1. Know your purpose: What do you want your direct mailer to accomplish? Do you want to be remembered? Do you want to educate prospects about benefits? Recently, Brand Identity Guru was hired to expand a clients direct mail efforts, so we created a direct mail piece to showcase our clients related capabilities. Now direct mail accounts for nearly 30% of our clients new business.

2. Research your market: Explore the companies on your mailing list so you can refer to their needs. Find out the top two issues and pain points that the company faces.

3. Be relevant: Your direct mailer should resemble something your client might use or buy.

4. Plan a campaign: The best direct mailers complement your PR, Advertising, Marketing Strategy and Sales efforts. Ultimately, each piece should build a cohesive, identifiable whole.

5. Attend to details: Find out the name of that purchasing agent or marketing contact and spell it right, proofread your words and double check visual placement. Even an award winning direct mailer is useless unless you send it to the right person at the right time.

6. Keep em' coming: Send a series of direct mailers regularly based on your clients needs. To find out what those are, simply ask clients how often they'd like to hear from you. Generally, December is already crowded with mailings, so BIG suggests waiting until February. Bulk mailers are good monthly and targeted mailers quarterly.

7. Follow up: If you don't follow up, all your efforts could slam to a halt. Initiate a dialogue with clients by making phone calls within a week or two after your mailing, especially if a client requests it. And of course, don't waste time dialing hundreds of phone numbers, but know that it's worth the effort for smaller mailings.

To measure how strong your brand is copy and paste: (http://brandidentityguru.com/bightml/brandmasterpiece.html). Then click "Take the brand strength test". This is a short survey that measures the strength of any company's brand. It's a great tool to see where you are today.