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Direct marketing ideas have been tested and proven to work over a long period of time. They are concepts that have been around since the 1800’s and are still being used today by very savvy and wealthy marketers.

Direct marketing's birth occurred as early as the late 1800's. A man by the name of A. Montgomery Ward made a small investment and rented space on an 8 x 12 printed sheet ─ this was the first Montgomery Ward "catalogue." Sears & Roebuck followed suit with their direct mail catalog. Today there are thousands of specialty mail order houses around the country.

Lead generation is not a new form of gaining new business, but it now has a new approach. Rather than sitting at a trade show table for hours on end, or setting up a display in hopes that targeted consumers will complete a form, you can have leads generated and sent to you using the technology of the Internet.

Here’s how it works...

Online Internet businesses are often in the business of attracting and selling to new clients. The strategies for selling to first time customers are referred to as Front End Acquisition.

Front End Acquisition refers to all of the marketing and communication that happens before a person becomes your customer or client.

First some clarification to make sure we are all on the same page here. When I use the phrase grow your business, I’m referring to generating more revenue and, by extension, increasing your profits. This guide is not intended to turn you into a multi-national goliath with trillion dollar assets. It’s not about the big money game of mergers and acquisitions, leveraged stock buyouts, or anything like that.

While many marketing techniques have fallen by the wayside over the past several decades, direct mail marketing has seamlessly made the transition from the horse and buggy days of past centuries into the current era. Often overlooked by entrepreneurs who are drawn to the Internet and its virtually “free” delivery system, direct mail marketing still packs a punch when it comes to converting readers into prospects and prospects into buyers.

Most owners and managers want to grow their business. Most of them concentrate exclusively on getting more new customers. Odd really.

There is lots of marketing research that is pretty consistent in pointing out that it costs somewhere between six and twelve times as much to get a new customer as it does to sell to an existing customer. And once you have a customer it is generally pretty straightforward to get them to buy from you more often.