Go Postal for Profits

Which one of these results would you love to have?

(A) 21,854 unique visitors and 457 sales for a 2.09% sales conversion. Total cost of $14,228.55 for a cost per buyer of $31.13.

(B) 3,484 unique visitors and 242 sales for a 6.9% sales conversion. Total cost of $2,985 for a cost per buyer of $12.33.

(C) 2,469 unique visitors and 711 sales for a 28.8% sales conversion. Total cost of $4,234 for a cost per buyer of $5.95.

Campaign (A) is a Google AdWords campaign.

Campaign (B) is a 2″ x 2.5″ display ad running in magazines.

Campaign (C) is a 10,000-piece direct response postcard mailing.

In an online marketing world obsessed with pay-per-click, CPA networks, affiliate marketing, and joint ventures, a sea of opportunity has parted wide open in the offline space. Whether we as marketers have come to discount offline marketing or take it for granted, this one thing I know for sure… your chance to make much more money online is sitting offline.

That can only mean one thing.

Regardless of what you’re doing online, it’s time to go postal to boost your profits and grow your business. So how can you do it? Simple…

If you really want to up your online profits, I suggest you get down with offline marketing. And one of the fastest ways to do this is with postcards. Here are the five basic things you will need to start winning with postcards:

1. A great list broker.
2. A great active list of buyers.
3. A great mail house.
4. An eyeball-grabbing postcard design.
5. A kick-butt offer.

1. A great list broker will always know who is mailing what and which list and offers are hot.

2. A great active list of buyers is that pool of people with an incredible appetite for what you have and a rabid buying pattern. By rabid buying pattern I mean that they are constantly buying the types of products you sell. In addition, an active list of buyers is also a growing list of buyers. By that I mean that the list owner is actively marketing and bringing in new buyers and each quarter they update their list with a fresh group of buyers you can mail to. They do all the front-end hauling and then you get to stand on their shoulders and cash in with your offers.

3. A great mail house is also a great print house. I like to use a house that can both print and mail my postcards, as this makes it easier.

4. An eyeball-grabbing postcard will help you stand out in a mailbox filled with other stuff. And besides, if they don’t even look at your postcard, there’s no way they can see your offer and respond to it.

And that brings me to…

5. A kick-butt offer. You must have an offer that makes them gasp for air and stumble over their own two feet as they race to their computer to snatch up the offer that you just gave them. One thing that a kick-butt offer must have is relevancy. You want your offer to be relevant to their needs, wants, and wishes, and hit the sweet spot of their response triggers. To do that, simply match and mirror the prior offers that the buyers you are mailing your postcards to have responded to previously. For example, when I mail postcards, I go after BUYERS only. Not seekers, lookers, or shoppers. And I don’t just go after any old buyers, I go after buyers who responded to postcards.

And get this…

I don’t just go after buyers who responded to postcards. I go after buyers who responded to a postcard and had to go online to order. I then look at this list of buyers to see what the initial price point was of the item that they purchased. By doing this, I am able to see what price point works to take the person online from an offline postcard.

If you pay attention to tracking up front, in most cases you will know the exact offer they responded to and what they paid for the item, as well as if there were other offers presented to the buyer and what the highest price point was of an item they purchased. With that information, I make sure my offer fits the prior messages they have responded to and that my front-end price matches or beats what they responded to in the past.

With these five basic elements in play, you can make postcards pay. Now it’s your turn to go postal… and profit! Okay, I know you’re asking:

“What service should I use?”

Well, if you want to use the same broker, designer, and mail house I use check out http://www.extremepostcard.com. You can mail as few as 2,500 postcards for a quick test.