How to Track Postcard Results and Why it Matters

by josh.nelson posted in Marketing Tips & Tricks on Monday, September 17th, 2012 at 10:14 am

 

It seems that for a lot of businesses today simply use postcards on faith. Often the line you hear is, “I know that half of my marketing is working, I just don’t know which half”. The problem with that thought is that good businesses don’t run on faith (at least not ones that want longevity). Tracking your postcard results should be an important step in any campaign because you can:

• Focus more energy on what is working – Tracking results will allow you to identify what is successful in your marketing campaigns. Knowing this is critical as it will allow you to funnel more resources into marketing efforts that will increase your monetary returns.

• Make adjustments to sub-par performing campaigns – Not every campaign is going to be a soaring success; however, that doesn’t mean you have to live with the results. Being able to analyze the results and see where you could improve will allow you to give your marketing campaign a shot in the arm.

• Eliminate non-performing – If you’ve made adjustments to a campaign and it’s still not working then stop doing it. Use that money and increase marketing that you know is working so you can get a better return. After all, isn’t getting a better return what it’s all about?

The whole exercise of tracking your results is to ultimately increase your sales.

What does all of this ultimately mean? It means that tracking postcard results will give you useful information to then get you better results. Now say it with me, “How can we track our postcard results?” Here is your answer:

• Use a separate promotional or coupon codes – Set aside a special promo code that is distinguishable from other promos. By doing this you will be able to see just how many people are actually responding to the cards. Keeping the promo codes separate will prevent you from dirtying your data with normal promos.

• Use a different 800 number specific to this campaign - There are special phone services which provide you with a different 800 number which you can use to track the traffic of the people who are being brought in via postcard. This may sound expensive and difficult to integrate but it is actually a fairly affordable with costs as low 5 bucks a month. Once you are ready to send out postcards simply use the special 800 number and your results through that line will be automatically tracked.

• A/B testing for message/visual/different offer – A/B testing is a classic direct mail tactic that tests a control group against a sample group to see how response rates are affected by changes in the postcard. This allows you to fine-tune your message, which will increase response rates. Let’s use a story to illustrate how to do A/B testing:

“A real estate agent wants to test how a new slogan he developed affects his response rate. He would randomly divide up his customer base into two groups. The first group, which is the control group, received postcards that had his old slogan. The second group, called the test group, received postcards with his new slogan. Let’s say he received 5 responses from the first group (the old slogan) and 10 responses beck from the second group (the new slogan). He could then theoretically assume that his new slogan was more effective than the old one.”

 

These are just a few of the most popular tried-and-true ways for tracking postcard, or any marketing results. Remember, it’s okay to alter the way you track results to better fit your business model. The important thing is just to track! Once you start seeing results you will wonder why you didn’t start sooner.