When Theodore Hook created what was believed to be the first postcard in 1840, it was a hand-painted design bearing the caricature of post office workers, which he sent to himself. In 1848, a pictures with blank card stocks bearing messages became a form of advertising. Yet it wasn’t until 1861 when the postcard was officially patented. At some point in history, postcards were even used as propaganda at war time, so there really is no telling how creative people can be in using them, personally or business-wise.

    The history of the postcard is long and arduous, yet they still persist today. Contemporary postcards are shown to have art and images based on colored photographs, but with today’s social media era, postcards have mostly novelty uses, although any businesses also use them to advertise or to offer coupons and discounts.

    Postcard use is not only affordable, it is also highly versatile. In fact, not only are they used to send short messages to friends and family while on travel, they are also used as marketing tools -- as more personal alternative to flyers and posters. Postcards today are considered oversized business cards that can brand your company in a way that other marketing collaterals cannot. Postcards, for instance, are also known to be time-savers as recipients don’t have to open envelopes to read messages that accompany them. This may not sound impressive, but only 14 percent of letters are opened in the United States. This is because enveloped mail that bear names and logos that individuals are not familiar with, are ignored. In contrast, about 94 percent of postcards get read simply because of their design and short messages.

    Very inexpensive to print and fully customizable, postcard templates are available for free in this website, each of which can be edited for personal or business use. Simply choose a postcard to match your own style, download, and edit with your own logo or artwork. The vast library at Template.net ensures that there’s going to be a layout that you can use, whether simple and elegant, colorful and wild, or fun and adventurous. Whatever you’re planning on, Free Templates offers its entire catalogue of professionally crafted designs to use at your convenience.

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