Many small businesses are looking for an advantage to help them weather the storm and avoid losses. That’s why companies are focusing on increasing sales.

Typically a recession drives small businesses to evaluate, re-design and refine their product offerings and marketing processes as they focus on cash flow, costs, customer retention and survival.

There has been an upsurge in Internet and email marketing, yet many top decision-makers in businesses nationwide and even globally still rely on traditional marketing tactics such as direct mail when positioning products, developing media strategies.

In the past, some people predicted email and online marketing would put an end to direct mail. The Winterberry Group estimated that direct mail spending would be at around $65 billion in 2009.

What is happening now is called “

integrated marketing

” where traditional direct mail, and television or radio advertising is integrated with online advertising, resulting in even better results and bigger revenues.

It is essential for business marketers to research and learn how to be innovative, send the right message to the right person, and create new opportunities for increasing their revenues despite the economic climate.

According to the U.S. A survey entitled the Postal Service’s Household Diary study was released in August 2009 and stated advertising mail spending was at $59.7 billion in the year 2008, accounting for 22 percent of all advertising spending and ranked only below television, while overall households received 99.about 6 billion pieces of advertising mail in 2008.

This is why small businesses need to learn learn insightful direct mail information about understanding list opportunities, improving mail delivery and reducing postage costs, including:

Direct mail is all about the numbers, benefits and expectations. learn how to design a business marketing plan that will turn expectations into revenues. You also need to write compelling copy targeting recipients and maximizing responses. Marketers can use offers and a call-to-action to increase conversion rates and return on investment. You MUST test and track direct mail successes for increasingly effective campaigns. -Identify the right prospects. Enrich your customer base for better results, and learn how analytics can help target prospects most likely to do business with you. Any smart marketer can choose from more than 40,000 available lists to get the best response rate. More importantly, learn how to maximize on-time mail delivery through effective address hygiene. You can
identify the “money wasters” in your mailing lists. Taking advantage of postage discounts for mailings is important, and you should learn how to use drop shipping to enhance delivery and cut costs. One last tip – your mail can be tracked through the mail stream with the USPS’s Intelligent Mail Bar Code™.

If you research online, you will learn the answers to the above pointers, you will know how to get new customers, increase your return on investment(ROI)and create compelling direct mail that drives customers.

Check out any one of the direct mail and marketing trade organizations like the Direct Marketing Association.(DMA) They provide a range of current research and resources relating to every aspect of direct marketing, including books, research and other useful resources.

There are also many localized marketers that have set up direct mail crash courses so you can learn more.

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Modern Postcard is a full-service direct marketing provider of postcard products and direct mail services. With more than 25 years of experience, Modern Postcard manages all operations in-house from its 75,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility. Go to: http://www.modernpostcard.com/seminar

Stop wasting your time on trial and error. Its OK to learn what works and what does not work from others. Make sure you have a success mindset which is open to learning from others who have achieved success.

There is a right way and a wrong way to develop and grow an online business. Mirroring and learning from others is ok in business – unlike when you where at school. Its called leverage.

You must not copy what they are doing word for word but you must firstly:

1. Adopt their mindset – what do they focus on, who do they focus on? how much time do they invest in their business? who are they in business with? what are the names of the people that you associate with and who can really challenge you and help you?

2. Work on your own mindset – Be focused on achieving your success and you must be specific in order to do this,. Make sure you have committed yourself to the success of the business. You must be committed to working on your online business every day for an extended period of time – Are you prepared to make the necessary sacrifices. Make sure you understand the time it will take.

Many of the online scam businesses claim that you can make thousands of dollars from your first day in business by working only 1-2 hours per day. Most of the truly successful online entrepreneurs who have built sustainable, ethical, online businesses for themselves will have invested their time, their efforts and 100% of their focus to ensure success in their online venture.

If you are serious you will treat your business seriously.

On each of the Online Business Training courses that I have given and attended over the past few years, Mindset features on each and every one of them.

You must be able to explain to people that you are involved in marketing online and leave it at that – Their lack of knowledge or understanding must not influence your commitment to success. They will however be experts in online scamming and will have heard all the stories!

Its important for both you and your own mindset to be very clear to these people that you are working on a serious business and that you are committed to its success and that you are working on yourself all the time.

There is a saying where I come from “If you want to soar with the eagles, do not scratch with the turkeys” or as Tony Robbins say “You are the average of the six people that you spend most time with” Look around you – Have you got to make some tough decisions and are you prepared to do this,. This works if you want it to work.

Watching the news and TV and reading the daily newspapers will not help you to become successful online. Cut the time you spend on these activities to a minimum.

3. Find a proven system that works online and that has worked online for for many people. Speak to these people and understand what they have done to make it a success. Its the quickest way to becoming successful online.

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Derek O’Dwyer is a business growth specialist who has worked with hundreds of business owners over the past 8 years helping them to be successful both on line and off line. Visit http://www.havingthebestday.com for a proven system that has worked for a number of years for thousands of online business owners