Postcard mailing
Moving? People move from place to another because of job changes, family issues or other life changing circumstances.
We get so engrossed with the move that we tend to forget a crucial task of informing our friends and family about our new address.
An inexpensive way to do this is through a postcard mailing.
Postcard mailings are a cheap way to inform people about your move across the country.
You might say e-mail is even cheaper.
It does not cost a penny.
But many times e-mails get deleted accidentally.
Americans can do a postcard mailing with a 4.
25" by 6" postcard via First Class Mail for only 24?
And your postcard mailing does not have to be boring.
There are many websites offering cute postcards that relate to the topic of change of address.
You can personalize your postcard mailing with a variety of pictures and cute sound bytes.
Humor is often a great way to personalize your postcard mailing.
Postcard mailings can also be a great way to market you small business.
A tip to keep in mind to ensure success of your direct mailing is to always keep it simple.
The image in front of the postcard should be simple.
Leave behind the artistic side of you.
The colors should be bright and put a person in a good mood.
Also, direct marketing postcard mailings are all about action, getting people to do something now.
These mailings are not about the issue of image building.
Therefore, you should have an action item on your postcard.
Oh, by the way, always proofread before you print those cards.
One mistake can cost you a bundle.

Direct mailing
According to the United States Postal Service almost 20 percent of all direct marketing in the America is spent on Direct Mailing.
A Direct Mailing is a cost effective way to tell your customers who you are, and what your business offers.
You can promote a new product or service through Direct Mailing.
Direct mailing also helps in building up name recognition of your business.
The bottom line in all Direct Mailings is to generate profits.
You want people to order or purchase your product or service.
There are simple techniques to ensure maximum optimization on your Direct Mailing.
Direct mailing gets you into the homes and businesses of your customers and it lets you reach many, many more people than you could by yourself.
But there's a downside too! Many times people take this type of mailing and put it straight into the trash can.
Your pitch never sees the time of day.
Your direct mailing needs to get noticed and peak your customer抯 interests.
You cannot just put a letter into an envelope and expect to sit back and relax waiting for the money to roll in.
There is a science to it.
Use colorful postage stamps.
It is hard not to look at a letter that appears to be personal.
Also use a non-standard size envelope.
Make sure the envelope has color to it.
Again it makes your letter stand out.
Now that the potential customer has opened your letter, you have to make sure that he or she will read it.
The headline of your letter needs to be an attention grabber.
Headlines sell newspapers; they also sell people on reading a letter.
Always write your letter from the readers' perspective.
Explain to them how your product or service helps them.
A letter is sales in print.
A good salesperson talks about the benefits of the product or service and how it will help solve the prospect's problems.
Your letter needs to do the same thing.
Show your readers how you will solve their problems or save them money.
Make sure your Direct Mailing is not a one shot deal.
A few Direct Mailings may be need with a follow-up phone call.

Aim mail
AOL has retooled their Web-based email system to take advantage of new technologies that result in a radically different, advanced user system.
The stakes are high for this new face-lift.
Mess it up, and millions are disappointed.
If it works, then as the REM song say Happy Shining People Holding Hands.
AOL has come out with a free mail service open to non-subscribers as well, called AIM Mail, which has amassed over 1.
7 million users.
Whoever is part of AOL抯 instant messenger, now you can link all of your different AIM screen names and mail accounts into one central location.
It is a one stop shop for instant messaging and e-mail.
Users are getting better flexibility, more safety from viruses and spam, and more features, making for better experiences and increased usage.
It has 2 gigabytes of online storage, a very good spam protection and an easy to use interface.
AIM Mail allows you to compose emails using rich HTML formatting.
AIM Mail can check display and audible announce new messages automatically.
You can set up folders to archive or organize mail, and messages can be flagged for follow-up.
It also has an address book.
You can set up an auto-reply in AIM Mail, notifying senders on how long you are planning to be out of town.
AIM Mail includes a calendar and lets you turn emails into events or to-do items easily.
You can switch between different AOL and AIM Mail accounts on the fly.
AIM Mail offers not only instant messaging but also instant email messaging.
Built to look and work like a desktop application.
There is an option of dragging and dropping your messages.
However, you cannot set up labels or smart folders, and AIM Mail cannot filter or pre-sort incoming mail.
AIM Mail is a very friendly, clean and usable email service.

