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The next step in the direct marketing model that Tim Burns discusses in Chapter 9 of the book “Entrepreneurship.com,” is interest. In order to run a successful direct mail marketing campaign, you must get people excited about your product or service. Mailing out card mailers, postcards, statement printing, or invoice printing with special announcements, coupons, and discounts is a great way to attract customers.

According to Burns, “In order to achieve a certain amount of success initially, a direct marketing campaign has to create interest on the part of prospects. The goal is to prompt prospects to take some type of action that will move them closer to your product or service.”

By offering coupons and discounts for a limited time, you’ll encourage customers to act now as opposed to later. This way you are creating interest as well as requesting a call to action.

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In Chapter 9 of the book entitled, “Entrepreneurship.com,” Tim Burns discusses the four different steps involved in direct marketing. These steps, known as AIDA, include Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. According to Burns, awareness is the first thing you should worry about when creating a direct marketing program. Burns says that “Awareness is generally the first step in a purchase decision because your prospect or target audience has to know that you exist. The goal of marketing activities is to create a certain level of awareness. These activities include advertising through traditional channels such as the mass media, public relations, telemarketing, and direct mail.”

You can create awareness for your product or service by mailing out card mailers, postcards, statement printing, and invoice printing. Regardless of the type of direct mail piece you use, a direct mail marketing campaign will help you and your company gain attention.

In the next few days, we will discuss the remaining steps of direct marketing and explain how they affect the success of your direct mail marketing campaign. Just by following these few guidelines, you will have a much better chance of reaching your marketing goals.

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Once you’ve decided that you want to save time and money by partnering with a direct mail marketing company, you need to send in a digital file. Because print and mail companies use different formats, you want to make sure that your file is compatible with your company’s particular system.

In a blog entitled, “Preparing Digital Files for a Printing Company,” listed under Commercial Printing Tips on the LifeTips website, the author explains how to get your file ready to send into a direct mail marketing company. According to the author, “When choosing to work with a printing company, it’s important that you prepare your digital files in a way that your printing company can use them. For many printers, it’s as simple as saving your digital file as a PDF (portable document format). This format of file contains all the information (graphics and fonts) that a printer needs to produce your file, and is easily opened on any computer.”

Be sure to talk with your print and mail company so you are both aware of what the other needs. But if you need to create a digital file before selecting a company, saving the file as a PDF is probably the best way to go.

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After you create a direct mail marketing program and send out your first direct mail piece, people tend to measure the success of the program based solely on the number of people who respond right away. Although this response gives you a pretty good idea of whether or not your program is working, you must also be aware of the long-term effects a direct mail marketing program provides.

In the book entitled “Direct Marketing: Strategy, Planning, Execution,” Edward Nash explains the importance of acknowledging the long-term effects direct marketing creates instead of just the response you receive a few weeks after sending out the direct mail piece. Nash asks “Why has it taken us so long to accept that every time we send out a mailing we create attitudes that will affect the response to every future mailing? We have always concerned ourselves with the 5 out of 100 people who responded to a mailing. We have ignored the rest.” Nash goes on to say that “They may not have ordered this time, but they have formed some impression of the product and the company. “

Even if you don’t get a large response from your direct marketing attempts right away, know that your direct mail piece has had a huge impact on the way you and your company are viewed by the public. Test out postcards, card mailers, statement printing, and invoice printing to find which direct mail piece results in the largest response, but know that any direct marketing attempt is benefiting your company.

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