BiggerPockets

Hey Guys,

Just wondering: are yellow letters your primary type of mailing? (This also includes being combined with postcards as alternating form). Or are you sending another kind of letter? Let's do a roll call. I'll start:

I've been primarily sending out yellow letters, with pretty good results. But then I started wondering if EVERYONE else is also sending out yellow letters - and then I started this survey.

Hello everyone

Great question... Not certain if this will help. If not sorry for the post...

I hold to the philosophy that a successful marketing campaign should use a variety of methods to numerous types of prospects to attract responses. In the case of real estate investing, the methods can range from billboards to television and radio ads to direct mail to getting your name out through promotional items like pens, key chains, business cards, etc. The top seven prospect types (different audiences) you need to promote to are: FSBO, Expired, pre foreclosures, Absentee Owners, your "Farm", Free and Clears, and "For Rent" owners. With Pre foreclosures and Free and clears the two top.

If you have a limited advertising/promotion budget it might be wise to start with direct mail activities. I see direct mail, if done right, to show the most effective response in ratio to promotional dollars spent.

Direct mail is simply promoting to your audiences through the mail.

Depending on your budget, you may want to advertise to one or all of the seven prospect types mentioned above. If you decide to limit your prospect mailing to just a few prospect types, the list below shows the prospects you should promote to and their position of importance from top to bottom. (This list is prioritized in order of importance that you should follow. For instance, if you only plan to promote to three prospect types, then send to Foreclosure/NOD, Expired and FSBO prospects, as they are the top three on the prioritized list.)

PRIORITIZED LIST PROMOTE TO:

1. Foreclosure/NOD
2. Free and Clear
3. Expired
4. FSBO
5. For Rent
6. Absentee
7. Farm

What to Mail
Imagine for a moment that you walked into a convenience store to buy a fountain soda. If there were only two choices of soda brands, it would be easy to decide which one to choose from, and the competing vendors would have a 50 percent chance that you would decide on their product, if everything were equal.

But what if when you got to the soda fountain machine there were 24 product choices to choose from? How then would those vendors capture the largest market share possible? We could get very complex and crafty about this, but the fact is, the answer is very simple. The smart vendors would own as many of the choices as possible.

In terms of marketing to different types of prospects, in order to be successful, your message will need to be different with each type. This is because you have to appeal to the mindset of each of your prospect types. In other words, you have to connect with them by saying what they want to hear.

Different people respond to different messages, especially when they need something and you're offering a solution. The familiar saying, "misery loves company," is accurate in that, if you're willing to talk to someone about a problem they have, you'll likely make a new friend who will often go from a speechless frown to a very interested chatterbox.

When it comes to marketing to others and getting them interested enough to call you, it boils down to talking about things that are on their mind, being interested and letting them know that there's a solution. This can be accomplished in writing through direct mail activities. And the odds of getting a response can be increased through a series of mailings. Using letters and postcards will increase the likelihood that the prospect will call you.

The two key components when prospecting via the mail are to get the prospect to read your message and to cause them to take the action that you dictate. When sending letters, there's a third component: getting them to first open it.

Large companies have gone to expensive methods to trick us into opening their mail. When we do, we find out we've won nothing or it wasn't a real check inside the envelope. They will use every trick in the book and so should you.

Having your mail opened and your message read is the key to successful marketing! Without it you cannot obtain your Key Objective: GETTING A PROSPECT TO CALL YOU.

Today's competitive market has house sellers bombarded with many offers from Realtors, lenders and investors, so you must use every resource available in order to survive. And the more effective you are than your competition, the greater piece of the pie you will hold.

When you attend a presentation boot camp you will learn terms like "mimicking" and "embedded" commands. These are examples of powerful techniques you can use to persuade a seller to take the actions you want them to take.

Your letters and postcards need to enforce those same techniques. But it can take years to perfect these techniques, and a lot of wasted income trying them out with your mailings. So I've developed letters and postcards that contain effective techniques, embedded commands and other necessary aspects. By the way, an embedded command is a fancy word for putting a "call to action" within the body of the letter.

The four types of mail that you will send to various prospects:

• Professional sales letters
• "Mary" Letters aka Yellow Letters
• Postcards
• Vouchers

The "professional letters" have been written in a series compiling seven different letters. They are written to obtain your Key Objective, which is a call from the seller to set an appointment with you to buy their property. I have used the expertise of professional copywriters to develop letters that push the specific prospects' buttons and persuade them to call you.

