Folded Postcard Mailer: Meaning, Uses, and Advantages
Want to print and mail something exciting to your target audience? Perhaps, you are looking for an eye-catching mail type that can wow your prospects. If yes, you should try out folded postcard mailers. They possess the qualities of both postcards and letters; folded mailers offer the visual appearance of a postcard and provide enough space for your message like a letter.
Sounds interesting, right?
Well, folded postcards are among the most effective and eye-catching direct mail items. You can use them for several purposes, like promoting your brand and announcing season sales.
So, what is a folded postcard mailer?
First, let us discuss “what is a self-mailer?” The answer is simple—a self-mailer is any piece of paper or card that is folded and mailed without an envelope. You can use a wafer seal or glue strips to keep the edges together.
We don’t hear about it very often, but postcards are the most common type of self-mailer. However, they don’t have any folds, unlike bi-fold and tri-fold self-mailers.
But, you can now create foldable postcards in the same way as you would create any self-mailer, like flyers. Such foldable postcards are also known as folded postcard mailers.
There’s plenty of room in folded postcards for marketers to get creative. For example, you can add images, infographics, customer testimonials, etc. These things improve your mailer’s visual impact while also grabbing the attention of your customers and prospects.
In this blog, we will discuss more on folded self-mailers. We have also covered its advantages and the tips to use them.
Prime Benefits of Folded Postcard Mailers
Effective and Affordable
Folded postcard mailers are less expensive than a marketing letter. It is because you don’t need to print multiple pieces and spend a lot on handling them.
The press itself can do all folding tasks. Also, you don’t require additional labour to insert your mailers in envelopes. These things can help you save a significant amount of time and money.
Furthermore, if your mailer needs reply cards or other add-ons, integrate them into the mailer itself through perforations. Again, this step can help you save money.
But, remember that though affordable than letters, self-mailers are more expensive than postcards. The added number of pages, ink and the extra tasks of folding and glueing can increase your costs.
However, self-mailers can generate a great return on investment, which can cover your costs easily.
Impressive and Attention-Grabbing
One-piece mailers offer you an excellent opportunity to communicate with people. For example, you can create an appealing artwork and print it on the exteriors, so prospects can see it the moment they pick it up.
There is no envelope to hide your message, making it easy for people to see your offer instantly. But, of course, you can take advantage of this fact and use attention-grabbing headlines on top of your open edges.
Suppose you are a jewellery-making company. Then, you can add some attractive images of your jewellery with a headline, like “End of the Holiday Sale.”
Your artwork imagery plays a significant part in your campaign success. According to research, the human brain processes pictures 60,000 times faster than words.
Hence, it makes sense to use big, full-colour images on your folded mailers.
More Real Estate For Your Message
There’s way more space in card mailers than postcards. So, you have ample space to work.
Typically, a mailer measuring 8 x 15 inches has three panels, and the folded size comes down to 8 x 5 inches. You can try other dimensions, but be sure to consult your folded postcard printing vendor.
Unlike postcards, you can explain your products and services in detail through self-mailers. They have enough space to accommodate three to four paragraphs along with your CTA.
Excellent for B2C Companies
Folded mail pieces are an excellent option for B2C advertising. It is because they are informal and appealing to the general public.
They are primarily helpful for advertising to your loyal customers. You can introduce a loyalty program or give additional cashback to them. Either way, these customers are more likely to respond to your offers and can help you get repeat business.
But, in the case of B2B companies, you need a more elegant-looking mail item, like enveloped letters. Then, they can catch the attention of decision-makers and convince them to read your message.
So, self-mailers are best for only B2C companies unless you are ready to spend more on making them look professional for B2B marketing.
More Privacy
Some companies are under the impression that folded postcards do not offer privacy. But, that is not the case.
The edges of all self-mailers are sealed together to protect their contents and ensure privacy.
Plus, you can also add personalised details as they cannot be seen from the outside. However, do not use self-mailers for crucial documents, like bank statements, invoices, etc.
On the other hand, you can also choose to send out non-personalized self-mailers. It will aid the readers in sharing the mailers with other people, hence increasing your brand visibility.
Easily Measurable
Folded postcards help marketers track every response and measure their campaign results. Since there is a lot of space in self-mailers, you can add more than one way to track them.
The most commonly used tracking mechanism for self-mailers is reply cards. They are integrated into the mailer to convince people to take action.
The number of reply cards you receive back is the number of responses generated from your campaign.
Similarly, you can send self-mailers with return envelopes. Again, it makes it simple for your audience to respond to your offers.
Other tracking systems include the use of QR codes and pURLs. They both take up very little space and can help you record responses efficiently.
