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Handwritten Direct Mail Services
Hey BiggerPockets. This is my first post on the forums. I have been reading up on past posts and listening to podcasts so I'm fairly familiar with the site and the forums. I have just completed the first round of my first ever direct mail campaign. I sent 100 letters to absentee owners in the Atlanta area and it went fairly well. I was wondering if there are some easy ways to cut down on time while maintaining low costs for a campaign. Do y'all have any services you utilize? I am committed to handwritten envelopes and typed letters at the moment. Any advice helps.
Thanks so much,
Will Peters
Hey @Will Peters, There are a number of direct mail companies that could help you out by cutting down time and producing quality mailers. Typically the more mailers you send out the lower the cost, so if you beef up your lead list a bit that could bring down your pricing. If you would like to chat more feel free to reach out! Cheers :)
Absolutely, got a buncha protips and tricks to help boost both your response rates and conversion rates while keeping costs down. Feel free to holler if you want some help. Good luck mate.
@Will Peters I have found that you get a better response from quality mailers, i.e. handwritten. I have sent handwritten mailers and I have used bigger mailing companies. Using the mailing companies, I was able to free up time and automate the mailers, however the response rate has not been as high. I have used yellowletters.com and know people that use yellowletterscomplete.com. A quick google search will give you plenty to choose from, good luck.
Thanks @McKinley Crowley and @Rush Wall, I looked into yellowletters and it looks great.
@Ray Lai I will definitely be in touch, sorry I have been so swamped recently.
I started different direct mail campaigns not too long ago as well. I too am committed to hand written letters to some and envelopes to all. I used Calligraphr.com (no affiliation with the company) to create a font that looks like my own handwriting. I'm not taking credit for 'finding' this service as I found it on BP as well as in different podcasts, but it has sure saved me a lot of time.
It does take a bit of time to initially make all of the necessary adjustments to make it look just right, but now I just throw my paper and envelopes in my printer and print them all out using the mail merge functionality from my list. I get packs of 40 envelopes from the dollar store, rolls of forever stamps from ebay (you can find stamps for around .40 per stamp for some reason), and use my own printer with my own font. So for about $.45 per letter I'm able to send direct mail in my own "hand writing". Granted, I still stuff my own envelopes - so this clearly isn't the most efficient method in terms of time, but it sure beats manually writing everything.
Hopefully this helps in your efforts.
Love the tip about the site @Chris Adamski!
@Will Peters any luck with using calligraphr.com?
@Tim Dowdle I have stuck with my own processes. I have stayed away from yellow letters and machine produced handwriting. Best luck has been with handwriting! Best of luck.
How have your response rates been with that so far @Will Peters? Sounds like you're still at it after a few years which is fantastic! Hoping to hear about some metrics so far and any hiccups that you've ran into so far?
Thanks!
@John Bradley I have actually taken it a step further over the years and started a company that helps investors market in more ways than just direct mail. I used all the hiccups to put together a system with marketing, a custom website, and lead conversion. Check us out at REIPipelines.com. I think you may be interested. Thanks!
@Will Peters your website looks amazing and congrats on that! What metrics did you end with on your mailers in that case?
Thanks I appreciate it! Metrics are interesting in direct mail and I think people often overlook a lot of very important factors. Response rate varies greatly from conversion rate and that conversion rate is based largely on your ability to connect with sellers and having systems in place to get deals closed. We strive to close about 1 in 7 leads that come in. Hope that helps!
