In a rare positive story from the business sector these days, PostcardMania, a full service marketing firm based in Clearwater, Florida, recorded the highest sales for one month in the company’s history last month.
“In September, we were able to beat our previous highest month, January of 2009, by 4.7%,” says Rob Bradshaw, VP of Sales. “That’s an incredible number given the state of things right now. Everybody here contributed.”
Their strategy throughout the recession was to continue marketing in spite of the bleak economic environment. Backing off just wasn’t an option, according to Founder and CEO, Joy Gendusa.
“We have always believed that a direct mail postcard campaign, when diligently executed, will yield results. I wouldn’t be here if it didn’t. So that’s what we did. We kept marketing — and never backed down — and sure enough, the sales followed.”
To support her claim, Gendusa pointed to the fact that PostcardMania never cut their marketing budget, even when the economy tanked.
The result? September saw their marketing department increase the amount of new leads calling in by 45% over what they were able to produce last year. Consequently, they closed more sales, and the manufacturing department (who handles the company’s printing) increased their output to 50% over their average.
As the economy was trying to pull itself back together this summer, PostcardMania was expanding. With a slew of new hires since June, they have raised their number of employees to 170. The expansion included new employees in marketing, mailing services, sales and an entirely new division dedicated to following up with potential clients.
The company says they are excited by the great numbers, but continue to stay focused on progressing. “We don’t want to settle,” says Gendusa. “We want continual growth. Hopefully we’ll be doing this again next month. Our purpose includes positively affecting the economy — with all these small businesses realizing that the ‘bad economy’ is now ‘THE economy,’ they are beginning to market more and do what entrepreneurs do — business.”
In the next quarter, they plan to hire 10 new sales associates and expand their marketing team.
About PostcardMania:
PostcardMania is one of the nation’s most effective marketing companies specializing in lead generation for small to large-sized business. They were featured on the Inc. 500 and 5,000 lists and offer complete marketing campaigns with graphic design, printing, mailing list acquisition, mailing services, website development and email marketing services — all while continuing to educate clients with free marketing advice.
By 2008, revenues reached nearly $19 million and the company now employs over 150 people, prints 4 million and mails 2 million postcards each week representing more than 40,000 customers in over 350 industries. Visit www.postcardmania.com
