While many think that digital marketing has all but completely replaced direct mail marketing, and the need for real estate postcards, according to the Direct Marketing Association, “response rates for direct mail to an existing customer average 3.40 percent , compared with 0.12 percent for email, which is roughly a 30 fold difference.” While real estate postcards and business postcards have physically developed since Theodore Hook’s earliest known picture postcard, a 1940 drawing of postal workers, their usefulness has also increased. To take advantage of the strengths of direct mail postcards, any business would help itself by building strong working relationship with a great postcard printing company.

Many may be unaware that postcard collecting, known as deltiology, is thought to be one of the three largest collectible hobbies in the world. While direct mail marketing and real estate postcards might not always interest serious collectors, customized postcards can be useful in eliciting a response from potential customers. These kinds of direct advertising campaigns are valuable in terms of their ROI, since they show how many potential customers responded to a distinct call to action.

Real estate postcards serve as an integral part of contemporary direct marketing, which was fathered by Lester Wunderman who created both the 1 800 toll free phone number and the magazine subscription card. As custom postcard printing technology has advanced, so too has the capabilities of direct marketing campaigns. Although some people are likely to ignore real estate postcards, direct mail of this sort is still likely to achieve a high ROI for businesses. This can be vastly beneficial in both increasing brand name recognition and building a bigger, more loyal customer base.