Best Direct Mail Marketing Resources

Best Resources for Direct Mail

Here you'll find the best resources for direct mail: books, magazines, websites, reports, articles and research.

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• Direct Mail by Edward Nash. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.

• Successful Direct Marketing Methods (8th edition) by Bob Stone & Ron Jacobs. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.

• Direct Mail for Dummies by Richard Goldsmith. Wiley, 2006.

• Response: The Complete Guide to Profitable Direct Marketing by Lois K. Geller. Oxford University Press, 2002. 

 

• For direct mail lists, go to a business library and get a copy of the SRDS Direct Mail List Source, a directory published by Standard Rate and Data Service of most major lists and who to contact to purchase.  Or visit srds.com.
• The leading magazine in the industry is DM News.  On their web site dmnews.com you can search for a free white paper “The DM News Essential Guide to Lists, Database Marketing, and Data Services.”
• Visit the Direct Mail Association's (DMA) site at the-dma.org and look for their resources area.  They provide a listing of all list sellers and brokers.
• The U.S. Postal Service offers several free reports on their site usps.com
  • Postal Addressing Standards describes address content and how these elements should appear on a mailing
  • “Updating Address Lists is a Smart Move” describes five ways to help businesses update their customer mailing lists. 

 

• Ezinearticles.com is a site with thousands of free articles.
• marketingprofs.com and marketingsherpa.com are web sites for marketing professionals.  They offer some free articles and white papers. For an annual subscription fee you get access to all their articles and research. If you're an agency or marketing professional in direct mail or you're doing a lot of direct mail, a subscription may be a worthwhile investment.
• The leading trade magazine for direct marketing professionals is DM News. Their site, dmnews.com, has articles and a resource center. 
• The Direct Marketing Association’s web site the-dma.org has some free articles available to non-members.
• The US Postal Service Site, usps.com, has a number of articles on direct mail

 

Direct marketing has come under a lot of legislative and regulatory scrutiny and you want to make sure that your direct mail complies with federal regulations.

• Check out the “Do Not Call” rules at the web site for the Federal Trade Commission: ftc.gov/donotcall
• Read the Direct Marketing Association's ethical guidelines on the-dma.org
• We found this public site information on Postage Saver called "Bulk Mail 101" much easier to understand than the U.S. Postal Service's site about how bulk mail works.  It's written by L. Scott Hochberg Consulting Services in Houston, Texas. He's not a USPS employee so his information may not be totally accurate: bulkmail.info/presort.html