The most exciting area of marketing is direct marketing. When you hit on a mailing that gets winning results, it is a thrilling experience. There are not many things that can compare to opening your mailbox only to find a flood of envelopes or emails filled with orders and checks that all have your name written on them! If that is your first experience with direct mailing, then this will surely entice you to continue your efforts with it. If you can increase the response rate to your offer by only a fraction of a percent, then a slight profit is very likely to be turned into windfall profits. This will certainly fuel your entrepreneurial spirit!

A key question on the minds of marketers is, “How do I increase the response to my mailings?” In this first part of a two part article, you will learn 25 of the 55 of the great techniques for ensuring that your mailings will pull a stronger response.

Not all of these techniques are foolproof – some will work while others will not. Whenever a mailing is planned, you should review these techniques. Choose the ones that best fit your situation and have them work for you. Your bank account will thank you! You will be smiling all the way to the bank!

1. Carefully target your audience.

You must have the ability to carefully identify your target audience. You might even create different versions of your sales package so that you tailor each specifically targeted audience. You must know what group your product appeals to. Is it something that the younger generation can sink their teeth into, is it geared toward the aging “baby boomers” or are your gearing your product or service toward the elderly? Are you considering offering a weight loss product or service? Then you should only consider targeting those people who suffer from being overweight. Get the picture?

2. Solve your customer’s most irritating problems.

You will find that most customers will not buy products. However, they will buy solutions to problems that irritate them. If your product solves a critical problem, then you are going to have to pull out all the stops to let your clients know.

3. Help your customers achieve significant goals.

Here is the complement to the previous point. It you can show without a doubt that your service or product will make your customers’ lives better or easier, then your sales volume should skyrocket.

4. Focus on your customer’s needs, not your product.

Customers only have a limited interest in your company or product. However, they do have an unlimited interest in their own needs, getting a solution to their problems and making their lives better. You should always concentrate on fulfilling their needs by getting them to use your product or service.

5. ALWAYS stress benefits.

Stress the benefits of your product to your customers. Appeal to their logic as well as their emotions. Push the right “hot buttons” and your sales will explode through the roof!

6. Repeat your key benefits in the beginning, middle, and end of your email, letter or brochure.

The one thing to remember is that people buy benefits. You should reiterate this through your sales letter, brochure or email.

7. Use the “4 to 1″ rule.

You should have in your sales copy four “you’s” to every one “I”. Customers never cease tiring of hearing about themselves. A very good way to let the customer know that you understand their needs is to use a lot of “you” language.

8. Use a stop-them-in-their-tracks headline or first sentence.

You must use a very powerful headline or first sentence to convince your prospects to read your sales letter.

9. Use sub-headings liberally.

It is very beneficial to use subheadings as they break up large blocks of copy. These subheadings, if chosen wisely, will act as a “hot point” outline to pull the reader through the key elements of your ad or email.

10. Seize the reader’s attention immediately.

Begin your letter with your blockbuster points. You just have one or two paragraphs to convince your prospects to go on reading your letter. See to it that they get what they need in order to continue reading your letter.

11. Flatter your reader.

People are much more sophisticated today when it comes to advertising. They can pretty much guess that you got their name from a mailing list. However, you can turn this fact into your advantage.

12. Share some “inside” information.

Direct mail is able to appeal to a person’s need to feel special. You can do this by sharing some exclusive information. Be sure that your prospect knows that this offer is only being made to them.

13. Issue a personal letter from the President.

People like to deal with people at the top of the command list. The use of this kind of message is a confidence builder.

14. Never end a sentence at the bottom of a page in a sales letter.

One very good technique to use is to use a broken sentence at the bottom of the page so that your customer will have to keep reading.

15. Feature the offer.

People often jump at a good bargain. It is your job to design an offer your customer just can’t refuse and make it a key focal point of your email or sales letter. If you use the “bait and hook” method, you will be able to convert the “maybes” into concrete orders.

