1. Understand the profile of your target customers. First, it’s important to know the profile of your target market. To whom will you be sending your postcards to? If you plan to purchase a marketing list, see to it that the demographics are included and that all the information are up to date. On the other hand, if you’re using your own listing, it is recommended that you conduct research first before launching a postcard marketing campaign.

2. Use a direct-to-the-point message or offer. Postcards have limited space so you need to carefully conceptualize your message. See to it that the recipient will easily understand what you’re trying to say. Avoid excessive wording. Delete unnecessary words which do not really add impact to your marketing copy.

3. Come up with an appealing postcard design. Along with a compelling postcard marketing message, it is also important to come up with an appealing design. The design of your advertising postcards should complement and highlight the message it contains. Hiring a professional postcard designer is also recommended to get the best result from your marketing campaign.

4. Monitor the results. See to it that you will be able to keep track of the result of your postcard advertising campaign. For instance, you may include a discount code on each postcard and ask the recipient to use this code when they purchase to enjoy the discount. You may also ask the recipients to bring the postcard with them when they visit your store to claim a gift. By doing so, it will be easier to determine which part of your sales have been generated from your postcard marketing campaign.

5. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Direct mail marketing is all about repetition. Sending marketing postcards only once to a group of prospects may not generate much result. However, by doing follow-ups, postcard marketing will surely help you increase your sales and improve the marketing performance of your business.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

Effective Approaches to Postcard Advertising

1. Promote a lifestyle. Many marketers present their postcards in a way that promotes a lifestyle. For instance, you may see a photo of model wearing a fashionable outfit with accessories sold from the advertised shop. IF you know the lifestyle of your target audience, then this can be an effective way to present your postcards and reach out to your market.

2. Use postcards for information drives. Another effective strategy is to use postcard marketing as a way to publicize information. For instance, some pharmaceutical companies may distribute postcards with information on how to avoid a particular illness. Postcards do not only advertise a product, it gives useful advisory at the same time.

3. Distribute forms. Postcards can also double as order forms to encourage the recipient to actually make a purchase or subscribe to the advertised material right after receiving the postcard. Some publishing companies use this type of approach as it usually generates a positive response from their market.

4. Employ souvenir advertising. Postcards can be also be designed in a way that the recipient will be moved to keep it for a long time. For example, the postcard may bear a beautiful image of a scenic spot.

5. Offer Promotions. Many business owners use postcards to offer promotions to encourage the recipient to purchase online or visit their shop. For example, you may offer a special discount for customers who will bring the postcard to your shop when they purchase an item. For customers who want to buy from your online shop, they can enter the code printed on the postcard to enjoy the discount. This is also a great strategy to keep track of the result of your postcard advertising campaign more easily.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

What are Auto-Responders?

Auto-responders, as the term suggests, is a pre-composed electronic response which will be automatically sent to the person who sent e-mail to your e-mail account. For instance, if a customer sends an e-mail to inquire about pricing information, this customer will immediately receive a response from your e-mail account ensuring that the message has been received and that the inquiry will be addressed at the soonest possible time. The message is sent by the auto-responder.

An auto-responder can also be set to send e-mails for varying purposes such as for following-up from customers who have previously made an inquiry or made a purchase from your shop, for order confirmations, to thank a customer, to ask for feedback, etc.

Hence, using an auto-responder can save the merchant a lot of time, responding to each and every email received just to ensure that their inquiries will be addressed to. It also gives the customer the assurance that they will soon receive the information they requested. Furthermore, this great internet marketing tool is an effective way to keep in touch with prospects and old customers.

Internet Marketing Tips for Online Advertisers

Listed below are internet marketing tips on how to effectively use auto-responders:

• Compose an appropriate message. You need to compose a standard message which could be sent as a response to everyone who will be sending you inquiries through e-mail. If you want to use this tool to do follow-ups or other purpose, you need to compose an appropriate message and set the auto-responder correctly.

• Personalize your message. Auto-responders can be set so as to make them appear more personalize, as if the letter has been specifically written for the recipient alone. For instance, you may include the customer’s name in the salutation instead of just addressing the recipient as Beloved Customer.

