Targeted mail lists— you must mail to the proper audience.

1. Effective and relevant offers— you want to make your recipient excited and ready to respond.
2. Eye-catching creative design— you are competing with many pieces of mail. You must stand out from the rest.
3. Understand your audience— Do not treat C-level executives in the same manner as you treat mid-level decision makers.
4. Keep your mail lists clean and up-to-date—You should often merge your lists and eliminate duplicates, pass your database through CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) for address verification & run your database through NCOA (National Change of Address) in order to validate the recipient’s name and address.
5. Be careful of square or odd shaped sizes— though they may be innovative and different, they can be expensive to produce and also can incur postal surcharges.
6. Don’t panic because of rising postal rates— The United States Postal Service tends to raise rates only a penny or two per year. As compared to oil prices and the fact that letters can be delivered thousands of miles in only a couple days, postal rates are a true bargain.
7. Lifting response rates— response rates can be lifted by adding teaser copy (Personal and Confidential) to the outer envelope, stamping the envelope rather than using meter impression or permit imprint, personalizing the outer envelope rather than using a window, etc.
8. Post-it notes & stickers— this technology has improved drastically so that you can machine apply post-it notes and stickers to envelopes, self-mailers and even letters. For letters, you can even personalize post-it notes as you are personalizing the letters.
9. Time your campaign properly with planet codes— planet coding tracks your mailer throughout the postal process. This allows you to time e-mail blasts and follow-up phone calls accurately.

Please note that all of these ideas can be executed by a team of creative and strategic leaders.