Direct mail marketing (DMM) is the third most effective way to personally communicate an offer or solicitation to your intended audience. Face-to-face meetings and telephone calls are the only two ways to better achieve this objective, but both strategies are evidently much more time consuming and expensive. Here are some tips to make sure your direct mail attempts are cost-effective and compelling to customers.

1.  Direct mail marketing should have some form of tangible benefit for the customer. Ask yourself, "What's in it for the client?". Include special offers in your mailings so that it is worth the client's while to open them up. Also, try to include as much data and as numerous offers as possible in each and every direct mailer you send out. The client will not open your mail if it is not worth that effort. 

2.  Make sure that your copy engages the customer and incites them to action.   All direct mail must achieve two things: it must encourage the customer to open the envelope, and it must encourage the customer to purchase the product from you.  When you send a letter to a client, it should include a P.S. to help mail skimmers get the gist of your offer.  Also, a catchy headline on the outside of the envelope can encourage people to open it.

3. Ensure you are reaching the right customers.  Consider purchasing a Business to Business mailing list which contains contact data about individuals or businesses which allow persons or organisations. B2B Mailing Lists contain data collected and complied from assorted places ranging from businesses' yearly reports to newspapers and the Yellow Pages. This mailing list enables businesses to choose relevant business contact details, data on sales volume and even SIC codes and descriptions about a dealer. A mailing list creates opportunities for businesses to conduct direct mail marketing, market analysis and promotion of the goods and services offered. 

4. Use internet marketing as a supplement to direct mail.  Direct mail is excellent at targeting a specific area, as you can control exactly to whom you are advertising.  However, to reach a broad national audience, internet marketing shines as it is very inexpensive and often can reach different segments of the market than direct mail.

5. Track your marketing efforts to ascertain their effectiveness.  By tracking the ratios of response to mails sent for each volley of mailings sent, you can determine the most popular pieces of direct mail and determine the best characteristics to use for future mailings.