Postcards Are Still Useful
For authors, postcards work extremely well when it comes to letting potential customers know about upcoming book signings. You might be surprised to hear that postcard marketing still works in this present digital era. In fact, postcards tend to produce better results today than they did in the past – especially when used for generating traffic to a website or obtaining sales leads. One of the reasons that postcards are so effective is that they attract people and are almost always seen. For instance, have you ever discarded a postcard without at least skimming over the front and back? It’s almost impossible to do!
Postcards are small in size, making them easy to distribute and cheap to print. Most are about 4 х 6 inches in size, which means your message must be brief. Plus, postcards get delivered without an envelope, so your message is automatically visible. This guarantees that your postcard will have maximum exposure and many recipients will actually get a chance to see and at least look over your message.
As a general rule of thumb, don’t try to close sales with а postcard. In most cases, there’s not enough space on it to provide all of the information needed to close sales. Instead, design your author postcard to attract potential readers’ attention and draw them in to wanting to know more. Be sure to include a call to action leading the reader to get more information from a source where you can close sales or capture leads – like your website or by calling you.
Market your #book at events strategically: Always look for an opportunity to speak at an event. If there’s no panel opportunity, offer to be the moderator. Have a flyer or postcard featuring your book cover. https://t.co/F5ZPhIEKTA #marketing #events
— Melinda Emerson (@SmallBizLady) December 8, 2018
Postcard marketing offers a number of other major benefits for marketers –, especially for authors. Here are just a few of them:
Table of Contents
1. Creating Effective Marketing Postcards is Easy
You don’t need any special skill to create an author postcard that will generate a big response. The key is to create a simple but attractive layout for your postcard so that it can be quickly and easily read and understood. For example, start with a brief headline to get the reader’s attention. Include a list of a few of your promotion’s major benefits, and provide clear instructions on how interested parties can get in touch with you or subscribe to your promotion.
2. The Cost of Marketing with Postcards is Very Low
The cost of material used to make typical 4” х 6” or similar sized postcards is very low. At printplace.com you can get 2,000 postcards printed on front and back for less than a hundred dollars. Even the process of mailing them is simple and inexpensive. Currently, the postage rate is only 35 cents per postcard.
3. Postcards Can Produce Fast Results
Since postcards are easy to create, print, and send, you can get them into your audience’s mailboxes fast. They will receive them in a few days if you send them via the special reduced First Class postage rate for postcards. As your postcards begin to circulate, you can expect to see fast results – generally within a week after mailing.
If you’ve never used author postcards for marketing and book promotion, now is the time.
Some design examples and ideas:
Just because you use a postcard size doesn’t mean you have to mail them. Many authors fill the front and back with information and hand out these cards in person or at tradeshows.
Book Marketing Success Podcast
Watch this video on using Postcards to market your work
When I started my campaign with the Post It note and the postcard, I started getting steady sales. Many of my sales come through Amazon. Over the past three years I have received purchase orders from Amazon on a weekly basis. – John Kremer
