Post cards are not a marketing tool of the past. However, postcard marketing must be understood and you need to understand options and how to make the right choices. You also need to understand what a postcard campaign is supposed to do for you.

Obviously, you would like for a postcard campaign to produce sales and this is a best case scenario. However, if sales is your measure for success you may be disappointed by the results you get. Keep in mind that every piece mailed can potentially create brand exposure and increased brand recognition. The role of the postcard is really three and in this order of priority: branding, lead generation and direct sales. As a direct sales tool the post card only works when you have a highly targeted list. The best targeted list also knows your brand well enough to make a decision to buy. Post cards work well to generate leads. You simply need to grab the recipients interest and direct them to share contact information for some value you can offer. However, postcards work best when you focus results on brand building. If your postcards aren’t clearly defining your brand you are losing the greatest value they have to offer.

For strong brand building through a postcard campaign remember three simple rules.

1. Make sure every postcard contains a graphic illustration of your brand. Hopefully your branding strategy includes an icon, logo or mascot.

2. Clearly define the value of doing business with your brand. There may be a thousand others out there offering what you offer; how does your brand do it better or bring more value to the customer.

3. Make exploring your brand easy and convenient. Include links to your web presence, contact information, diverse resources they can use and a special offer to increase  their interest in getting to know you. The best special offer for this is free.

 I recommend at least two calls to action on every piece:

The first is the offer. Make an offer that will grab attention. You might consider, Free Lifetime Coaching. Free Lifetime Coaching may seem too good to be true, so you may need to validate the offer. I will cover the amazing offer later in this post.

The second is the request. By the request I mean an invitation for the recipient to pass the postcard on to anyone who may find your offer interesting. Include a line that simply says, “Be a Hero, pass this postcard on to your business colleagues.” can get the job done. You may be surprised at the number of times a piece is passed along simply because you gave the idea.

One question you may ask is, what size postcard should I mail? This is a valid question. When considering postcard size you need to think about at least three questions:

How much do I need to say?

                If your offer is pretty amazing you may need more copy to make it believable. You may need to answer a few reader objections. Therefore you need more space.

What is the direct mail competition for your market?

                If the competition to grab your reader’s attention is high you need to stand out and a larger piece may be the right solution.

How much are you ready to spend?

                A four by six postcard will cost 28 cents standard postage while a six by eleven postcard will cost  44 cents. Getting creative may allow you to create outstanding copy and graphics that will get the smaller card read.

All that said here are some critical components of a well read postcard campaign.

Bold Headline

Make it bold so it pops off the page. Use light colors on dark backgrounds and darker colors on light backgrounds. But nothing is more important than the headline message.

Your headline must speak to the reader’s need. If the headline grabs them where it hurts they will read on. Once they start reading, action is a result of good copy. I have found that the best headline is an amazing offer headline. The amazing offer is of such wild value that it is nearly too good to be true. Therefore, it raises curiosity and the reader reads on. Now you must convince the reader in few words that you can deliver on the promise and call them to action.

The Offer

The offer is the most important part of your postcard design. The offer is the reason to take action or follow up with you. I can offer free coaching for a lifetime. We have the technology and resources in place to provide group interaction, live consulting sessions and email support at little cost to me or my staff. we bundle these services with one no cost personal phone call per month and have a Lifetime coaching package to offer. Disclosing how the coaching is provided is not important on the postcard.

It is important that the respondent understands that the offer is available on certain terms. Clearly define those terms to make the offer believable.

The point of Contact

Make it easy for the respondent to contact you. I would include a landing page website url. This is the best response option because you are actively engaging and dialoguing with the reader. Another might be the leave a message response. Invite the reader to simply call a number and leave a name and email address for more information. This approach is great for busy people on the go. Using both will increase your response. Remember, you want the reader to take action. Tell them what to do and make it easy for them to answer the call.

I was recently asked, “What single component makes a social media strategy outstanding?” Really the answer is very simple. However, who cares is you are effective in your social marketing strategy if you aren’t reaching the right people with the right message?

The key to any successful social marketing is to socialize the right people. The more targeted your efforts the better your results. Another consideration is that if you are making the wrong offers to groups or users with no interest you are perceived a spammer. If you are making offers and never “GIVING” any value you are perceived a spammer as well.

