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In an ideal world, you would always have an adequate budget and plenty of time for all your direct mail tests. But here in the real world, things don't always work out that way. To survive in direct mail, you need a few tricks up your sleeve for improving

Meaningful sales messages are transmitted through language, not design. The goal of design, therefore, is to encourage and support readership. In general, a designer should strive to:

With no special instruction, people instinctively learn spoken language. In fact, within just three years, an infant will master a vocabulary of about 1,000 words. Reading, however, must be taught. It’s a difficult process, and even after years of instr

In an ideal world, you would always have an adequate budget and plenty of time for all your direct mail tests. But here in the real world, things don't always work out that way. To survive in direct mail, you need a few tricks up your sleeve for improving

Sure, the letter is the most important element in any direct mail package. But don't forget the brochure. It's important too! Whether you call it a brochure, circular, or flyer, make sure it's doing its job -- laying out all of the features and benefi

Take a look at the next four or five letters, e-mails, and memos that cross your desk. Do they sing out with clarity and precision? Or do they sound as if they were written by a lawyer in a Charles Dickens novel? Worse yet: do they sound like they were wr

In order to make a direct mail campaign work, it’s important to avoid common pitfalls. Mistakes can be in your copy, your list, and even on what you put on your envelope. Here are ten common mistakes people make that sabotage sales.

To be effective your sales letter must be opened, read, believed and acted upon. In order to do this it must attract attention, warm the interest of the reader, create a desire for your product or service and cause your prospect to take positive action.

Selling to the business buyer is not as different as some would have you believe. Business buyers are just people, with the same problems, fears, feelings, and dreams as everyone else. However, they are particularly busy. They are often not spending their

In order to make a direct mail campaign work, it’s important to avoid common pitfalls. Mistakes can be in your copy, your list, and even on what you put on your envelope. Here are ten common mistakes people make that sabotage sales.

How can you bring in more customers for your business than you're getting through print, radio or local TV advertising? The answer for many businesses is direct mail.

A brochure should not be an illustrated version of your letter. Your letter is a sales pitch, meant to be read generally in sequence from beginning to end. It should make a personal, emotional connection. And it should make a promise and ask for the order

One of the primary advantages of using direct mail is your ability to "divide and conquer." Your letter delivers a personal message and makes an offer. Your brochure demonstrates features and dramatizes benefits. Your order form calls for action and eases

Confused by all the formulas and ratios involved in measuring the effectiveness of direct mail fundraising campaigns? Don't be. Alan Sharpe reveals the magic four numbers to measure your costs, revenues, and returns.

Direct mail is one of the most important pieces of your marketing plan. Developing and executing the campaign can many times be a thankless job. Today's mailing regulations can get complicated--postage rates are changing and the flood of mail makes it har

Postal rate hikes are not the only increase in expenditures publishers are facing—there are also paper, production and printing costs to deal with. Following the tips listed here will put you well on your way to a more cost-efficient campaign—and high

You have to market to stay ahead in business today. Even if you live in a small community, marketing plays a big role in making your business creditable. Consumers today are subjected to anywhere from 1,800 - 3,000 advertising messages per day. With that

You spent the last few months of 2007 preparing for your 2008 direct mail campaign. Now that 2008 is here, how can you know if your direct mail sales letter is ready to mail? Check it against these 12 guidelines from Don Kanter, the US direct mail special

On your mark, get set…what? You don’t know where to go? You will after you review the checklist Modern Postcard has created. Designed to boost the effectiveness of your next direct mail campaign, these seven tips should be kept close at hand.

You want to send more than a greeting card to customers this holiday season, but mailing packages can seriously cut into the company budget. Margaret Bristol provides tips on how to pack your packages and ship them for optimal discounts!

When it comes to direct mail, everyone wants to find a way to get the same return on less investment. As one of the biggest expenditures in a direct mail campaign, production is a logical and easy place to start. Tracy A. Gill reveals seven simple things

Even the best marketing strategy will fail if the simplest steps to keep yourself and vendors from stumbling over names, formatting data, data cleansing and delivery are overlooked. Giselle Abramovich reports on the checklist of issues that will save you

Speaking as a panel member on “Maximizing Customer Engagement in Direct Mail” at the recent DMA conference, Carlton Shufflebarger, brand manager of direct mail for the USPS, shared tips to help mailers increase impact and response. Brittany Br

Mailing the same direct mail offer to the same consumer list a second time typically generates a response rate that’s 65 percent smaller than the initial response. Mailing a third time usually generates a response that's more than 50 percent smaller

