The United States and Cuba may be restarting their direct mail program for the first time in over 45 years. Currently, the two countries use a third country as a middle-man; mail leaves the US, then goes to the third country before being transferred to its final destination in Cuba. The process is the same for mail being transported from Cuba to the US. Mail usually reaches its final destination, but not as accurately or as quickly as it would with a direct mail process.

Direct mail between the US and Cuba ended in August of 1963 when the US extended its trade embargo with Cuba. In an effort to sever ties with the communist-run nation, the US forbade the transport of items to and from Cuba, including all imports, exports, and mail.

While the infamous Cuban cigars may be the most well-known of the illegal items, lack of direct mail has been a difficult thing for many people in both countries to endure, especially those with relatives and loved ones in the other country.

This is not the first time that the United States has suggested that the two countries resume their direct mailing services. Offers to restart direct mail between the US and Cuba went out in 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2008. Cuba finally accepted in May of 2009, and talks to rehash and finalize the plan are still in progress.

Washington has made it clear that talks between the two countries are limited to discussions of direct mail and direct mail related subjects, and will not include talks of other embargos, including those on imports and exports.

Should the two countries decide to reinstate their direct mail policies, ProMarketing Leads will expand all of its services to include business direct mailing lists and consumer direct mailing lists for Cuba and Cuban culturally-related topics.

In order to help make the most of your direct mailing campaign, ProMarketing Leads is now offering lists of cultural and language selects for consumer mailing lists. These lists break down households into categories according to their preferred languages and cultural interests. Our lists have expanded to include demographics for over 80 languages and over 150 different cultural criteria.

If you are looking to create a mailing list for your company to send to potential or current consumers, it is important to know who you are targeting. With our language selects, you will be able to send consumers direct mail in their preferred language. You can even tailor your campaign to reach those who are most likely to purchase your product or service, such as targeting Jewish households to sell kosher foods or non-English speaking households to offer English lessons. These targeted lists are crucial for anyone offering a service or product that is specifically geared toward those of a certain culture, religion, or who speak a certain language.

Our language-targeted lists include lists of non-English speaking households as well as multi-lingual households. We have lists of households that speak any language, ranging from English and Spanish to Tagalog and Kirghiz. Our cultural lists provide household information on practiced religions, ethnicities, and countries of origin.

If you offer a product or service and would like to target households that speak a certain language or adhere to a certain cultural practice, ProMarketing Leads can provide you with all the information you need. Your direct mail campaign will be effective and efficient, specifically targeting those who are mostly likely to respond to your advertisements.

In today’s day and age, why use direct mail? This is the age of technology, when video chats have taken the place of face-to-face conversation, e-mail has replaced snail mail, YouTube and Hulu have replaced television, iTunes has replaced the radio, and text messages have taken the place of pagers. With all of this being a given, why do companies still opt to use targeted direct mailing campaigns to spread the word of their companies and deliver coupons? The answer: despite the technology age, direct mail is still incredibly effective.

Before the days of email and text messaging, people received a lot of mail. Imagine if every email in your inbox represented an actual piece of physical mail delivered to your home! In those days it was common to just throw out the “junk” mail, which came in swarms. However, with a good portion of this mail reduced due to the appearance of email and the ability to “opt out” of many mailing lists, the number of actual pieces of physical mail received at every household as dropped dramatically. This means that when mail is received by hand, each piece is paid more attention than in the past. Going through the mail is no longer an hour-long chore; it has become a pleasurable and quick part of the day, so we tend to pay attention to each letter or flyer we receive.

Why not replace direct mail with direct email? For many of the same reasons just explained; email has taken the place of snail mail, so while we once would read every email in our inbox and throw away the majority of our snail mail, their roles have reversed. We now think nothing of deleting everything in our spam folders or anything that even remotely appears to be “junk” email without so much as a glance, but we pour over each individual letter received at our homes, knowing that we are safe from viruses and spyware. There is no harm that comes from opening a letter or reading a flyer.

Also, a well-planned direct mail campaign says a lot about a company. It says they are willing to go the extra mile to print these campaign ads or brochures, to target a mailing list, and to actually send out the mailings. We can obtain almost any restaurant menu we want online—complete with directions, reservation forms, and reviews, but we still tend to reach for the physical menus in our kitchen drawer at home when thinking of where to get take-out. Holding a physical piece of mail says that the sender went the extra mile, instead of just sending an impersonal mass email.

So if you are considering abandoning your direct mail campaign in favor of something more technologically modern, think again. Unsolicited email invokes fears of computer viruses and spyware. Mass emails are impersonal and take little targeting or thought. Regular physical mail however, poses no threat at all, except for the occasional paper cut, and is often read with more thoughtfulness than the junk email of today. There are no spam folders in the home mailbox, so keep a direct mail campaign in your future business plans.

If direct mail seems like an old-fashioned way to advertise, you’re right. However, old-fashioned is not necessarily a bad thing! In this economy, any uncommon way of advertising is something that will catch the eye of the average consumer. Everyone nowadays is on Facebook and Twitter. While it’s good to have these social media outlets, why stop there?

Once you have tackled all of the new, modern ways of advertising, such as television, internet, and social media, the best next step is to move backwards. Direct mailing is a great way to get in touch with current and potential customers in a more personal way. Instead of Facebook ads and Twitter updates, poised online for anyone to see, mailings are delivered right to a customer’s door, with their own name and address on the mailing label. Who doesn’t love getting mail?

In a world where online ads and social media terms are constantly being thrown around and bombarding the everyday person, old-fashioned, personalized advertising is still appreciated. Here at ProMarketing Leads, we offer targeted mailing lists at the lowest costs to help you perfect your advertising plan. We can help you not only target your current customers in a personal manner, but also help you find new customers in certain demographic areas, such as age, location, or catalog subscriptions.

With our direct mailing lists, your ad campaign will be personalized and traditional. Add our direct mail campaign to your social media campaigns and you will successfully dominate all forms of advertisement, helping to expand your business even in this tough economy.

Unlike mass advertising which display’s your offering to a very wide audience with limited tracking capabilities a mailing list broker can provide you with a highly targeted list of what is commonly referred to as “sales or marketing leads”.  Mailing list brokers work to narrow the focus of the marketing message to a niche of business lists or consumer lists that have similar characteristic which make them strong prospects for the offer.  In essence, the mailing list broker’s job is to ensure the marketing dollars are being used most efficiently by getting the marketing message to the most likely responders via direct mail, telemarketing, email or SMS text message blasting.

If you include all the specialty lists on the list market today there are over 60,000 which seems like an insurmountable number of lists.  This is why your business marketing team should work with a list broker to match your target market to the best available list option.  It make sense to target your marketing list down as much as possible as you want the final lead list to result the in the highest possible percentage of converted sales.  To learn more or begin working with the best list brokers in the business contact ProMarketing Leads today.