Direct mailing is a priceless asset when it comes to giving your business a boost, but a direct mailing campaign is only as good as your mailing list. Think about it. Ten mailings are going to bring you more business than five. One hundred mailings are going to bring you more business than ten. One hundred carefully targeted mailings are going to bring in more business than one hundred random ones.

It makes sense, then, that expanding your mailing list would be a top priority. The question is, how? How are you going to be able to carefully direct your marketing efforts at the people you want to reach (the ones that are most likely to give you their money!) if you are just going to be plopping your advertisements in their mail box?

Here are five tricks used by professional direct-mail marketing companies to help their clients expand and target their mailing list and exponentially increase their profit margin. If you incorporate these hints and tips into your direct mailing campaign you should be able to grow your mailing list quickly, quietly and effectively.

1) Include a link on your website asking visitors if they would like to join your mailing list. If so, give them the opportunity to give you their name and address. Many businesses, large and small, work so hard to optimize their site for the major search engines that they fail to see the potential of direct-mailings.

Do not, however, give in to the urge to require your would-be clientele to join your mailing list before allowing them to access your site. This trick has been abused by SPAMmers for so long that you're going to lose your customers before they've even gotten started.

2) If you have a store, ask your customers for their name and address upon checkout. If they are shopping at your store they are obviously patrons of the product or service that you are offering; and there's no better customer than a repeat customer.

3) Search around for related businesses and add them to your mailing list. If you offer a trash disposal service and a new restaurant has just opened up down the street you can guarantee that they're going to be looking for somebody. That somebody should be you!

4) Team up with another business that offers a product or service related to yours. Add their customers to your mailing list and vice versa. This way you get happy customers, happy professional contacts and happy financiers.

5) Take part in community events and offer visitors the chance to sign up. Local exposure is wonderful, and you can almost guarantee that the people who sign up will be back; after all, there's nothing to inspire a return visit like accessibility.

Direct mailing is a fantastic way to expand your customer base, but you have to have a customer base to expand on first. Carefully targeting and expanding your mailing list is the most essential and non-negotiable factor in any direct mail marketing campaign. With a little time and effort you'll be able to make yours work for you.