Good postcard design is about more than art, it’s about what design choices are going to earn you the highest response rate. Here are some of my favorite tips for pulling in more responses:

Fine Tune Your Postcard Design to Maximize Results

Bigger Formats Work Better

According to this month’s issue of Print Professional magazine, bigger format Postcards tend to have a higher response rate than their smaller, standard-sized counterparts. Your typical 4.5 x 6” postcard may be cheaper to print and, of course, cheaper to mail, but if a 6 x 9” format is more effective, it could be worth the cost. Besides, you can often make up much of the difference by opting to send your postcards at bulk rate instead of a First Class mail rate.

Make the Offer and Size Work Together

Size may equal better results, but 50% off on a little card is probably going to attract more customers than a massive postcard advertising 5% off your next purchase. If it’s a big offer, opt for a big postcard.

Personalize Whenever Possible

If you’re using a mailing list database (we also provide mailing list rentals for Postcard Marketing) that can break down your recipients by demographics, then consider trying different postcard designs for different markets (gender, income, age, etc). It’s simple enough to make multiple versions of the same card and the subsequent return on investment typically more than makes up for any added costs.

You can also try different postcard designs as a way of testing. By tracking which cards garner the highest response rate, you can tweak your marketing campaign.

Use Your Billboard Space

Postcards have two sides – the billboard and the back (where the address and postage goes). You can and should utilize both sides in your postcard design. Ideally, you want a single call-to-action that’s the focus of the billboard side and then reiterated on the back.