How Well Do Postcards Work?


The humble little postcard has been getting a lot of attention in the marketing world. Along with this heightened interest comes some very good questions, such as...

How Well Do Postcards Work?

Before we get into the "how well" part of this question, let's look at how to measure the success of a postcard mailing.

APPROACH #1: Revenue Return Rate

If you use this approach, you decide that each dollar spent on your campaign should bring back, say, $10. Or $100. The amount is up to you.

APPROACH #2: Cost as a Percentage of Sales

With this approach, you benchmark the cost of your campaign as a percentage of sales generated. In other words, if you think that your campaign cost should be 5% of sales and your campaign cost is $500, then your campaign should produce $10,000 in sales.

Your cards will work well if they meet or exceed the standards you have set, whether it's Approach #1 or Approach #2.

Martha Retallick, "The Passionate Postcarder," hails from Tucson, Arizona, USA. She is the author of Postcard Marketing Secrets, a downloadable PDF manual will show you how to put postcards to work for your business--profitably. Learn more about it at:

http://www.PostcardMarketingSecrets.com

In The News:

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Palestinians carry the bodies of three toddlers Ahmed, Mohamed, and Issa Samouni, who according to Palestinian medical sources were killed in an Israeli strike, during their funeral in Gaza City, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. Israeli forces pounded Gaza Strip houses, mosques and smuggling tunnels on Monday from the air, land and sea, killing at least seven children as they pressed a bruising offensive against Palestinian militants. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)AP - Israel ignored mounting international calls for a cease-fire and said it won't stop its crippling 10-day assault until "peace and tranquility" are achieved in southern Israeli towns in the line of Palestinian rocket fire.



In this Sept. 27, 1996 file photo, then-White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. President-elect Barack Obama has selected Panetta to head the CIA, according to an Obama transition official. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File)AP - President-elect Barack Obama's decision to fill the nation's top intelligence jobs with two men short on direct experience in intelligence gathering surprised the spy community and signaled the Democrat's intention for a clean break from Bush administration policies.



President-elect Barack Obama, flanked by Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner, left, and Council of Economic Advisers Chair-designate Christina Romer meets with members of his economic team at his transition office in Washington, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)AP - President-elect Barack Obama plunged into rare pre-inaugural crisis talks with congressional leaders Monday, declaring the national economy was "bad and getting worse" and embracing tax cuts now expected to reach $300 billion. He predicted lawmakers would approve a mammoth revitalization package within two weeks of his taking office.



Illinois U.S. Senate appointee Roland Burris arrives at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in Linthicum, Md., Monday, Jan. 4, 2009. Burris will face a showdown on Capitol Hill about whether he'll succeed President-elect Barack Obama in Congress after being appointed last week by embattled Gov. Rod Blagojevich. (AP Photo/Rob Carr)AP - Senate Democrats struggled to avert a showdown steeped in race and corruption Monday as a defiant Roland Burris declared, "I'm a United States senator" and flew to the capital to claim President-elect Barack Obama's old seat in Congress.



Disgraced financier Bernard Madoff leaves U.S. District court after a bail hearing in New York, Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.  Prosecutors on Monday said Madoff violated bail conditions by mailing about $1 million worth of jewelry and other assets to relatives and should be jailed without bail. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)AP - A prosecutor on Monday asked that Bernard Madoff be jailed pending trial, saying the disgraced financier violated an agreement with the court by mailing watches, jewelry, cufflinks and mittens worth more than $1 million to relatives and friends.



AP - Anthrax mailing suspect Bruce Ivins tormented his wife with rudeness and behaved erratically in the weeks before the Army scientist took his own life by overdosing on Tylenol, according to documents released Monday.

This undated hand out artist rendering provided by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics shows the latest view of the Milky Way's structure. Our Milky Way galaxy may not be the snack-sized collection of stars astronomers have long thought it was. (AP Photo/Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Robert Hurt, Mark Reid)AP - Take that, Andromeda! For decades, astronomers thought when it came to the major galaxies in Earth's cosmic neighborhood, our Milky Way was a weak sister to the larger Andromeda. Not anymore.



Undated picture released by the Travolta family shows actor John Travolta (R) with his son Jett. Officials in the Bahamas on Monday conducted an autopsy on Jett Travolta, the teenage son of actor John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston, who died here last week during a family holiday, police said.(AFP/HO)AP - Jett Travolta's body shows no sign of head trauma and his death certificate says he was killed by a seizure, an undertaker said Monday, after doctors performed an autopsy on the 16-year-old son of the U.S actor.



