Sunday, January 30, 2011

Local Shop Advertising Made Easy with Snail Mail


Inspired by Totally Real's creator, Donna, and her latest blog post on snail mail, and after hearing about a new U.S. Postal Service option on NPR's The Last Word in Business a couple of weeks ago on Junk Mail, I was encouraged to make a post on the topic.  "Starting this year, marketers no longer have to provide exact addresses when they send out fliers, letters or other junk mail on a designated route.  The change is aimed at helping smaller businesses."

In recent years, e-mailing has become the norm for "junkers"; not saying that that is what we are as Etsy shop owners who are interested in getting our names out there, but we are interested in "advertising", and sales ads are generally considered junk mail: via e-mail or snail mail.  Now that advertisers/marketers are just able to print the words "postal customer" on their advertisements to get to local mailboxes, and not have to worry about purchasing pricey local mailing lists, there are no boundaries to your business's success.

An idea on how to take advantage of this new mailing option is to ... throw an art party!!!  Picking out a local location is a safe and easy venue plan for you and your potential customers: i.e. at your local park or library.  Be sure to make handsome little postcard invitations on sturdy card stock, and the stamp only costs you $0.28!  If you are interested in this idea, please be sure to check with your local post office on what size of dimensions your postcard advertisement/invitation can be; I used to know, but I forgot (my apologies).  Anyway, I hope that I have broadened your thoughts on local advertising, and inspired you to get out there and show them what you've got!

4 comments:

Jessica Woody said...

Sounds like a great idea; I would just need some capital to invest in those 28¢ stamps. I love the idea of hosting a party at your local library or park...you could also put a flier about the event on your library's bulletin board...free promotion!

Tiffany Barry said...

Amazing advice! Will certainly be passing this along to some friends!

-Tiffany
of
Will Write 4 Food
http://tiffanywillwrite4food.blogspot.com

Donna said...

Fun art party idea! And great info about the USPS. Something to definitely keep in mind. Thanks for mentioning me :)

Artifact Andrea said...

Thank You Ladies :-)