How many letters is a big enough sample size to see what works?

Question

So I've started sending letters to nod's. This is my first week starting, I've sent about 50 letters since Monday (no calls yet, but I am tracking everything, hope to be getting more on the list soon). I'm going to send a follow up letter a month after I send the original, as well as a postcard after that.

In the meantime, I would like to start to market to a new group as well to test out different prospects and see which ones I'm getting the best responses to. I'm leaning towards either trying to get probate leads from the courthouse, or purchasing an inheritance list off USleadlist. What do you guys think of this strategy? For those of you who deal with inheritance leads, how many do you typically send?

Also, how many letters is usually a good indicator of how well a marketing campaign is going? I was thinking of sending 500-100 of each prospect group and going from there. Too many or not enough? Thanks in advance for the replies!

Michael Quarles · Answer

Good morning,

Marketing is either instant gratification or reinforcement.  And marketing requires relationship building.

If you're not touching the same prospect 3 times before you move on you are not learning two crutial things.

1) does your prospect want your product or service
2) do you want them to buy your product or service

A lot of people think this business is about bandit signs and yellow letters and that if you do a little that the bank account will fill up... most likely it will go the other way.

Take a single prospect group of 1000 and send them 3 letters over 90 days.

Or buy a box of 1000 business cards for 25 bucks and pass every one out as you present yourself as an investor to every stranger you come in contact with.

In all honesty I would rather you do the later first as it will help mold your real estate communication skills.

Account Closed · Answer

Chris Clothier  You say that most likely mail market prospects are already getting a lot of other ads.  Is this true where you are?  I haven't received a piece of direct mail in over three years.  Not one, and I've owned plenty of property in that time, some of them longer term. Between 2000 and 2007, I only got a handful.  I love getting the pieces because I like to check out what others are doing and how it looks and feels when it arrives in my PO box.  I ask every seller that I close with what else they got in the mail and who else they talked to.  Very rarely have they heard from anyone via mail.  I don't work NODs or SS, so maybe that's where all the competition is?

I lent some hard money, short term, in GA.  I received mail offers to buy the note every month for two years.  I was impressed by the diligence of that marketing.

What sellers do tell me is where they went on the internet, what ads or signs they saw and who they called.  "Not cheesy - memorable."  I like that. One of things that sellers say is that they are suspicious of sites that make you fill out a form. They don't like that the sites don't have real names or actual addresses.  They don't like that many sites look like a "scam".  That's got to apply to mail marketing too.

Account Closed · Answer

Michael: you do great work! Thanks for provided such a great service.

Anthony: It’s always better to start off small and increase from there. 50 is a little small but too small is better than too much. The last thing you want is to get overwhelmed with leads. Once you know how much 50 letters yields you, increase it accordingly.

Chris Clothier · Answer

Anthoy James,

Michael Quarles gives really good advice on different marketing techniques, but especially on the side of direct mail.  I use direct mail for different lists on both the buy and sell side of the business and rarely drill it down to anything smaller than 300 targets.  Each piece of identifying data gets the list a little smaller and a little more detailed.  As an example, you are mailing to NOD's, but as you enter specific zip codes you are interested in, specific price points, possibly specific year(s) built and so on....  I do this to get the list as mirrored to my ideal property as possible.  So the numbers are not the most important thing, but how you arrive at your list of targets is extremely important.

From there, I would echo his advice.  Be consistent with what you send, be on time with when you send it and be memorable.  Not cheesy - memorable.  More than likely there are half a dozen other people sending ads as well.  I will send to a very specific list 12 times in a year if it is the right list and with each mailing after 3, the response rate keeps climbing.

Best of luck

Chris

Anthoy James · Answer

Michael, as always, thanks for the reply. I will take your advice.

Levi, I should have been more specific. I meant I sent 50 out that week (all that was available), but that it was part of a bigger mailing.

Levi Goldberg · Answer

first of all: 50 letters is way too little. Second: Get a good internet site done and switch from letter writing to effective lead generating.

Anthoy James · Answer

Bump

Anthoy James · Answer

Btw, when I wrote 500-1,000 to each prospect I meant altogether (including 2nd, 3rd mailings, etc).

How many letters is a big enough sample size to see what works?

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