I've noticed that the biggest problem clients and prospects have with their direct mail efforts fall into several categories:

• Understanding their audience
• Relevance of their offer
• Timeliness 
• No measurement

Understanding your audience.
You may know who you want to target but can you be sure you are targeting them. Many of the prospects and clients that approach me are not sure if they are hitting the right audience. They use broad stroke demographics like targeting a certain neighborhood without actually getting a list that would encompass that neighborhood, but also show them other demographics such as ages in family, household income, lifestyle activities, age of thier house to name a few.

The list or making sure you are targeting the right people whether you are using mail, online display or PPC. With mail I can get really targeted lists. If you want to use online channels it's a little less specific because online channels use different methods for obtaining location information, lifestyle choices and family information. 

I regularly pull a count from a list specialists even when using online media to understand the total numbers of the audience I'm after. Once you understand the size, making choices about media is easier. If you only have 13,000 targets in a city, I'm not sure I'd spend dollars on mass media channels unless they can clearly show targeting of the demographic.

Relevance of the Offer.
Much of the time there is no offer except to extol the value of the service or product. To get people to act you have to put an offer out there. "Free Evaluation," "discount," etc.

Timeliness.
Timing is everything. Do you understand how your customers buy. People hate to be sold but they love to buy. So developing a consistent message and or educational content that keeps them engaged can help you be their "Johnny on the spot" when the need arises. A regular newsletter, mailer, and online touches can aid this. Understand that mail is tangible and is more memorable than email and online channels unless you spend more into video.

Measurement.
Every channel, type of offer and creative should be measured. It's important to do this so you really understand how people are engaging with you and why. Most businesses will tell you "I get all my contacts through my website." That is likely true, but what drove them there. They likely typed in your company name. But did they engage that way because they heard your radio spot, direct mail piece or TV ad? How do you know? Even if you have a separate phone number to call the likelihood is that they will only remember the name and it's normal to then go online and type in the company name. So everyone thinks it's the online advertising, when in fact it could be the Newspaper ad. I recommend "codes" be used in traditional channels along with a discount for that channel. Most people can remember the company name and a a code (i.e. Radio) to receive a discount or future discount.

That's how you accurately measure your spending efforts. Follow these principles and your lead generation will improve.