Are Double-Digit Response Rates Possible?
Are double-digit response rates possible with direct mail? Or are we to settle for the industry standard 0.5% response rate?
I'm here to tell you that not only are double-digit response rates possible, they are probable if you have the right market, medium, and message (the three M's, thank you Dan Kennedy).
I'll share with you my most recent response rates at the bottom of this post.
Market
This is your mailing list. They say that even a crappy offer to the right list will pull better than a perfect offer to the wrong list. This is direct mail 101. Make sure you're mailing to the right people. If you want motivated sellers calling you from one zip code, don't mail to this other zip code. If you want sellers calling you with houses with 3BR or more, don't mail to owners of houses with less than 3BR. Simple, right?
Medium
Do you use yellow letters? Postcards? Internet? Email? How do you get your message to your market? I'm biased (based on my experience), but I prefer postcards. I mean little, yellow, ugly postcards. Low-tech is best. No high-gloss full-color flashy looking postcards. It just makes you look like some big company that doesn't care about them. People want to do business with people, not companies.
Message
This is the most important part. People ask all the time, do you mail yellow letters or postcards or what? I want to tell them it doesn't really matter that much as long as the message is right. Make the message speak directly to the recipient. Make it personal. Make yourself sound like a real person! Because you are!
Here are results from my latest mailings. This is what is possible. And it's important for you to know what's possible so that you can go out there and get it. Did you know that for the longest time, nobody ever broke the barrier of the 4-minute mile. But then one day somebody did it. Well within the next several months, so many more people broke 4 minutes. It was just a matter of believing that it was possible!
Here are the figures:
13.67%
7.45%
11.98%
8.62%
10.00%
9.30%
14.50%
7.63%
Average for those mailings is 10.39%
Now go out there and get it.
Comments (3)
Sorry, forgot to answer your question about response to deal ratio. What we've been discussing is response rate, which is raw call-ins. I route all my call-ins to a recorded message and voicemail box. The recorded message is 2-3 minutes, and further qualifies the respondent. Most call-ins hangup when they hear this message, but about 25-46% on average (depending on how "qualifying" we make the recorded message) will leave a voicemail after the message with their name and contact info. So, for those people who listen to the message and leave a voicemail, we look to find a deal about every 25-35 voicemails. I hesitate to make this sound like a hard and fast rule because there are so many variables involved, one can't really say this is for sure. I have some more thoughts about this that I'll include in a later blog post.
Blair Halver, over 11 years ago
Hi Jerry, I wouldn't call it a magic bullet. I mean, there's still a lot of work involved and it's not an exact science. On top of that, the response rate is just the response rate. It doesn't always translate to deals. Just so you know, I'm not the only one getting these response rates. I hope I don't sound like I'm bragging. Unfortunately I simply cannot share the postcard copy. You're not the first to ask, and I hate to be so secretive, but I simply cannot share it. But I'll tell you, there's nothing special about it. It's just an honest message written from one person to another. No magic bullet. Sorry.
Blair Halver, over 11 years ago
So you have come up with the magic bullet have you? Would you mind sharing your postcard copy? What is your response to deal ratio?
Jerry Puckett, over 11 years ago