Information marketing has much in common with the 'old school' mail order business. In fact, many of the practices you see online today such as two page direct sales mini-sites, mailing lists and unique products, come directly from the mail order model.

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The five core priorities of successful mail order companies parallel those of the online marketer. They are: demographics, targeting, testing and tracking, up-selling and customer follow up. If you aren't focused on these key areas yet, read on to discover why should be, and what it will mean for your bottom line.

Direct Response Lesson #1: Demographics

Demographic information provides an in depth profile of your potential customer. There are two ways to acquire demographic information, and two separate motives for each method.

You can:

? Acquire data from consumer data mining companies such as MarketShare Online ? Acquire data from your existing customer base

The preferred source depends on your product development process and your current resources. Professionally gathered data allows you to survey the market and create highly targeted products. Rather than searching through keyword lists for potential niches, you can use demographic data to target specific classes of consumers based on their spending habits and disposable income. Your marketing strategy becomes much clearer with this data in hand. It allows you advance insight into your customer's interests, pricing points and mindset. Now, you have a baseline against which to test the effectiveness of your sales message.

Direct Response Lesson #2: Targeting

Here is a rule of thumb for you to memorize: interest and need alone are not enough to generate a sale. This is a controversial statement, I know. Ask yourself the following question, though: how often have you found yourself interested in a product yet not purchased it? How often have you needed a product, yet not been able to afford it?

The truth is that, in either case, despite your interest and your need, you were only marginally targeted when the offer was presented to you.

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Direct Response Lesson #3: Testing and Tracking

You absolutely must test and track everything you do. For details visit to :www.podcasting-made-easy.comYou must track your pay-per-click campaigns, your newsletter mailings and the paths taken by visitors to your web site. You must test your ad copy and your product pricing.

The testing and tracking phase of a marketing campaign marks the proving ground between demographics and targeting. Once you've acquired the data on your potential customer's behavior, For details visit to :www.podcasting-made-easy.com you must track their actual behavior to find out if it matches the expected results.

Direct Response Lesson #4: Create Robust Order Forms for the Up-Sell

Your order form can pull more profit through impulse purchases than you realize. Many internet marketers seem to believe that one product should lead to one simple order form. This is probably due to so many of us being self-taught. We copy what we've seen.

The reason for doing this, of course, is that the customer is already interested and already in a buying mindset. You've done all the hard work to lead him to your site and you've enticed him with your sales letter. He's on the order form with credit card in hand. Why not use this moment to make a complementary offer? You can up-sell a related product of your own or that of one of your joint venture partners for a profit split.

Direct Response Lesson #5: Post Sale Follow Up

What happens to your customer after the sale? Take a page from the book of mail order secrets and follow up with that customer! If you've ever purchased anything through a catalog, you know what happens. You end up on their mailing list and continue to receive catalogs and other offers in the mail.