no responses from direct mail..

[Robbie Knecht]

So heres where i'm at. I sent out my first mailing of postcards beginning of september to a list of 540 absentee owners and recieved 0 calls. I kinda was expecting a low response rate because it was my first mailing, but I was at least expecting 1 call. Anyways, I sent out another mailing to the same list with the postcard being a little different. I so far have recieved 0 calls from that. So for the months of november and december I am going to try sending white letters in envelopes with hand written addresses. I'm hoping this will produce at least one call so I can get the snowball rolling. Thank you for taking the time to read this. any suggestions and tips are welcome!

[Rick H.]

@Robbie Knecht You'll learn a lot more by beginning your exoerience door knocking about 100+ houses. Here's why:

You need to understand the issues people have with their property, how it affects them emotionally and family dynamics and what they see the solutions to their problems are.

Once you develop a sensitivity to, and some empathy for, you'll be in a better position to create a short list of the type problems you're comfortable solving. Go ahead and make a list, add a few problems and see what that looks like.

Then, you have to be able to reach these people. You want people who want a solution and gave taken no meaningful action yet. You want them sick of the problem(s) and pulling their hair out.  

And you are the right person who has the right solution at the right time.

Again, you'll learn more by going back out and asking questions if these people, in oerson. Then, you'll be more comfortable as you transition into writing ad copy for your direct mail piece.

The job of marketing is to sell something. The job of advertising is salesmanship in print or other media and to bring them to you. Your job is to qualify and then convert the prospect to a closed sale. 

Once you see your role more clearly, you'll see that the absentee owner list talked about on BP is generally crap because there are insufficient catalysts. A vacant inherited house, by itself, is a sleepy list unless you are sufficiently skilled to isolate and stimulate their pain.

You need better lists which target people with big, in-their-face problems.