An effective method to keep your name and research service in front of clients is to contact them periodically with your own direct mail campaign. Postcards, calendars, magnets, and posters all can be used to advantage.

In planning your direct mail marketing to potential clients, you might want to consider what we've learned at the PhotoSource International website. These tips can make your direct marketing more effective:

[] By using U.S. Postal Mail to contact your client prospects (as opposed to e-mail), you can include a Business Response Card (BRC), to give you feed-back information, gauge effectiveness, make sales, and transform prospects into future sales leads.

[] Your post card, magnet, calendar or poster should feature an image chosen for its sales potential. Very often, your direct mail campaign will pay for itself.

[] Making a mailing list of contacts that are targeted to your specialty research area (rather than broad-siding), improves response quality and reduces the unit cost.

[] Tailor your message and illustrations to your specialty audience.

[] Repeat-mailings every four to six months to the same list increases response dramatically.

[] Follow-up telemarketing to your client(s) will affirm availability and professionalism.

[] If you're engineering an elaborate and expensive mailing, it should go to a tightly targeted group of high-level publishers and potential accounts.

[] It's O.K. to explore new, potential clients, "testing-the-waters," but the mailings should be simpler, less expensive, and more frequent. You can expect a 3% to 5% response from this kind of direct mail roll out.

[] Mailings should be carefully crafted, from envelope to BRC, for maximum impact, leaving an unforgettable impression.

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35^th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. E-mail: info@photosource.com . Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: www.photosource.com.