16. Give something away for FREE.

Plan on giving away free samples, demonstrations, information, trials or consultations in order for your customer to be able to have a hands-on try of your product. Everyone loves to get something for FREE! This is a good sale closer.

17. Run a contest.

Give away a free subscription to your newsletter, a free enrollment in your seminar or anything else that appeals to your customers. It seems that people are drawn to contests just like playing the lottery. Taking contests can be especially appealing to the younger set.

18. Use a special “before the price increases” offer.

If a price hike is in the future, make a special offer to your customers at the old price for a limited time.

19. Repeat your offer.

You can overcome a customer’s reluctance by making them an offer they just cannot resist. Make sure it appears at least two times in your sales letter or email and again on your order form.

20. Make a time-limited offer.

Offer a special deal for only a limited period of time. This will make your customers think that they cannot dilly dally in making a decision to buy your product or service.

21. Base your offer on a limited supply.

If you are offering a close-out of your inventory, this can help to create a strong demand. An offer that is in limited supply can designate prestige and exclusivity. It seems that everyone nowadays is looking to have that “one of a kind!”

22. Offer a special deal to the first 100 people who order.

You can offer a special deal to the first 25, 50, 75, 100 and so on. Remember that the key is to keep it to a meaningful limit so that your customers will act quickly. Keep a sense of urgency in your tone so that your customers will feel that they have no time to lose in accepting this offer.

23. Make a charter offer.

This approach is great for new products, service agreements and subscriptions. If you have no new product, then consider starting a membership club where you can offer charter members special benefits.

24. Make a “last chance” offer.

If you want to win more orders, have a final inventory close-out or an end of the line blow out before a model changes.

25. “Buy 1 get 1 FREE” always out pulls “2 for the price of 1.”

Even though the savings are identical, the first format sounds like the customers is getting a better bargain.

A previously mentioned, every one of these techniques will not work for every mailing you send out. You are going to have to pick and choose the ones that apply to your situation and put them to work for you. You must put a lot of deliberation and thought into the techniques that you use so that they will maximize your profits.

Why is deciphering what the value of your time is something that you should do? Well, your objectives can help to be achieved by doing this. If you are aware of the value of your time, you can then take the decision as to whether or not it is a benefit for you to undertake the task yourself, or pay someone else to do it, or maybe even not do it at all.

We all believe that our time is invaluable, and yes, we are as people. However, calculating a dollar figure for the worth of a minute of your time can be done as follows:

The first thing to do is look at how much you made when you were gainfully employed in the last twelve months.

Only calculate the pay that you received for the work that you undertook. If you had investments or things similar to that, then do not include those.

Now that the number has been calculated, you need to decipher what you spent because of your job. This then needs to be subtracted from the overall figure. This really needs to be thought about. Do you have extra costs because of your job? If you do (which is a guarantee), what are those costs?

The next calculation is the number of hours that you devoted to that job in a twelve month period. You may work 40 hours every week for 36 weeks a year. However, you need to take into consideration the time that it takes to travel to and from work, as well as any extra time that you dedicate to work outside of the office, such as business travel, business dinners, and business parties.

Now that those two numbers have been calculated, you will need to take the first number, which is your real wages, and divide that first number by the real number of work hours, which is the second number. This simple division will give you the answer of what your time is worth based on what you do for a living.

So, what does this number signify? If you do not enjoy your work, then the number will let you know whether or not the job that you are doing is worth it if you are really being paid for your abilities and the hard work that you put into it. This calculation will also help you to decide as to whether there are more cost effective ways in which you can get the task done.

One good example of this is, to imagine that your driveway needs shoveling or your garden needs mowing. However, let’s imagine that by sitting at the computer in your office and typing a few lines on an online form you can make $15. If you can find another person to do the shoveling of your driveway, or the mowing of your garden for less than $14, then it will make sense to pay that someone else to do it.

Are you continually struggling with your business?

If this is the case, what you need to do is focus. You may think that you already know all about focusing but clearly you don’t or you would not find yourself in the situation you are in now, and your business would be flourishing and all your goals would be met.

