Go ahead, copy me: Postcard marketer writes book that gives away her secrets

Joy Gendusa of PostcardMania was not always the CEO of a multi-million dollar enterprise as she is today.  In 1998, while struggling to grow her business she came across a little known idea — postcard marketing. Using her marketing savvy with no capital investment, she took that idea and turned it into a niche that exploded across the nation.  Today, postcard marketing is one of the most effective and economical marketing mediums out there.  And Joy has now published a book, called The Ultimate Postcard Marketing Success Manual, telling others exactly how to use postcard marketing to create the same opportunities that she created in their own industries.

In The Ultimate Postcard Marketing Success Manual are case studies of 12 different industries that have had success with direct mail postcards.  Here is an excerpt from a Financial Services case study:

Industry: Financial Planning

Goal: Revitalize Seminar Attendance

Customer: C. W. Beale & Associates, Inc.

The Campaign: As his industry caught on to the "invitation to a free lunch" approach, Chuck Beale knew a change was in order. He wanted to do something different because so many other financial planners were now mailing out invitations in envelopes. Chuck chose postcards to be able to stand out more in his prospects' mail boxes. He also determined that postcards were more economical, allowing more mailings for the same amount of money.

Now he does something different than offering just a luncheon/dinner — his postcards invite prospects to a bus-trip outing to Clinton Library, where they also have lunch and listen to Chuck speak for 20 – 25 minutes. Another twist on the lunch approach that they use is to offer a tour of Little Rock or Pettigean Mountain.

The idea was to keep the design simple and easy to read, since it was going to seniors. C. W. Beale & Associates, Inc. employees collaborated with PostcardMania's team of graphic designers to come up with a design that would get results.

Campaign Results:
They track results and the response really depends on what they offer as the entertainment, Chuck said. He also understands that you have to have a good offer and the right list to market to. In his case, they market to retirees. At the time of this interview, they had just started promoting a train trip and noticed that their response rate was higher. The train ride postcards were generating a 2% response, double the normal 1% response of the dinner postcards.

C.W. Beale & Associates, Inc. calculates their total Return on Investment for the postcard campaigns at about 10x what they spend.

"I focus on the bottom line when it comes to marketing," Chuck said. "In the last two-three years, my firm has ranked in the top 2% in the nation that sells annuities!"

Throughout Gendusa’s marketing career, she has stayed abreast of marketing trends and technology to help not only grow her business, but those of her 28,000+ customers.  In an ongoing effort to educate entrepreneurs on the efficacy and economy of postcard marketing, Gendusa wrote her book to enlighten business owners of not only the best direct mail postcard marketing tips, but the common pitfalls that one can fall when lacking proper data.

Gendusa claims some of the best marketing does not have to break the bank and that anyone can learn from her experience. In fact she lets people download the first 3 chapters of her book for free.

“I’ve gone through a lot of trial and error — and I want to make it so others don’t have to,” said Joy.

About Joy Gendusa:

Using a powerful, simple, extremely cost effective way of communicating with customers has earned Joy Gendusa Inc Magazine’s recognition as the nation’s fastest growing direct mail postcard-marketing firm with year 2007 revenues at nearly $19,000,000.  Gendusa began in 1998 with zero investment capital. Today, her Clearwater, FL firm called PostcardMania, employs over 160 people and prints 4 million and mails 2 million postcards representing more than 28,000 customers in over 350 industries each week.  Visit www.postcardmania.com or www.postcardmarketingsuccessmanual.com