I used a direct marketing mailing approach to solve a very big business problem for me many years ago. I didn't even know what the term direct marketing was at that time, but as a business person I understood how it worked intuitively. More importantly, I knew I needed to do something quick and a direct mailing approach seemed to me the best way to reach the people I needed to respond. From one letter I obtained clients that paid me hundreds of thousands of dollars over the following years.

Direct marketing is far and away the most effective means of advertising available to anyone running a small business. There are limitless direct marketing techniques that can be used, but all successful promotions have a few common elements. First, you must identify the people that are going to be interested in your product or service. Second, you must recognize what that audience expects your products or service to deliver to satisfy their needs. Third, you must demonstrate that your solution to their problems are better than any other solutions available. Fourth, you must give your potential buyers a sense of urgency to respond to your offer as soon as possible. Lastly, giving your audience precise information on what actions are necessary to benefit from your offer is a necessity.

Most business people who are aware of direct marketing think of it in terms of long hype filled letters that they have received to but some particular product or service. However, not all direct mail is like that. Direct response mailing for professionals needs to be considerably more! well professional in it's presentation. In my opinion the most lucrative use of direct mail is for businesses that can use it to pull in customers or clients who will use their services over and over again.

Business to consumer is the most traditional use of direct mailings. However, business to business may well be the most valuable form of direct mail. When mailing to consumers there is often a focus on making an immediate one time sale as opposed to using the approach to develop a relationship. In a business to business direct marketing approach you are much more likely to be interested in finding new long term clients, rather than making a quick sale. In this situation the effectiveness of your mailing is not measured in immediate sales, but rather in long term clients or customers who may pay you many thousands of dollars over a period of years.