Direct marketing is the art of reaching out to potential customers directly, without letting a middle man like television or radio take a bite out of your profits. Direct marketing has the potential to be extremely profitable if done properly. Here are five tips on how to create a successful direct marketing plan that brings high return on your investment.

1. Set your budget

Before you reach out to your first customer, you should know how you're going to track success and how much money you expect to generate from your advertising campaign. This will help you to set a reasonable budget, which will also determine how large your target niche will be and which direct mail method is best for this campaign.

2. Find your niche

If you send the same marketing message out to everyone you can, that message will be irrelevant to most who read it. That wastes your money and your customers' time. It's far better to focus on a segment of your marketing list with a specific interest and laser-target your ads to appeal to them. Some segments to consider include:

• New customers versus people who have purchased before
• Business sales versus marketing to consumers
• Man versus women
• Geographical location
• Target audience's age

3. Determine your method

Whether you'll be sending your message via email newsletter, glossy catalogue or other means will depend a lot on the first two steps. For example, you will take a decidedly different approach if your niche is small business sales than if you are marketing to consumers.

4. Cut through the noise

People see an average of 5,000 advertisements every day. Junk mail, spam mail, and unsolicited flyers are ubiquitous. In order for your direct marketing campaign to be successful, you have to find ways to make your ads stand apart. Some ideas to do this include:

• Eye-catching titles or subject lines
• Unusual shapes to your printed material
• Vivid colors or images
• Offering genuinely useful content, as well as your promotions
• Speaking to what your customers really need

5. Evaluate your results

The reaction that your direct marketing campaign receives will tell you how to have even more success with your next mailing. Some questions that you should ask include: