Play your cards right, without the decks; reply cards lack the glamour of other advertising forms, but they can do wonders for you and your advertisers.

Reply cards lack the glamour of other advertising forms, but they can do wonders for you and your advertisers.

Reply cards are the ugly ducklings in the magazine publishing family. Sales reps want those sexy double trucks with the big bucks. Ask an editor about response cards and you might as well be speaking a foreign language. The designers want to exercise their creativity on big projects, so response cards are at the bottom of their list. Production mavens do folios, and they know response cards can be a major pain. Circulation directors use reply cards, but they would rather do a cover wrap or, better yet, a nifty direct-mail campaign that wins an award.

So who really gets revved up about reply cards? Nobody …