Direct mail campaigners should "think like the customer" if they want their marketing to be successful, an industry expert has advised.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) says that businesses will benefit if they offer customers an incentive to use their services, and that incentive should be as "irresistible" as possible.

David Thorp, director of research and information at the CIM, said: "Make the communication personal; as a small company, you can do this with more conviction than a large company can.

"Make your copy as good as it can possibly be; study good copywriting techniques before you design a communication."

He added that businesses will only have a few seconds to grab the reader's attention before they bin the letter or delete the email, so they must ensure the letter is "concise, clear and creates interest".

In 2005, the Direct Marketing Association (DMA) published a paper on the power of email marketing, which claimed that the second quarter 2005 results show that email continues to be a "strong marketing channel".

Furthermore, according to DMS' research the overall volume of direct mail has increased by 87 per cent in the last ten years.

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