As an entrepreneur involved in selling and/or promotion of something by Direct Mail, you should already know that most important aspect of your mailing have to do with the sales letter or circular you send out, and the mailing list you use. With these thoughts in mind, and assuming you've got what should be an order-pulling sales letter or circular, let's focus our attention specifically on the problem of finding mailing lists that produce profitable orders.

Common sense should tell you that without a good mailing lists, the time and money you spend for market research, advertising layout and knowledge relating to the "rules of direct mail," will just be wasted effort. In other words, unless you get you offer to the buyers, you might as well save your time and money.

In order to reach your most-likely buyer, you must first determine who your most-likely buyers are. This is not so hard as it might appear. Actually, it's just a matter of recognizing that automotive items will appeal to car-owners, while household gadgets will sell best to the homemakers. Regardless of how easy its is, this is the most-often over-looked part of the beginning entrepreneur's planning. Suffice it to say that if you don't know who you're going to sell a product or service to, your product or service is going to be pretty hard for you to sell.

The next thing to really look into is the competition your product or service faces. If it has a limited market--not too many people would stand in line to buy--and you are competing with virtually the same product as supplied by other companies--then you're going to have to either come up with a strong "hidden angle" or else face defeat before you even begin...

These are the "keys" to success in selling anything via direct mail--pin-pointing exactly who your buyers are, presenting your offer to them with an angle not being used by your competition, and concentrating all your sales efforts only on the most-likely prospects. Assuming you "know" who your most-likely buyers are; that you've got a "winning" sales letter or circular--and, a product or service these people "will stand in line to buy," then your problem is to get the message to these people.

Do not think you'll "save some money" by renting or buying inexpensive mailing lists from advertisers in all those ad sheets and "mail order" type publications that seem to flood your mailbox. You'll waste a lot of time, and spend money chasing the wind with these lists. These lists offered by "mail order" dealers are compiled from ad sheets, mail order publications, and/or incoming offers received by the list-seller...These people also compile lists they use...A lot of them compile their rental lists directly from the telephone/city directories...

And even a few of them work the "envelope stuffing" scheme to compile their rental lists