Think of what it’s like when you are sorting through your mail (actual mail, not email).  Surely there will be some junk mail, flyers, etc.  How much time do you give each of these unsolicited items?  1-2 seconds, right?

When I decided to start a website design business in 2004 my first marketing effort was to mail a postcard introducing my services to local businesses.  It was the week before Valentine’s Day and I had a good idea for a memorable postcard.  Now I just needed to find some potential customers to send it to.

I went through a Sunday paper and created a spreadsheet of around 200 businesses that were advertising that week.  This took a few hours but wasn’t hard to accomplish.  I used my home computer and printer to print addresses onto labels and my roommate and I spent an hour or so preparing envelopes to be mailed.  The only thing left to do was print and insert the postcards.

1-2 seconds to make an impression.  Hmmm, how will I do that?  My postcard idea was a play on those candy hearts that we all used to get in elementary school.  Make a cute/funny message using the candy hearts.  Surely this will stand out amongst my competition of boring and drab unsolicited mail!

Here’s what the postcard looked like:

Obviously I am not a great graphics designer.  Nor am I a great copywriter — my Mom helped me rework my original choppy copy into the more fluid version you see above.  But the results were very good.  I got 6 or 7 leads and picked up 3 new clients!

The total cost of producing the card was around $150 and the bulk of that cost went into printing the cards at Sir Speedy and postage.  The design of the card was perfect for fitting into a regular envelope so there were no extra costs there.

I guess the most important lesson that I’ve learned so far in sales is to know your audience.

Here’s the follow up card that I sent that August, which led to 2 more new clients.

These cards are the only active marketing that I have done in 4 years of running my website design business.  All of my clients have come from referrals, and many of those referrals came from the people who responded to these cards!