I have noticed you guys helping with fliers and postcards. I was hoping you guys would take a look and give feedback good and bad. This is for a direct mail that will go to a high end gated community in the area. I have never been good with this type of design.
Hmmm.
What I would recommend is that you carefully review these [B]11 design principles[/B] for your postcard mailer, before you send it to print.
And, I believe you’ve spelled “Exterior” and “Interior” wrong, too!
Overall, you could make it amazing with some wholesale changes. How many of these postcards are you making, and when are they going out?
How much are you willing to spend on this mailing? What kind of people are in this community? What’s their lifestyle like?
Kevin
[B]Here are some things that I think are good about the postcard:[/B]
[INDENT]Photo of your face
Benefits listed in some cases
Direct call to action
Imagery[/INDENT]
As soon as I uploaded it we noticed the spelling errors. Thanks I will look at the 11…
I will be printing at least 500. I might do 1000 since there is another gated community just a few miles from this one. I want to mail them out March 1st.
This is a golf course community with homes from the half million and up. I will spend what I need to to get into this area. I would like to stay under 500 for each neighborhood.
Give us a demographic synopsis, if you don’t mind.
Who are these people that live there, what are they like, what kind of lifestyle do they live? Age? Family situation?
If you have some clients there already, why did they hire you, historically speaking?
P.S. Your comment of “I will spend what I need to” is outstanding, and a good example for lots of guys that are ‘afraid’ of spending money to capture the attention and business of their target market.
This area is mostly Single income families with the tons of stay at home mothers. Most of the men are doctors, lawyers, and or business owners. The average age is about 35. 70 percent or more is married. The whole town is focused on the kids. i.e. pee wee football, baseball, soccer, music, bounce houses etc.
i have sent an email to my Realtor friend to get more exact information for you.
I have only a four clients in this neighborhood. One is family and the other 3 got my name from a magazine publication that delivers to some of the homes in the community. 2 clients where over 50 and retired. The other two where in their early 30’s with high school kids. Stay at home moms that can not do the high windows and too busy with soccer and foot ball games on the weekends with the kiddos.
I understand that you have to spend money to make money. I also understand that sometimes you have to spend money just to get your name out there. The more your name is in front of your potential clients the better.
Nice description, great.
A quicker, ‘shortcut’ option for you:
Steal my postcard design instead!
Then, once the initial test is done, you can tweak to your hearts delight! Imagery especially, the headline, and some of the copy, to more closely match your local target market, as you’ve described.
one question about stealing your design. The neighbor hood is gated and you can not put anything on the doors. Direct mail to the mail box is the only way in. Is the card that you have for the taking able to be mailed? I know you stated I can not change the design other than personal text.
Yup - take a look at the top right of the front. I’ve intentionally left it blank for mailing purposes. Or it can be mailed as unaddressed bulk, too.
I notice that your postcard is at 8.5x5.5 which will cost 41 cents to mail each one. If the card was a 4x6 it would only cost 26 cents to mail. I can check bulk rates but i am not sure if 600 is considered bulk… I will check with the post office on that one.
I
Yeah - it costs more to print this size, too, but it’s well worth it. It’s all about capturing attention and then grabbing them with the design/copy.
It’s worth the extra 20 cents/piece. And remember, you only need to pass out 300 of mine.
Truthfully, I’ll be shocked if you don’t receive great response, and you don’t decide to get a few thousand mailed out after the initial test!
This design is beautiful, and would grab attention thats for sure. 007, you have a company name that you could really play with too, but follow Kevin’s advice, you’ll reap some sweet rewards!
007 Your postcard in personal because A. you desinged it and B. your picture is on it which is great for marketing. It does need to be tweaked here and there but I think you should stick with this original concept and make it the best it can be. Its easy to use someone elses marketing tools, but you may find that after fixing up you card you may get the business your looking for and then you’ll have a design that you know either works or doesn’t work. I wouldn’t recommend swithcing gears this close to your projected mail date.
007, we send out 2800 postcards 3 times a year with great success, maybe we can help.
I think that if you change your catch phrase from “Clear up your view” and use a question for your catch pharse such as “got Windows” or “Have you heard…” or something thats going to get people curious enough to read your card you’ll do okay. I also think you might want to change the font. I’m curious, is this the front or back of your card?
Just my two cents.
I modified your design a wee bit. Changed fonts and a little of the wording. Changed picture to be more pleasant than leafless trees. And brightened up the doggy.
Take from it what you will.
on my business cards I have “Let Our Special Agents Do Your Dirty Work!” I do have fun with it and its a great conversation piece when talking to my clients during my jobs. Also numbers are before letters in any phone book and most on line listings. some nice reverse marking!! 
I have noticed from most marketing sources, as well as NWCD and here that you are supposed to state a key benefit to you projected clients in the heading. I have the biggest trouble with fonts. There are to darn many of them lol. Also this is the front of my card. I have yet to do anything on the back I had originally thought to leave blank with basic addresses and postage on the back. After seeing the card above I will have to do something on the back.
I agree with the leafless trees not being the best. I really liked that you could not even tell there was a window in that picture though. The area is big on the kids and I thought the play set hit my market well. All in All I did like the font change and the rewording as well as the picture you added.
All last year I did not have a digital camera with me every day. I got one for Christmas and will be taking pictures as much as I can. Unfortunately the trees are not pretty right now here.
Beautiful View, Thanks and I will use the fonts for sure.
Thought some of you might be interested in this. Below is census 2000 with some estimates of what it would be in 2005. The area that the card will go into is one of the older more prominent areas. Average age will be slightly higher and the income will be higher as well.
Population (year 2000): 33,714.
Estimated population in July 2006: 80,499 (+138.8% change)
Males: 16,700 (49.5%)
Females: 17,014 (50.5%)
Median resident age: 30.9 years
Texas median age: 32.3 years
Estimated median household income in 2005:
Frisco $85,187
Texas: $42,139
Estimated median house/condo value in 2005: $210,200 (it was $157,200 in 2000)
Frisco $210,200
Texas: $106,000
Percentage of residents living in poverty in 2005: 2.1%
btw how the heck did you take a .jpg and edit it? I just realized that… Did you just cover the text with orange blocks and retype it?
Also what font is that you used on the lower left? Thanks
