Today, I want to talk to you about how to make money with cheap ugly postcards. This advice will benefit:
- Bloggers
- Online Marketers
- Network Marketers
- Infopreneurs
- Small Business Owners
- Opportunity Seekers
- Traditional Business Owners
- & Anyone Looking for a Side Hustle
Why Direct Mail?
Before I dive deep into the training, I’d like to take a moment to educate you about direct mail.
While most people are obsessed with the internet, like bees are with honey, you must realize the internet is crowded and competitive. Most people have the attention span of a gnat while on the internet. People are bombarded with emails, ads, and marketing messages while spending even five minutes online.
Not so with direct mail. Most people love to check their mail every day and most people at least scan their mail before they decide to keep it or throw it away. In my opinion, reaching someone by mail is much easier to do than reaching someone online.
I also believe that direct mail is much CHEAPER than doing things online. Advertising online is expensive, but I can print a postcard, buy a lead, and buy a stamp for about 50 cents.
Direct mail has a better response rate than email marketing, with 4.4% of campaigns receiving a response when delivered through the mail, compared to just 0.12% online.
That means that in a campaign delivered to 1,000 people, 43 more people will interact with your direct mail than your emails.
You’re missing out if you push your entire marketing budget into email—especially when direct mail can be more cost-effective. ~ Source: LucidPress
As a quick caveat, if you’re already doing online advertising, and it’s working for you, don’t stop doing it. Just consider adding postcard marketing to your marketing mix.
Why Use Cheap Ugly Postcards?
Many people wonder why someone would pick a cheap ugly postcard, rather than sending something that is pleasing to the eye. Here are a few reasons that come to mind.
- They are easy to make.
- They are inexpensive.
- They get your prospect’s attention.
- They stand out in the crowd.
The bottom line is that cheap ugly postcards are different. They’re so ugly, people feel inclined to read them. They work. The only thing on them is your MESSAGE.
Here’s the key to understand the psychology of postcard success. With postcards, you only have a 10 second window of opportunity to get someone to respond. You see, postcards are a “direct response” marketing venue. The goal is to generate direct, immediate response. The person looking at your postcard will give you the 10 seconds. Your goal is to give them all they need in that 10 second window to cause them to either go to your website or call you on the phone.
If you’re marketing a home business-type program, just give them your 800 Sizzle line Message or a Website. Personally I prefer to use a (800) Sizzle Message to pre-sell or get them excited to take the next step, such as visit my website or listen to a conference call. But if you’re a carpet cleaner or a dentist, for example, you want them to call you and make an appointment. ~ Source: GetFreeIMeBooks.com
And remember this, it’s not an image or beautiful postcard that gets your prospect to take action. Instead, it’s the marketing message on your postcard that matters most. Focus on that!
In addition, it doesn’t matter if people think your postcards are beautiful (or deserve an award) if they don’t read the message or buy!
What Should Be Printed on Your Cheap Ugly Postcard?
Your cheap ugly postcard should be on bright yellow, bright orange, or bright pink cardstock, so they stand out. There should be NO GRAPHICS of any kind. Your goal is simply to have a headline, a few benefit/bullet points, and a strong call to action. You can send people to your sizzle call or website to request additional information.
Your headline must CAPTURE their attention. Your benefit or bullet points must tell your prospect what’s in it for them, and your call to action must tell them exactly what you want them to do next.
Also, you should offer several ways for people to contact you. Make sure you include at least three ways for people to reach you, such as your email, website, and phone number.
It’s best not to try to sell something directly from your postcard. Instead, you want to offer your prospect free information and then let that free information sell them on what it is you are offering. This is known as the two-step selling process.
Finally, make sure you use a real stamp on your postcard. Sorry, but no metered mail or bulk mail. The real stamp makes your postcard stand out.
How to Make Money with Cheap Ugly Postcards
You can make money with cheap ugly postcards by selling something. It could be a product or service. Several examples include:
- A Training Course on How to Make Money with Postcards
- Business Coaching
- SEO & Website Services
- Business Opportunities
- Marketing Services for Small Businesses
- Consulting Services
- Seminars or Live Events
- Big Ticket Affiliate Programs
- Dating Services
- And just about anything else!
Keep in mind, these are just the first things that came to my mind. I’d bet if you sat down for an hour, you could come up with hundreds of ideas.
The best thing to do is us a two-step selling process. Use your postcard to give away free information and then let your free information sell your product or service.
~ Chuck Holmes
How to Get Started with Cheap Ugly Postcards
At this point, you might be wondering how to get started with cheap ugly postcards. I want to share my step-by-step instructions, so you can achieve success.