• Keep it short. Keep your sentences and your paragraphs short for easier reading. You want your statements to be clear, concise and compelling. Proofread your letter and eliminate excess words which do not add really add impact to your content.

• Set-up a suitable schedule for your follow-up letters. Timing is a crucial factor in e-mail advertising so you need to determine the appropriate time interval when to send your automated e-mail to get a positive response. Deciding the right schedule will of course depend on your purpose for sending the email.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

SO, which internet marketing strategy should you choose? In this article, let’s discuss pointers you should consider when looking for effective online marketing strategies:

1. Know your strengths and weaknesses. Get to know the best things that your company can offer. What are your best products? What have you got to offer to the market that other merchants do not? Find out your strengths and focus on them.

2. Don’t be afraid to try. The best way to find out whether a particular strategy will work for your own business is to try it out. However, you may need to start on a small scale. Launch a small campaign so it doesn’t eat up a huge portion of your business budget. If it works, then be prepared to launch a bigger campaign.

3. Know your target audience. The success of an online marketing campaign will largely depend on the response of the market. Needless to say, if your campaign is directed to the wrong group or the wrong market, obviously, you may not get the best results. Hence, study your market carefully before launching an online marketing campaign.

4. Think about your budget. It’s important to set a specific budget right from the start. This way, overspending or going over the budget can be avoided. How much can you afford to spend in a particular marketing campaign? Most online marketing strategies do not require a huge amount of money but you can choose ones which are even less costly.

5. Get to know the process. Each marketing campaign involves a set of procedures which must be followed. If not, you may not get the results you expect. Before trying out a particular online marketing strategy, do your research and study the steps well. See to it that you will not be missing anything that could cost the campaign to fail.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

Are you a small business owner? IF yes, have you thought about creating a Facebook page to promote your business? If yes, consider the following tips on how you can use Facebook as an effective platform for online marketing strategy.

1. Make your Page Interesting. Creating a Facebook page for business is much like designing your business website or business blog. It has to be attractive, interesting, and it has to capture attention. Don’t forget to fill-out the information in your profile page so people would know what your company is all about. Include creative photos. According to statistics, FB pages with photos get a higher click rate than FB pages without.

2. Promote your Facebook Page. Let the world know that you are part of the Facebook community. Many people have a personal FB page and if they like your company, would easily add you to their list of favorite shops or become a fan. Promote your FB page or badge on your website, blog, Twitter, press releases, articles, and online marketing emails.

3. Update your page regularly. In order to be effective as an online marketing strategy, you need allot regular hours for updating your page and responding to your notifications. If you’re too busy to log in to your Facebook account everyday, hire someone who can do it for an hourly pay.

4. Make it interactive. Don’t just talk about your products, your services, your company, your business. Don’t forget to get your audience involved. Encourage them to engage in the conversation – give suggestions, ask questions, share ideas and experiences. Be a friend to your Facebook fans.

5. Post something new. Make your status updates witty and relevant. Avoid uninteresting status such as “Cleaning the store front”, “Just finished delivering the customer orders”, “Tired”, etc. Make your status lively and compelling so that it moves a fan to share your link on their wall or click the “LIKE” button.

6. Be human. Just because it’s a business page does not mean you need to be too formal with your posts and messages. IT’s okay to show your human side. It actually helps to let people know the person behind the company as it helps build trust. In case you receive a negative comment from an angry customer on your wall, respond to it in a polite, professional manner, making sure that the complaint is being addressed properly.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

In this article, we present online marketing tips for small business owners:

Design a professional business website. IF you’re going to build a website that represents your business, it’s best to hire a professional web designer. Before anything else, you should certainly invest on your business website since all other online marketing strategies will revolve around it.

Use your own domain. Purchasing your own domain is another important step. Although it may cost you a little more to have your own domain than use a free business webhosting service, you can enjoy many advantages such as being able to choose the name of your website address, getting rid of unwanted ads from other businesses, have your own business email account, etc.

Write an effective copy. Whether you are promoting your business online or offline, the success of your marketing campaign will still largely depend on how effective your copy is. More than anything else, it needs to be persuasive. Spend time and practice composing a compelling marketing copy until you discover how to generate the best response from your target market.

