Also, how did you develop your mailing list? Did you use a service or compile it yourself? Lastly, if I can ask an indelicate question, what can one expect to pay for a postcard mailing.

I hope your move went well. Did I understand you correctly? You moved to a loft? You’ll have to blog all about it. Take care and thanks.

My experience with postcards has been through VistaPrint. They’re a very quick, nicely priced service, where you can upload your own images and/or words. You can get them sent directly to you to mail yourself, or you can add on mailing services there. To get around 500 postcards simply printed and sent to me (and I did the mailing) was around $100.

There are many other postcard companies out there that offer comparable services; do a little research and make sure you’re comfortable with the one you choose.

Developing a mailing list: I’ve worked on these over the past two years. My list of marketing agencies was developed by looking at Chicago and suburban chambers of commerce, where they list advertising/marketing agencies. I supplement that with general Google searches for Chicagoland marketing firms. My list of trade magazines was developed by Google searches and identifying big publishing companies that offer these magazines (Penton, Hanley Wood, etc.)

Hope this helps, Sherree (and all other readers!) And yes - my longtime boyfriend/living-in-sin-partner and I bought our first place, a cool loft in River West/West Town. We’re homeowners! Exciting, and petrifying!

This is a great post, as too often we forget that multiple marketing streams are far more effective than one, diluted marketing stream. The post card idea is simple but effective branding, as well; it’s that little bit of nutmeg in the cookie that makes it stand out. Well stated, great tips.

Maybe for the third quarter you could do pop up cards?

One real world marketing trick that I employ myself are to attend live networking events where I can hand out business cards and brochures. One I don’t use (but know I should) is cold calling. I definitely think that learning more about offline marketing is the key to growing an online writing business today.

@Kathryn: Thanks for the comment, and your own experiences! It’s so true - something to hold in your own two hands can go a long way towards making a good impression and cutting past clutter. I also don’t do cold calling, on purpose. The phone is a frightening beast when it comes to that…