Think you’ve tried every way to save on postage? Think again... Stephen R. Lett and Sandy Wolstencroft took it upon themselves to break down virtually all the ways you can implement change in your catalog mailing strategy to adapt to the new rates

Bill Singleton, manager of analytical services at database marketing and consulting firm The Allant Group, believes even the grandest strategy can fail if you're not paying attention to your lists. Here he lists the 10 most common mistakes to avoid losing

Postal rate hikes are not the only increase in expenditures publishers are facing—there are also paper, production and printing costs to deal with. Following the tips listed here will put you well on your way to a more cost-efficient campaign—

Bill Singleton, manager of analytical services at database marketing and consulting firm The Allant Group, believes even the grandest strategy can fail if you're not paying attention to your lists. Here he lists the 10 most common mistakes to avoid losing

Attend any direct marketing conference or chat with your peers, and you’ll undoubtedly encounter the double whammy of shrinking universes and list fatigue as a topic of conversation and concern. So what’s a marketer to do? Stefanie Pont shows

When you have a control package that’s performing near or on budget, you may not want to risk testing a completely different approach. You should, however, test “tweaks” to the control package that have the potential of generating small

It always floors me how many so-called ?experts? leave money on the table by forgetting to use a postscript (or P.S.) in their letters?or paste a drab blob of drivel at the end of a rock ?em, sock ?em pitch. Lea Pierce has five strategies to keep you from

You’ve done all the hard work to make sure your copy is perfect. The last part should be easy, just mail it, right? Wrong. How do you know if your direct mail sales letter is really ready to be mailed?

Errors in your database of customers and/or prospective customers are causing you to waste time and money on your direct marketing campaigns. There are simple steps you can take to improve the quality of your marketing data and thereby improve the return

What are the top five trends in database marketing? For starters – there’s an increased emphasis on data hygiene and integration is one of biggest trends in database marketing.

Do you know what some of the revised U.S. Postal Service? mailing standards are? Don’t be left out of the loop.

If the most important part of any business-to-business direct mail package is the list, how can you be sure that you have a good list before you drop your money (and your reputation) in the mailbox?

When should you use a self-mailer? Now is a pretty good time – especially since postal rates are going to shoot up in May. A self-mailer combines a letter, a brochure, and response device into a single piece of paper. Obviously, a self-mailer is les

Welcome to Direct Marketing 101. Your instructor, Ren? Gnam, is a leading authority in the direct marketing industry. Gnam presented these 18 Essential Elements during a seminar at a Florida Direct Marketing Days event. Take notes. You will be tested, ove

Are you in the dark about the quality of your database? If you are, turns out, you’re not alone. According to a recent report from QAS, an Experian company, many firms aren’t paying much attention to data cleaning.

For more targeted mailings – ever thought about listing a “vanity city” name on your mail pieces? Your recipients just might prefer it – and usually, if they like what they see, the more chances they will open your mail. Here’

They surf and chat. Blog and bid. Upload, download, scan, browse, post, flame, IM, zap, and share. And, if there’s any time left, they may squeeze in a game or two of Chicken Invaders. Today’s consumers are up to their earphones in ever-evolvi

You could have the most persuasive offer and copy known to mankind and still fail miserably. How? By failing to convince your prospect to open the envelope.

Worried you might lose your mail to an outdated or converted rural route? No need to fret, help is already here. Direct marketers can reach more rural route customers by using LACSLink TM.

In any direct marketing effort, if the relevance of the message delivered is the key to building perceived value and response, why do so many marketers take obvious shortcuts that negatively impact results? Okay, that was a long sentence. Let me try again

With the increase in direct mail volume at all-time highs, the need to grab a reader’s attention in a sales letter is even more crucial. As a prospect sorts through loads of daily mail, he needs to know two things up front: what is being sold and ho

Suppression may sound constrictive, but it’s actually a very valuable direct marketing tool as it can save you money. Suppression is when you squash undesirable or wasteful names from your mailing list, such as people who are deceased, those who are

As consumers move their media preferences toward customized, one-to-one vehicles such as iPods, satellite radio and TiVo?, marketers are challenged in managing multi-channel messaging opportunities. That’s why mailstream marketing – the direct

Most direct marketers face limited funding and time for testing creative strategies and executions. With the little bit of money available, managers must structure creative tests very carefully. Here are eleven rules for doing that.

Direct mail marketing rules are made to be broken, or so I'm told. So break this one and see what happens.