newsletter: http://newsletter.thebestof.co.uk/22/16/Local/1676 and provides a small insight into effective marketing with postcards.

At a recent networking meeting someone showed me their quick sketches for some postcards they wanted to produce, so I gave them some small pointers to consider.

Each postcard had, of course, a picture for the front, each depicting a relevant theme. They contained large, colourful images, aimed to draw in the reader’s eye. This can be achieved by increasing to size of the subject and placing it either centrally, or slightly to one side with a ratio of 3:5 if there is an important background. I provided a few guidelines in cropping the pictures to fill the space provided, to avoid irrelevant background or white space, and to help towards providing a focus. Any wording should not obscure the main content and should be in a colour and style that is legible. Strong pictures should not need words, which can be saved for the reverse side.

As the other side of the postcard won’t contain a lot of space, don’t bombard the reader with irrelevant material. You could treat it like a real postcard, with the message on the left and the recipient’s address on the right, and even post it as it is. Or if there is a lot to say, think carefully how you present it – cluttered text will be difficult to read so less likely to be properly processed. Postcards are meant to be a quick way of getting your message across.

The first thing to think of is a really good headline or title. Try putting yourself in the shoes of your customer to consider exactly what their needs are. You could form a question with an answer that is yes, and put the most important words at the beginning and the end.

Work out the benefits, not features, of your service or product. Analyse your customer’s pain and focus on creating a solution for it, avoiding any jargon that would confuse or turn-off your customers. Present your benefits as a series of bullet points for easier reading, especially for a busy person scanning your postcard. Again they should allow your customer to say yes.

You should have a call to action. Tell them to go to your website; give a deadline in which to respond or contact you; offer them an incentive or vouchers; get them to sign up for further information or a newsletter. By driving them to your website you can then gather their details to form a future relationship with them.

And don’t forget to clearly present your contact details in an obvious place, and there’s nothing wrong with repetition. Guide the customer on how to respond, otherwise what is the point of the postcard in the first place?

If you agree with the concept of ‘clear, concise and uncluttered’ business practice, then visit my blog http://alicedesigns.wordpress.com or my website http://www.alice-designs.co.uk for more information.

Alice