Shared postcards for Sarasota-area businesses.
Postcard Advantage, the company Suncoast Local is part of, runs shared postcard advertising in the Sarasota area: one large card, a handful of local businesses, mailed to every home on a neighborhood's postal routes. A jumbo card reaches about 5,000 homes.
How a shared postcard works
A shared postcard is one large card with sixteen ad slots. Each slot goes to a different local business, with only one business per category. The postal service's Every Door Direct Mail program delivers it to every home on the chosen carrier routes, so it lands in the mailbox, not in a stack of flyers by the door.
Because the printing and the postage are shared, each business pays for a share of one mailing instead of a whole mailing of its own. And because a card only prints once every slot is sold, nobody pays for a half-empty card.
There are two sizes. The 9 by 12 inch jumbo card reaches about 5,000 homes. The 6 by 11 inch card reaches about 2,500, with the same sixteen slots and the same rules.
One card, many local businesses
An illustration of one side of a jumbo card: ad slots above and below a center band. Each slot is a different kind of business.
From a reserved slot to every mailbox on the route
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Claim your category
Check that your trade is still open on the card for the zone you want, and reserve it. One business per category, per card.
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Pay for your slot
One payment in full, with no deposit and no balance later. Until the card locks, that money is refundable.
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The ad is designed for you
Send a logo and an offer, or nothing at all. Postcard Advantage designs the ad and sends you a proof. Any changes you ask for are made.
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The card fills, prints and mails
A card only prints once every slot is sold. The postal service then delivers it to every home on the chosen carrier routes.
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You judge the response
Your ad carries its own QR code and the scans are counted for you. An offer that exists only on the card tells you which calls it brought.
Zones are built from carrier routes, not ZIP codes
The postal service divides every town into carrier routes, and each route is one loop a carrier covers. Every Door Direct Mail lets a mailer buy a whole route at a time, on the condition that every address on it receives the piece. There is no mailing list to buy and no names on the cards.
A ZIP code is a blunt tool around here. One ZIP in Sarasota can take in a gated golf community and a block of older rentals a few streets apart, and a roofer or a pool service wants very different things from each. Postcard Advantage builds each zone by hand from individual routes and sizes it to land about 5,000 homes. Routes are picked on the housing rather than the postcode.
When you ask about a card, you get the route list and the number of homes it really reaches before you pay. Zones open one at a time, starting where several local trades want the same neighborhood. If your area is not covered yet, saying so is the fastest way to get it built. Postcard Advantage explains the process in detail on its how it works page.
A QR code on every ad, and call tracking if you want it
Every ad on the card carries its own QR code in its top-right corner. It is included in the slot price and is on unless you switch it off. A reader who points a phone camera at it lands on your website, or on a free landing page if you do not have one, and the scans are counted and shown to you day by day.
Call tracking is an optional add-on at $49 a year, not part of the slot price. You choose a local number in your area code. It prints on your ad where your own phone number would go, on every card you are on that year. Calls ring straight through to you. When you pick up, a short message says "Postcard Advantage call. Press 1 to accept," so you always know the call came from the card. Every call is counted and missed calls are emailed to you. Nothing is recorded.
You do not need call tracking to advertise: the QR code and an offer that appears only on the card already show you what the card brought. Details are in the Postcard Advantage questions.
Why the mailbox still works on the Suncoast
Plenty of households here never pass a bulletin board in a given week. They drive from a gated community to the store and back, or they are seasonal residents who arrived last month and do not know anyone to ask yet. Nearly every one of them checks a mailbox.
That is the appeal of mail for a local trade. A card does not wait for anyone to search for it. It arrives on its own and gets read at the kitchen counter, and it may still be on the refrigerator weeks later when the pool pump starts making a noise or a screen panel tears in a storm.
Mail also reaches people who rarely look for local businesses online, and it helps your name come to mind for the people who do. Nobody on a card is promised a particular number of calls, and we will not suggest otherwise. What a card offers is a fair, measurable chance to be seen by the homes around your work.
One business per category, held to the letter
Exclusivity on a shared card only means something when the categories are clear. A roofer does not want a second roofing company two slots away under a slightly different label, and a lawn service does not want a landscaper who also mows on the same card.
So each card carries one business per category, and the categories are set before the card goes on sale. Roof repair and roof replacement count as one category; so do lawn care and landscaping. The rule is enforced in the ordering system rather than promised on a phone call. Categories are claimed in order, so popular trades go quickly in a given zone.
If you were on the last card in a zone, your category is held for you while you decide on the next one. Nothing renews on its own and nothing bills you again automatically: you have to say yes.
Your ad is designed for you and checked before print
Nobody needs a graphic designer to be on a card. Send a logo and an offer if you have them; with nothing more than your business name and phone number, the ad still gets laid out for you. A proof of the actual card comes back before printing, with your ad in its slot and the other advertisers around it, and any changes you ask for are made. Nothing goes to press until you approve it in writing.
Good ads on a shared card are simple. One clear offer reads better than a list of every service you provide, a specific figure beats a vague percentage, and a deadline beats an open-ended offer. The phone number should be easy to spot from across the room. Ask for the finished artwork and you can use it anywhere else you like.
Your ad can also point people to your website. Many readers look a business up before they call, especially for a bigger job. A Suncoast Local website gives anyone who searches your name after seeing the card a clear page to land on, with your services and service area spelled out.
Paying for a slot, and judging what it did
You pay for a slot once, in full: no deposit first and nothing left to owe afterward. Before you pay, you get four things in writing: the zone and how many homes it covers, the slot price, the date the card must fill by, and the date it mails. Printing waits until every slot is sold. If the card misses its fill date, you choose between a full refund and staying on with 20% off your next card.
Judging the result is easier than many people expect. Your ad carries its own QR code and the scans are counted for you. Put an offer on the ad that appears nowhere else and ask callers to mention the card, and any call that names the offer came from it. Comparing your calls in the weeks after the card lands with the weeks before gives you a second, rougher view.
Timing matters for seasonal trades on this coast. A card about pool heaters reads differently in November than in June, and one that arrives just before the seasonal residents return can land at a useful moment. More than one drop in the same area tends to build familiarity with a name, though no one can promise a particular result from mail.
To ask about a category or a neighborhood, use the category check on Postcard Advantage. You can also call (888) 348-1992 or send a note through our contact page. You can also browse the cities and neighborhoods we write about while you think about where you want more work.
Questions about shared postcards
In the Sarasota area, in zones Postcard Advantage builds route by route from postal carrier routes. Before you pay, you are told which routes the zone covers and how many homes that is.
Postcard Advantage quotes the slot price for the zone you want, in writing, together with the date the card must fill by and the date it mails. Your slot covers the design of your ad, the printing and all of the postage.
The card only mails once every slot is sold. If it has not filled by the date you were given, you choose: take a full refund, or stay with it and take 20% off your next card.
No. A card works better when people who look you up find something, which is why we also build websites, but the two are separate and each is bought on its own.
Postcard Advantage does. Send a logo and an offer, or nothing at all. You get a proof of the real card with your ad in its slot, and nothing prints until you approve it in writing.