Some Postcard Marketing Ideas

Direct mail postcards allow marketers to pinpoint specific neighborhoods with their message. And many landscapers focus heavily on neighborhoods in their marketing efforts. This makes postcard marketing the perfect promotional tool for landscaping companies.

Better still, the number of ways contractors can use postcards is limited only by their imagination. Here are but a few of those ideas:

1. Seasonal Reminders

Many homeowners know very little about the seasonality of home maintenance. So why not tell them. Try sending regular reminders. This works well for hvac contractors who are changing from the cooling season to the heating season, for lawn care companies who need time to mulch or plant.

2. Customer Follow-up

You’re probably familiar with the 80/20 rule — you get 80% of your business from 20% of your customers. You’ve probably also heard how much more expensive it is to acquire a new customer than to retain a current one.

With this in mind, why not send your best customers thank-you cards, holiday greetings or special offers? It’s a great way to stay in touch with the 20% who mean the most to your business.

3. Neighborhood Prospecting
You’ve worked hard on a specific home in a specific neighborhood. And the project look great, regardless if it is a new roof, lawn or cooling system! So don’t be shy — tell the rest of the neighborhood who’s behind the beauty. With postcard marketing, you can target the exact streets and subdivisions you want. This lets you draw attention to projects the recipient has probably already seen!

4. Tip-of-the-Month Series

If you are not going to send a direct mail newsletter, this option of a simple postcard may be a cost effiecient form of marketing. Try a tip-of-the-month series. The concept is simple: take your sales message, and wrap it inside a helpful hint so the homeowner has an extra reason to keep it.

The goal here is not to give away your trade secrets — but to make your audience aware of your services, while also increasing the shelf-life of your postcards. Try to envision the kinds of postcards people might put up on their refrigerators or bulleting boards. That’s your goal! You can check out more about our mini-newsletters in our past newsletters.

5. Special Offers

Postcards with strong offers outperform the more “informational” pieces. So if you’re offering some kind of discount or special, send it straight to your audience’s mailboxes. With a newspaper or magazine ad, you’re limited as to how specific you can make your offer. But with postcards, you can speak more directly to the various segments of your audience.

That’s the winning formula of direct mail — a strong offer with relevant information, sent to a precisely targeted audience.

For instance, maybe you send a postcard to a new subdivision with a headline that reads:

“Furnace Tune-Up Special for the Residents of Huntington Beach” This kind of relevance and specific targeting can dramatically increase response rates.

6. Website Tie-in

Have a website? If so, you have a perfect marketing partner to complement your postcards. The reasons are somewhat psychological:

The goal of any marketing program is to gain new business, but sometimes you have to offer indirect paths as well as the direct ones. Direct paths are for direct people. A direct path on a postcard would be a phone number. Some interested prospects will choose the direct route and call you straightaway.

But those who are less direct would rather learn more about you first. They need to get comfortable before they “raise their hands.”

So why not build an informational resource section of your website and point to it with your postcards? Maybe you’ll offer tips on how to be more energy efficient, or how to plant rose bushes. Maybe you’ll post a photo gallery showing some of your past projects and clients. Or both!

The point is to offer different response channels for the different personality types. A direct phone number for the direct people, and an indirect website path for the more timid souls. Then mention both paths on your postcards, and you’ve increased your chance for response — be it direct or indirect.

Don’t overlook postcard marketing the next time you want to target potential customers. Postcards achieve almost a 100% readership and have an impressive ROI, while being inexpensive and simple to use.

Postcards keep your name in front of customers and have an impressive ROI. Flexible, informative, and creative - postcards generate sales and keep your name in front of potential customers.