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Dont put it out to pasture just yet. Contacting your photobuyers periodically with your own direct mail campaign continues to be an effective method to keep your name and photography in front of your clients is to contact. Postcards, sell sheets, calendars, and posters all can be used to advantage.

In planning your direct mail marketing to photobuyers, you might want to consider the following important tips. They can help make your direct marketing efforts result in greater response.

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

[] Your post card, sell sheet, calendar or poster should feature a photo chosen for its sales potential. Very often, your direct mail campaign will pay for itself through multiple sales of this featured photo.

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

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

[] Repeat mailings every three to four months to the same list will increase response dramatically. If you use first class postage, youll be able to keep your list clean because the post office will return undeliverables.

[] Follow-up telemarketing to your photo clients will increase your market awareness and bring your portfolio requests.

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

[] Its O.K. to explore new, potential photobuyers, to "test-the-waters," but such mailings should be simpler, less expensive, and more frequent. You can expect a 2% to 3% response from this kind of direct mail roll out.

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

Rohn Engh is director of PhotoSource International and publisher of PhotoStockNotes. Pine Lake Farm, 1910 35th Road, Osceola, WI 54020 USA. 1 800 624 0266 Fax: 1 715 248 7394. Web site: http://www.photosource.com/products