Direct Mail Marketing

[Jared Smith]

Hello BP community, My question for today is: How do you go about direct mail marketing? Do you like to make your mail colorful and stand out or do you like to use big bold letters to grab attention? Do you recommend brochures or enveloped letters? How do you address your audience?

[Claire Trammell]

@Jared Smith

Great questions, but it is hard to answer them all efficiently without replying with a 12 page essay. LOL

However, I think I'll try to give it a go with some basic answers:

First off, direct mail is different in every market. While somethings may work in one market, it could be slightly different in the next. That being said, you are going to need to test your market and keep detailed notes about what is working and what isn't. There are some basic campaigns that could get you moving int he right direction, though there is no ONE specific way that is best.

Keep in mind that direct mail tends to work best when you send a campaign of 5-7 different pieces, 4 weeks apart from each other. Follow ups are very, very important as the average person takes 3-5 touches before actually taking action by picking up the phone to respond.

One question I have is: do you have an idea on who and how many you want to target?

If not, then there are two things that you should ask yourself that will help you determine your mailing quantity:

1) What is my monthly budget?

2) What is my availability to handle the calls?

It might help you to answer these questions if you had an idea on what to expect in respect to the response rates. Here are the average response rates we have seen based on our customer feedback as well as our own mailings throughout the years:

Yellow Letters- average response rate of 8%-9%, all kinds of calls (angry calls, curious calls, tire-kickers, quality calls)

Postcards- average response rate of .5%, mostly quality calls.

Zip Letters- average response rate of 2%, mostly quality calls. (Great for follow ups)

Greeting Cards- average response rate of 2%, mostly quality calls. (Great for follow ups)

As for addressing the potential sellers, I would recommend implementing a mail merge system so that each piece is specific to the recipient. Meaning, as opposed to saying "Dear Homeowner," have it say "Dear John," or "Dear Doe Family,". A little bit of personalization goes along way.

Well! I know that is seemingly basic answers to your questions, but I would be more than happy to elaborate further if you have any follow up questions. I didn't want to overwhelm you with too much information.

Feel free to message me if I can help any further. Good luck!