Whether you call them card decks, action cards, direct-response-postcards, bingo cards or card packets, they can help your business prosper, but only if you follow the rules. Here's the way to make this selling tool work for you.

AVAILABILITY & COST
There are over 1000 suppliers of card decks today covering just about any market segment you can dream up. Most of these segments are listed in the SRDS book (Standard Rate & Data Services) available at most public libraries. If your public or college library doesn't have this expensive reference book, your state library will most likely lend one to your local library, and you can view it there.

You can choose from over a hundred prospective customer categories from computer buyers to health care to elementary teachers to science fiction readers and everything in between. The cost to you will be in the neighborhood of $25 to $60 per thousand addresses.

HOW IT WORKS
Your message will be printed on one side of a postcard and an address back to you on the other side. You can elect to have your prospect put a stamp on the card or you can arrange with your local post office for a business reply permit. Most deck suppliers will offer black and white, one, two, three or full color printing for a price. There are no valid statistics I can discover telling which works best, but most advertisers agree that color ALWAYS works better than black and white.

The card deck publisher will mail your card along with 20 to 50 others to a selected mail list of people who read targeted magazines and other publications. The deck of cards will be plastic or foil wrapped and will be addressed to the individual subscriber.

The prospect leafs through the deck, selecting those items he or she is interested in purchasing or discovering additional information about your offer. The subscriber puts their name and address on the card and mails it directly to you.

WHAT YOU CAN DO WITH A CARD DECK
First, you can sell products. Everything from a multi-thousand dollar franchise to a $14.95 gizmo. In the case of the gizmo, you probably want them to call an 800 number and give their credit card number (a very smart idea). When it comes to big ticket items, you are probably better off offering to send additional information.

The best use of a card deck is to generate leads for your in-house telemarketing department to follow up. Whether you have a staff of 50 or just you and your phone is immaterial. The fact that the prospect went to the trouble of mailing your card back means he or she is interested in your offer. Now it's up to you to capitalize on that interest and turn it into a sale.

RESULTS
Response can vary from 0.5 percent to 5 percent for lead generating cards, 1 percent to 2 percent for trial offers, and 0.01 percent to 1 percent for 'satisfaction guaranteed or your money back' sales offers. Put these return figures into your ad budget calculations and do your homework to see if there's any profit in it for you before you lay out any money. A good rule of thumb would be to shoot for a profit at the 0.5 percent return rate. Don't forget to add in the postage if you have business reply agreement with the Postoffice.

CARD DESIGN
The idea is to attract readers who may turn into prospects. You absolutely must have a picture or drawing, a newspaper style headline, a very simple to understand offer, more than one color, use of a buzz word or phrase (free, special offer, learn, how to, etc.), lots of white space and room for the prospect to write his or her name, address and phone number. A horizontal format is better than a vertical one simply because it's easier to read (by the way, this holds true for business cards as well).

WILL IT WORK FOR YOU?
This depends on whether you follow the rules. As in all direct mail advertising, try different formats in one market. Discover what brings in the greatest return, try something else different, record results, try something else and so on until you get the best return for your dollar. Advertising in a card deck on a one-time basis probably isn't profitable, you need to refine your offer over and over again. Copy the format of ads that have been out there for a few years. They've been there because they work. Good luck!