Direct mail can be effective — if done correctly. If direct mail is one of your sales strategies, be sure to follow the below tips to ensure you are keeping your sales motivation strong. Your selling skills — and ultimately your profits — are reflected in how you master skills like these.

Make sure your call-to-action is date-driven. Always ensure that the direct-mail piece requires the recipient to act within one week of receiving it.

Personalize Everything! Write out their address and a note in your own handwriting. In addition, mention a person’s name to dramatically enhance the credibility of the message.

Stand Out!

Your direct-mail piece must have some visual feature that allows it to stand out from all other mail and encourage the recipient to read more.

Quality names matter! It’s not the total number of pieces you mail, it’s who you mail it to that counts. Spend more time and effort developing a high-quality list. It will always deliver more results than the quick mailing to an unverified one.

Test various messages. Set up varying offers and response mechanisms to test how different mailing lists respond, as well as how people reply to different messages.

Good copy sells! Don’t short-circuit your direct-mail effort by thinking you can develop your own copy.

Good copy pays for itself many times over. Use outside resources to help you develop your message.

Know when to mail. Know your target audience well enough to understand their buying patterns and, more importantly, when your direct-mail piece will be best received.

Repetition drives awareness and action. Sending multiple messages will reinforce awareness and drive overall response. Do not think one mailing will be sufficient.

Focus on benefits! Just like the sales material used on a sales call, the message must be about what the customer will receive as a benefit. We often think the customer will easily translate product features into benefits, but they don’t.

Make your offer 24/7. Have a way for the person reading your direct-mail piece to be able to get in touch with your company either via the phone, website, email, etc. at any time of the day.