What Qualifies as A Response on a Direct Mail Campaign

Question

Hello BP,

So quick question. What do you consider or qualify as a "response" in your direct mail campaign?

Is a response anyone that responds to you via phone call, text, or email no matter what they have to say ( other than they no longer own the house of course) or do they have to have a certain kind of a response in order for you to count it?

My thoughts to this would be any response (phone call, text, or email) would count as long as they still owned the property even if they were not interested in selling, asked me to take their name off my list, was interested in selling but at a retail price, wasn't really interested in selling but wanted to see what I would offer, etc. Again I am currently considering any response a response other than they no longer own the house.

Ex. Send out 100 mailers, receive 3 responses ( phone call, text, or email) with whatever the actual response is ( other than they no longer own the house which I don't count) than I count it so that would be a 3% response rate.

How does everyone else judge this?

I am trying to track my mailers and response rate to see what is working and what is not. I don't want to under inflate or over inflate the numbers and just want to be realistic as far as if I am actually getting a "qualified response" or not.

Thanks

Robert

@Jerry Puckett I forgot to ask you this at lunch the other day so feel free to chime in.

Account Closed · Answer

@Troy Luster Thanks for the reply Troy. I am on my fourth mailer spaced roughly two months or eight weeks apart. @Jerry Puckett had told me that I need to shorten that to 4-6 weeks which I am in the process of doing. Congratulations on the email.

I have Zoho CRM customized and set-up and have a stage cycle set up so I can see where I am at in the process with every "Seller". All of my leads start off as a "Prospect" until they contact me at which time they are converted over to a "Seller". Once a seller I basically have five sales cycles and a seller will stay in a cycle until I finish it and move on to the next stage. I also have a "Follow Up" stage that is used for any offers rejected, not interested in selling right now ( but did'nt ask to be taken off the list), etc.

Ray Lai · Answer

Account Closed

Cool, in that case anyone that calls you from your campaign should be considered a response.

Ray Lai · Answer

A response should be any call reach back to you as long as your letter is truthful. Why? I've seen a few people post really high response rates based on misrepresentation in their letter along the lines of "We will pay TOP DOLLAR for your house" and end up with a bunch of people calling but not the distressed people that they are truly seeking.

Account Closed · Answer

@Ray Lai Yea I can see your response. My letter is a little more in depth than the generic " I want to buy your house" yellow letter but it doesn't say anything about paying top dollar or anything. It just describes that we buy as is, pay all the closing costs, etc.

Thanks for the reply

Troy Luster · Answer

I'd count all responses. The ones that no longer own the houses will let you know the quality of your list. While I would count all responses, I'd especially track my appointments to close to deals where you actually make money. You'll have to give it some time though. The magic happens for us after several mailers. I still can't believe how long some people hold on to them. Got a email last week from a homeowner we mailed to in April 2017.

What Qualifies as A Response on a Direct Mail Campaign

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