Mailing envelope
When going to the post office box, most people don抰 give a second thought about the mailing envelope they are using.
The mailing envelope has come a long way since its clay wrapping days 4000 years ago.
Babylonians protected their documents by covering it with clay and baking it.
This gave a whole new meaning to Hot Mail.
It was a foolproof system, for the outside wrapper had to be completely destroyed in order to gain access to the tablet hidden under it.
Imagine back then a postal carrier schlepping clay mailing envelopes.
By the 16th Century the paper envelope finally saw the light of day.
Official letters, and letters sent by important people, were mailed in a paper that was folded and sealed.
Each sender had to take care of his own style of envelope, and would cut the paper as he saw fit.
Also, many people put a lot of effort in developing their own seal.
What is strange is that no one knows the exact date the idea of cutting paper for envelopes from a standard pattern was conceived.
However, those window mailing envelopes you receive from credit card companies to mail in your bill does have an actually date.
On June 10, 1902, window mailing envelopes were first patented by a man named Americus F.
Callahan of Chicago.
Callahan noted that window mailing envelopes could save time and labor.
Today, robots churn out billions of window envelopes every year -- all barely different from Callahan's hundred-year-old design.

Mailing list
To surf the net or not to surf the net that is the question! Looking for things that interest you, but don抰 want to spend the time browsing the web; join a mailing list.
All you need in joining a mailing list is your e-mail.
An electronic mailing list is a list of email addresses grouped under a single mail box; somewhat similar to postal mailing lists, except you can participate in the mailings and have full control over the process.
When you send email addressed to the mailing list, it is automatically broadcast to everyone on the list.
Some mailing lists offer digest subscriptions where the information is sent in a single large message each day, rather than broadcasting each message to the list as they are received.
To subscribe to a list, simply send an email message to the mailing list server.
Mailing remain one of the most useful, effective, and popular methods for group discussions.
Many organizations and businesses use them to keep in touch with members and customers.
Remember, mailing lists are one of the oldest forms of Internet communication.
They get you where you want to be, but with less stress.
Mailing lists can be served by a variety of free programs such as ListProc, Majordomo, SmartList, and LISTSERV.
When replying to a message, include only the relevant text from the previous posting.
Better yet, summarize the key points to which you are responding.
If you choose to copy and paste the previous message try to take out as much frivolous words as possible.

Mailing software
In looking for e-mail software there are a few things you need to be aware of.
In desktop mailing software programs, sending e-mails using your internet connection can limit the number and speed of e-mail transmission.
The Internet Service Providers do this in order to prevent bulk e-mail sending.
Internet Service Providers try to limit people from sending spam.
While there are e-mail software programs that can enhance the speed of sending bulk e-mails, they may be stopped by the Internet Service Provider from ever reaching your customer's inbox.
This scenario is frustrating to many who want to give their customers the latest on their services and products.
So how does one enhance the speed, and gets through the spam protection? The answer my friend is through Application Service Providers.
This e-mail software application resides in the virtual world of the company's server.
You pay a monthly fee for this, but it will help to get your e-mails through spam filters and deliver your e-mail to your customer's inbox.
No more hassles.
It is worth the small fee for the guarantee of getting through all the virtual challenges in the World Wide Web.
A good mailing software is crucial promoting your business! The best advertising on the internet is electronic mail.
Mailing software programs make it easy for you to create and manage bulk mailing lists for contacting current and potential customers.
There are mailing software program that can extract e-mail addresses from valid URLs and deliver HTML-based e-mail messages using a visual editor like Dreamweaver or GoLive.
This is like a virtual vacuum cleaner, leaving you with a clean sheet of e-mails to work with.