Conducting a direct-mail campaign can be risky business. What can be done to make them pay off? After all, no one wants to go to all the effort to do one of those mailing and not get any customers from the effort. No one needs "negative cash-flow."

I hear a lot of talk about such campaigns being "a numbers game." The idea being that if you are not getting results, the problem is you simply are not repeating the process enough or your mailings are too small. I have even heard it takes seven communications to the same person before you can expect to get any feedback. Wow!

Well, I have done large and large campaigns and actually had worse results the second time around. Having been burned by such advice as previously mentioned, I no longer buy into it. Instead, I am thinking "small, targeted and exceptionally nice." In fact, I am considering sending out laminated invitations that are suitable for posting in an office. The idea here is to not only reach out to select businesses but encourage their assistance in spreading my message to their employees and patrons.

How is this process supposed to work? First, I call each prospect before the invitation goes out to let him know a very nice invitation is on its way and be sure to be on the lookout for it. Next, I mail out the invitations. The following week I call all prospects again to verify the invitation has been received and inquire if it is now on display.

Rest assured, I am not sending these invitations out to hundreds or thousands of addresses. That would cost too much money. I am only sending out 50 invitations. But, my hope is that my prospects will be so impressed with the beautiful invitation - the fact that it is laminated and even comes with a plastic hole for convenient thumb-tacking to a bulletin board - that they will post it for all employees and patrons to see.

If you have ever done anything like this, please share your experience. I would like to get some feedback on this approach.

Lamar Morgan
CDMM
1-877-238-2280
Power Networking - http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=18

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