# 1: Pick a Niche
The first thing you should do is pick a niche. Any niche COULD work. However, I suggest you pick a niche you understand and pick a niche where people have disposable income and are already spending money on stuff THROUGH THE MAIL. Put some serious thought into your niche selection. You don’t want a niche that is so small you can’t find any lists to buy. The best niches are MASS MARKET, such as weight loss, making money from home, dealing with stress, cryptocurrency, relationships, sex, personal finances, etc.
# 2: Identify a Need
Once you have chosen a niche, the next thing you must do is identify a need. Ultimately, you must figure out the problems and concerns the people in your niche are having. If you don’t know, do a survey and ask people. You are looking for a legitimate need or void to fill.
# 3: Pick a Product
Now that you know your niche, and you have identified a need, the next step is to find something to sell. When it comes to choosing a product or service, you must look for something that offers the following things.
- Minimum $100 to $200 profit PER SALE and preferably more than that
- Offers a high perceived value
- Solves a problem people in your niche are dealing with
- Comes with a strong money back guarantee
I only suggest you promote a product or service you are familiar with and have used yourself.
# 4: Design Your Postcard
Your next step is to design your cheap ugly postcard. If you don’t have any marketing or copywriting experience, I suggest you hire someone to help you. It should cost you less than $200. Once you have a design, share it with several people in your niche to see their reaction. Also, share your postcard with a few copywriters to get their input. Your postcard should be simple and easy to read, have a strong headline, a few bullet points and a strong call to action.
# 5: Buy a Mailing List
You’re heading in the right direction. Your next step is to buy your mailing list. There are tons of vendors online where you can buy mailing lists from. In most cases, you’re going to pay anywhere from 8 cents to 15 cents per lead, depending on the niche you chose and how many leads you purchase at a time.
# 6: Mail Your First Batch of Postcards
Next, you want to mail your first batch of at least 1,000 postcards. Anything less than this is too small of a sample size. This will give you a good idea about your response rates and help you determine if your product or service will sell.
# 7: Test & Tweak
Once your first mailing is complete, the next step is to analyze your numbers. How many leads did you generate? How many sales did you get? What is your Return on Investment? What worked well and what could you do differently the next time around? Feel free to make a few small adjustments and then compare your results with your first mailing. This will give you good insight.
# 8: Scale Your Efforts
You are now ready to scale your efforts. Now you can mail 5,000 to 10,000 postcards at a time and know you will get a predictable result. This is where the real money is made. Do not jump to this step too quickly. Even if you have a lot of money you can invest, break into down into smaller batches, so you can keep improving your conversion rates and make the most amount of money possible.
The beauty of postcards, which is also the beauty of direct mail and direct marketing is that once you test a postcard and a product and find a winner, you’ll get the same response with 100 postcards as you will with 100,000 postcards. It’s a numbers game…specifically a percent of response numbers game. ~ Source: GetFreeIMBooks.com
What Others Are Saying
After doing some research online, here are some testimonials and tips I found about mailing cheap ugly postcards.
Many business owners are convinced that a Simple, Cheap & Ugly Postcard with the right message on it, mailed out to previous clients or to prospective customers gets the most bang for the advertising buck of any form of promotion, even when they also advertise in print, on the radio and TV, sky-writing, you name it.
You can mail out a Simple, Cheap & Ugly Postcard up to 4 1/4 inches by 6 inches via First Class Mail pre-sorted very affordable. You will get this cheaper than the lowest letter and that’s for standard, bulk rate, not first class. If you find the right company you can get 5,000 high quality, full-color, laminated Simple, Cheap & Ugly Postcards printed and mailed for under $400. ~ Source: Medium.com
And…
In order, postcard design must:
- command attention
- create desire
- visually guide customers to your call to action
Notably absent from this list is “be beautiful.” Postcards are not paintings. They are not art. They are marketing tools. Ugly postcards easily satisfy all three design purposes. They command attention because they’re unique and different. Enormous black letters on a yellow background provides stark contrast, is easy to read, and efficiently delivers a marketing message. That marketing message creates desire, and if all that’s left is a call to action customers’ eyes will be drawn to it. ~ Source: BlogPSPrint
Conclusion
In conclusion, these are my best tips on how to make money with cheap ugly postcards. Regardless of your business or niche, postcard marketing is worth considering, especially if you’ve failed miserably with your online marketing efforts.
What are your thoughts? Have you ever tried mailing postcards before? If so, what was your experience like? Leave a comment below to let me know what you think. I look forward to hearing from you.
Suggested Articles
- MLM Postcards
- Top Postcard Marketing Tips and Tricks
- How to Prospect with Postcards
- Direct Sales Ideas
- MLM Advertising That Works
I also recommend you check out the book you see below, if you are ready to learn more about postcard marketing.
Chuck Holmes
20+ Year Network Marketing Professional
Top Earner & Top Recruiter
Email: mrchuckholmes@gmail.com
P.S. Learn how to grow a successful network marketing business. Secret tips, training, and practical ideas. Free training delivered by email.