Also, some companies use perforated coupons as a means to record campaign results. For example, if you own a restaurant, you can send self-mailers with such coupons to all the people in your neighbourhood. Add sentences like “walk into our restaurant with this coupon to get a flat 40% discount.”
Plenty of Creative Options
Marketers can get as creative as possible with folded postcards. There are no restrictions on self-mailer designs.
You can choose to design a different artwork for every panel or spread out the same artwork throughout the mailer. Either way, it all depends on your imagination. But, make sure that the design fits well with your messaging.
Though self-mailers are known more for their design, you should always give the centre stage to your words. Let your design communicate your message instead of replacing it.
Also, use high-quality paper stock to make your prospects feel special when they hold your self-mailers.
You can refer to a folded self-mailer template to get ideas. Or you can use PostGrid’s pre-built design templates and create your postcard mailers.
Other than flexibility in designing, you can also be flexible regarding when to use self-mailers. Find below some possible use cases:
- Promoting your brand’s products and services.
- Announcing newly launched offerings.
- Inviting prospects and customers for events, like trade fairs and press meets.
- Getting in touch with old customers.
- Engaging with existing customers to get more sales.
- Converting cold leads into hot ones.
- Advertising a new franchise or store.
Folding Options for Self-Mailers
After you finish printing your self-mailers, it’s now time to fold them. But, take care to finalise your folding options before you design or print anything.
There are several ways to fold self-mailers, and some of them are:
1. Barrel fold
It is also known as roll fold and is a popular method of mailing self-mailers. In this method, you must fold the mailer parallelly into three or four equal parts. So, when a person opens the front panel, the mailer rolls out.
2. Gatefold
As the name suggests, gate-fold self-mailers appear like a gate. Usually, the mailer is folded down to two panels that look like two gates, which the readers can open from either the left or right side.
3. Double fold
This method needs you to fold the mailer into two halves and repeat the process until you get multiple panels. All the panels should be about the same size. But, double-fold self-mailers have a disadvantage; the inside panel gets buried deeper with every fold. Hence, it reduces the chances of the reader reading that panel.
Seal your folded postcards properly with no open flaps to qualify for presorting and automation postage discounts.
Guidelines for Sending Folded Postcards
Your self-mailer sizes depend on your budget and message. But, consider the postal service guidelines regarding self-mailers before you decide anything.
Firstly, you should know that the folded postcard postage rate depends on its weight. Usually, self-mailers are about the same size and weight as letters, and Royal Mail charges them at letter rates.
If your self-mailers cross the prescribed letter dimensions, you would need to pay extra.
However, you still have the freedom to decide the number of panels or folds that your self-mailer can have. The post office is only concerned about the end mail item (the folded self-mailer) and not the number of folds it has.
It is advisable to visit your nearest post office and cross-check the dimensions to avoid any further troubles.
Tips to Conduct Successful Folded Postcard Marketing Campaigns
Before printing anything and sending it out to your mailing list, you should consider some things. Find below some practical tips to help you conduct successful mailing campaigns:
Let Your Message Flow
The complete theme of your self-mailer must be consistent. Make sure that all your panels have a similar layout.
Starting with the front panel, make it intriguing and eye-catching. It should not be too overwhelming for your audience but should create enough curiosity to make the prospects read further.
Every panel must have a different function, but they should be well-connected with one another. For example, you can start by introducing your brand, then move ahead to your product benefits. You can finally bring up your offer in the next panel and ask the audience to complete the CTA.
Share Customer Reviews
Adding customer reviews and real-life stories on the last panel of your self-mailers can help boost credibility. In addition, you can design a dedicated section for these reviews so that it is visible to everyone.
Make an Instant Visual Impact
As mentioned above, the design should not replace the cop. But, it does not mean that your design should not make an impression.
Use a folded postcard template that creates an immediate visual impact. So, the postcard should get people hooked to your message the minute they see it.
However, take care not to mess up your design and message. There should be enough white space, and your words should be readable. Avoid using fancy font styles and dark colours that make your text difficult to read.
Over to You
A folded postcard is simply a sheet of paper stock designed, folded, and mailed to a target audience. Companies use these self-mailers as a direct mail marketing strategy to increase response levels and conversions.
PostGrid’s direct mail API can help you create, print, and mail such folded postcards. You can automate the entire process and sit back as we lift the workload off your shoulders.
We offer many direct mail services like double-sided postcard printing, letter printing, etc.
The post Folded Postcard Mailer: Meaning, Uses, and Advantages appeared first on PostGrid UK.
source https://www.postgrid.co.uk/folded-self-mailers/
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