Running a direct mail marketing campaign can be the equivalent of throwing money out the window. On the other hand, a good campaign can be more effective than other types of marketing. If you're worried about the effectiveness of your campaigns, then you shouldn't panic. All you need to do is take a good hard look at what you're doing and see what facets could be improved. You might be able to revamp your entire operation in just a few hours. Here are some of our favorite tips from those who've run successful campaigns through Postlead.io:

1) Do Personalize Your Mailings if at All Possible

Add a personal touch to every mailing you send out if such a thing is possible. Unless you're running a mass campaign where you're sending out messages to every occupied address in an area, this should be a realistic goal. In fact, such campaigns often don't work so you'll want to ensure that you're properly targeting your messages to begin with. If you're not sure what kind of information would be the most appropriate for a specific consumer, then you might want to go back to the drawing board and rethink the way you've decided to run your marketing campaign.

2) Don't Ever Print without Proofreading

Spell check was invented for a reason. You should always take the time to proofread before you mail something out. On the Internet, messages that are full of mistakes are often ignored. In print media, these can look flat out foolish to consumers who might end up being more judgmental since they have to take out time in their physical lives to read things over. In a worst-case scenario, mistakes on a postcard can be flat out confusing to those you want to resonate with.

3) Do Send out Messages at Certain Milestones

Most optometrists and ophthalmologists prefer to schedule appointments with their patients once a year. If they wear eyeglasses, then this is even more important since they need to ensure that their patients have experienced some change in their prescriptions. By sending out postcards near the anniversary of their last appointment, eye doctors can make sure that people always come back annually. If you're in an industry like this, then you need to send out messages near milestones to keep your customers coming back.

4) Don't Forget About Other Channels

Direct mail is a great way to drum up interest in your brand, but don't forget that it needs to focus on your normal sales channels to work. Direct people back to your digital channels or to your physical place of business with the copy you write on every piece of mail. Consider using things like QR codes, links or pURL technology to attract tech-savvy customers.

5) Do Give Your Readers the Best Call to Action Possible

A relatively small percentage of people will ever reply to your message, so you want to do everything possible to ensure that they'll act on it. Write a call to action that shows just how much you're ready to do business with them.

Rules for Direct Mail Marketers

Marketing gurus have long promoted what's called the 40/40/20 rule for anyone starting a marketing campaign. This stipulates that 40 percent of your fresh income will come from how effective your list is, another 40 percent will come from how good the offer you're making is and the rest will come from everything else. That means your copy and design choices only make up 20 percent of your total income in most cases, but you do want to get everything right to avoid losing out on money you could be making. An easy way to comply with all of these guidelines is to use a creative outreach marketing tool like Postlead.io, so contact us online as soon as you're ready to learn about the benefits of this kind of service.