Excerpts from a recent interview with Joy Gendusa, CEO of PostcardMania.
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 Last year’s revenues were close to $19 million. Gendusa began in 1998 with zero investment capital. Today, her Clearwater, FL firm called PostcardMania, employs over 150 people and prints 4 million postcards representing 37,000-plus customers in over 350 industries each week.
Debra-Sue: Thank you for being on this call. What got you started with PostcardMania?
Joy: When I was marketing another business I’d started, I ordered some postcards and was unhappy with the product that I received. I knew I could improve their product, and make it available to the business community as a whole. I said, “I can do this… I can do it better.” So I started a postcard printing company that evolved into a direct mail marketing company offering a better price, better quality, and better service to businesses.
Debra-Sue: That’s the true start of a successful business! You were dissatisfied with a service you were receiving—you saw a pain and turned it into an opportunity… Over the years, what has made you so successful?
Joy: A lot of work and a lot of learning. My best business quality is persistence. Perseverance despite setbacks. A lot of small business owners are gone after the first 3 years because they get discouraged.
Debra-Sue: Have you seen a lot of your customers growing past that three year mark?
Joy: Absolutely—for example, one business went on to become one of the 500 fastest growing businesses in the country. It made the Inc. 500 list, after doing business with us for about 6 years.
If you look at the whole cycle of what people are doing, some people might call you right away. Others, if they think they might need the offer on the postcard, will stick it on the ‘fridge. Others might throw it away, but the next time they receive a card from you, if you’re doing it right, they may be ready. People’s lives change every 6 months. You have to repeatedly market to them until they are ready.
Marketing is a continuous activity—it’s not a one shot deal. One card to one list one time won’t change anything. It won’t give any long term growth to your company. Someone who doesn’t need your product or service now may need it later. One marketing contact will make a spike but will not build a long term relationship.
Debra-Sue: As you and I both know, it’s not just the frequency, which matters, it’s also the message. Do you have any advice for people to help them create effective postcards?
Joy: We like to educate all of our customers, so we’ve simplified creating effective postcards into ’10 Must Have Ingredients’:
- A clear, bold headline
- A graphic that supports the message
- Colors that pop, with good contrast
- Sub-headlines that lead to text
- Benefits, benefits, benefits
- The offer
- Your company name and logo
- Call to action
- Contact information
- Return address
Your mailing list: If you know who your target market is, we can sell you a list for that audience specifically. If not, we can find out what are the common denominators of most of your clients. We will target those who are most likely to buy from you because they are already buying from you. You can do several campaigns to the different people in your data base because you can’t always tell who will respond to which offer.
When you market, you must look at the return on investment rather than the initial cost.
One area where businesses tend to fall short is they fail to nurture relationships and educate their customers. You must look at the lifetime value of a customer. Make sure you follow up with them!
Debra-Sue: Does marketing during a recession pay off?
Joy: Yes, even better than usual. Many business owners are fearful and are cutting back on their marketing to wait for better times. That’s why when you market now, you get more impact, because your marketing message is not competing with so many others.
The way our economy is now, we need small businesses to do well and hire people.
This interview goes on to explore the following more deeply:
- Why marketing works BETTER during a recession and how you can gain market share right now
- Your role as a small business owner in jumpstarting the economy
- How you can prosper by driving your likely customers to a specially crafted free report
- How to create website landing pages that increase your conversion rate
- What are the main ingredients of a successful website?
- How to learn about your competitors and find out what they are doing
- Should you follow the “big guys” or be original?
- The credibility factor not available on-line
- Why marketing with postcards works and how to make them work for you
- A special offer to make your marketing more effective…
- And much more…
To get your recording of this interview, for the next two weeks without charge, send an email to: Debra-Sue@KeyMarketResearch.net. Because it’s a large audio file, the recording will be emailed to you through YouSendIt. Look for your link in an email from them!
A special offer from Postcard Mania: Watch what Marketing Mania does to keep in touch with their prospects and clients… and how many times on average you need market to someone before they do business with you. To follow the experts, visit: www.postcardmania.com/marketingoffers
Download the first three chapters of Joy’s book “The Ultimate Postcard Marketing Success Manual” here: http://www.postcardmarketingsuccessmanual.com
When it’s done right, yes, it will pay off. It’s a great way to leap frog some of your competitors who are cutting back.
If you need to cut back, cut the fat in other areas of your business but keep proven marketing going. And if your sales team isn’t producing, there over due for an oil change. Get them some long term training / skills building courses.