Direct mail marketing requires planning to succeed. Here are 11 key points to consider BEFORE you create your first mailing.

Key direct mail planning concepts:

1. Determine your go & no-go decision dates and objectives:
   Make your schedule in advance of when you will decide to proceed with follow-up direct mail efforts or not.
   Know in advance what direct mail response targets you need inorder to have a chance at success.
2. Select products/services that are suitable to direct mail marketing: Calculate based on known costs, sales, profits etc. which products will allow you the most back-end sales. This is key to success in the mail.. Just about any service or product can be sold by direct mail. But, some transactions have greater potential to lead to future sales. First time sales that lead to future sales are worth a lot more. This back end chain of sales is where you should focus your management attention. A one-shot sale is possible but unlikely to be worth the tremendous time and effort you will expend up front to develop your promotion... so think it through in advance.
3. Find and fill a market gap: An original angle is hard to find. But finding and exploiting an unfilled gap inthe market will make your direct mail sales efforts far more effective. If the market is overloaded with low cost competitors then you need to find some sort of value added service you can provide to position yourself as the premium provider. Be creative, few things will make you more successful with direct mail marketing than finding a market gap -- and efficiently filling it. Discover your competitors are weak and see if you can make yourself strong in that area.
4. Make your potential customers an offer: Too many companies think that just telling about their wonderful product will be enough to convince a potential customer to buy. But few buyers are as enamoured with your product as you are. Think about what motivates the buyer... can you give them something free, a low cost intro, a special guarantee etc.
5. Start with your most powerful lists: Narrow your first mailing to a short list of the most targeted names you can imagine regardless of how small it may be. If you cannot sell to your most likely prospects you'll have a hard time selling to anyone else either. This serves as an excellent go/no-go decision metric.
6. Choose mailing formats objectively: Don't base your decisions on your own personal tastes. Hint: Start off with formats that have been proven to work efficiently in the past. Use these to establish a baseline against which you can evaluate new test ideas later on.
7. Write copy that sells: Don't get fancy. Start off with basic proven concepts you have seen work successfully with past promotions or for others. Later, you can start adding layers of your own creative ideas. After you have a realistic baseline you can start searching for a dynamic breakthrough concept.
8. Plan to fulfill promptly: Don't let leads sit and grow cold.. Deliver what you promise quickly if you want to get repeat business. It a fact that fast fulfillment leads to more orders from the very same mailing !
9. Budget for future testing: Plan in advance to test. Direct marketing consists of continuing testing of ideas and of the marketplace. You'll have to strive to beat your past success through refining your mailings, efficient cost cutting, and testing new offers.
10. Perform your analysis coldly: Never use your results to try to prove conclusions you wish were true. Let the numbers tell you what's really going on and face the facts. Direct marketing by mail or online is a business endeavor, not a mission or labor of love. Interpret your numbers is a cold business like manner.
11. Plan today for repeat sales tomorrow: Start with a structured program to get repeat business from existing customers. Planning for high profit repeat sales will very likely affect the way you go after your first sale. And you will want repeat sales.

These are some basic points to help you think through your mailings. The key condept is that you must analyse each single goal against the multiple goals you have for your plan overall.