It's that time again . . . time to get the ball rolling on your new membership recruitment campaign, or your seasonal ad campaign, or your annual meeting promotion. You need an idea, a direction, an inspiration to guide your creative mind to a result that will be executable, will reach and resonate with the intended audience, and come in within budget.

If you want to boost sales, increase membership, enhance volunteer participation, increase market share or find new profit niches, the best methods start with knowing your target audience. One of the most effective ways to do that is to listen to them. How you listen, and how you organize and collate the results of that listening is the determining factor in the usefulness of the data, and the accuracy and actionability of your analysis.

Direct marketing is often called a game of dollars - getting the basics down and understanding where to put in the time, money and effort where it will do the most good and return the results you need. Success is often a matter of a fraction of a percent response, which can represent thousands of dollars in sales.

Properly aligned priorities and careful execution will yield profit, misplaced effort and sloppiness in execution can cost you.

You know you really don't need that copy of the newest book "How To Survive The Real Estate Downturn And Become A Millionaire In The Process," but you subscribe to Money magazine anyway. You know you don't need that die-cast, genuine certified Commemorative Medal of Freedom, but you subscribe to Reader's Digest anyway. Such is the power of the premium in publication sales - even smart, savvy, educated professionals react emotionally when they stand to gain something for "FREE.

It is human nature to try and improve upon the conditions around us, and as humans we are hardwired to be curious and to strive to improve our lot in life in ways large and small. For organizations, there have been many theories expounded over the years about quality improvement, continuous improvement, conscious improvement and a slew of others - clearly getting better at what you do as an organization is a key component to success.

It is human nature to try and improve upon the conditions around us. For organizations, there have been many theories expounded over the years about quality improvement, continuous improvement, conscious improvement and a slew of others - clearly getting better at what you do as an organization is a key component to success.

If you think of your outreach marketing program as the volume control for the information, it would be a simple impulse to turn up that switch when you needed more members, or wanted to launch a new program - one simple motion.

With staff sizes and budgets restricted or diminishing, and top executives up and down the ladder under pressure to do more with less each year, many savvy executives are seeking help among the seeming army of consultants of every stripe to get their companies on the profitability track. Are they finding success down that road?

The idea of the consultant is ancient - Egyptian kings and pharaohs had "consultants" with specialized magical talents to advise them and point them in the right direction when governing the masses.

Despite postal increases, paper price increases, regulations tightening for security and machineability reasons, direct mail is still the most effective way to reach a defined large scale audience, build sales and brand awareness, and move units. It is direct, it's accountable, it's relatively predictable and efficient, and it can be tested and refined to maximize results.

Despite postal increases, paper price increases, regulations tightening for security and machineability reasons, direct mail is still the most effective way to reach a defined large scale audience, build sales and brand awareness, and move units. It is direct, it's accountable, it's relatively predictable and efficient, and it can be tested and refined to maximize results.

In Part One, we discussed using in-depth member survey work to boost the visibility, awareness and effectiveness of your organization's brand, and how it can directly impact your ability to recruit and retain members. If your organization isn't the first thing member prospects think of when they turn to industry issues, there's work to be done.

Your survey may provide mixed results that don't show a clear direction.