Direct Mail 3000 Postcards a month 500 a week or 200 Cluster Mail

[Tye Harris]

I have read that yellow letters cost less based on response rate. I have read about people doing very well just mailing postcards. I understand that the list I pull is a factor and  testing and tweaking is something I will have to do. Also touches is a factor - many people agree that it basically takes 4-6 touches to get a response...

Questions?

Will (1) one touch using postcards every month (4-6 months with higher volume) possibly get a better response than mailing every week with 6 touches in 6 weeks using cluster mail (with lower volume)?

Is 3000 postcards once a month enough volume to get a better response than 300 cluster mails a week? 

I would like to know which would possibly be the most effective.

My budget is based on 3 months of  (2) 6 week campaigns and will allow me only 1(ONE) of the options for mailing: 

Postcards:

Option 1- 3000 Postcards a month (sent out in 1 shot every month) 

Option 2 - 1500 Postcards every 2 weeks (will run campaign for 6 weeks then scrub list and repeat)

Option 3- 500 Postcards a week for 6 weeks (will run campaign for 6 weeks then scrub list and repeat)

Cluster Mail:

300 pieces a week for 6 weeks (will run campaign for 6 weeks then scrub list and repeat)

Week 1 -Yellow Letter

Week 2 - Yellow Letter

Week 3 - Postcard

Week 4 - Typed Letter

Week 5- Zip Letter

Week 6 - Yellow-Letter

Anyone with experience and input would be greatly appreciated

[Jerry Puckett]

Originally posted by @Account Closed:

On behalf of everyone who lives in the Dallas market but does not work for the postal service please stop.  Just stop.  We don't care how fast you can give us 70% of the tax valuation of our homes that are often valued $50,000 less than true value.

 Impressive that you can speak for an entire market like that!! Kudos to you man, that's a huge responsibility.....However, I am in the DFW market and do not work for the U.S Postal service. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from speaking for me. I'm quite capable of speaking for myself :-)

If you'll indulge me, maybe just one more harsh reality. Obviously people DO care how fast we can close, and people do call us from our mailers ALL THE TIME. Many people are happy to trade some or even all of their equity for the speed and ease of the transaction. I'm just a small fish in a really big pond, there are some very large operators in my market, and everyone is getting mailed to by someone.

So apparently people do also distinguish between mailers and make choices based on what they see and read. Not just any guy with a printer is going to be a good marketer just like not every guy with a wrench is a mechanic. 

Your mailer cannot close a deal, or do all the work in a negotiation for you....that's simply to much to ask of it. But it can, and should start a conversation, and conversations should be followed up on. (25% of my entire business comes through following up with people who have told me "no" the first time).

Lastly, I do not ever worry about what my competitors may or may not be doing. I just do my own thing and let my competitors worry about me.