They showed a few clips of people checking their mail with much trepidation. One woman walked up to her front door and found mail lying on her doorstep. Instead of picking up mail and walking inside to see what she received, she used her foot to shuffle through mail and she kicked away any mail that she thought was least bit suspicious.

Being in marketing business, I couldn’t help but think that she was kicking away some valuable direct mail pieces. I felt sorry for small business owners and marketing managers that put their time and energy into creating a mailing, only to have it kicked away to decompose outside.

I also thought about all business people that saw that news story and made up their minds that they wouldn’t be using direct mail for a while.

Please don’t make that same decision! Although you should use caution in this time of national crisis, you should under no circumstances pull back in your marketing efforts.

Next week every mailbox in United States is going to receive a direct mail postcard from U.S. Postal Service. It has a message from Postmaster General and information on what to look for if you suspect a letter or package may contain a harmful biological agent.

Click here to preview message they are sending. http://www.usps.com/news/2001/press/pr01_1019postcard.htm

In view of this public service announcement, I believe there is also a need for a list of Do’s and Don’ts for direct mail advertising.

Lets start with Don’ts:

----------------- • Don’t send unsolicited mail in an envelope. Only use an envelope if you already have a relationship with recipient.

• Don’t send any mail without a legitimate return address.

Use a complete return address including company name.

• Don’t use any fonts that look hand written.

I have met small business owners who actually have never taken time to know who their customers are, what they want or where they could be found. They just take anybody who comes their way and are grateful for business. Their marketing strategies, if they have any, fails for most part, because they don't know who they are supposed to be targeting or they target to wide of a market to be effective. They are doing business, but could be doing it so much better by finding and targeting ideal group of customers. I want to be sure you take time to know who your customers are and if you are targeting right group.

What we're going to do today is give you help to classify these customer groups and hopefully make it a little clearer what type of customer group should be your Ground Zero Target. Take some time and decide which of these groups are most important to you and your business. assign them a value say from 1 to 10, 10 being most valuable, one being least valuable. You can also add your own classifications to list. Something that is important to your business.

Make a list of type of customers you are currently targeting. Now comes hard part. I want you to take a break, clear your mind and begin to think of other groups of customers that could benefit from your service/product. If you are having trouble coming up with other customer groups, don't rush it. Put it away until later. Take all time you need. When you are finished (for now, because more may pop up later) compare them to classification list and add up value of each classification that fits that customer group.

# ) They Have To Be Able To Afford You. There is no point in targeting a customer group who can't afford your service/product. A good example is a local company I found was targeting This is group that has a budget set aside for product you are marketing. They know that that will be buying, they just don't know it's from you.

# ) You Have Already Earned Their Respect. In this group you have customer who is familiar with you and your services or products, and hopefully satisfied with services and/or products you provide. You have gained their respect and their trust. They will seek you out again, if they need you.

# ) Little Or No Competition. You will find that more you look, more possible customer groups you can find for your service or product. You may find a that their is a piece of market that most of your competitors have passed by or missed.