Create a Marketing Poster from Postcards

Theresa Stone

Oh Happy Day is a DIY blog written by event planner and letterpress printer Jordan Ferney. Its posts are often meant to help the reader celebrate some happy occasion. That was the case in the recent post “Postcard Birthday Poster DIY.” The basic premise of the post is to print out 25 postcards that, when joined in a particular configuration, form one poster with birthday wishes for the recipient. That’s tricky enough, but Jordan wants you to enlist 25 friends to each send one of the postcards to the birthday guy or gal.

It’s a wonderful way to show one person a lot of love. It’s also an idea that can be greatly simplified and bent to the will of crass commerce.
Here’s what to do:
1. Download the free PDF from the Oh Happy Day blog so you can see how Jordan put together her poster.
2. Create your own design that will fit on fewer than 25 postcards. (I suggest four postcards, each measuring 4.25″ x 5.5″.) The design can market your services or a client, and each portion should leave the recipient wanting to see the rest of the design. On the back of each card, include brief instructions that explain the poster concept to the recipients so they know not to throw away any of the cards.

3. Have your cards printed professionally or, if you’re sending to only a few people, use a desktop printer.
4. Send each address on your mailing list all four postcards.
5. In case a recipient tossed one or more of the original four cards, you may want to follow up with a fifth postcard that shows the entire poster and includes a final call to action.