Direct mail marketing can work extremely well for small to medium sized businesses. It often becomes more successful over time with the first few mail outs more of an analysis tool. When sending out your first mail out try to think about who your target audience are and what you could offer to entice them. Make sure that any promises you make can be fulfilled and that you are still making money after the offers.
Once you have ran your first campaign you can then evaluate the results. Looking at who responded and what part of the ad worked the best. This information is golden as it will help you improve your mail outs and make them very tightly focused. You may find that the best response you get is from existing customer and you may have to work a little hard to entice new customers in who may not have used you before. For example, a mail out that is going to new customers may want to include an introductory offer along with some positive customer reviews and feedback to give them confidence in your business.
Think about how you are going to get your mail delivered, and work out the costs. You may decide to send a generic mailer which can be delivered door to door or one that is personalised and sent through the postal service.