The postcards are written to the prospect and are not generic. They talk to the prospect and indicate their property address and how we buy houses. Different postcards are sent to different prospects. It is important that the message is quick and to the point, and one which causes the seller to call. Another aspect that adds to the effectiveness of these four types of mail is the continuous flow to each prospect. This is explained in more detail shortly.

The third method is our handwritten "Mary" Letters. We'll discuss where the name came from later. First, I'd like to explain what "Mary" letters are.

The purpose of direct mail is to communicate and cause a desired reaction; your mail needs to be read and responded to no later than your last and final mailing. Because of this we must, at times, trick the addressee into opening the direct mail piece. When all else fails in getting your communication opened and read by prospects, my "Mary" Letters will do the job. I have developed a very simple process to follow to ensure consistency and response.

The fourth type of mail is the voucher letter and works great for 60-90 day lates and pre foreclosures prospects… Keep in mind that there are Federal guidelines that you must follow as to not break the law..

A Little About Promotion
One of the most important activities in the business of real estate investing is promotion. Promoting yourself makes you known to others, who previously did not know of you. Letters also keep you fresh in the minds of people who know that you buy houses, but haven't decided to call you just yet.

When it comes to sending out letters, you're concerned with one thing: getting house sellers to call you with an interest in selling their house to you.

In order to get someone to call you, they have to know:

1. that you are a real estate investor who buys houses
2. that you can help them sell their house
3. that you want to buy their house
4. that they can trust you
5. how to contact you by providing your telephone number

...this is basically what you are telling them in your promotional letters and postcards.

As mentioned, there are seven letters for each of the types of prospects. You might wonder, "Why not send just one letter and be done with it?" It is because it takes people a number of times to hear or be told something before they respond to things. That's why certain things are repeated so much in infomercials. They don't just give the price and call to action ("order now!") one time-it's stated numerous times throughout the advertisement.

To get the most out of your promotional activities, you must repeat your communication to prospects, whether that communication be the same message over and over or with slightly different messages each time. I believe that slightly different messages go slightly farther than the same message repeated. Sending the seven designated letters, along with the Mary Letters, voucher and postcards, is your ticket to having ample prospects from whom to buy houses.

For 60|90 and Pre foreclosures

Voucher
Mary Letter
Postcard
Professional

That voucher I have is friggin awesome...

Great post Michael. Could you tell us a little more about the voucher letter?

Originally posted by DaniilKleyman

Hey Guys,

Just wondering: are yellow letters your primary type of mailing? (This also includes being combined with postcards as alternating form). Or are you sending another kind of letter? Let's do a roll call. I'll start:

I've been primarily sending out yellow letters, with pretty good results. But then I started wondering if EVERYONE else is also sending out yellow letters - and then I started this survey.

I think this depend a lot on where you invest. In Austin there are very few people doing yellow letters from what I have seen.

Just for your information there have been studies done as for colors for signs. It has been proven that a yellow sign (yellow letter) with black letters (black font) catches the attention better than any of the other color combinations. One investor I knew in NC used to put his Notice to Pay or Vacate on bright florescent pink paper. When he stuck one of those on your door, you could see it for quite a ways!

Michael, would you be willing to tell me the verbiage in your hafa voucher or let me know where I can purchase it?

I've owned a lot of houses since my first in 1989. 18 at the moment. As far as I remember, I've never received a had written yellow letter asking about selling my house(s). So I hardly think it's an over-saturated technique, at least where I am.

I've received very nice glossy postcards from homevestors, but never a yellow letter.

In your post Michael you indicated the list you market to:

PRIORITIZED LIST PROMOTE TO:

1. Foreclosure/NOD
2. Free and Clear
3. Expired
4. FSBO
5. For Rent
6. Absentee
7. Farm

In a post a few weeks ago you gave another prioritized list geared to flipping:

PRIORITIZED LIST PROMOTE TO:

For Flipping
1) Absentee equity mid term out of state
2) Absentee equity mid term out of city
3) Absentee equity mid term in city
4) Owner Occupied equity long term ownership
5) Inherited
6) Probate
7) Mortgage Late 60-119 days
8) NOD - Lis Pens
9) Owner Occupied mid term ownership
10) QC Deeds

What is your first list geared to?