When you start on a direct mail campaign that includes business brochures or postcard printing pieces, it's easy to get caught up in the more “fun” decisions. Which color of paper should we use? Let's look at all the photos we have available! Although those choices are important, what you should spend the majority of your time focused on is your purpose for the direct mail campaign, your mailing list, your offer and your results.

Here are the steps you should take to address the important aspects of your direct mail campaign:

1. List your objectives. Why are you embarking on this direct mail campaign? Are you trying to drum up new business by getting some leads? Do you have a sale going on? Are you just trying to create awareness of your product? You need to know what objectives you're trying to meet so that you can plan everything around meeting those objectives. Who you are targeting will not only affect your mailing list, your offer and your results, but will also affect the vehicle of marketing material you choose. For instance, you would want to use postcard marketing for a sale, and business brochures for creating awareness since you have more room for the details.

2. Know your target market and use that to focus your mailing list. Having a great product and a great intro letter or postcard printing piece won't do you any good if you aren't sending them to the right people.

Think about who will benefit from your product or service, and then try to get their contact information. One of the easiest ways to do that is to rent or buy a mailing list from a list broker. You can choose what characteristics you're looking for in the list – say people with dogs that have a household income of at least $60,000 per year. Yeah, you can get that specific! List brokers get their information from public sources and surveys, and they update that information all the time. Expect to pay between $100 and several hundred dollars for a list.

3. Create a great offer. If you have an offer that people can't refuse, you're bound to get many responses from your direct mail pieces. Generally a deep discount or a free item work well as offers. Be sure that your offer pertains to your business or product though – offering a free music download is great, but if you offer it to book lovers, or people that don't have MP3 players, your offer means nothing. It's a great offer; you just don't have the right target market, which is why #2 is so important.

4. Get results. This ties in with #1 – by knowing your objectives, or what you want to come about from this direct mail campaign, you can craft your message and offer to give you those results. If postcard marketing isn't working, try sending brochures or educational-style marketing pieces. Educational-style marketing encompasses white papers, reports, case studies and how-to guides that are sent to people to inform them of a new development or a new product. Of course, at the end or bottom of this piece, you include an offer to try your product for free or to learn more about the product by visiting your Web site. Again, your offer should reflect what kind of results you want.