Postcards: Size Matters

If you have any marketing savvy at all, then you know how powerful postcards are for cracking the market with a booming return on investment. Direct-mail postcards project the perfect pitch for any industry, consumer or B2B. When you toss a compelling offer, targeted mailing list, superb design, creative copy and an "act-now-or-die" call to action into the cauldron, it all boils down to an incredible direct-mail postcard marketing campaign that achieves phenomenal results. But even when you have all the essential elements in place, you can still make some tweaks that will blast your profit margin from the ozone to the moon. The easiest - and perhaps most effective - tweak involves size. When it comes to postcard success, size most certainly matters.

Your customers' POV

To understand why size is so important to postcard marketing success, you have to first look at postcards from your customers' perspectives. When your customers go to the mailbox or receive mail at their desk, your postcard is probably bundled with a ton of other mail vying for attention. And the biggest packages always get a look - that's the first step to reeling your customers in. Large, oversized postcards not only make it easy for your company to get noticed, they make it easy for you to quickly convince your customers to take the next step in the purchasing process since they don't have to be opened to deliver your message.

What is the best postcard size?

The best size for your postcard ultimately depends on where and how it will be delivered. Postcards sent to regular mailboxes can be as large as 6 inches by 11 inches or more. You could go as large as 13 inches by 17 inches, though this size won't fit in most standard mailboxes and will need to be folded. All in all, a 5-inch by 8-inch postcard or a 6-inch by 9-inch postcard is large enough to stand out from the standard 4-inch by 6-inch postcard pack, so simply adding a few inches can be just the trick you need to put your return on investment over the top.

What about smaller sizes?

One thing any seasoned marketer will tell you is that straying from the norm always piques curiosity, and so it stands to reason that a smaller-than-standard postcard could be intriguing enough to get a look. While this might be true, the chance that a small postcard could slip unnoticed into the cracks and crevices of the mail delivery system, your customers' mailboxes or between the pages of competing catalogs simply isn't worth the risk. Oversized postcards are practically guaranteed a look; small postcards are a liability. Choose wisely. Postcards are incredibly effective, efficient and economical. Some argue that oversized postcards cost more to mail, but this investment is worth it in resulting sales - especially when you've combined a large postcard size with the other crucial postcard elements.

Your presentation must be flawless to optimize your direct-mail marketing campaign results, so go big with your postcards to yield a supersized return.