To ensure maximum results from your carefully crafted marketing message, you want to meticulously select the market your message will be delivered to.

You can do this by either analyzing your current customer base (if you’re happy with the type of customer you currently have) or by making a profile of your ideal customer. What common characteristics do they have? Are they all in a certain income bracket? Do they live in a specific type of neighborhood?

Now, even though most small businesses are aware of this method and many have used it as part of their marketing efforts, the sad reality is that the majority don’t know how to make the most of this powerful marketing method. Because of this, the results experienced by most are less than stellar and usually lead to the false assumption that “direct mail doesn’t work”.

While it can be one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal, there are several key steps that must be followed in order to maximize the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns. Without these, a majority of campaigns are destined to mediocre results at best and complete failure at worst.

Here are 5 keys that when followed will help you create super-successful direct mail campaigns that produce results.

1. The right message to the right market.

First and foremost you must create a powerful marketing message that seizes your prospect’s attention, tells them why you’re uniquely qualified to solve their problem or satisfy their need and what exactly they can expect as a result of using your service. Your goal with this message should be to stand out from the crowd.

Once you have this powerful message, you need to make sure it gets delivered to those prospects most qualified to receive it. So often, businesses are guilty of using ‘throw mud against the wall marketing,’ which means they run around randomly throwing their message about just hoping it hits the right person. In most cases, it doesn’t even come close.

To ensure maximum results from your carefully crafted marketing message, you want to meticulously select the market your message will be delivered to.

You can do this by either analyzing your current customer base (if you’re happy with the type of customer you currently have) or by making a profile of your ideal customer. What common characteristics do they have? Are they all in a certain income bracket? Do they live in a specific type of neighborhood?

While it can be one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal, there are several key steps that must be followed in order to maximize the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns. Without these, a majority of campaigns are destined to mediocre results at best and complete failure at worst.

Here are 5 keys that when followed will help you create super-successful direct mail campaigns that produce results.

1. The right message to the right market.

First and foremost you must create a powerful marketing message that seizes your prospect’s attention, tells them why you’re uniquely qualified to solve their problem or satisfy their need and what exactly they can expect as a result of using your service. Your goal with this message should be to stand out from the crowd.

Once you have this powerful message, you need to make sure it gets delivered to those prospects most qualified to receive it. So often, businesses are guilty of using ‘throw mud against the wall marketing,’ which means they run around randomly throwing their message about just hoping it hits the right person. In most cases, it doesn’t even come close.

To ensure maximum results from your carefully crafted marketing message, you want to meticulously select the market your message will be delivered to.

You can do this by either analyzing your current customer base (if you’re happy with the type of customer you currently have) or by making a profile of your ideal customer. What common characteristics do they have? Are they all in a certain income bracket? Do they live in a specific type of neighborhood?

Here are 5 keys that when followed will help you create super-successful direct mail campaigns that produce results.

1. The right message to the right market.

First and foremost you must create a powerful marketing message that seizes your prospect’s attention, tells them why you’re uniquely qualified to solve their problem or satisfy their need and what exactly they can expect as a result of using your service. Your goal with this message should be to stand out from the crowd.

Once you have this powerful message, you need to make sure it gets delivered to those prospects most qualified to receive it. So often, businesses are guilty of using ‘throw mud against the wall marketing,’ which means they run around randomly throwing their message about just hoping it hits the right person. In most cases, it doesn’t even come close.

To ensure maximum results from your carefully crafted marketing message, you want to meticulously select the market your message will be delivered to.

You can do this by either analyzing your current customer base (if you’re happy with the type of customer you currently have) or by making a profile of your ideal customer. What common characteristics do they have? Are they all in a certain income bracket? Do they live in a specific type of neighborhood?

Once you have this powerful message, you need to make sure it gets delivered to those prospects most qualified to receive it. So often, businesses are guilty of using ‘throw mud against the wall marketing,’ which means they run around randomly throwing their message about just hoping it hits the right person. In most cases, it doesn’t even come close.

To ensure maximum results from your carefully crafted marketing message, you want to meticulously select the market your message will be delivered to.

You can do this by either analyzing your current customer base (if you’re happy with the type of customer you currently have) or by making a profile of your ideal customer. What common characteristics do they have? Are they all in a certain income bracket? Do they live in a specific type of neighborhood?

To ensure maximum results from your carefully crafted marketing message, you want to meticulously select the market your message will be delivered to.

You can do this by either analyzing your current customer base (if you’re happy with the type of customer you currently have) or by making a profile of your ideal customer. What common characteristics do they have? Are they all in a certain income bracket? Do they live in a specific type of neighborhood? Are they at a particular stage in life?

Once you’ve identified the ‘right’ market, you can deliver your powerful message with the assurance that the majority of people that receive it will be receptive to your service.

2. Get your message read.

One of the biggest challenges with marketing in general is the fact that your message is competing against dozens, better yet hundreds of other businesses all trying to capture the attention of your prospects. Each day, people are flooded with competing sales messages and a vitally important ingredient of any successful direct mail campaign is actually getting your message read.

Unfortunately for most businesses, their carefully crafted sales message never even gets read. In order to ensure your message stands out from the crowd and gets read, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.

First of all, don’t make it look like a sales letter. If you’re sending a letter, you might consider handwriting the address to make it look like a personal letter. You might also consider sending the letter without a return address. Another possibility would be to put your name on the return address instead of your company’s name.

Another way to make your letter stand out from the crowd is to create curiosity on the envelope. Putting an attention grabbing benefit statement front and center will go a long way towards getting your letter at least opened.

Once you’ve figured out how to get your prospect to open your letter, your job isn’t over. The next task is to get them to actually read your sales message. You can do this by starting off your letter with another powerful, attention grabbing, benefit laden headline. Right off the bat, paint a picture of the benefits they’ll receive by reading the rest of your letter.

This takes us to the next key ingredient to succe