Make it easy for customers to share their experience with new potential clientele by giving them the tools they didn’t know they needed.

I can’t stand recipes that force you to scroll on past a long story about some amazing trip to Paris to visit an ancient family member who taught them how to make pasta from scratch before it gets to the meat and potatoes of how to make Shepherd’s pie. So I’ll spare the details and just say I recently came across three great examples of how postcards (digital and print) can help boost your brand awareness.

Branded postcards offer a unique way to spread the word about your business.

As one of Charleston, South Carolina’s primo dinner spots, Le Farfalle isn’t exactly itching for new patrons. While folks without a reservation may find themselves enduring a subtropic sweat waiting on a table that may never be, Le Farfalle still hasn’t forgotten the importance of continued brand growth in and outside of Charleston.

At the end of a meal, the lovely and always one-step-ahead staff at Le Farfalle bring your bill and along with it comes a simple black & white postcard. The image might be a near and dear photo of the meat market one of its founders’ great-grand parents may have owned. It could just be an image from Shutterstock. Nevertheless the card invokes the story Le Farfalle’s brand and food tells. It’s a subtle and unassuming poke to tell someone you love about the best focaccia and braised broccoli rabe you’ve ever had in your life.

Similar to Le Farfalle’s approach, Diptyque‘s global perfumery allows visitors to create their own branded postcards when they open a new brick & mortar location or host a pop-up experience. But they take it a few steps further.

Diptyque offers paid postage and even encourages the recipient to bring the postcard they received into a Diptyque location in exchange for a free gift.

By offering an in-store postcard creation experience, free postage to anywhere worldwide, and an incentive for postcard recipients to pay them a visit, Diptyque secures its place as an international perfume staple.

The South Carolina Aquarium uses digital postcards to inform new audiences of their work while encouraging visitors to sign up for personalized newsletters.

Tucked smartly in their Zucker Family Sea Turtle Recovery™️, the South Carolina Aquarium offers a fun touch screen experience where you can learn about the unique sea turtles they’ve rescued, are rehabbing, and plan to release. As you scroll through these shelled patients, you’re given the opportunity to send a digital postcard to anyone, anywhere, for free.

With this digital postcard feature, you can choose from different postcard designs such as action shots of their rescues or simple messages of their mission (Rescue, Rehab, Release). Once you’ve chosen your design, you fill out an easy form asking for the name, email, and ZIP code of whomever you want to send a quick “hello” to.

Even smarter was the no-pressure nudge for the visitor themself to sign up for their newsletter. And this isn’t your boring “sign up for our newsletter” ploy. They give you different topic selections that appeal to different audiences like homeschool programs (especially clever during COVID) and 21+ events (clever anytime).

Applying this idea to a cheap tablet in a brick & mortar or at your farmers’ market booth is an easy way to encourage customers to interact with your brand personality and share their experience with new prospects.

Need some help figuring how you can implement a postcard referral system?

Email us at hello@courcollab.com and we can help you determine the best way to execute a referral strategy with your budget and target demographic in mind.