Postcard Best Practices (Text Tutorial)
There is more to sending a great direct mail postcard than just learning how to use the tools provided by VerticalResponse. You also need to know the basics of creating a good postcard that will stand out in the potentially crowded mailboxes of your recipients.
Take a look at the webinars and articles below to learn how to launch a successful postcard marketing campaign. And don't forget to learn how to Create Postcards and Send Postcards using our tools if you don't already know how.
Articles & White Papers
Postcard tips
At this time we can only mail to US addresses, though the sender does not have to be located here.
VerticalResponse uses CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) to verify postal addresses with US Postal system. CASS is a software program that enables the Postal Service™ to evaluate the accuracy of address matching software programs in three areas: (1) ZIP+4 delivery point coding, (2) carrier route coding, and (3) five-digit coding.
Our system uses CASS to verify the postal address before the postcard is launched; our printer uses it as well, so that there shouldn’t be too many ‘bad’ addresses mailed through us. Generally though most people will still see about a 10% return on the postcards even with these precautions in place.
Since the postal addresses are being matched up with info from the post office, a good way to find out why an address is being rejected is at their site.
http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp
CASS is a program, so there is no room for spelling errors, or mistakes in the order of the address. A postal carrier can read what someone may intend, but computer programs can’t. Examples of typos that could be rejected are a typo in a street name, a company or building name in address line 1 instead of the street address or even just the wrong building number.
General info:
The free postcard is only for the 4x6 size, if you don’t see the free postcard option when you go to launch, it’s because the larger size was selected. Just switch the size on step number 1 and the free option will then be available on step 4.
The postcard TO addresses always gets printed in this order:
FIRST NAME LAST NAME
TITLE
COMPANY
ADDRESS 1
ADDRESS 2
CITY, STATE ZIP
These are the only fields that are read for the postcard lists, so no custom fields can be used. Also, there is no personalization on the cards so you can’t use Dear {FIRST_NAME} on a postcard campaign.
Fonts on Postcards
The character limit for the back of the card depends on the font size you choose. The character limit per line is listed below.
4x6
Smallest Font - 38
Small Font - 34
Medium Font - 28
Large Font - 24
Largest Font - 21
6x9
Smallest Font - 74
Small Font - 67
Medium Font - 55
Large Font - 47
Largest Font – 41
Postcard Image Specifications
"4x6" Specifications: Uploaded image should be 4" by 5.75". In pixels, the equivalent would be 400 x 575 or preferably 800 x 1150. Additionally, please do not add any content that you want printed any closer than 3/16" from the edges of the card as we will trim 2/16" from each edge during the cutting process.
"6x9" Specifications: Uploaded image should be 5.62" by 8.62". In pixels, the equivalent would be 562 x 862 or preferably 1124 x 1724. Additionally, please do not add any content that you want printed any closer than 3/16" from the edges of the card as we will trim 2/16" from each edge during the cutting process.
Purchasing:
Purchasing postcards is done as a pre-authorization initially, you are not charged for the postcards until they are actually sent to the printer. This pre-authorization will stay on the card for the length of time specified by the bank, usually about 2 weeks. If, in that time, the postcards are launch then the credit card is charged. After this is done, the postcard will move to the Reporting section with the status of Processing. Once we have sent the postcards to the printer this status will be removed and replaced by the date sent to the printer. We do not currently have a way to update when the postcards are dropped in the mail, but generally it is 3-5 business days from the date in the account.