One of the primary advantages of using direct mail is your ability to divide Cost Of Stamps conquer. Your letter delivers a personal message and makes an offer. Your brochure demonstrates features and dramatizes benefits. Your Texas Food Stamps form calls for action and eases response.

Each piece in a direct mail package performs a specific function and, because each is dedicated to that function, does a better job than a mailer attempting to do everything simultaneously.

With that in mind, consider testing an appropriate insert or involvement device that can boost response enough to offset the additional cost. Here Notary Public Stamp just a handful of ideas:

• Encourage involvement with a quiz or checklist. Is your offer relevant to your prospect? You can prove that it is by including a simple quiz: "Do you qualify for our 80% discount on life insurance? Take this quiz and find out." Or a checklist: "Here are 25 ways our investment course can turn you into a millionaire in 10 years."

• Make your offer tangible with a check or coupon. If you're offering $25.00 off, enclose a coupon or simulated check worth $25.00 and instructions for returning it with an order. If you can, offer a real check that provides an instant reward or even activates a service when cashed. A check can be personalized and show through an envelope window.

• Dramatize your offer with stamps or stickers. If you have several offers, configurations, or options, you can print each on a stamp and ask the recipient to affix one to the order form. If you have a simple offer you want to highlight, you can print it on a sticker that must be lifted and transferred to the order form. Stamps and stickers are highly involving and make it clear that some action is required.

• Answer objections or highlight a benefit with a lift letter. The lift letter is the dean of all inserts. It is usually a short message signed by someone of higher authority than the letter signer. It presents a second point of view, meets objections, adds credibility, highlights benefits, etc. Often it's folded with "Read this only if you've decided not to order ..." or words to that effect on the outside.

• Increase credibility with a testimonial insert. Testimonials often work best when you print them as a stand-alone piece, which increases the "bandwagon" effect. You can also have a benefit headline to introduce them, such as "Over 3 million satisfied customers agree, a Wahoo Widget lasts so long, it's the last widget you'll ever have to buy."

• Prove your superiority with a sample. Let's say you're selling a coat or jacket to outdoor enthusiasts. You claim it will withstand all manner of torture because it's waterproof, fireproof, rip proof, and stain proof. Enclose a one-inch square of the fabric that is attached to a small card with instructions for testing the fabric. That way, your prospect can see firsthand that your product is everything you say it is.

• Emphasize exclusivity with a membership card. People like to belong. If you can structure your offer as joining a club or organization, you can send a membership card printed on plastic or heavy paper. You can even personalize it, provide contact information, and list benefits. This transforms a mere transaction into something more beneficial and relevant to prospects.

• Reinforce your guarantee with a merchandise return label. It's one thing to say a dissatisfied customer can return a product. It's another to actually provide a prepaid return label in advance. It shows how confident you are in your product and lowers perceived risk. One way to do this is to combine a label with a lift note that explains the return process and how there's no risk or obligation for responding.

• Announce last-minute news with a buckslip. You don't have to redo a whole package just because one small thing changes. Enclose a brightly-colored slip touting a new feature, a premium, deadline, or special offer. Of course, there doesn't have to be a change to use this technique. You can use it anytime to highlight something or test an offer or premium.

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About the author:

Dean Rieck is a directcreative / direct mail copywriter, designer, and consultant who has helped over 200 leading direct marketing companies increase sales, generate leads, and raise funds with winning direct mail, ads, e-mail, sales letters, brochures, postcards, radio spots, and more. Learn more about Dean's direct mail copywriting and design services and sign up for his free monthly newsletter at directcreative /newsletter directcreative .

Copyright Dean Rieck. You may reprint this article online provided that you keep the links live and keep all the content "as is," including title, author byline, article text, and "about the author" information.

Let's face it: Direct mail selling isn't easy. Especially when recipients don't open your marketing envelope. When these are not opened you don't make money. Period.

Before you can receive an order, the recipient of your mailer must first open your envelope without simply discarding the materials without a second thought.

Because of the high costs of the whole process including printing, envelopes, and postage, your mailing package represents a hefty investment. It doesn't make sense to make this investment, and then have your sales material discarded in unopened mailings.

But with the following tips, you will have a substantial reduction in the number of mail and a Looney Tunes Stamp Collecting profitable increase in sales.

1. If you envelope looks like junk mail, it will be treated as such. The solution is simple - don't mail your material in envelopes that look like junk mail.

2. Avoid using mailing labels, because they make your envelopes look like junk mail.

3. Type the addresses or neatly write them on your envelopes.

4. If you don't have time to Postage Stamp Collecting or I Want To Sell My Old Stamps your addresses, then pay someone to address the envelopes for you. Pay them for each envelope they address; do not pay them by the hour.

6. If you must use labels, then use colored ones.

7. If colored labels are too expensive, you can color white labels with a marking pen. Fluorescent marking pens are especially good for this purpose. You can find these just about anywhere.

8. Use colored envelopes.

9. Use first class postage and print FIRST CLASS in several places on the envelope. An inexpensive rubber stamp, with red ink, makes an "official" looking impression.

10. Do not use rubber stamps on your envelopes - very tacky!

11. Also do not use return address labels.

12. Invest in a print shop to print your return address on your outgoing envelopes.

13.Preferably employ a colored typewriter ribbon to address envelopes.

14. Use a colored pen to address envelopes - maybe red or green and use large envelopes.

A few of these methods are a little odd, and a few are more pricey than normal methods, but they will all help to get your envelopes opened and increase your sales. Use these tips with your own business and watch your sales grow.

Reggie loves direct marketing and advises business owners to keep good tax records. See: 529taxhelp / 529 Tax Help.