Wholesaling Question: More Narrowed Down Marketing vs More Broad?

Question

Hello,

I'm planning on sending my first direct mail marketing campaign. I'm curious what the pros/cons are of sending a more broad campaign in one area (i.e., Vacant houses, in New York, NY) or a narrowed down campaign hitting multiple areas (i.e., Vacant houses, +70% equity, absentee owner, in New York, NY, Boston, MA, Los Angeles, CA, etc.)

Thanks!

Alex

Joshua Moore · Answer

@Alexzander Ellenbogen Are you saying you have a budget for a total of 1k mailers?

I would recommend getting a list of at least 1000 leads in one area and marketing to them. Make sure you have it in your budget to reach out to them multiple times and in multiple methods in order to make sure your presence is known. Keep track of everything you do. Both successes as well as the failures, and adapting as you go. Don't spread yourself too thin as you can always move onto other areas of the country later.

A good methodology to keep in mind is, let's say you get a response from 5% of the people your reach out to. If that is only 333 people that would be around 16 people, and of course not all of those would be deals. But if you were able to up your budget and market to 1000 it would give you 50 people and a higher chance of finding a deal.

Make sure to not over-extend yourself and take your lessons learned onto the next marketing push you do. Remember all it takes is one.

I hope this answered your questions.

Joshua Moore · Answer

@Alexzander Ellenbogen The rule of thumb is the larger the list the better your chances are at getting a deal, "BUT" and that's a big but, your data does has to be good. Let me explain.

The more mail you send out, and by that I mean not only the size of the list but multiple mailers to the same properties, increases your chances of having someone contact you with a deal. Like all marketing, you need to get in front of people multiple times before they trust you and also it increases your chances that they will see your marketing and act on it.

Now going back to the list, it is important too that your list data is current, up to date, and actually has a chance to convert into a deal. If you are just blanket sending to everyone with the property type your want you may be wasting a lot of time, effort, and money. It appears though you are targeting vacancies, +70% equity, and absentee owners. All of which are great lead types. What I would do is once you create this list, see how many leads it is. If it's less than 1-2 thousand I would try and add more property types to your search. Instead, if it is some number way above your budget, I would recommend possibly slimming it down but being smart, and precise with how you do it.

The last thing I will say is you do appear to be targeting large cities with already tough competitive markets, so just take that into account during your marketing. I am not saying you shouldn't market to these areas, just make sure you take into account the extra effort needed and the competition that exists and make sure it is within the budget.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Alexzander Ellenbogen · Answer

Hi Joshua,

I appreciate the thorough response! The name of the game is consistency, thank you for that - I don't believe I put that into consideration enough.

My follow-up question is: say I have the budget to send out 1k mailers. I slim down my search criteria in a given area by more than just vacant, 70%, absentee, but I also squeeze it smaller and smaller by adding delinquent on taxes, failed mls, duplexes, etc. So my once 1k list has now gone down to 333. Would you advise going to another area and (consistently) mailing with the same slim list or focusing on one area more broadly? So send out a super slim list of 333 mailers in NY, 333 in Boston, 333 in LA (so still 1k total) OR broadening my scope and just hitting say NY with 1k mailers.

Thanks in advance!

Alex