value of a customer, the more sequential mailings you can afford to do. If one sale is worth thousands of dollars, then doing 10 to 15 mailings over 20 or 30 weeks may be in order.   2. For a normal consumer mailing for a low-priced product, dont do over three mailings. In three mailings you should be able to attract a good response.   3. Each mailing needs to be linked with the last mailing. You can do this by mentioning the previous mailing in your next direct mail piece. I often do it by putting a red stamp at the top of the letter that says, "SECOND NOTICE" with some copy talking about the previous mailing.   4. Dont let too much time elapse between mailings. Perhaps one to two weeks may be fine, but any longer than two weeks, your prospect will forget who you are.   5. Make sure each envelope and letter has a similar look and feel as the others, in order to help the reader make a stronger connection between the first and all subsequent letters. If your direct mail items dont look similar (envelope, letter, offer etc.) to previous mailings, people will find it harder to make the connection. In fact, some direct mailers use the exact same letter and offer for each step in the sequence.   6. Use an automated system, such as a contact manager like ACT or Goldmine, to remind you when to send each letter in the sequence. ACT has a great function called the "Activity Series" that will help you send out each mailing in the sequence at the right time.   7. Clean your addresses from letters that come back to you so you dont waste your money by doing unnecessary mailings. 8. If youre renting a list for one time use, try to get as many people to respond to the first letter as possible, so that you can put them on your own in-house list. Do this by putting a super offer in your first letter that compels your reader to respond. This way you dont have to pay for the use of the list over and over.   9. Consider sweetening the offer in each letter you send. If your reader didnt respond to the first offer, perhaps it because they didnt see the value of your offer. Sending a second, more powerful offer may be just the thing that your prospect needs to make them respond.   10. If youre doing a long sequential mailing (5 + letters) vary the envelope, letter, and offer so that your prospect doesnt become jaded or immune to your mailing. After several letters that look the same and read the same people will be able to predict whats inside and not even bother opening the letter. Consider sending a postcard, use a grabber (well talk about this in a moment), or mailing a different shaped box to make your mailer interesting.   Grab Your Prospects Attention Using Grabbers   One of the biggest obstacles to overcome using direct mail is the inability to get the recipients attention. Even if the sales letter is fine-tuned and directly targeted to your wants and needs, its still hard to get peoples attention. If you want to increase your direct mail response rate with dramatic success, use a "grabber."