So, as a business owner or marketer trying to communicate with your customers, the best way to grab their attention will be to reach them at a time that feels most relevant. And a place that feels most relevant. We are talking about old-school marketing strategies, like direct mail marketing. Like a business postcard. In this blog, we’ll talk all about the benefits of designing a business postcard in the digital age. And some ideas to create one that suits your brand.

Direct Mail Marketing- An Overview

Did you know that the open rate for most email campaigns is around 19.8%? Whereas, nearly 42.2% of consumers who receive direct mails scan or read the mail. 

What if you could combine both of these effective strategies? That would be the perfect marketing mix to get people to stop and notice your brand. And listen to what you have to say. 

In short, the best way to boost your existing marketing strategy will be to add some traditional strategies, like business postcards for example. 

From announcing the launch of your business to inviting customers to an event, there is so much you can do with business postcards. And in this blog, we’ll talk about the best practices for designing these postcards for your brand. Along with some design tips to ensure that your business postcards and invites stay relevant to the digital age. 

But before we take you there, we’ll tell you why direct mail marketing is something you should take seriously. 

Benefits Of Direct Mail Marketing in the Digital Age 

• Postcards are cost-effective ways to have a one-to-one conversation with your customers. They bring an ROI of 29%. 
• To process the information on direct mail, customers need 21% less cognitive effort than what’s required for emails. 
• Customers receive an average of 121 marketing emails in their inboxes. But the number of marketing mails that an average American household receives through the post is only 454 per year. So, you are competing with fewer brands through direct mail marketing than through digital channels. 

Not convinced yet? Take a look at some business postcards from big names in the digital world, like Google and Paypal:

Tangible marketing materials like business postcards do not disappear when you leave the webpage. They are there with your customers, for a long time probably. So, you can make them informative, emotional, and promotional. Just the way you want them to be, in order to make an impact. 

To add to all this, receiving mail from one of their favorite brands makes customers feel acknowledged. Besides, customers appreciate personalization in marketing. All of these lead to one conclusion – business postcards are valuable additions to your marketing plan. 

But what kind of campaigns can you run through business postcard marketing? Let’s find out. 

Effective Ways to Use A Business Postcard in Marketing 

Wondering where to use business postcards? Here are a few ideas to try:

1. For event marketing 

Use business postcards to drive the marketing effort for your event marketing. These can be events meant for new or existing customers or both. 

For events meant to generate new leads, you will be sending out postcards to people who do not know your business yet. In such cases, you should also have a brief introduction to what your business does. And why that event is relevant to them. 

For events meant for existing customers, you might have a smaller target audience cluster. And in such cases, the postcard design should focus more on talking about the value the event delivers to your customers. 

2. Business thank you postcards 

Thank you cards mailed to customers who have recently made a transaction with your business is another way to use direct mail marketing. 

Postcard design for thank you cards should be strongly aligned with your brand. This will etch your brand’s visual identity on your customers’ minds at the time when they have finally experienced your brand. So, effective design in your Thank You postcard makes it easier for your customers to remember your brand. 

3. Promotional postcards for businesses 

Promotional postcards are the other kind that brands use. These can be used to introduce customers to a new product or service. Or even the opening of a new store. 

Postcards advertising an upcoming sale will also be effective. Because you are sending them out to customers who are already interested in your brand. You can also include a promotional code on the card. Or discounts for customers upon bringing the card to the sale. This will make it easier for them to remember the sale and encourage them to retain the card with them longer. 

Well, these are just a few ways. Use your creativity to communicate any kind of message in a more effective way through postcards. No matter the purpose, the design of the card can make or break the effect it creates. So, let’s discuss some tips on designing business postcards that customers will love. 

Postcard Design Tips for Powerful Content Direct Mail Marketing 

1. Use images to grab attention

After spending a lot of time on their gadgets, customers are used to consuming visual content everywhere. Images make it easier for them to quickly grasp information. That’s why when you include images in your business postcards, you are sure to grab their attention. As your customers skim through their bills and a handful of other marketing mails, yours with a lot of images pops out. 

In most situations, images make the content more interactive. Once the images have grabbed their attention, the information you present will be easier to consume. 

Kimp Tip: Remember, any attractive image relevant to your business will not be enough. The chosen image should be relevant to the message the particular postcard conveys. Real photos or even custom illustrations can give your design a unique touch. 

Want some aesthetically appealing postcards with eye-grabbing graphics designs for your brand? Get in touch with the Kimp team today. 

2. Make it useful to the customers

Postcards stay with the customers for a long time. Unless of course, they find it irrelevant to them and toss it away. 

To make sure that your customers do not ignore the postcard, try to make it more useful to them. Here’s an example. 

Notice how the illustrations simplify the content by providing quick snippets of information. Along with this, the copy and the graphics provide value to the customers. Postcards like these are hard to throw away. 

And how does a brand benefit from this? Every time the customer reads the information on the postcard, the customer also sees the contact details of the brand, the brand name, and the brand logo. And sometimes this happens unintentionally but it still has the same impact. It gets customers to remember your brand better. 

