Seeking Honest Critique of Postcard Design

Sunbelt

New member
Hey Y'all,

Following is the design that is a conglomeration of ideas from me, my RSVP Rep, their graphic designer and some words/phrases/pictures shamelessly lifted from postcard and other mailer examples y'all have been kind enough to make available for us ad-copy-challenged souls.

The watermark on the front picture will be gone once the picture is approved by me and RSVP purchases the use license.

I've got concerns about the font being used in the offer-boxes on the back, especially the fine-print. My eyes aren't very good to begin with, so that may be the problem for me. If you have pretty good eyes and still can't read it pretty comfortably, please let me know.

I'm torn between pushing for more ad-copy on the back or leaving it as is. My original proposal had a couple of short paragraphs done in a conversational kind of tone, but it basically included the info in the bullet-points that RSVP has here.

I'm pretty sure the graphics dept. doesn't work on weekends, so that's how long I have to get your input. I hope to have the design process complete and the project on the way to the printer by Monday afternoon. Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions you can offer.

Just as an FYI, if you're wondering what restrictions apply to the offers, for the house wash discount I'm limiting it to a minimum of 2500 sq. ft. of exterior wall surface, and will charge $.20 per sq. ft. and discount from that. The vast majority of homes in the zip I'm mailing to will be in excess of 3500 sq. ft. of outside walls. Many will be 2 - 3 times that.

Front concrete special is minimum 1500 sq. ft. at the same price per. The average home will be close to that minimum figure, maybe closer to 2000 sq. ft.

Let me know and thanks again.

Front:
4x6Postcard-front-2-2.jpg


Back:
4x6Postcard-back-2-2.jpg
 
Postcards look good Tom. Gotta be totally honest here though. Get ready for nothing greater than a 2% response from them. Also,if you're offering $150 off people are thinking "how high is it to get that much off". People are looking for $150 washes not $150 off, at least in my area and you're pretty close. Sure you're going after areas that have a greater household income, but they're looking for the bargains too. I've had good sucess running low $ pricing with lower sq footage maximums, get the phone ringing, and upsell from there. Then if someone still wants a 3000 sq ft'er washed for the same price you advertised for a 1200, you don't wanna work for them anyway. If you can get $350 for a 2500 sq ft house (2500 X .20 minus $150) and $250 on 1500 sq ft of concrete too, God bless you, you've got it going on. Those same figures run $400 total here. I wish you the best with it, its just that I know what works it the area, I've crossed that 'Bama border many times this year.
 
Put a phone # on the front.
1 what you do
2 how to contact you

I been a printer for over 25years it looks good.

Back page put the before and after pic under each other, not across
 
A 150 dollars is a huge discount on a house wash. 50 dollars off on a driveway wash would be a 1/4 of the price in most cases. the discount prices seem to be too high of a dollar amount in my opinion. you might be better offering a percentage discount instead of dollar amount, other than that I think the postcard looks good
 
An expiration date should be included as an incentive to act now. I know that requires a change to artwork for each mailing but I think it's needed as a call to action.

If not I think a "Limited Time Offer" should be included if you don't want to commit to an actual date.

Also get rid of the "!" at the end of phone number so that those of us that need reading glasses can see the phone number easily without chasing them.

I also agree that the dollar amounts off imply a high normal price instead just of using percentages. "Such as 20% off all work."

If you don't have a website you are missing the bus. 100 X more bang for the buck. A cheap website optimized well will get you much more business than a year of post cards when dealing with residential. Almost 100% of the people living in +3,500 s/f homes will be using the web to find a service business. Just my opinion.
 
When offering a discount and saying some restrictions apply, dont you have to put the restriction in fine print somewhere on the postcard. Im not sure but I think you do.

What I would do is just offer discount and leave an area on the post card ( somewhere around the offer ) to hand write an expiration date on it. This way you wont have to change and format when getting it printed. You can get as many printed and never have to chagne anything.
 
You made a common mistake, putting your name in the headline. The headline is THE most important piece of text in any ad. You have only 15 seconds to capture their attention. YOU are not the attraction. If you were, there would be no need to advertise. What you can DO for them, that is your headline. I would expand your headline, and remove your company name to where it belongs, at the Bottom of the ad.

I don't know a lot about advertising house washes. But in Roof Cleaning, we try to build some kind of urgency to respond with headlines like "What's Eating Your Roof"
This puts fear of God in them, makes them think.

I am sorry, but "Enhance The Curb Appeal" don't make me want to pull out my wallet.
I would make the 150.00 off larger, call it a limited time offer, and put ACT NOW in Red Bold Letters.
 
I know this is old but a good thread.
Lose the "free estimate" every one does that on home services call to action is better there but "Call Now" is almost as bad. When I sent cards it was "our spring cleaning schedule is filling up" I did vacation specials, as in "I need spending money for my vacation, so XX off until I leave in three weeks"
 
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