Please help my direct mail!

[Mark Redmann]

Ok folks, so I have been mailing a postcard to just over 1900 addresses.  I have mailed 3 times so far with about 5 weeks in between each mailing.  The list I am using is from list source.  I am targeting absentee owners with some other factors to narrow down my list.  After reading a post by Michael Quarles, I applied what he said to use to narrow down my list.  

For the first 2 mailings, I was getting calls from people to remove me from my list.  2 weeks after my third mailing, I have received ZERO calls. I have already purchased enough cards to do 6 full mailings.  I know everyone says to stick it out for at least that, and that the "magic" happens in the 4th, 5th, 6th mailings.  I bought enough at the beginning because it was a better price to buy more and to commit myself to mailing at least 6 touches.

I get a lot of returned cards that say "attempted not known", "Not deliverable as addressed", "insufficient address", and "vacant".  I am saving all the returned ones, because in my mind vacant is a good thing.  However, if I was mailing to absentee owners, why would their house be vacant!  Shouldn't the owner be living there?!  in any case I want to follow up with the vacant ones for sure.  How do I do that?  Where should I start?  If the address I originally obtained for the absentee owner is now vacant, how do I find them?  

What would you do? Thank you!!

[Antonio Coleman]

@Mark Redmann What your'er doing is an ok way of marketing, but you have one issue. The big issue is that none of those people asked you to mail them. Think about this...is it better to go after people who are ready to sell versus those who are not?

Obviously we all want to go after the people who are ready to sell, so why go chasing the ghost who mostly don't want to be caught. 

What I mean is that instead of hunting your prey, allow yourself to be the prey, and those home owners become the predators. This is the way to run any sort of business is to allow the targeted people to search you out from your website, videos, profiles and social media. 

Direct mail is awesome, but it take time and money which a lot of investors are not willing to waste.