postcard marketing to absentee owners

[Dan Miller]

I've sent out two postcard mailings now over 2 months to the same list of absentee homeowners in a particular are in the DC region, but gotten only 1 call (mailed 700 people each time). My list was generated from the tax records (via MLS) which can potentially be outdated though. (but it's free). I used the same postcard twice now.

So here's my question: how do I determine why my mailings aren't getting any response? My mail qtys are too small to really do testing of different marketing pieces, so I don't know if it's the mail piece, the list, etc.

I was planning to mail this same list a 3rd time in a few weeks. Would you suggest I try again with a letter to the same list (law of repitition) or should I make an assumption that my list is bad and go out and buy a new list of absentee homeowners?

Thanks!

[Peter Vekselman]

What kind of postcard are you mailing out? Is it a generic "we buy houses" postcard? Did you create the postcard yourself?

A lot of new real estate investors that don't know any better will use a generic postcard template and message that either came with a real estate investing course or they saw online.

This is a huge mistake.

You need to grab your prospect's attention by being different. If you're using a postcard 15,000 other investors are using, you can pretty well pitch the idea that you're being unique out the window.

If you can't write a provocative, compelling postcard of your own, you should find someone who can.

Direct mail is a multibillion dollar a year industry, and your postcard has to compete for the attention of the homeowner. you literally have a split second to get their attention or your postcard is going straight into the trash.

By being provocative or controversial you can dramatically improve the chances that your postcard will get looked at. Remember, direct mail only has about a 1% response rate. It can take seven mailings or customer contacts to get a response.

Don't automatically assume that your list is bad. Before you reach that conclusion, you really need to test another postcard against the same list.

Good luck!

Peter Vekselman