Good postcard marketing ideas can serve your business in many ways, depending on the exact type of campaign you create. In some instances it can increase traffic to your online business, blog or website and in others it can bring in a flood of phone calls from people interested in your products or services.

A well designed postcard campaign can also be used to alert previous customers of special sales or other events that you have coming up in the near future. They can also be used to give previous customers incentive to make secondary purchases.

Whatever your intention may be for using postcard marketing, the following steps will show you how to design a campaign that delivers the high response you want to receive.

Step 1: Determine the message to be delivered.

What is it you want to say with your postcards? Each postcard you send should have one very concise, small message to deliver. You don't want to lump a sale, an incentive, a thank you and branding information all into one postcard because it is too cluttered and confusing.

The best postcards are short, sweet and to the point, so your first mission is to determine exactly what you want to say with this campaign. It could be to say thank you for a recent purchase and offer a discount on the next purchase or it could be to advertise a new product, but it can't do both!

Step 2: Create a solid list of addresses and names.

Based upon the purpose or message of the campaign, your next step is to get a list of people who are well targeted for the message. You should already have a growing list of previous customers or clients as well as a list of prospects that have shown some interest in your services or products. You may also secure a list of potential prospects from online services that collect information from a wide variety of markets.

You want to put together a well targeted list so that everyone you send a postcard to is likely to respond to it favorably. This is a critical step because you don't want to waste money sending postcards to the wrong people.

Step 3: Determine if you are going to use add extra incentive, such as a special deal or coupon.

You can add a coupon or special discount into a postcard as long as it goes well with the purpose of the campaign. This will draw more interest as it offers something of value to the recipients.

Step 4: Come up with the text for both sides of the postcard.

Now, come up with the actual wording for both sides of your postcard. This should be attention grabbing and interesting without being too wordy. Make sure you are very clear and it is easy to understand.

Step 5: Determine imagery for the postcard.

You typically only need one good image that will grab attention without becoming overly crowded on one side of the postcard. You can put more words and details on the other side, with an image and a bold, clear message on the first side.

Step 6: Source a reasonably priced printer for the postcards and send out.

When you have everything set it's time to get the postcards printed and mail them out. Make sure to establish a way of monitoring results so you know how successful this particular postcard is.