Real Estate Marketing Espionage: Direct Mail Marketing Tips

Last week I shared with you the first part of the Marketing Espionage method which I believe is a great way to attract motivated sellers. This week I’m going to show you how the rest of the method works and give you the follow up letters.

So… in a quick refresher, Marketing Espionage is using a money “theme” on your direct mail pieces; remember, the first letter you send out (which I discussed last week) will have the words “For Your Eyes Only” on the top of the letter with a hand drawn $100 bill and two arrows pointing towards it.

Since we’re mailing to absentee owners, after 2.5 months it’s time to send letter #2. And with letter #2 you actually attach a real live Bosnian 100 Dinara bank note. Now, don’t worry, you don’t actually do this yourself, there are companies that do this for you. And the Dinara bank note is worthless, but it’s a huge eye catcher because it is real currency.

Just Picture This….

Just imagine if you were a motivated landlord and you opened up a letter to find real money paper clipped to the top of it. How could you not read that letter? You couldn’t.

Your letter would begin with, “Dr. Joe, as you can see I have attached a real 100 Dinara bank note from Bosnia. Why have I done this? Because two months ago I sent you a letter with a hand drawn $100 bill. And since I didn’t hear back from you I thought I would show you how serious I am about buying your house, so I sent you real money. Because, if you decide to sell your house to me you will save thousands of dollars in etc, etc, etc.”

The above letter should get your phone ringing like crazy, because of course, no other investor in your area will be doing this. Now, let me get to the third letter involved in the Marketing Espionage method.

After another 2.5 months it’s time to send the next letter.

So what are we sending this time? A gold coin in the letter. (Yes its fake, but looks like a real gold coin). One of the best parts of the gold coin letter is that it’s “lumpy mail” so when you get the letter you can feel the gold coin swishing around in the envelope and you want to know what it is.

Then after you open the letter it will start very similarly to the last letter. “Dear John, as you can see I’ve included a gold coin in this letter. Why? Because two months ago I sent you a 100 Dinara bank note, so I thought I would “up the ante” and send you a gold coin today. This gold coin represents the money you could save if you sell your property to me because I’m not a Realtor and I don’t charge any fees or commissions, etc, etc, etc.”

And like the other letter you don’t have to lift a finger to get the gold coin letter out. There are companies that will take care of all of this for you and it doesn’t cost much more than doing the direct mail pieces yourself.

So if you really want to differentiate yourself from the competition and stand out from the clutter of mail your sellers get every day, then I highly suggest you implement this Marketing Espionage method ASAP.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.