Know your industry; in each segments there are subtle differences, which areas are growing. Forecast and build your lists to take advantage of these changes.Rental sales lists should be avoided. Your lists should become part of your ongoing activities. A prospect may not close the first 3 mailers, they may not even receive the first 2 however, if you rent a list, you only get one shot. When you own your list, you not only get mail data but should also receive phone contacts as well as fax numbers where available.Quickly growing market segments should be receiving an influx of new data and consumers, if you are trending your industry you’ll know when to purchase your data. When the trend line of sales goes up, it’s time to make list purchases.Your direct mail should be as targeted as you can make it. Have your data consultant building your direct mail lists segment lists into groupings with specific characteristics, or ensure you’re list can be filtered to isolate segments. Your mail piece should be written to your prospect. You’re research into your target market should help you to address their specific wants needs and concerns.Test, Test, Test, and Test some more! Did I get your attention with Test? Think about your testing, how will you create list segments? Gender, Age groupings, geographically. Be sure your testing does not isolate or squeeze out niche markets, the purpose of testing is to find what groups are most responsive and what specific approach appeals to each. Be sure you get this VALUABLE information from your tests doing so will increase your total ROI and prove more valuable over time. You’ll be stocked with a highly tested supply of marketing materials that you know work.When you’ve isolated your best approach for each group ensure you take that approach back to previously mailed but not converted targets. This is why we don’t RENT lists, the list consumer receives the best ROI and advantage from owning the list!When you finalize your mail piece ensure it has NO errors. If you have page breaks, don’t end an ideal on a page, carry the sentence on the next. Ensure your prospect knows how to get a-hold of you. Tell them what to do next, Pay, Call, etc… Get the readers attention, drop cap (large first letter of a paragraph) heavily indented first few paragraphs, etc, you want people to read what you have to say.