Blog for business. A blog is a type of an online journal which can be updated on a daily basis. Linking a blog from your business website is a great and easy way to update your content. It’s also a great way to reach out to your prospects as well as your old customers. Blogging also encourages audience participation or interaction which helps build camaraderie and trust.

Circulate a newsletter. Many successful online marketers distribute newsletters or ezine on a regular basis. You may choose to send a newsletter on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Offering a free ezine is a great way to build-up your own opt-in listing. Everyone who signs up on your list is a genuine lead so you increase your chance of getting a positive response from your marketing campaign.

Monitor the results. Each time you begin an online marketing campaign, set the metrics and be sure to keep track of your results. This way, you will know whether a particular technique is working or whether you should move on to other methods of online advertising.

Don’t give up. In case you do not get the results you expect with your first online marketing campaign, don’t feel disheartened. Instead, study the process you’ve gone through, paying close attention to each step. There is always room for improvement. The good thing about marketing online is that you can repeat the campaign all over again, and make it right the second time.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

This post talks about the ways on how to build and grow an email marketing list. Check out the following tips used by many online marketers in the business:

Offer a newsletter. This is the easiest way to build in a listing. People who will subscribe to your newsletter are your best prospects because they are obviously interested in what you have to offer.

Make it easy. DO not give would-be subscribers a difficult time opting in. For example, you should not ask for too many details to be entered to complete the process. The subscriber’s name and email address should be enough. Make the process quick and simple.

Make it obvious. See to it that your “OPT-IN” button is in a prominent spot from your website. In fact, you should have this button on every page of your website where people can immediately see it.

Offer a gift. Another great way to encourage people to sign up is to offer freebies. Everyone loves giveaways and most people would gladly give their email accounts in exchange for a gift. It doesn’t even need to be something expensive, as long as it’s something that your customers would appreciate.

Add an “opt in” button from the checkout page. Customers who purchase online are most likely to want to “opt in”. Include an “opt in” button from the checkout page where a customer can easily spot it and click on it just before completing the purchase.

Don’t forget your offline contacts. People whom you come in contact to personally are also potential email subscribers. When someone purchases from your store, ask them if they would like to receive updates through their email whenever there is a sale or a special event in your shop.

Ask people from your personal network- your friends and relatives to sign up for your newsletter and encourage them to invite people from their own network as well.

Send quality emails. To keep your list growing, it’s important that you do not lose any of your current subscribers. One good strategy is to offer exclusive giveaways, discounts or promotions once in a while to give your subscribers something to look forward to and to keep them from clicking the “unsubscribe” link.

Do not cram your subscribers with too many emails. Be careful about sending the same email to the same recipient twice or a couple of times. If you promised to send on a weekly or monthly basis, be sure to follow the schedule unless you really have an important announcement to make. Make sure that the content of your emails are relevant at all times.

Don’t give your subscribers any reason to want to unsubscribe. Instead, give your recipients a reason to want to stay subscribed.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

Don’t get filtered out. Many email accounts have built-in spam filters that immediately eliminate spam messages and delivers them straight in the Trash or Spam folder. Your email might get deleted even before the recipient sees it.

To avoid being filtered out, avoid “spammy” words and phrases in your subject line. Furthermore, request your subscribers to include your email address in their list of contacts to be sure that they will get updates from you.

Make it simple. Do not cram your email with too many graphics as it can distract your reader’s attention from your message. Avoid a very lengthy content as well. A short and simple marketing copy is better than an overly complicated one. To encourage clicks, make the text link or button obvious so that the reader can easily see where to point the mouse icon and click.

Make it personal. Your goal in sending marketing emails is to establish rapport and build trust with your prospects. This is why a personal and friendly writing style is better than a very formal, detached tone. Rather than using Ms, Mr, Sir, Maam or other titles, address the recipient by his/her personal name in your salutation. This will make the reader feel as if they already have a relationship with you even if it’s you first time to contact them.

Be professional. Being personal doesn’t mean you should forget about professionalism. It is important to express yourself courteously. Avoid the use of slang words, jargon, and other inappropriate language. Remember that through each marketing email you send, you are building the image of your company.

Subscribe/Unsubscribe link. Why is it important to include an unsubscribe link in your marketing emails? It is one way to show courtesy to your subscribers. It shows that you are giving them the option to be removed from the list at any time, should they feel the need to unsubscribe.

Send on a Tuesday. Timing can make a difference. For some marketers, sending emails on Tuesdays or Wednesdays generates more response compared to other days of the week. You can test this theory and see if it also works for your own business.

Do not overload. Do not send consecutive emails at such short intervals or multiple times in one day as doing so may make your subscribers feel violated. You do not want to do anything that would make a subscriber want to opt out. In fact, you should only send marketing emails if you have a relevant message to say.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

Make it personal. In writing your marketing copy, write as if you are speaking directly to your customer. A personal approach in letter writing is often more effective than using a very formal tone particular when it comes to email marketing.

Timing is important. Find out when is the best time to send your marketing emails. For some marketers, Friday evenings generates a higher response rate but the perfect timing may vary from one business to another. The best way to know what works for your own business is to test audience response for different times of the week.

Use an interesting subject line. Your recipient may decide whether to open your email or not based on the subject line. Avoid using words that are usually found in SPAM mails and never use an exclamation point at the end of your subject line. Use a catchy subject line that will encourage the recipient to read the rest of your email.

Never SPAM. Even if people subscribed to your newsletter, make sure that you only send relevant messages. NEVER try to send an unsolicited email even if you think a person might be interested with your offer. If you try to SPAM even once, you could leave a negative impression to the recipient.

Track results. Keep track of the result of your email marketing campaign. Set the proper metrics that you will use to measure the efficiency of your email marketing campaign.

Don’t give up. Like other direct marketing methods, email marketing is meant to be consistently repeated so don’t worry if you don’t get the exact results you want at first. Study your method and see where improvement is needed. Continue to test the method by sending marketing emails. As long as you don’t spam and you send at proper intervals, you can repeat email marketing campaign as many times as needed.

Include call to action. Don’t forget to use call-to-action words or phrases not only in your emails but with all your marketing copies as well. Do not leave the recipient guessing what he/she should do next. Spell it out clearly and encourage the reader to take action. Phrases like “Click here”, “Order now”, “Call now” may sound overused but they can really make a big difference in improving your response rate.

Watch out for errors. It’s important to make a good impression. Before sending out your emails, spend review the content, making sure that it does not contain typos, misspelled words, or grammatical errors. It is also recommended to have someone else proofread your marketing copy as it is easy to overlook errors if you were the one who wrote the copy.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.

Make sure you have the right mailing list. A great marketing copy and design may not do much if you do not send your postcards to the right market. Hence, before launching your postcard marketing campaign, make sure that you have the right mailing list. If you don’t have one yet, you may consider purchasing from a reputable marketing list broker.

Take it on a personal level. Write your message in a friendly, personal tone rather than in a very traditional, formal style of writing. Make your reader to feel as if you are really talking to them face to face as a friend would. However, see to it that you maintain professionalism and choose your words carefully.

Don’t try to close a sale. Postcards are tools for generating leads or sales inquiries. Don’t try to close a sale using one postcard. Remember, because it has limited space, you cannot possibly include all information about your business on one postcard. Use your postcard to encourage the recipient to take the next step either by calling your customer service number, visiting your shop or by checking out your online store.

Deliver your message straight. Don’t try to beat around the bush. An effective marketing copy is strong, clear and straight to the point. You don’t want to leave your reader guessing as to what to do next. You need to exactly say what you want them to do next using call-to-action words or phrases.

Mail First Class. In the US First Class Mail costs only 23 cents for standard size postcards. The extra few cents is certainly worth the expense because you can enjoy all the important features not available in Standard Mail such as a real stamp, the Return to Sender Option, and others.

Time it right. Time your distribution so that your postcards are delivered on a Tuesday or Wednesday. Timing is a good strategy to increase the response rate. This is because the volume of mail in the US is typically light during these days than the other days of the week.

Set a definite budget and stick on it. Set a definite budget and stick to it. This way you can plan your concept and design according to your budget and avoid exceeding costs.

About the Author
Luie De Von is a marketing consultant with Easy Postcard Marketing and has been providing consumers and business owners with marketing strategies. For years he has helped businesses to have more and growing clients through campaign internet marketing, direct marketing advertising and postcard marketing.