Direct Mail / Marketing Campaign Critiques and Advice

Direct Mail / Marketing Campaign Critiques and Advice

Rental Property Investor · Shreveport, LA · Member since 2015 · 36 posts · 18 votes

I've just started my first direct mail campaign to find rental and flip prospects, but the results so far have not been great. I'm targetting 3 zip codes with 4+ year owners, 30%+ equity, <140K purchase price. First mailers went out 7/9 (540 total), second set 7/23 (180 total), and latest set was 7/30 (180 total. The entire list is about 1,500 pieces so I've broken it into 8 waves and I'll continue each week until I get to the end of the list. The marketing piece for this first wave is a typed business letter mail merged with owner name and address. Hand stamped and mailed local with a local return address. 

The problem is my response rate is terrible so far. 12 calls from the first mailing and 3 from the second, none so far from the 3rd. I've budgeted to hit each owner 6 times over the next 8-10 months, and I'm in the process of creating a website (a few callers have told me they looked into my company and couldn't find any information).  I'm considering a small facebook ad to create some brand awareness. I keep reading that consistency is key so I'm going to stick with it and see the whole campaign through, but no lie it's tough! Any pointers moving for would be greatly appreciated! Also, does anyone have suggestions for which types of mailers I should send next? and if internet marketing would be better spent with google ppc/adwords or facebook? I'm budgeting $500 to mail pieces and $500 to internet marketing each month. Should I allocate the budget differently? 

Thanks in advance for any help!

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  • Bakersfield, CA · Member since 2016 · 543 posts · 281 votes
    10y

    Hello @Brian Smith!

    Don't be discouraged! Your response rates may seem small, but keep in mind that it takes someone an average of 3-5 touches before they actually take action and call.

    Direct mail tends to work best when you send a campaign of 5-7 different pieces, 3-5 weeks apart from each other. Follow ups are key, as you have read throughout the forums. It really sounds like you are on the right track, just keep moving forward! 

  • Jeff RappaportPro Member
    Specialist · Salt Lake City, UT · Member since 2015 · 533 posts · 378 votes
    10y

    @Brian Smith, Direct mail is definitely a constant test and re-test type of marketing.  Based on your post it looks like you are looking for buy and hold or something you can rehab.  Are you mailing to owner occupants or absentee owners?  If you are looking for rehabs on this list your 30% equity filter may not be enough.  On your first mailing you received 12 calls which is over a 2% response rate.  What has happened with those leads?  A 2% response rate is not bad at all!  The question is what type of leads did you receive and how good are you at converting those leads to deals.  Conversion rate is crucial!  The second mailing also netted close to a 2% response rate on a very small sample size.  

    Here are some things to consider:

    First, your message.  What is your message you are sending in your letter?  Are you listing the benefits of what you can do for that seller?  Do you have a Unique Selling Proposition?  Do you have a call for urgency?  Are the letters personalized with the name of the seller and the address of the property you are interested in?  I am not a big fan of a typed business letter for marketing especially on the first hit.  You may want to try a postcard for the first hit and then follow up with a yellow letter or business type letter.  This will allow you to test your list for considerably less money.  

    Second, your sample size is small so there is no way to tell this early how well this marketing campaign may work.  If you were to find one deal out of this marketing campaign it would be considered a success based on how much you are spending compared to the deal.  I think if you polled many real estate investors around the country they would be happy to spend $1,000-$1,500 per deal.  In some areas it may be more like $1,500-$2,500 per deal or even more.  It is very competitive in most markets right now and many investors are sending direct mail to the same lists.  How do you stand out compared to your competition?

    Third, what do you do when your calls come in?  Are you answering live or does it go to voicemail?  If you are not answering live how quickly are you getting back to the seller?  Based on the competitiveness of many of the real estate markets you should be answering every call live or calling them back within 5 minutes of their call.  Are you prescreening your prospects correctly?  Are you making offers to all of your leads?  All of these will help in your conversion rates.  Remember, if you get one deal from this campaign you are doing well!

    The last thing I would have you keep in mind is that you will typically get your best response rate after you have hit a prospect 5-8 times.  Consistency does matter and it pays off!  

  • Rental Property Investor · Shreveport, LA · Member since 2015 · 36 posts · 18 votes
    10y

    @Claire Trammell & @Jeff Rappaport thanks for the replies. I'll try to update this post as often as I can and hopefully it ends with a few deals! I try to answer each call live or call back in minutes... no serious sellers yet, but I'm just now getting comfortable talking to leads so hopefully the conversions will come. I'm excited to see where this goes and thanks again for the replies!

  • San Diego, CA · Member since 2012 · 24 posts · 1 vote
    10y

    Brian thanks for sharing. Any update?

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