Professionally designed ad. Real tracking. Your money back if the card does not fill.
People are tired of digital ads and they have gotten really good at ignoring them. A postcard in their mailbox does not have that problem. It gets opened, read, and remembered.
Direct mail gets roughly 6 to 9 times the response rate of social media and search ads, according to the ANA/DMA Response Rate Report. That is a real gap, not a small one.
If you try to do this yourself, you are designing your own ad, finding a printer, and guessing whether it works. If you go through a typical local ad rep, you get a sales pitch and a contract with no guarantee. Here is what you actually get:
A solo postcard mailing to thousands of homes typically costs $2,000 to $5,000 or more once you cover printing and postage yourself, more for bigger mailings. On a shared card, you are splitting that exact cost with 14 to 16 other businesses, which is how a spot ends up costing a few hundred dollars instead of thousands.
Spots typically run $150 to $700 depending on card size and household reach. Commit to multiple cards and pay less per card. No hidden fees.