Direct Mail Marketing Format Advice

[Austin Stoltzfus]

Hi Everyone!

As I struggle to find my first duplex to house hack, I recently sent out 50 hand-written direct mail letters to MFP owners in town. Unfortunately, I did not hear back from any. I know the strategy yields a small percentage of answers, but I'm wondering if I missed some crucial details in my letters. 

I would love to hear any advice or even successful examples from the BP community to improve my direct mail skills. Thanks!

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Austin Stoltzfus:

Hi Everyone!

As I struggle to find my first duplex to house hack, I recently sent out 50 hand-written direct mail letters to MFP owners in town. Unfortunately, I did not hear back from any. I know the strategy yields a small percentage of answers, but I'm wondering if I missed some crucial details in my letters. 

I would love to hear any advice or even successful examples from the BP community to improve my direct mail skills. Thanks!

That's like throwing your fishing line into the ocean one time, reeling it in two minutes later, and complaining that you didn't get a bite.

Direct mail market requires consistency and persistency. You must send out the mailers on a regular basis, repeatedly, and only stop when you want to stop doing business. Listen to people that have done this for years and many of them will tell you about not getting responses for a year or more, then they started getting a trickle and eventually a flood. One podcast I listened to, the guy said he had sent out mailers every month for 18 months before he got his first deal and it came from someone that got his very first mailer and stuck it in a drawer for 18 months. The common recommendation is two mailers the first month, one mailer for three months, then one every quarter. It's this consistent reminder that you exist, not the magic words, that brings you business.

Just like fishing in the ocean, the more lines in the water, the more luck you'll have. Or you can cast a net. Or drag a 100-yard-wide net behind some trawlers. The wider the net, the better the catch.