How often/much do you send a letter to 1 particular lead

Question

I just sent out my first batch of letters today =D I was listening to Show: 71 and noticed that Philip touches base about 5 times in 5 months.

So how often and for how long do you continue to send out a letter to any one lead?

Rick H. · Answer

Sit down with pen, paper and a calendar. You are going to create a direct mail campaign.

Put yourself in the place of the recipient. How many times would you need to be contacted before you believe I was intent on doing business with you?

Would you likely to open my letter if the first one was annoying?

Did you benefit by reading my first letter and be willing to read another?

If you got another letter me soon after the first, would you prefer it to have a different message? Solve a different problem?

Pick a theme for each letter and decide the frequency now. Then create the sequence and test the campaign long enough to measure the results before you try changing anything. This is now your control letter campaign.

I like to offer some way to be helpful rather than trying to push selling. It's only worked well for 35 years, but I guess I'll just have to be patient and give it a chance.

Michael Quarles · Answer

Rick H.

You always have a spot on perspective. Your point of "Put yourself in the place of the recipient. How many times would you need to be contacted before you believe I was intent on doing business with you?" and "Would you likely to open my letter if the first one was annoying?" is the reason I like mixing in different types of mail pieces.

Besides annoying, multiple mail piece types allow for the conveying of our message to different minded people. Some will never respond to a childish looking yellow letter, although a great producer, and would prefer a typed professional letter. Same with PCs and ZipLetters.

Then there is the idea of marketing for market share. If I send an owner 3 uniquely different pieces and someone else send the same piece to the seller repetitive times the seller may believe that they are dealing with 4 possible options where in the reality they're are only dealing with 2.

The only time this doesn't play as well is when there is a brand involved. If someone has a TOM brand then the brand marketing is far more important. I still believe in this instance that various pieces is better.

Michael Quarles · Answer

It depends on the list and market conditions.

However 60 days seems to be too far out where 14 days seems to close except for TS or Mortgage Lates. Personally I am mailing 30 days apart t my equity lists.

Even Probate list would have a timeline different than an equity seller.

The key is frequence of your message and also to mix in various types of direct mail pieces.

Also remember that direct mail does not create motivation. So timing is everything.

Rick H. · Answer

Best advice I can offer you is to find some product or service that you have responded to in another industry and reverse engineer their campaign, promotion and the offer. What stood out?

How did they first make contact with you? Mail piece? Did you save it? Anything clever about it?  Was the product or service something you were already considering purchasing or did it solve a particular problem that you were experiencing or were concerned about?

Anything particularly clever?  Any ideas that you could ethically swipe?

How did you respond? Phone? Fax? Detachable postcard? Online (to a landing page)? PURL?

Remember to swipe ethically, and only from non-related, non-competing industries.

Zaid R. · Answer

Every 3 months - usually I switch up the marketing (from letter to postacard, vice versa)

Ethan Bowen · Answer

Rick H.

Thank you for your input, very wise advise to put your self in the seller's shoes. I think @Michael Quarles has a good point about unique pieces. But, say I am to send them a follow up post card, how would I ensure they would remember me or make the same connection? Could I possibly have a similar lay out to the post card as the business card I included in the first letter? What are your thoughts on this Rick?

Ethan Bowen · Answer

@Michael Quarles hey thanks! I guess this is something I will have to develop on my own then. I think I'm going to start out with once a month. What type of post cards do you use?

Cassandra Ramirez · Answer

Zaid R. what kind of response rate are you getting and how many people are you mailing to?

Mark Pedroza · Answer

@Kate Horrell  There's 2 particular properties that you really wanted to buy and I hear your motivation. You've been sending letters/postcards to homeowner who recently passed once a year. Why not every 30-35 days?? No your not being rude but if the daughter is not motivated then "this" opportunity wasn't missed. Learn from this experience as a motivator as part of your business strategy..

Chin Up..

Mark (N-CA)

Sac/Placer county

Donny Trana · Answer

I've heard anywhere between 3 weeks and 3 months. I guess some of it would depend on your marketing budget/strategy.

How often/much do you send a letter to 1 particular lead

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