19 rules of thumb to follow for your next direct-mail campaign from industry leader Dick Benson

Noted marketing authority Stephen Lett gives pointers to fine tune your offer.

12 pointer from industry leaders to create a successful direct mail campaign

Ed Burnett gives 11 Direct-Mail Pointers for companies

Nancy Harhut of Boston’s respected Hill, Holiday advertising agency, urges you to dig deeper into what moves people off the dime.

Lester Wunderman, “the father of direct marketing” outlined 10 big things about today’s direct marketing during a recent interview

Studies in the U.S. and Europe highlight the factors—some of them surprising—that cause people to open the direct-mailing envelopes

Whenever sales slacken and profits head south, most companies start to beat the bushes in search of new customers.

Marketing consultant Robert W. Bly offers four pointers on increasing the power of outer envelope pull.

Nationally respected marketing consultant Robert W. Bly offers pointers on creating high response envelopes:

Changing your outer envelope, without touching any other part of your mailing, can punch up response by 100% or more

Renowned copywriter Bill Jayme, once said that the outer envelope of a direct mailing is where the sales prospect decides to stop

he late, great Bill Jayme defined the direct-mail envelope as “your headline.” Other mailing practitioners shy away from such candor

There are two basic envelope styles, writes Ernest W. Nicastro of the Positive Response company, that aim to impel a mail recipient to open

High Readership Almost everyone reads postcards. Your customers take in your message as soon as your card reaches their hands. Double-card mailings of subscription offers have beaten much costlier long-copy letter packages. Economy Postcard mailings cost little to produce and mail. A single card involves no folding or inserting charges, and can be cheaper to mail first class than at bulk third-class rates. Even when you mail to very few sales prospects and so can't receive bu

Why are postcards a good marketing choice? Your customer, prospects and suspects like to receive information from you. 98 percent of consumers bring in their mail the day it’s delivered, and of these, 72 percent bring it in as soon as possible according to the Mail Moment study, conducted on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service. Postcards are... Impactful — because your message is seen right away as the mail is being sorted. Informative — explaining how your company can help c

With money tight these days, many direct-mail advertisers are turning to inexpensive media like postcards – especially for new business lead generation. A great advantage of using a postcard is that 87% of mail recipients claim to at least scan postcards that they receive. Here are 10 pointers from Portland marketer Wilson Zehr on making postcards work: Use postcards appropriately. Nobody – despite what some postcard companies claim – expects postcard mailings to close many s

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say. But all pictures are not created equal. Depending on what you are trying to communicate, and where, graphic materials vary enormously in effectiveness: Pictures do not belong in letters Most advertisers who lard letter copy with photos or illustrations learn that the technique does not work. Graphic material is costly and distracts the reader’s attention from the letter’s all-important message. Like marginal doodles, it is simply

Involve your reader Gain your recipient’s attention by making him or her a participant in your mail advertising—not just a passive set of eyeballs gazing at a TV screen. For instance, urge your reader to use involvement devices such as a sticker, with enticing instructions to scratch it off to reveal a freebie. Keep your message relevant Every potential customer silently asks, “What’s in it for me?” Your promotion had better answer that question fast and strongly. To do that,

Structure your copy Bob Stone, who wrote the classic book, “Successful Direct Marketing Methods,” says that this architecture makes for an effective letter to power up your direct mail: First Paragraph: Identify your product and present its main benefit for the reader Second Paragraph: Expand on the main product benefit Third Section: Detail the product’s features Fourth Section: Present testimonials Fifth Section: Call to action End with a P.S. that sets a time limit f