AP - Spending on health care slowed slightly in 2007 as consumers turned more to generic drugs instead of brand-names to fill their medicine cabinets, the government reported Monday.

Texas quarterback Colt McCoy celebrates as he scores against Ohio State during the third quarter of the Fiesta Bowl NCAA college football game in Glendale, Ariz., Monday, Jan. 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)AP - Left out of the national title game, Colt McCoy and Texas made the most of their trip to the Fiesta Bowl. McCoy hit Quan Cosby for a 26-yard touchdown with 16 seconds to play, lifting third-ranked Texas to a 24-21 victory over No. 10 Ohio State on Monday night.



Palestinian relatives of Hamas militant Mohammed Abu Shair, who was killed in an Israeli air strike, mourn during his funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip January 5, 2009. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)Reuters - Israel pressed on with its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip for a fourth day on Tuesday despite new international calls for a ceasefire in a conflict in which more than 540 Palestinians have been killed.



Bernard Madoff is escorted from Federal Court in New York January 5, 2009. (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. prosecutors asked a judge to jail accused swindler Bernard Madoff on Monday, saying he sent jewelry and other items worth more than $1 million to family and friends in violation of his bail.



Former Clinton White House chief of staff Leon Panetta gestures during a break in a televised interview with Larry King for the CNN program 'Larry King Live' March 19, 1998 in Los Angeles. (Rose Prouser/Files/Reuters)Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama has chosen former White House chief of staff Leon Panetta to lead the CIA, which has been widely criticized for harsh interrogation of terrorism suspects, Democratic officials said on Monday.



The Toyota brand name is seen on a car at a dealership in Chicago, December 22, 2008. (Joshua Lott/Reuters)Reuters - Toyota Motor Corp, reeling from its worst U.S. sales decline in more than a quarter of a century, will shut all its factories in Japan for 11 days as the global economic slump hits demand and company profits.



U.S. President-elect Barack Obama (R) meets with Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at her office in the Capitol Building in Washington, January 5, 2009. (Jason Reed/Reuters)Reuters - With the economic outlook darkening, U.S. President-elect Democrat Barack Obama went to Congress two weeks before taking office to try to entice Republican support for a massive stimulus package with talk of big tax cuts.



Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs displays a redesigned iPod Nano at Apple's 'Let's Rock' media event in San Francisco, California September 9, 2008. (Robert Galbraith/Reuters)Reuters - Apple Inc Chief Executive Steve Jobs sought to soothe investor concerns about his health on Monday, saying his weight loss was caused by a hormone imbalance that is relatively simple to treat.



Democratic senatorial candidate, and well known satirist and a former writer and actor for the popular Saturday Night Live television show, Al Franken (DFL-MN) and his wife Franni (L) speak to reporters after he is declared the winner by the Minnesota Secretary of State Office, by 225 votes, over opponent incumbent Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) outside his home in Minneapolis, January 5, 2009. (Eric Miller/Reuters)Reuters - Democrat Al Franken beat Republican incumbent Norm Coleman to win the U.S. Senate seat from Minnesota, officials conducting a final recount said on Monday, though the loser promised to challenge the result.



A supporter holds a candle during a 'No on Prop 8' rally in West Hollywood, California November 5, 2008. (Mario Anzuoni/Reuters)Reuters - The legal battle over gay marriage in California turned on Monday to whether the state's top court could strike down a change in the state constitution that was approved by voters.



A wounded Israeli soldier is led into hospital in the southern city of Beersheba. The heaviest fighting of Israel's war on Hamas raged in Gaza City early on Tuesday as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuffed appeals to stop the death toll from mounting further.(AFP/Yehuda Raizner)AFP - The heaviest fighting of Israel's war on Hamas raged in Gaza City early on Tuesday as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert rebuffed appeals to stop the death toll from mounting further.



Roland Burris, seen here in December 2008, could be stopped from taking his seat in the US Senate by fellow Democrats. The Senate was set to convene Tuesday in a swirl of allegations of personal corruption, voter fraud and dynastic nepotism that threatens to dog the early days of Barack Obama's presidency.(AFP/Getty Images/File/Scott Olson)AFP - The new US Senate is set to convene in a swirl of allegations of corruption, voter fraud and dynastic nepotism that threatens to dog the early days of Barack Obama's presidency.




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