Going Solo: Postcards and Solo Mailings Jun 1, 2007 12:00 PM
, By Jim Tierney
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As catalogers struggle to deal with the new postal rates, there's been a lot of talk about reduction: Many mailers plan to offset costs by reducing trim size, circulation, and page counts. But the rate hike may inspire one type of increase — an increase in the use of postcards and solo mailers.
Just about every postal rate increase sparks renewed interest in postcards and solo mailers, notes Sarah White, spokesperson for Thirdwave Research, a Verona, WI-based provider of database and strategic marketing solutions. “Postal rates have been going up for so long, people have been looking at alternative strategies for some time,” she says. “It has a lot to do with the analytics on the back end. We're seeing our clients do some interesting things with postcards based on past purchases and then personalizing the postcards.”
Postcards and similar types of direct mail “can minimize your costs and serve as a pathway to becoming a customer,” says Chris Carpenter, CEO of Sun Prairie, WI-based Royle Printing. “But from a merchandising standpoint, a catalog isn't going to be replaced by a postcard.”
What postcards and solo mailers can do, however, is serve as a cost-effective replacement for and complement to some catalog mailings as part of an overall contact strategy, much as e-mail already has for many multichannel merchants.
Postcard pluses and minuses
There's no question that postcards are highly economical to mail, at about $0.25 apiece and as little as $0.15 if they are drop-shipped deeper into the mail stream. That's certainly less than the price of mailing a First Class letter ($0.41 as of May 14) or a typical catalog, according to Todd Kintopf, manager of distribution and postal affairs at Royle Printing.
And recipients are likely to look at postcards: According to a U.S. Postal Service study released last month, postcards were found to have the highest read rate among all direct mail media, including letters and fliers.
But mailers should be aware that postcards need to have a “compelling, actionable message that is relevant,” says Chris Haag, director of sales for Royle Printing. “Where we've seen them used has been around a specific event for a cataloger who also has retail locations, driving traffic to both.”
If you want to spread the word about a special offer or the launch of a product line, postcards can be very effective, Haag says. Postcards can also serve as coupons, invitations, announcements, save-the-date reminders, thank-you cards, follow-ups, special offers, inserts in magazines, admission tickets, mini-newsletters, bookmarks, and quick-reference guides. And since messages have to be clear and succinct on a postcard, Kintopf says, mailing a specific message to a targeted audience on a postcard or a solo mailer can be a very good lead-generation tool.
That's what sports apparel supplier A4 uses postcards for. “We use a catalog and Website, and we only mail catalogs to existing customers,” says CEO Mark Wertens. The Vernon, CA-based company mails about 75,000 catalogs, usually 28-36 pages, each year. “With the postcards, we hope to generate demand.”
Don't expect the postcard to act as a stand-alone prospecting tool, however. Instead, think of it as a traffic driver or the first part of a two-step acquisition tactic.
Because the amount of selling space on a postcard is limited, “you'll be hard pressed to acquire a customer with it unless you use it to drive people to the Website or to request a catalog,” says Shari Altman, president of Altman Dedicated Direct, a Rural Hall, NC-based consultancy specializing in acquisition and loyalty marketing.
That's not necessarily a drawback, though. “Postcards are inexpensive enough that they can allow catalogers to significantly expand their prospecting universe,” Altman continues. “Potentially, you can use a postcard to reach markets where you can't afford to send solo mailers or a catalog.”
Wertens agrees. “We're looking to find ways to find new leads to send more catalogs,” he says. “Using postcards is very economical, and it's a very high-impact vehicle to do that. We can do it repetitively and look at the nature of our offer. Printing catalogs can be very expensive. We like the flexibility of postcards.”
Another attractive aspect of using postcards, Wertens says, is the speed of the production process: From conception to mailing takes only about three weeks.
“Much of what we do is graphic,” adds Wertens, referring to the assorted styles and personalization options of A4's uniforms, “so postcards are an easy way to reach our customer base.”
Indeed, the graphics of your postcard are critical to ensuring that the card stands out from the rest of a recipient's mail, especially given its small size. Altman advises using dramatic visuals and colors to make the offer pop, and be sure that the message is clear.
As for the offer itself, Altman says to make sure it's a solid one — for a lead-generator, for instance, try $5 or $10 off or free shipping for a first order — and establish a time limit for the offer to drive immediate response.
