Nine and a Half Rules of Thumb 

1. Think of every ad and every direct mailer as a NON—PERSONAL sales call. 

2. Advertising not only builds name recognition with prospects but REINFORCES your position with customers and affects retention. 

3. Make sure every major marketing communications campaign has a CENTRAL THEME and employs an INTEGRATED combination of advertising, direct mail and point of purchase elements. 

4. You can send suspects the SAME mailer with the SAME message SEVEN times before your reply rate deteriorates.

5. Your marketing materials must sell BENEFITS first, not features. 

6. Effective TELEMARKETING follow up to commercial lines mailings can boost your reply rate from .5% or 1% to 15% or higher. 

7. If you don’t have a print or online “sales brochure”, you are NOT in sales. 

8. If you have a limited budget, concentrate on CUSTOMER communications to ROUND OUT, UPGRADE accounts and GET MORE referrals. 

9. Make sure your associates are INVOLVED with your communications program, and know how to respond when prospects and/or customers call as the result of your promotion. 

9.5. Make sure you can MEASURE results of every strategy and every tactic, i.e. set specific, quantifiable goals!