Yellow Letters
I'm in the process of starting my first direct mail campaign for absentee owners. I have my list and I'm trying to decide who to use for the mail piece. I was wondering if anyone has used yellowletters.com and if so what was your experience?
@Jason Farmer Everyone is curious to know how you do your letters at that cost
i dont do them anymore myself, i found a company to do it for slightly more, im doing alot of mailing and this saves me sooooo much time...but..its simple
paper from costco 5000 sheets, cost 24.99 not even 1 cent a sheet
envelopes from walmart small party size $1 for 100 envelopes equlas 1 cent an envelop
Ink varies but i can set my printer to print fast copy and get almost 2k letters out of one cartridge, my letters are not long about 5 lines at most..
USPS charges me .31 cents per mail "i have bulk mailing $200 a yr"..
Pay my niece and her friends to fold, or payed a stay home mom...roughtly .05 per enveloped stuffed
It takes lot of time to do it on your own, but if your on a budget its perfect, pic 2 movies you really enjoy and sit at that printer and refill the paper machine, and feed the envelopes....I did huge maiing usuing this system if your doing a couple hundred you can get it done in no time...Its Work work work....but if you like money like i do then its nothing...
@Greg Stovall
Bulk mailing is way cheaper than regular mail so why wouldnt i like that....And with bulk mailing you do use peel and stick stamps. You can buy a rool of 500 for $50.....a roll of 3000 for $300 or a roll of 10,000 for $1000...They are your regular firsst class peel and stick stamps. Some bulk mail users dont want to spend the time peeling stamps so they pay a little more and use metered or print on stamps...
I always use the peel and stick...Only set back is the 500 roll you have to tear each stamp and lick them your elf...All the other rolls 3000, or 10,000 you can just peel off...I buy the roll of 10,000 usually. Goos 2 months worth supply...
And to be honest eberyone has thier reasons and systems and im sure any could say why my method sucks and they woudlnt use it, vise verse....But when i started i wanted to spend less and make more....My first deal came from a $250 mailing campaign and made me 10 grand so i liked that concept more at that time. So i didnt care about how long it took....Now its the other way around...Im growing in my business and more importantly im growing mentally...
@Jason Farmer I had no idea that you can buy live stamps at a discount. When I went to the post office, the guy told me that was not possible. Who are you outsourcing your mail campaign to now, how much is it, and how many mail pieces do you send out?
@Tony Johnson You have to sign up for a bulk mailing permit to buy stamps at a cheaper rate.
You have to send more than 200 pieces each mailing and it cost a misely $200 a yr..They have other restrictions like all the mail hs to be the exact same, the same font the same size...etc....and you can get the live stamps in a roll
However they have it set up to upfront you only pay .10 cents for the bulk stamps, so that allows you to take them home and put the stamps on them. And then when you bring them back they charge you the remainder .21 cents to send them out...Which is a total .31 cents for each stamps...I like to buy 10,000 upfront at $1000 because i can have the letters alreay made and stamps on them, ready to go out week by week. So my only job is to get in my car and drop them off.... So they make it easier only having to pay the .10 cents upfront...
Anyhoo, I found a company that was willing to make my letters they charge me .25 cents for the complete letter, including folding and stuffing. They use the machines...And an extra 3 cents to roll the stamps on. And i set with them and showed them what i wanted, and i told them to make a mock but show me how i can make it cheaper..Since they are the professionals. I wanted regualr size paper, with party evelopes. But the dont have a machine to do that type of fold. So they created something for me i love. Smaller paper (almost standard) with a 3 fold, with an envelop with a huge screen and the printed the mailing address on the inside on the paper. So that allowed them to save money that way and make it where machines can do the work. And it depends im sending alot of letters as of lately betwenn 6k-12k a month...Here in CA you really need to be sending about 20k a month to get consistant calls..Its tough here
Are you spending 5K month on direct mailing? Is this marketing paying for itself?
If your sending/tracking that much monthly you have to be a expert in direct mailing, so my question to you is "what's the best content for conversion in direct mailing?"
- Flipper/Rehabber
- Bakersfield, CA
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I know a company who does real folding and inserting... Live humans add to the letters... Not certain if youve ever seen a folding | stuffing machine however they fold too well and lower the uniqueness.
They even have real handwritten letters now...
I have a partner and we split everything right down the middle, we cn spend far more than that,,,, but it pays off, So Cal is a tricky market, we do a good amount of deals a year with decent spreads, but theres always those huge deals, that come around 2 or 3 times a year...when they come we dont mess around we put alot back into the marketing side of the business which can carry our marketing for months...and im no expert, but i bleed marketing, i love it, its steroids to me, so i study it, i study the big companies like Sears, Walmart, kmart...etc...and i see how they operate and i apply it to real estate...My partner is a sales guy, he bleeds sales...So combine we make a good team, and one thing we both learned coming from the mortgage world, is LEAD CAPTURING, so we understand that and it allows to keep track of everyone who calls, everyone we speak to, follow ups etc...
And no matter what anyone tells you, direct marketing is always the best, a simple letter or postcard, wording is not very important just get to the point...The big companies survive from this, they know what you want before you even know you want it, they track every dime you spend, every keystroke you make, and they feed you advertisment all day, and you dont even realize it...how does the mortgage guy know you need to refinance, how does Sears know you bought a house and wants to give you 50% off all appliances, how does the car guy know you only have 1 year left on your 5 yr car loan, and hes offering you the best eal ever...THEY ALWAYS KNOW...and we as REI should always know...its the same concept, its just finding those people....But anyhoo i know you didnt ask for ll of this, its late, and i always ramble when its late....its a bad habit for me
Thanks @Jason Farmer for all the information and it's not late it's early, lol.
I'm going to start DM soon, I'm still not exactly sure what I'm doing but I'm going to use yellowletters so I'm hoping @Michael Quarles keeps me pointed in the right direction. Thanks again
@Lennie Holland...LOL
Well its late for me, lots of family over, and babies crying in every room for Turkey Day...Im going to bed...Enjoy
Happy Thanksgiving @Jason Farmer
@jason farmer Where do you find your absentee owners? N how can you find them in an inexpensive way?