OMG - Direct Mail Really works (in the right market)

[Bill S.]

So hopefully this isn't too long. I haven't actually closed any deals yet from it so it's too soon to put in the success section but here goes...

I have been direct mail marketing to various parts of the Denver metro market for the past 6 months. I've gotten about 0.5-1% response from my direct mail and I've hit the first area 5 times now. About half of my calls are "take me off your list" in some form or another. From what I read here that is absolutely atrocious response rate. So out of about 10,000 letters I have done two deals (not bad) and my marketing has paid for itself but I'm not making a living at it. I'm crunching the numbers and figure I need to do about 10K mailings per month to meet my income goals. That is a ton of work so I'm trying to figure out how to ramp up my results. I'm thinking, my letter needs work and maybe I should do post cards since they are cheaper (but they have a lower response rate).  I'm reading here and listening to pod casts and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've heard several times "Denver's a tough market". Finally I decided that this month I would divert some of my marketing dollars to another market. 

Wow, what a difference.  I mailed about 800 letters. So far I've had about 30 calls and only one was "Take me off your list." I have half a dozen solid leads from obvious motivated sellers that passed phone screening. I have one offer verbally accepted with the contract sent via email and am going to make two more offers today. This is amazing.

Direct mail really works. Thanks to all for the tips shared here that have helped move me onward and upward. Thanks to @Joshua Dorkin  for the site to learn on, @Michael Quarles  and @Dev Horn for sharing your tips here and on the pod casts. Looking forward to posting in the RE success stories here in near future.