My unsuccessful direct mailing - Lets Discuss it & Fix it!!!

[Jonathan Abbott]

Hello again BiggerPockets community and fellow real estate investors,

At the beginning of this month I launched my official real estate investing business/side venture. I have been taking as many tips from wholesalers as I can. While I am considering wholesaling a few properties, the main goal is to use wholesaling strategies to find great deals for buy and holds. 

From all of the success stories I heard on the podcast and read on the forums, I decided that direct mail, despite the cost, would be the best strategy for me to pursue. I work full time and do not have a ton of time to explore other deal finding strategies right now. Well, at the start of this month I sent out to around 500 properties a postcard with the name of my business, and the typical "We buy houses, we pay cash, we close fast" in bold letters. So as the letters went out I waited, and waited, but to no avail. All I received was one guy kindly asking me to "drop dead" and another wanting to sell me their 1920 rental house (money pit) for a crazy price.

Did I do something drastically wrong? I know that it takes a few mailings before people typically see results but wow, .3% is not good. While I am far from giving up, I am wondering whether or not the mailing should be altered (yellow letters/another means of advertisement). Below I will list the criteria that I used in purchasing my list from listsource:

- 10 mile radius around where I am looking to invest (great investment properties here!)

- Have at least 40% equity in their property

- Property has not been sold in the past 3 years

- Only SFR's, duplexes, or triplexes

- I also limited the assessed value to under 200k (just personal preference)

- Finally I only targeted owner occupied homes excluding corporate owned. 

Let me know if there is something I missed, something else I should do, or any other tips you all have for me to get this campaign up and running. Money is not an issue for advertising but of course I want to be sure my dollars are being put to use in the most effect way. 

Thank you, I look forward to hearing from you all! Help a newbie out! 

Best,

Jonathan Abbott

[Melissa McRay Johnson]

Hi @Jonathan Abbott!

I love marketing and hope I can help a little. A couple of things:

If you don't have a brand, I would suggest creating one and making sure it's on everything. I say this because branding right now is important in marketing. When people are getting a ton of mailers, there's nothing to set you apart from the rest. The more you reach out to them (you should plan on at least 6-7 touches in each campaign), if they recognize your brand then you become familiar to them instead of just one of the other hundred postcards they get and toss in the trash.

I would also try making it more personal. Add your photo, it doesn't have to be a professional headshot. Something a little outside of the box but not weird should get their attention. People respond really well to a family picture if you're comfortable doing that. If you're local to the area put that in there somewhere too. The point is to stand out and make people feel at ease and not intimated. When it's too professional looking then people shy away, if it looks too cheap and gimicky then it turns them off as well. Think professional, but personable.

Watch out for the colors and fonts. Too much going on with color is overwhelming, and make sure the font you use is easy to read and clean looking.

If you have a testimonial I would include that as well. Nothing is more powerful than a good testimonial to build instant credibility and trust. I would also recommend getting yourself set up with the BBB and adding that logo to your mailings. I can't tell you how many times people have contacted us because of our good BBB rating and reviews.

Include your website on your mailers! If you don't have one I would suggest getting one. Even if you can't throw any money at PPC or SEO right now, you can include it on all of your marketing pieces to drive traffic to your site. Most people now like to do their research online first before contacting you. So I would suggest putting testimonials, BBB logo, and a video above the fold on your site along with a contact form for them to fill out.

I like the simple message you were thinking of replacing the original text with. 

Just curious, was there anything on the backside of the postcard?