Business postcards are a highly visual marketing tool that allows businesses to advertise their offers, events, promotions, and news in an affordable, single-page mailer. Because they don’t have a ton of space, you not only have to be discerning about the content you put in your postcard, but you also have to make sure it’s eye-catching too. In this article, discover different easy-to-recreate postcard ideas that would effectively communicate your brand’s message.
Postcards are so easy to create that you can make and print your own on a site like Vistaprint for as low as $50 for 500 pieces.
Before you create your own, get inspired by the 16 business postcard examples below.
1. Restaurant Postcard
(Source: UPrinting)
Restaurant postcards are an excellent way to advertise your newly opened branch around the community. They’re easy to mail, so a new restaurant can send postcards to addresses in their ZIP code without spending too much money. They’re also the perfect space to display your menu, contact information, social media pages, and address. If you’re a fast food restaurant, you can even include discounts and promotions in a tear-off portion to entice people to visit.
2. Real Estate Postcard
(Source: One Step Services)
Like restaurant postcards, real estate postcards can help you get recognized around the community. There are endless ways to create a real estate postcard. Some agents use the space to introduce themselves and their services, while others feature listed and sold properties to display their portfolios. You can even include the median home values in your area or provide free quotations and consultations for buying and selling.
3. Travel Agency Postcard
(Source: Stock Layouts)
A postcard is one of the best marketing tools for a travel agency. Not only can you use the space to display beautiful travel photos, but a postcard is extremely on-brand as well. Present different vacation destinations on various postcards, and include package prices, must-see spots, travel tips, and your contact information for maximum exposure.
4. Cafe & Bakery Postcard
(Source: Inkd)
A “just opened” postcard can be a wonderful way to spread the word in the community. You can even include a free cup of coffee or a free pastry voucher to get people to stop by. But don’t just limit yourself to expanding your branding. You can also use postcards as invitations to events in your cafe. Aside from pertinent event information (e.g., the name of the event and a short description), include your contact information, address, and maybe even a map of where you’re located.
5. School Postcard
(Source: Erica Hartman)
Sending out recruitment postcards is an affordable way to get more visitors onto your campus. Since they’re single-page mailers, they’re a lot cheaper than sending out recruitment packets to students across the country. You can also use postcards to invite parents and potential students to open houses, campus tours, and homecoming events.
6. Spa Postcard
(Source: The CreativeTaylor Boutique)
As one of the cheapest marketing materials at your disposal, you can create a host of postcards for your spa to advertise your business, invite customers to try out new services, and display promotional material. One idea to generate excitement is to host a raffle or giveaway. Include the details on the postcard itself and leave it at your front desk. Since postcards are easy to carry, existing clients can help you expand your clientele by passing these around.
7. Nonprofit Postcard
(Source: Envato Tuts)
Postcards are an affordable way to get in touch with your donors. As a nonprofit, you can use the space to give light to new causes, tell compelling stories, or give more information to your patrons about where their money is going and what you’ve done so far. To stay under budget, you can easily create your own postcard with templates on sites like Vistaprint. For more design freedom, you can use a graphic design website like Canva.
8. Art Gallery & Museum Postcard
(Source: Lucie Hajková)
Similar to a nonprofit postcard, you can create a museum postcard to reach out to your members and patrons. More than that, you can also use your postcard as promotional material for a new gallery or as an invitation to an event. Since these types of postcards should look more striking and unique, get in touch with a professional graphic designer on Fiverr to create a postcard design for your business for as low as $5.
9. Gym Postcard
(Source: Pikbest)
Promote your gym or fitness center to new clients by including a list of services and even trainers they can contact. You don’t have to mail these out either. Like a spa or salon postcard, treat these like brochures and leave them by your front desk so that members can pick a few up and pass them around. To make it even more enticing, include free passes on the postcard.