You can use a message across numerous groups and networks if you custom tailor it to meet the needs of that group. You might have a audio book on diffusing angry people and choose to write an article excerpt from the audio book. You can rewrite the article with keywords and solutions specific to certain groups. In example if writing to the Customer service alliance you would want to change the words in your manuscript to match. Instead of, “an angry supervisor raises his voice,” you might write, “a first time customer raises his voice.” By being very specific your writing seems more relevant and valuable.

All that being said; the most important component in any social marketing strategy is to socialize. Make sure you engage your network just as you would face to face. Ask questions, answer questions and share. The more conversational you are the more your network will warm up to you. As they warm up you build trust and credibility.

 I recommend you make a 5 minute daily commitment:

1.  Spend 2.5 minutes to check you updates and reply to any that are relevant and for which you have feedback. You should do this on both Facebook and Linkedin if appropriate and you have time.
2. Spend 2.5 minutes to browse your group’s discussions and comment when appropriate.

You can answer questions, agree, disagree and add you own additional advice and tips where appropriate. The key is to engage the network and have a conversation. Conversational networking is the best way to build trust, rapport and credibility. These will contribute to trust and help you close more sales and build strong leads.

Make sure your posts are branded and contain contact or website URL information so readers can learn more about you. I learned a long time ago that the reader may not be diligent about finding my profile and links but if they are in a post that caught their interest they are very likely to follow the link and explore my site to get to know me better.

Bill “thebuilder” is available for keynotes, seminars and custom tailored training that is guaranteed to build your business momentum. Just call or email for available dates.

937-935-6789 or charles@charlesspeaks.com

As you begin implementing social media into your business growth strategy it is critical that you choose and prepare your team. A solid social media team strategy includes team members from three groups. You need to consider customers and connections as a part of your team and strategize their involvement. You should also include your employees and the value they may be able to add to your social media campaign. Finally you should consider third party team members. These may include writers, consultants and coaches. These experts can assist you in developing and keeping your social media campaign fresh and interesting.

Three simply components will help you get the most out of your effort while building a solid and well defined campaign.

Begin with solid and clear policies. A social media policy should define acceptable and unacceptable use and guidelines for use. Here are some bases you need to cover:

• Define who can and cannot access social media from the office. Often employees assume that social sites are open to all and are a free for all because the company has a social media presence.
• Define what can and cannot be shared on social networks.
• Designate time expectations and limitations.
• Appoint a social media officer to police and govern your social media.
• Establish guidelines for dialoguing with users who may post positive or negative content about your brand.

Plan campaigns and events that build on your social media presence. Companies that get the best results from social media act more like party planners than marketers. Events can be virtual or actual events hosted for your social connections.

Finally establish a content management strategy. Probably the most important component of a successful social media strategy is relevant content. It is not only important to provide high quality content. You must keep your content fresh. Rehashing what everyone is saying sin not fresh. Ask employees to share, the varied writing styles can add interest and perspective that attracts a wider audience. You can also get third party experts to contribute to your content by doing audio interviews or welcoming their articles with the incentive of posting their contact information for all of your readers. Joint ventures make it easier to keep your content fresh and build relationships that work to grow your network. Your content management strategy should include the following:

• What to post
• When to post
• Who will post
• How to post (written, audio, video & other media)

Making your social media campaign a team effort will greatly increase your results and make it easier to manage.

In every economy there are four catalysts that leading businesses understand. They have never changed and never will. Some of the world’s most OUTSTANDING business leaders took advantage of these catalysts in tough times to launch their businesses. Some Icons that remain include Hyatt, Burger King and FedEx.

Burger King, with its flame-broiled burgers, is an OUTSTANDING recession startup. The company began in 1954 when James McLamore and David Edgerton opened a Burger King restaurant in Miami, Fla. During yet another recession in 1957, the company introduced its signature burger, the Whopper. Today Burger King is OUTSTANDING in 65 countries.

Hyatt opened its first hotel’s doors at Los Angeles International Airport during the Eisenhower recession. The chain rose to worldwide fame in the following decades and now operates more than 365 hotels in 25 countries.

