You've decided to try advertising your business with direct mail. The idea came to you from the direct mail you receive from other businesses. You like the idea because it seems easy to do and economical. However, you've never tried this before so you question whether this method will bring you customers.

Well, All Forms of Advertising Work, But you have to clearly understand how the advertising medium works and realize that each form has it's limitations along with costs associated with it. Targeted Direct Mail especially, is a wonderful tool for MLM distributors to both sell product and recruit and train new team members.

Remember that the three key factors that affect the profitability of any direct mail effort are: List, price, offer.

There are other variables and factors that are important to the success or failure of a direct mail effort... but the key three are list, price, and offer.

Here are the rules:

[1] Your goal with every direct mail lead generation mailing is to figure out where prospects are in their buying cycle and to target them there. The thing to remember in all of this is that your goal in a multi-step, complex buying process is not to close the sale but to move the prospect to the next stage.

[2] You need to decide what makes you different from your competitors, and you need to promote that uniqueness in your sales letters. Just make sure your differentiator is compelling and actually differentiates you.

[3] Send personal letters. I realize that personalization costs more and I know that you save money if you send everyone the same Dear Friend letter, but the result will be better this way.

[4] Immediate. General advertising builds brand awareness. Direct mail letter asks for action now. So if you need to generate sales leads, and don't have time to wait for your ad to appear in "IT Buyers Quarterly,"? send a direct mail letter and wait a week or so for a response.

[5] Can be improved through testing . Because you can measure your direct mail results, you can also test your mailings. Test one package against another, one list against another, one offer against another, and you'll discover what works and what fails. That way you'll spend your marketing dollars where they are most effective (without relying on guess work or hunches).

To conclude, direct mail letters are an effective way for many business owners and marketing managers to attract new customers and increase sales from existing ones. Direct mail letters are inexpensive to produce and mail. Advertising by its very nature is expensive. To reach a lot of people, you need to spend a lot of money. Direct mail, on the other hand, only targets the prospects you want to reach. Instead of pitching your product to a huge audience of potential buyers, you aim your sales message only at prospects most likely to buy.