4.Be Conservative - Don’t spend any more than is necessary to get job done. When printing, choose fewer colors and pages to cut your cost in half. Opt for graphics software, stock photography and other tools that allow you to avoid hiring expensive professionals. Your goal should always be to produce professional materials, not necessarily most expensive ones.

5.Capitalize on “Free” Advertising - Send a press release to print, radio and broadcast media. It won’t cost you anything to send in submissions. But what you can gain is free publicity in form of a full article or at least a small brief. Unbiased publicity from a reporter carries a lot of weight and can help you “advertise” your business better than any paid advertising can.

6.Form Strategic Alliances - Combine your marketing efforts and dollars with those of complementary businesses. Swap customer referrals and split cost of a postcard mailing or print ad with trusted business partners. You can also share exhibit space at trade shows or co-sponsor special events.

7.Improve and Maximize Customer Relations - Always meet and exceed your customers’ expectations... so you don’t lose them. Some estimates say it costs seven times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one. You can also save money and time by generating repeat business from your customers. Contact them with a special offer or piece of useful information; they’ll probably be happy to hear from you. Ultimately, you’ll be doing them and yourself a favor.

This is a direct mail mailing list you can purchase from owner of list (such as a magazine or company) or a list broker.

3. A compiled list is a list of people who were selected to be on list because they possess characteristics that you asked list broker to screen for.

Examples of characteristics used to target correctly may include age, sex, geographic location, income level, etc. These are more fixed characteristics than response list characteristics, which are behavioral characteristics.

Case study: California based Sun Pacific Mortgage’s Forest Tardibuono found a great way to get right direct mail mailing list for his company which has a very successful direct mail marketing strategy based on postcards and direct mail mailing lists. “The title companies give us mailing labels free. I’ll tell them we want all homeowners in 95401 which is a zip we get most of our business from. So they’ll give us mailing labels of anyone who is a homeowner from that lists. It saves money on labels and mailing lists. They’ll even limit searches to specific categories such as all homeowners from that zip who got a loan from certain companies and they’ll do search according to that so I can really target public so that mailing will be more effective.” Mailing lists, correctly targeted, can make difference in a mediocre promotional campaign to a wildly successful promotional campaign. It really just depends on what you are willing to have – success or mediocrity. So which is it?

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998, her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did close to $9 million in sales and employed over 60 people. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. Now she’s sharing her marketing secrets with others. For more free marketing advice, visit her website at www.postcardmania.com