In Part 1 of this how-to to supercharge your marketing with a direct-mail program, I presented four proven methods for grabbing prospects attention. Now that you have their attention, today, I’ll share four proven ways to make them take action.

5.   Mail regularly. Once is never enough. The first mailings in even wildly successful campaigns will net nothing. Over time, however, more eyes will see the promotions, and your brand and message will gain prominence (yes, even in the mail).

6.   Limit the offer with a deadline or a set number of first responders. Create urgency wherever you can. Your offering will eliminate his pain. Encourage him to make the right decision in a timely manner.

7.   To increase your response, give something of value for free. I’m not talking about tchotchkes, but something that has worth to the prospect – a white paper, an e-book, an hour’s consultation, a webinar or access to the members’ section of your site. Of course, you’ll want to capture contact information, but just for what you must have. If you’re going to mail, you need their mailing address, not their telephone number or email address. You can capture that info a little at a time as the relationship builds.

8.  Test and track all responses, and adjust your campaign accordingly. This is a must. If you don’t test your message or call to action, and it’s ineffective, you’ll continue to fire bullets in the air with each campaign. One of the easiest ways of testing is to mail an initial small sample with different messages to see which draws the better response. Then, you can make educated adjustments to the copy.

That’s it, the eight rules that will get any direct-marketing campaign successfully off the ground. Once you have this foundation in place, you’ll be able to evaluate the myriad of other options with a more strategic eye.

After you’ve implemented a couple of these ideas, let us know below how it went and share some tips.

Thanks to Péllo for this chance to share what I’ve learned and I hope that it’s been helpful. You might want to submit a blog also? If so, just give Péllo a call.