FedEx began operations on April 17, 1973 as Federal Express. Founder Frederick W. Smith had hoped to get a contract with the Federal Reserve, when he didn’t he set and ambitious goal and challenged his team. The company delivered 186 packages to 25 cities on its first night of operations and now manages more than 7.5 million shipments everyday worldwide.

All three of these companies capitalize on the 4 momentum catalysts we will explore here.

Efficiency

The key to sustainable profitability is lean productive operations. One of the biggest roadblocks to sustainable business momentum is wasted effort. Systems support good habits and good habits make us consistently effective. When you have discovered activities that produce results it is critical that you implement systems and processes that accommodate those activities.

We recently discovered a niche group with a need for our keynote and event services. To our surprise these groups proved highly profitable. Unfortunately we had not made effort to reach these groups. We immediately began brainstorming ways to connect with them and began the process of building this group into our marketing campaigns. Reaching these groups required no greater effort, just differently focused effort.

I often hear people say, “marketing doesn’t work.” This usually means they aren’t using effective methods or are not focused in their efforts. I may be aggressively growing my network and contact list by thousands. But if my efforts are not targeted I may never see much ROI. In example, imagine I am in the business of low glycemic snacks. My list of thousands of contacts contains 40 percent between the ages of 18 and 28; these are clearly not my target audience. Effort is being made. The right efforts are being made. But when results aren’t produced we assume the system is broken.

Here are three efforts that will sharpen your efforts and improve your results.

Sharpen your skills.

Make sure you know how to use your software and resources. The better you know your tools and resources the more you can accomplish in less time. Familiarity with tools and resources reduces errors and makes you appear more polished when dealing with customers as well.

Prioritize and schedule your day’s activities by priority.

A good rule is to identify your “in stone” appointments first thing. These would include scheduled meetings, conference calls, client appointments or any event that is planned. Once you have identified those, determine which ones need preparation and how much time is needed to prepare; plan preparation into the day’s calendar. One last tip is to plan for known necessary duties. You know you will have email to tend to, so plan for it. A great plan for me has been as follows:

1. At the start of the day I check my inbox

• Make quick responses if possible (I follow a 30 second rule)
• Delete obvious spam and update my spam filters and rules to reduce it in the future. (avoid spending too much time on the spam control, but it is worth a little effort)
• Mark or flag important emails for immediate attention
• Move any mail you can to appropriate folders for organization and latter review

2. I watch my incoming mail notifications throughout the day. Be wary against non-productive interruptions.

3. I spend a few minutes on email at lunch time.

4. I do a mid-afternoon sweep of email to keep it under control

5. Before ending the day I clean up email with the following:

• Forward anything I can to another responsible party
• Deal with any 30 second responses
• Organize messages into appropriate folders where possible
• Determine if new rules and auto responses can handle some of my email and set those rules when practical.
• Consider forwarding qualified emails to a remote email for after hour response when possible.

 Prioritize, plan and polish your efforts every day to stay on the cutting edge.

 Innovation

FedEx is known for its commitment to efficiency and performance. Innovation is the key to staying on the cutting edge. By constantly analyzing our efforts and improving ensures we stay fresh and productive. Innovation is also a great way to stay relevant and trustworthy for our client base. I hold monthly meetings with my team and accountability partners to address 3 questions that keep us relevant and sharp.

 Are there new or better resources or tools that might help improve our customer relations, productivity or profit margin? These may be improved tools, lower cost tools or simply trends that position us as cutting edge when used.

 Are there processes that are unneeded or not returning a higher return than investment? Trimming the fat is critical in this economy. Trimming the fat may mean reducing the effort, eliminating the effort or refocusing the effort.

 What new information or ideas should be explored? I make note of new ideas, problems or observations made that might prove of interest to our business. Exploring these gives us the opportunity to innovate and lies to rest the bad ideas.

 Marketing

It is absolutely critical that we do the marketing regardless of the economy. It is equally important that we use the best and most practical techniques. I have noticed a revival of social networking across every business group. This is in part due to social media, but the reality is that when times are tough buyers are tougher. Customers want to know who they are doing business with. Networking gives us the opportunity to see, hear and touch. When done right networking allows you to connect with lots of people and be seen by even more. When I go to networking events I hand out full color mini brochures instead of business cards. They are information packed and interesting. I have observed others showing my little brochure to others in the group. I have had people approach me to ask for one.

