Marketing with Postcards

Anybody out there know of a good (inexpensive) place to get

marketing postcards printed? Any places to stay away from? I'm

looking at "Vista Print" now who does 250 for $37.50. Any comments?

Thanks

Quality? Size? Turnaround time? These all matter when you're picking a vendor.<p>

 

I use <a href="http://www.rocketpostcards.com/">Rocket Postcards</a>, great customer service, great product. Excellent color matching. Price is similar for 4/1 cards to Vista Print.

I use Modern Postcard, and 4by6 alot... Zoo Printing also runs fairly good specials, tho that

small a quantity might not show much savings.

David:

 

I use Modern Postcard and have had high success with cards from them. Something else to keep in mind is that one postcard once isn't going to do the trick. You'll have a much higher reply/sale rate if you do a small campaign with three postcards mailed to everyone on your list. I mail the second card two weeks after the first one and the third card one week after the second one and it has been working well. I have tried different sizes and for me, the 6" by 8.5" is working well.

 

Hope that helps.

Modern Postcard...as previously mentioned you will need to do a advertising campaign.

Your results will be dissappointing if you just send one postcard. They need to see your

name and a new image OFTEN. Develop your campaign based on 12 months and stick to

it. (At least one new card every month.) It won't be cheap...but that is the way that it is

done successfully.

I have no clue about Marketing with Postcards, plus I have never seen one.........ever. Could I have a brief explanation of the intended use and when, where, how you would distribute them.

well, went and looked at a few of the services mentioned above.......I can honestly say that I have still never seen one. Wow, you mean I'm not on at least one hitlist for advertisers. I have a better idea of what they are now though.

Thomas -

 

I use them to send to art directors, art buyers and other agency type folk. To give them an

idea of what I'm shooting these days.

 

I could also see them used successfully as a promo material for wedding photogs - tho I

do not know off hand where you would generate your mailing list.

One way I've found companies to put on a mailing list is 1)the yellow pages, 2) the job websites, look for people who are hiring art directors and add that company to your list.

Yeah - the advertising clients are easier - Most metropolitan libraries have a copy of the

advertising "redbooks" in their reference section. Naming primary staff at most major, and

mid sized agency in the US.

 

But finding potential wedding/portrait clients for mailing purposes...that I don't know.

Wedding clients are listed in the newspaper every Sunday under "Engagements"

I am so glad youu posted this! I looked into the sites suggested, but it doesn't seem they ship to Canada. Are there any that do? I live in the Toronto area. Thanks!

Modern Postcard. Excellent.

The prices at gotprint.com are better than Vista Print's by far, and GotPrint is a far better company

 

I discourage the use of Vista Print. As a professional designer I can tell you it's just not a good company. You will be pleased with the free card offer, especially if you choose glossy cards with slowest shipping. They usually take no where close to as long as they claim they will with the slow shipping options. Which to me does not indicate good service, it indicates inflated shipping costs and a level of deceit.

 

Free cards are hard to pass up, and I still use them for really low quantity print runs because they just seem to own that market right now. I probably put 5% of my print jobs with them, but I could put a lot more. I even pay more just to avoid such a bad company.

 

Let me tell you about them. Their print quality, while professional, is on the lower end. Things that you order twice, will come out slightly different and every now and then the quality will be fairly low. Their customer service personnel are hard to work with. They give false information that can really mess up your project, but take absolutely no responsibility.

 

I just received an order of folding cards that I paid full price for. I was surprised and disappointed to see that they put their logo, name, slogan, and website on the back of the cards I designed and paid full price for. This is unheard of in the printing industry. It's just rude to spring that on someone. I e-mailed a complaint to them. They sent an automated reply saying we don't really read our e-mails, but you can call us if you want to spend more money with us.

 

Speaking of rude, let's talk about how Vista Print sponsored an attack on my computer. My computer was recently infected by a virus or some program of that sort. The invader caused pop-ups to come on every time I navigated through a page. The pop-ups were not connected with the page I was trying to view at all and they seriously messed up my download speeds. Most of the pop-ups were for no name companies selling dubious software. One of the pop-ups was a paid ad for Vista Print. As far as I am concerned, Vista Print sponsored that attack on my computer.

 

To add to the rudeness, I?ve read three reports from people who have given their credit card numbers to Vista Print, only to find their credit cards misused later. It?s just not a company with good ethics.

Another happy Rocket Postcards customer.

 

Great quality, 3 day trun around. Be aware that VistaPrint's postcard is 5.47" wide, about 1/2"

less than the 6" allowed by the US post office (to qualify for the lower post card rate). I

wanted that extra 1/2" and passed on VistaPrint.

Whatever you do, stay away from Zoo Printing. I've had printing done for over 25 years and

have never had such poor service in my life.

 

They actually changed our file without telling us. On top of that, the trim was awful.

 

But the biggest problem is their customer service. I've been told 3 different times that they

would have someone call me back and guess what, nobody called.

 

Still trying to get a printing problem resolved after a week. They're rude and keep giving

us the run around. STAY AWAY FROM ZOO PRINTING!

 

Randy Gunter

I would have to agree about Vista Print. It is a pretty terrible company. I ordered custom cards for a business and had

to reorder with another company because they printed their logo and website on the back. Plus the quality was pretty

low compared to other companies I have worked with. Lastly I was one of those people who's credit card was mysteriously charged another $18 a month later... After not purchasing anything or receiving anything. Had to change

the bank account because I couldn't get a hold of anyone to cancel my vista account. I would stay away.