This is a good tactic for when you first start, and you can save money by doing single, large orders when you print postcards. The problem comes in about a year after they've started and they're still sending out their postcard printing campaign to this mailing list.

Often the list remains exactly the same as it was when they first started. At most they'll add to the list, but they won't take off any of the names.

The idea I'm sure is that these people who haven't been buying from them will eventually come around and give them some business. This might be true, but is the long shot possibility really worth the cost it takes to keep sending these people postcards?

The reality of marketing is that some people just aren't going to have interest in your business no matter how much marketing material you send them. These people just aren't interested, and continuing to market to them isn't going to do you much good. If you've been sending out color postcards every month for a year or more to them and they still haven't bought anything from you the time might come when you have to realize they never are, or they just don't have interest.

The best way to handle your direct mailing is to be constantly working with your mailing list to continue updating it. You want to be sure that eventually you're cutting out all of the names of people who have never bought anything or shown interest, and try to add as many new names that you can to see if these people might have interest.

Sure, it doesn't cost much to print postcards, but is that really a good reason to keep sending them to people who aren't interested in your company? You're still spending something on the postcards not to mention the cost to mail them, and you aren't getting anything at all in return for that effort, because the people are never going to want to buy from your company.

Don't fool yourself into thinking that a large mailing list is going to by default reflect a successful direct mailing campaign. A large mailing list is only useful if a large number of people from that list are going to be purchasing items from you. Eventually you need to be willing to cut out some names in order to make the process go smoother, and focus more of your attention on your real customers.