The bottom line in marketing is impression. Make as many impressions as you can and the more impressive the impression he greater the results.

 Engagement

Perhaps the greatest weakness shared by the majority of business professionals is follow-up. We connect with people and then fail to follow-up with them. I know from experience, dropped balls and failure to follow-up is the single greatest deficit in any marketing strategy.

 Here are three ways to follow up and profitize your relationships.

 Add value

Once you have made a connection or have someone’s contact information immediately start making them glad they know you. Share your secrets, tips and tricks that will prove valuable to them. One of the greatest ways to create value for another business is to give referrals and leads. However, to do this you need to know and trust the provider you are referring.

 Inform

Make sure every contact knows everything they need to know to do business with you. What services do you offer? How are they provided? What payment options exist? Who else do you do business with? Why should any of this matter to your new contact? How can they contact you?

 Understand

This is a powerful follow-up technique. Send an email asking questions about the new contact’s business. Let them tell you about themselves. Read reviews and find out who they do business with. Ask yourself, why should all of this matter to me?

If you immediately start sharpening your momentum catalyst you will quickly start standing out.

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Obviously, good press is better than bad press; but any press is better than no press. Whether in news, blog posts, tweets or YouTube views press creates recognition and recognition equals brand power. An excellent example of this occurred recently on LinkedIn.

I want to start by commending Mr. Brown on excellent engagement. I have often stated in my seminars and keynotes that controversy can be a powerful tool for brand saturation. Rich Brown has become quite a household name on linkedcolumbus, a LinkedIn group of over 7,000 members. He started a conversation on a complex and controversial topic. His discussion harvested 146 comments in only 19 days. Whether he knows it or not he has a captive audience that would unquestionably buy a few copies of a relevant ebook or audio which could be created with little effort.

Rich Brown did a great job facilitating the discussion and keeping participants engaged. The longer they are engaged the more influence Rich builds. Here are five rules we should all apply when engaging controversial discussions.

1. Don’t ostracize those who disagree with you. Graciously disagree and agree to disagree. Blocking, unfriending, disconnecting those who disagree is not only rude but shows fear and insecurity. If someone, becomes belligerent or hateful try responding as follows: “Obviously, you feel very strongly about your position and I truly respect that. However, I don’t appreciate your unkind words or insults. I think both of us will gain more respect if we keep the conversation professional, respectful and kind; can you agree to that?” If their rude comments were private, keep your reply private. If they went public do the same with your reply. If the individual continues to be belligerent make a final reply to their next rude comment like this: “You unethical and immature remarks neither substantiate your position nor negate the validity of my arguments. It is unlikely that anyone with integrity or credibility will regard you posts.” This would be the last time I engage this person.

3. Never call names or insult people because of their position. I’ll admit I wrestle with this, and have probably been unkind in the past. It doesn’t likely help your argument and certainly reduces the possibility someone might do business with you.

4. Avoid statements or arguments that can’t be substantiated unless you preface them as opinion.

5. Acknowledge strong or sound arguments even if they oppose your position.

If you are a part of active discussions your inbox may become overwhelmed. Here are a couple of tips that may help you get the best out of you social media experience.

1. You can simply stop following the discussion. This option is at the top of the discussion home page on LinkedIn.

2. Set a rule in your email management software, even Yahoo has this option, to move emails with a specific phrase to a special folder. This allows you to sort through them when you’re ready and keeps your in-box uncluttered. I.e. you might have a rule that relocates any email with the phrase, “are you aware” to the politics folder.

Learning to manage Web 2.0 communication effectively will help you get more out of the social experience and build more leads. I talked to a guy a few weeks ago who has learned to “reverse spam” those spammers sending unsolicited email to him. He has actually closed some sales with those leads.

So, even spam can be a good thing if you get your head out of the sands of negativity.

Bill Carpenter AKA Bill The Builder is a widely respected expert on branding and creative marketing solutions. Hel helps his clients position themselves and celebrity like experts in their niche fields of interest to increase credibility and customer reach. From effective web presence to social media engagement he has help numerous clients increase sales and customer satisfaction. He is available for keynotes, seminars and webinars as well as personal coaching. charles@charlesspeaks.com or 937-935-6789