How to Effectively Brand Yourself through Postcards
- Written by Neil Patel on June 8th, 2007
- 11 Comments »
First time visiting Quick Sprout? Make sure you subscribe to the RSS feed before you leave!.
In the past I discussed how you can brand yourself through blogs and other online channels such as social networks but I didn’t get into much regarding other ways. With the web being so popular and ever evolving, new doors open up constantly that allow you to brand yourself. One unique way to do this is through postcards.
You maybe thinking that postcards have nothing to do with the web, but they actually do. There is a website on the web called Post Crossing that gives you the physical address of 5 random people. What you do is write a postcard to those individuals on whatever you want, perhaps telling them what you do and what you are all about. Once they receive your postcard they write back. This helps you build relationships with totally random people and more importantly brand yourself in other places you might not have thought of.
Sean Duran, a friend of mine, has been doing this for a while and now far more people know him as a professional photographer and videographer. Although this didn’t help Sean brand himself in the photography field, it did help him brand himself with tons of unique individuals as a professional photographer. This has worked so well that people are actually interested in hiring him. To me, this is another form of grass roots marketing for your own brand.
If you have some spare time and are looking to brand yourself through postcards, here is what I recommend:
- Paint a picture - Create postcards or buy postcards related to you and what you are trying to brand yourself as. (This is part of your brand experience) For example, if you are trying to brand yourself as a car expert, buy a postcard that has a picture of a car.
- Get personal – You need to tell the receiver of the postcard who you are, what you do, and anything else that’s unique about yourself. If you don’t do this how will you be differentiating your brand?
- Create a conversation – If you end the postcard in a very open way and invite response and discussion, it initiates a far better relationship than just reaching out. Everyone likes talking about themselves so give them a chance to do so. If you do this, the chances are they will remember you and what you do.
Postcards alone will not get you famous, but they do allow others to get to know you and more importantly allow you to get to know others. This is a great way to network with others as well brand yourself in a fun way. Who knows, you may meet someone with similar interests as yourself.
This entry was posted on Friday, June 8th, 2007 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Networking. You can follow the blog through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hey, thanks very much for writing about me, Neil! This is a pretty unusual way of branding yourself, but I’ll vouch for it. I’ve met all sorts of people with very little effort (and it’s fun getting real mail, heh).
It is very unusual, but if it worked for you it can work for others.
Oh,it is very interesting post. I like mail some postcards to my friends when I travel to new space. I let my friends know where I stay.
I often forget their mail address.Then, I want to Social Network website could provide me a simple way to get address information of my friends.Maybe I could get them through sms in my cell phone by SMS websites:)
You should save them on your cell phone. That way you have them no matter where you go.
Hi Neil,
From your articles, it is very clear that how much of an conscious effort you put in your daily thoughts that you are always able to find relevant information.
Thx for the tips
Vijay
Interesting post Neil and it’s a good spin on permission marketing. I can see how Post Crossing or just sending post cards can be a cheap yet effective way to build friendly relationships with people. Then later you can tap in to your network of post carders who could use your services or at least refer you to others who could use your services. I think it is great way to break through ad clutter. Plus, you are striking a chord with them on a more personal level rather than just sending them an ad stating “Hey here’s my business and call me if you need my service.”
I guess I have several questions for Sean. How many how post cards have you sent out? What’s number of responses back to you? Out of the responses how many those have come to be clients or referred business to you?
From my conversations with Sean he has sent out over 20 postcards and received around 18 which has lead to 2 referrals.
The two main reasons I think this has worked for Sean is because he builds relationships and he makes his own postcards.
Hi Neil,
What an interesting concept! Thank you for writing a post about such a neat service. I have signed up. As a person who is just beginning to take a proactive approach to personal branding, this is an excellent tool to test the effectiveness of my message and meet new people while I am at it!
Lindsay
I just love this low-tech way of networking. At the very least, it will get some of us away from our computers for a few minutes. One place I have gotten some cool postcards for free when they are having a promotion is Vistaprint. I like how you can upload your own image. I am going to sign up for this right now. It’ll be cool to get some snail mail that isn’t bills.
Interesting idea! I think I’ll give it a try. What do you think about creating unique postcards for your specific brand? Like if I were to do one about my own photography site, have one of my photos on the front, along with a logo and URL?
I think that is a great idea. Not only does it help with branding, but it will help bring people to your website.