If you have also incorporated your brand’s colors in the postcard, then customers also start recalling your brand easily with the colors. On the whole, designs like these make brands more memorable. 

3. Bridge the gap between traditional and digital 

The best way to boost customer engagement will be to maintain consistency across various marketing channels. If your digital ads and traditional print ads are going to be separate silos in advertising, you are missing out on a lot. So, try and connect them so customers identify your brand on all these channels. 

Take the above postcard for example. Customers receive the card after the order. The information on the card makes it a valuable asset. So, they might consider saving it for future reference. 

But what makes this design even more unique is the QR code added. This one takes customers to video instructions that build on whatever information is presented in the postcard. 

Similarly, in your business postcard, you can add links to your social media pages or even your website. 

If customers find the destination to be informative and coherent with your postcard, they might also end up following you on social media. Or might interact with your digital channels. 

Kimp Tip: The page where your customers land from the link on the QR code should look consistent with the design of your postcard as well. Otherwise, it will be hard to understand that they are both connected. One easy way to achieve this will be to have a landing page created for the campaign. You can add links to all your social media pages on this landing page. Or even include fields to capture contact information from your leads. 

With a Kimp Graphics subscription, you can get stunning landing pages designed and perfectly aligned with each of your campaigns. 

4. Include information that matters 

Your postcard should convey information that matters to your customers. These could be details like:

• What is the value proposition? 
• And what kind of action should your customers take? 

The below postcard clearly outlines all the essential information in a clear and convenient fashion. 

To begin with, the color palette is consistent with the services offered. You make an instant connection there. And then right below the bold text of the brand name, the postcard clearly tells what the business is about. Finally, keeping the copy crisp, the core services are listed right below. 

This postcard design shows how font size variations can be used to create a visual hierarchy. And thus help customers effortlessly navigate from one section in the design to another. 

Color consistency and the lack of blaring typeface variation keep the above postcard visually appealing. To emphasize the unique features or the benefits for customers, the design also incorporates a bold font. Since this is in a different color it is hard to miss. 

5. Connect through customer stories 

There is practically no restriction on what to include in your postcard. Any information that customers will find resourceful or details that will get them to take any action will be of value to your brand. 

Considering this, customer testimonials are great details to add. And that too when you reach out to customers who are already towards the end of the sales funnel. That’s when the reviews from other customers will be the nudge they need for making their final decision. 

But, when you do include reviews, keep the section short. Also, keep the content cohesive by including reviews that support the message your postcard copy conveys. 

The above design powerfully establishes the message with the use of a strong serif font for the hero text. The clear and minimalistic sans-serif typeface, on the other hand, conveys the rest of the information and user review. 

Kimp Tip: Font pairing is an interesting topic to study in the world of graphic design. Consider font pairing rules and only include two or three different typefaces altogether. Too many contrasting typefaces cause a lot of visual clutter. 

6. A design that resonates with your brand 

While you try to put together a mindful mix of the right design elements for your postcard, you cannot let the design deviate too much from your brand’s visual style as well. 

We spoke about fonts, for example, in the above section. When you choose typefaces for your postcard, always keep your brand style guide as a reference. 

In the above example, the postcard design stays on-brand by keeping a simple color palette that resonates with the brand colors. The other element of visual consistency here will be the typeface chosen, which remains consistent with the font style in the brand logo. 

Again, the key sections like what the card is about and also critical details like time and venue are made to appear distinct from the rest of the text. This ensures that all the essential information is conveyed. 

Every Kimp Graphics subscription comes with a dedicated team of designers who will be handling your design requests. So, it is easier for you to communicate your brand’s visual style and maintain this in the designs as well. 

7. Focus on the CTA

All the design elements stitched together will prove futile if they do not fulfill the objective. What do you want this postcard to do for your brand? 

• Do you want them to share their reviews? 
• Is it about increasing sales by promoting seasonal discounts? 
• Do you want customers to connect with your brand on social media?
• Is it about getting them to buy again by providing them a discount code or store credits? 

Have a clear objective and communicate it clearly through the postcard. Because when the CTA is not clear, customers will not take any action after all. 

The above postcard design is a good example of keeping things simple and straightforward. Expressing gratitude for making the purchase lets the user feels acknowledged for choosing the brand. And the social media handles direct them to the right channels for further communication. 

Telling customers what step to take next makes it easier for them to interact with the brand. And encouraging them to connect on social media makes it possible to constantly channel the right promotional content towards them. So, your brand stays in their visibility longer. And thus with all this, you can strengthen brand loyalty. 

Design Your Business Postcard With Kimp Graphics 

Direct mail marketing, especially postcard marketing, can therefore be beneficial to brands in so many ways. Even if the products or services you offer are going to be fully digital, tangible marketing assets like business postcards enhance customer engagement. 

And the best part is that you can easily augment postcard marketing to your existing marketing efforts. With a design subscription, like Kimp, where both print and digital ads are part of the services offered, you can create consistent designs for your business postcards and marketing emails as well. 

Experience the merits of unlimited graphic design services for your brand by registering for a free trial today.