Direct Mail Postcards Gone Good and Gone Bad

I get a ton of mail, I'm sure you do too. Today I want to focus on a good example of a direct mail postcard with a fun offer and I want to show you a creative example that in theory would be good but in practice turned bad.

Gone Good

This real estate firm does a lot right with this card. They use a great image of a property and they use the postcard almost as an invitation to a party. "Join Us for a Grand Opening Party!". It's a very creative way to invite people in the neighborhood to what might normally be a boring old open house. They're serving wine and hors d'oevers, having a meet and greet with the architect and the decorator. The whole offer is enticing and different.

They also pre-sorted their zip codes to get the discount and included the bar code on the card so the post office didn't have to. Nice and clean.

Gone Bad

First of all, creative attempt, "Why Wait? The Time is Now" with some canned image, great for marketing on a budget. Big Typo: "Capet" should be "Carpet". Argh.

Reverse side - this is where I'm having the biggest problem.

First of all, I think that they're trying to fit TOO much copy onto the back of the card. Four scary bullet points about all of the fungus and pet dander I might have kids rolling around on and I'm sold.

Secondly, you need to take into consideration what the post office might do when your cards go through their sorting machines.

This company tried to be creative and flip the copy on the back of the card to be vertical which is fine, but they also flipped the addressing area to be vertical too, not fine.  The bad news is, the post office machines line up all of the same-sized cards horizontally, like the real estate card above, to look for the bar codes (if there is one).  The last thing you want to do is to have the post office "trying" to read your card.

One more thing, it's in your best interest to have your cards bar-coded at the same time they get addressed. If you don't include a barcode the post office may stick a nasty piece of tape with the bar code on your card (shown here). Here you see that the post office did it not only once, but twice, covering up valuable bits of information like the logo, address and phone number. Yikes.

Just a few examples to get you thinking about how to put your own postcards together.

Comments

[Darlene Torry/Preventive Measures Resource Service]

Hi, I have a small legal consulting business under the umbrella of the Prepaid Legal Incorp. I would like to incorporate a Post card Direct marketing Campaign, who do I talk to,to help me in spearheading this campaign, as I don't know exactly what it entells. I have an ESTABLISHED website, and wonderful brochures etc. but I would like to compile the most important information,and make it exciting to look at and read..so people will be either be interested enough to go to my website or see the value in my products and services and become a member..I am looking to make a successful Direct Marketing/Post Card Campaign..
Can You Assist?