No doubt the Internet is competitive and you may not get an immediate response to your email, because lots of people don’t check their email every day. But most people check their mail every day, or almost every day.
With email you don’t even know if the person received your email. Spam filters and ISPs block lots of incoming emails.
With mail, at least you know they received your marketing message. Whether or not they act on your call to action and marketing materials is outside of your control. Your job is to simply make sure targeted prospects receive your marketing.
I never considered building an online business with offline marketing strategies. I’m still trying to grasp my head around the idea.
This is one of the reasons it works so well. It’s different and unique. Ugly postcards stand out. The internet is a crowded space. You have much less competition in your prospect’s mail box.
That’s my thoughts anyway. Even with postage rates going up in price, it’s still very competitive.
To give you an example. I normally pay 40 to 50 cents per CLICK when I do paid ads. That’s about the same price as a postage stamp or postcard.
If I had to choose between online and offline strategies, and the price was about the same, I would pick offline marketing strategies 100% of the time.
I’ve never mailed postcards for my business before. You’d think a beautiful postcard would pull better, but I can see your point about having something that is ugly, and stands out. It would definitely get someone’s attention.
Yes, that is why they work. They are so ugly that it gets people’s attention. And what do they do then? They read your message. BOOM. That is your goal and that is why ugly postcards work.
I personally like postcards that look professional, but I definitely see your point. The message really is the most important thing on the postcard. If you have a good message, a good offer, and the right list, it really doesn’t matter much if your postcard is beautiful or ugly. It should convert well if you have those components in place.
As long as your message and offer matches your market, it really doesn’t matter if it’s an ugly or attractive postcard. All things considered, I would still go with an ugly postcard over an attractive postcard.
I’ve never received one of these cheap, ugly postcards in the mail, but I’m sure it would catch my attention if it did. I would at least look at it before I decided to keep it or throw it away.
Exactly. And that is what you want with your marketing pieces. You want people to look at it and qualify or disqualify themselves.
I’m gonna buy some card stock and make some of my own postcards. I went on Google and found a bunch of example UGLY postcards. I’ll use those as a template and then switch it up with my marketing message. Thanks for sharing this great info, Chuck.
That’s awesome. Feel free to send me some of your designs when they are done. I’d be happy to give you some feedback.
Whether ugly or not, the caption settings must be considered. In fact, it can carry vital information that will benefit both the maker and those who can lay their hands on it.
Yes, the layout and typeset are important. You want your font easy to read. It should be large, bold, and crisp. The last thing you need is people having to find a magnifying glass just to read your marketing message.
Wow! Ugly postcards…
Who would have thought?
I’ve been doing online marketing several years now and never considered promoting my websites or business with postcards.
You’ve definitely got me thinking about the possibilities.
Thanks for sharing.
You should try it out. If you’re doing online paid advertising now, you will quickly discover that direct mail is about the same cost. Plus, I’ve found the quality of traffic you get via direct mail is much better than online traffic. That’s just my experience though.
I’m an online marketer. I needed to read this article several times for it to really sink it.
I appreciate you educating me about promoting my business with cheap and ugly postcards. What I like most about this idea is the simplicity. Online advertising is complex and constantly changing, but anyone can design a postcard, put on a label and stamp and mail it out. I’m going to make this part of my marketing strategy. Thanks again.
Yes, postcards are very simple to do. It’s easy. No learning curve. And you can outsource or hire someone to help you or do it for you.
What are your steps to success to make this happen with ugly postcards? What do you recommend, Chuck?
First thing is to determine your target market. Then you need an irresistible offer. Then you need your marketing plan and budget. That’s really about it.
The most important thing is your target market. Do not fall in love with a product. Instead, fall in love with a target market and then find things to sell them.
Is it a lot cheaper to print a generic postcard that is simple and ugly, compared to something that is beautiful?
I’ve found they are about the same cost. I use a printing company I found online and they do all of my printing for me.
This sounds like a really simple way to scale your business. I think if I was going to mail postcards I would do some A/B testing. I’d mix up a combination of ugly and good looking postcards and see which one converted better.
Yes, you definitely want to do some A/B testing. You never know what works until you try it and test it.
Do you recommend a pink, yellow, or white card stock? Do you try to have a lot of words, or a really short message?
I use canary yellow for all of my postcards. I’ve been using that for years. It works great.
Chuck, would you suggest this marketing strategy over online strategies?
I would do both. I would track my results with both. Then I would go with the strategies that give me the best ROI.
Hey Charles,
Where do you get names to mail the post card to and guess you talking about post card that you get from the PO.
I just join H B Naturals what would put the post card
Thanks
You can search for direct mail peel n stick leads to get leads. If you have questions about designing a postcard, just send me an email. Thanks.