Do It Right.
I receive postcards all the time. The other day I received a postcard trying to sell me a copy machine. It had tiny, tiny lettering slathered all over the front and a large portion of the back of the card.
It was extremely hard to read, so hard in fact that I threw it away.
Several days later, I received a postcard with thirty-two words on it telling me that I could get complete information on unrestricted long distance telephone service for 5.5 cents a minute with no additional monthly fee by calling the 800 number on the card.
I did call. I got the information, had my questions answered, and ordered my long distance service changed. The company who offered me the long distance service was using a time tested two-step selling process:
Step 1. Generate a lead—get me to call their 800 number.
Step 2. Provide the requested information—provided to me on the phone by one of their sales representatives, who was able to answer my questions and make me feel confident that I could save quite a bit of money on my long distance bill and that the service would be as good or better.
What’s So Good About Two Steps?
It is much easier to create interest (a lead) than it is to get a person through an entire buying process (a sale).
You aren’t getting the prospect or existing customer to part with any money just yet.
You can use postcards to inexpensively promote to your target prospects and customers and generate leads (inquiries about your products and services) to then be followed up on and converted to sales.
This two-step process also helps you to create a list of people who are interested enough in what you offered to contact you.
You can then recontact the ones whom you didn’t complete a sale with when they first inquired, preferably until they do buy from you.
Important: be sure to get the information you will need to recontact the people who responded to your postcard offering.
