Direct Mail Postcard Rules

It's a fact that your customers are your best leads.understand how you will need a little background
This means that the most likely people to purchaseinformation.
your products and/or services are the ones who haveForté Systems is one of the current leading
paid for them before. It's also a fact that it costs farcompanies in Medical Practice Management and Billing
less money to keep a customer than it does to go outSoftware. This means that their software that will
and get a new one. These are the two reasons thatessentially run an entire medical office. The software
using direct mail postcards to keep in touch with yourcan be purchased in any one of four levels, depending
customer database is a must. There are a few ruleson budget and number of doctors working for the
to follow when marketing to contacts in your companypractice.
database.Once a medical practice becomes a customer of
Rule #1: Collect all of their information.Forté Systems the marketing strategy is
It sounds like a no-brainer but you would be surprised.changed to reflect the rules above. They are no longer
The more information that you have on yourtrying to convince the doctor to become a customer,
customers the more likely it is that you will be able tothey are now educating them on how better they can
get in touch with them to let them know about specialsbe served by Forté Systems' products. Now the
or to remind them it's time for their next service. Also,customer receives direct mail pieces concerning:
don't neglect to ask for your customers' email- Updates on software upgrades (example 1),
addresses, everybody has one and most will give it up- Notices when they are running specials (example 2)
pretty easily.& information about Other Forté Systems
Rule #2: Don't treat your customers like prospects.products, such as
Make sure when you collect the information in your- Software training tutorials on CD (example 3).
database you differentiate between people who haveThis enables them to continue to service their
placed an order in the past and people who have not.customers at the highest level and also helps to
Customers want to feel like you are paying attentionstrengthen the customers loyalty to Forté
to them and when they have placed a few ordersSystems. Sometimes you lose customers because
with you and are still getting your "10% for First Timethey either forgot who they dealt with last time they
Buyers" postcards they tend to feel unappreciated.made a purchase or they received some kind of
Bottom line, if they don't qualify for an offer you arepromo from one of your competitors and decided to
sending out, don't send it to them.check it out.
Rule #3: Don't let your designs get stagnant.If the customer is constantly updated about what is
When you are mailing to databases of people that youavailable from your company they will not have to
have never spoken to before it is OK to send themspend their valuable time doing research and will be
the same postcard multiple times. It helps to increaseless likely to "shop around." This will help to control the
recognition and will eventually increase your responsenormal attrition of your database to other companies.
rate. Dealing with customers and prospects that youThe pieces are all designed with the Forté
have already spoken to (meaning they already knowSystems logo prominently displayed on the front and
most or all of the details of your business) you need toback - the same general feel and most importantly the
mix things up a bit. Your mailings should be attentionsame color scheme. Picking a company color or group
getting and informative. If you have started offering aof colors and sticking with it will help to increase
new service recently, a postcard designed to let yourrecognition and readership of your promo. Simply put,
database know about it would be a smart move. Theyour customers will get to the point that they read
main point is to keep your company in the front of theirwhat you send them. They need to know it is from
mind and to keep them reading your postcards.your company before they read it because if it doesn't
If the promo that you send to your database gets toolook like what they are used to you sending it may go
repetitive your customers will lose interest and at thatin the trash without a second look.
point you are just wasting your money on postageBeing great at what you do is not always enough to
because your postcards won't get the attention thatkeep the customers that you have earned. With all of
you want.the competition out there today you need to be
One of your main goals should be to educate yourconstantly reminding your customers that you are the
customers about how your product or service worksbest at what you do. Direct mail postcards are the
and this will in turn help them to get more use out ofbest way to give them that reminder.
your entire line of products and services. Many times itAlways remember to keep mailings that you send to
is as simple as sending out mailings that make youryour database informative, attractive and most of all
customers aware of all that you can do for them.current. Personalize everything that you can and make
Take, for example, a California based softwaresure that what you are sending to a past client actually
company called Forté Systems. Not only do theypertains to them or their company. Anything less and
use direct mail postcards to acquire new business,your customer may start to drift, and the only people
they know how to use them to effectively market tothat are going to be happy when that happens are
their current customer database as well. To fullyyour competitors.