When it comes to direct marketing, direct mail is actually the most common form of marketing used today. But even in the past marketers have used direct mail, it actually goes back decades, to help get their message across. The reason that this method is still used today is because of how effective the method of direct mail marketing is. This method has been proven to be a versatile and measurable marketing method.

Something else that has been proven about direct mail marketing is that if it is being used correctly you are going to have a higher success rate. But keep in mind that this should only be used in addition to your other marketing techniques; you never want to rely solely on one type of marketing technique. The thing about direct mail marketing is that in order to use it properly you are going to have to do quite a bit of research and planning. But once you have everything figured out it is going to be one of your cheapest marketing techniques. The reason for this is that it is going to cost on average around $1 for each piece of direct mail that you send out, and this includes postage, printing, paper, and ink.

Some other benefits to using direct mail are that it allows you to control the amount of growth for your business. The way that this works is that you are going to be the one who chooses who you are including on your direct mail list, so if you only want to increase your business by a small percentage you simply only use a small amount of your list and vice versa if you are looking to expand at a higher rate. But the best thing about using direct mail as a form of marketing is that it has been proven to get a response rate of 1 to 3%. Knowing this number also helps you determine how many you are going to need to mail out in order to get your business to grow at the rate you want. But just mailing out fliers or postcards is not going to guarantee that you will get any kind of response you are going to need to actually work hard to achieve that response rate.

But before you can even think about sending out any direct mail you are going to need to obtain a mailing list. There are two different types of lists available. There are saturation mailing lists which give small businesses greater value per name than resident lists. And the other type of list is a resident list; the main advantage to resident lists is you can pull names from a narrowed type of criteria. For example if you were looking for customers of a certain age you could narrow your list to just those age groups, but this method would then be considered direct mailing because you are directing your advertisements to a specific group of customers rather than everybody you can reach.

So in order to make sure that you avoid failure here are some tips that you can follow to make sure that you get some kind of response from your direct mail marketing:

Tip one:
You want to make sure that your piece of mail doesn't look like junk mail. If your letter looks like junk mail the chances are pretty high that it is going to be tossed in the trash before it even gets opened. And if that happens that means your entire campaign was a waste of time. So what you are going to want to do is to make sure that your mail doesn't look like junk mail from the envelope alone. Some things that you can do to make it seem more personal is to use real stamps instead of a postage meter. You can also remove your business logo so that the return address looks like it is from a real person rather than a business, you can even try handwriting the address instead of using a printer. But if you would rather use a printer try changing the font to one that is not often used or even change the color of the envelope. There are numerous things that you can do if you just take the time to think about what makes you open an envelope rather than throwing it away.

Tip two:
Even if they have gotten the envelope open your letter can still end up in the trash can. Basically you have about one or two sentences to convince them to keep reading your mail or it is going to get tossed into the trashcan. So you are going to want to come up with a great headline so that you can grab their attention. When coming up with a headline you are going to want to try to get some kind of an emotional response out of your readers and the stronger emotional response that you get the better it is because it will increase your chances that they will read on and buy your product or service. The best way to trigger that emotional response is to ask some type of question or provide them with some type of answer to a problem that your product is designed to stop. But whichever method you choose you are going to want to make sure that you are highlighting your biggest benefit in some way.

Tip three:
If you bore them within the next few paragraphs you still run the risk of your letter getting tossed in the trash, in fact the further they read the better your chances are of getting some type of response from the readers. So in your introduction paragraphs you are going to want to grab their attention once again. Your best chance of doing this is by knowing your target market. In fact the more you know and understand about your target market the better prepared you are going to be in writing your letter. The reason for this is because you can write a letter based on what your target market needs and wants. Not to mention that you can write copy that is based directly at them, in words that they are going to understand and relate too.

Tip four:
Always make it perfectly clear in your marketing message what you expect your recipients to do and what they can expect you to do. And the most important thing about this is to follow through with what you have promised. If you have said you will never give out your subscription list to a third party, don't do it, no matter how tempting the offer might be. This will help you build up trust with your customers.

Tip five:
Because most people are not going to actually take the time to read the entire letter, for the most part they are going to scan the letter. So what you are going to want to do is make sure that you break up any long copy with subheadings. But you also want to make sure that you include some type of picture whether it is a photograph or a graph because the scanning reader's eye will stop and look at the picture that you have included.

Tip six:
One thing that you need to keep in mind about length is that everybody has an opinion about how long is too long. What you need to keep in mind is that you are going to want to keep on writing until you have said everything that you want to say. If you need two pages to say everything then use two pages. If you can fit it all onto a postcard simply use a postcard.

Tip seven:
You are going to have to design a piece of mail that you can mass produce and use to get new and old customers back to your place of business. Most companies who use direct mailing do a type of post card that gives the customer an incentive to come into the place of business. For example you can offer ten percent off their next purchase or you can offer a dollar amount of the next purchase. You can even give them a coupon to get an item free with a qualified purchase.

Tip eight:
Make sure that you edit the letter before you mass produce it. The best thing that you can do is to set the copy aside for at least a day if not two. After some time has passed you need to read the copy out loud and make notes on where it sounds awkward or where the words don't seem to flow right. Make the fixes and read the copy out loud again. If at all possible you should have somebody read the copy to you so that you can actually hear how it sounds out loud which is more accurate than you reading it to yourself.