Another way to set you apart is by partnering with other small businesses in your area. For example, you can offer a free coffee or a free smoothie at your local cafe and place that on your postcard. You can even offer discounts to sporting goods stores or athletic stores. That way, you can advertise your business while networking with other businesses at the same time.
10. Clothing Store Postcard
(Source: BetterSry)
Since postcards are such visual mediums, they’re the perfect space to introduce a new clothing line or collection. It can essentially be a catalog for your clothes. You can also use postcards for advertising sales or any other promotional material. Despite having a ton of images, a postcard is still extremely affordable to create—cut the costs and do it yourself with templates from Moo.
11. Plumber Postcard
(Source: BrandMeHigh)
Sending out postcards for plumbers and other types of maintenance work (like HVAC services) increases your business’ reputation and name recognition around the community. Furthermore, you can also use the space to remind your existing customers of their warranty periods for particular services and products. Other ideas that you can include in a maintenance business postcard are discounts, promotions, your contact information, and a list of your services.
12. Medical Services Postcard
(Source: Graphic Reserve)
Use a medical business postcard to promote your services. You can also introduce new staff, which is especially useful for small community clinics, invite the community to attend a talk or a conference, or give information about new healthcare packages and products. Don’t forget to include office hours and contact information, especially for your emergency line.
13. Vet Postcard
(Source: Knorpics)
Vet clinics can use postcards as promotional material too. Aside from information about your services, make your postcard more interesting by adding fun pet or animal facts. You can also personalize your postcard. If you have the budget for it, send individual postcards with pictures of your clients to their addresses to remind their owners that they’re due for a checkup.
14. Supermarket Postcard
(Source: Canva)
A supermarket opening, new products and produce, and sales are the perfect time to send out postcards. Create your own through Canva, a graphic design site with customizable templates and a printing service. To make your postcard more unique, you can use free, high-quality images or purchase premium images through Canva’s library as well, like in the example above.
15. Construction Services Postcard
(Source: Vistaprint)
Narrowing down your audience applies just as much to physical marketing too. Let your potential clients know about your services by sending them postcards. Target your customers by sending postcards to recent homebuyers. Since postcards are much smaller than brochures, don’t feel tempted to stuff information, and keep it simple and neat. High-quality images and a strong call to action can often do much more for marketing your business than a cluttered postcard or flyer.
16. Marketing Consultant Postcard
(Source: Stock Layouts)
Don’t feel constrained by templated postcards. Although they’re cheap and easily available on Vistaprint and Moo, a business like a marketing consultancy needs a more creative postcard to stay on-brand and to set the company apart. Instead, spend a little more and hire a professional graphic designer on Fiverr to create a fully customized, high-quality postcard for your business.
Similar to our construction example above, narrow down your audience instead of blindly sending your postcard to every address on your list. Use the public business registry to find newly registered businesses in your area or specialty, and send them a postcard directly.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How do I create my own postcard?
You can easily create your own postcard through a graphic design site like Canva, or through template sites like Vistaprint and Moo. These sites allow you to create all sorts of marketing materials through templates you can edit and customize. To make it even easier for you, these sites also offer printing services. However, if you want a professionally designed postcard, you can always hire a graphic designer through Fiverr for as low as $5.
What information should I include in a postcard?
Before creating your postcard, first determine the type of content you want to put in it. You can use it to introduce potential customers to your business and services, highlight new products and information, or even give discounts and promotions. Don’t forget to include your logo, your business’ name, contact information, address, and office hours so that customers can reach out to you easily. Finally, don’t forget to include a strong call to action to get people to act.
Bottom Line
All kinds of industries can benefit from distributing postcards, but to make the most out of it, ensure that you’re using high-quality images alongside your postcard’s content. This is easy to do with a site like Canva, where you can edit templates with high-quality library images for free.
If you want to save some time, you can always hire a professional on Fiverr for as low as $5. No matter which route you choose, print out your postcards quickly and affordably through Vistaprint.
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