The business plan you put together when you first started out in business is probably sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust. Dig it out and have a good look at it. You will soon discover the reasons why you started your business in the first place.

Developing a business requires your concentration on one activity at a time and then putting in down in writing, before moving on to the next item on the agenda. Once down on paper, the idea turns into something concrete and real.

Set Your Goals

Set yourself reasonable goals and don’t think too big at the beginning. You may well dream of owning a business producing $1,000,000 each year but have you ever handled that amount of money before? It’s highly unlikely that you have. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having big ideas, but you need to start off on a bit smaller scale to begin with.

Have you been fortunate enough to make in the region of $5000 profit on a monthly basis from your business venture yet? This is a realistic amount which is easily comprehended. However, even though it is much more real, it still presents a necessary challenge.

The next thing to do is to divide your monthly profit into a daily target. The figures mentioned earlier would mean approximately $167 each day. When worked out this way, the $5000 does not seem such a big challenge. This will still take some effort but it is possible to achieve.

It is necessary for you to review the amount of dollars you wish to make each day and each month. The more you do this the greater your chances of turning your dream into reality.

Steer clear of negatives such as “don’t” and “won’t” as these words are not understood by your subconscious. When these words are used, for example, to say “I will not spend more than $500 each month on my business expenses” your mind is told “I spend more than $500 each month on my business expenses”.

When you have time, and make sure you make some, take a few minutes to write down your thoughts about what you want out of life. Plan your life and make it that your finances go around your plans, to avoid your business taking control. This is sure to lessen your stress and frustration levels in both your personal and business life.

While your homepage will give visitors the basics and general idea of your website, what if visitors want to know exactly what information is present, and where it can be found? A sitemap is the solution to this conundrum. Like a table of contents, a sitemap may be quickly scanned to see what information the site contains.

Undoubtedly, your next question is: What’s a sitemap? Simply put, a sitemap shows the structure of your site; e.g. how the pages of your site link together. If there are a very large number of pages on your site, it may end up being a challenge to create, and confusing to visitors. This can be helped somewhat by listing links the way the site maintainer would see them, as a sort of “tree” – this is called a hierarchical view.

Sitemaps are not just for humans anymore, however. Search engines bots, aka spiders, search through sitemaps compiling links in their search for certain keywords. Having a well organized sitemap in place can help you show up in more searches.

Benefits of a Sitemap

You may be thinking that this business of creating a sitemap sounds like a lot of work. While it can be so, there are a lot of benefits to having a sitemap, for instance:

1. A sitemap can be used as a tool for planning web design.

Even if your site is very small, having only a few pages, it’s a good idea to have the structure of your website plotted out this way. This will be a big help when adding pages in the future, as you will already be able to see where they will go. Your site will not become a tangled mess pages without their relation to one another difficult to decipher.

2. No page will be left unvisited.

The search engine spiders will visit each page of your website if you have the foresight to create a sitemap. Your pages will be included in search engines databases, increasing your page rankings, meaning more visitors for your site in the long run.

3. Visitors will have an easier time to navigate your site.

One factor why visitors stay on a site is ease of navigation. A sitemap gives your visitors an idea of what the contents of your site are. They can also easily find those pages they’d like to see within your site. Without a sitemap, your visitors may not stay on your pages, returning to search engines to search for information that may right there on your site.

4. A sitemap can encourage more traffic.

As your website grows, you must update your sitemap to keep pace with that expansion. This way, visitors can see that content is being added, which encourages them to become repeat visitors. This is doubly important if your site sells products or offers a service. Potential customers will know right away about your newest products or services by examining your sitemap.

5. There is potential advertising value when using a sitemap.

With a sitemap, potential advertisers have an easier time evaluating targeted ad placement on your site. This, of course means extra income for you.

The benefits of sitemaps are well worth the time and effort of creating them. Not only do they aid you in designing your website, they make navigation more easy for visitors, help your website get higher search engine rankings, increase traffic, and help you get more income from advertisements.