1st Direct Mail campaign, need some advice

[Brad E.]

Hey BP

I'm putting together my first direct mail campaign and wanted to get some feedback from the community.

My initial plan (based on recommendations from folks here) was to run a 6 touch campaign on a list of 1000 absentee owners with > 50% equity, targeting small multi-fam in my surrounding area.

I'm using listsource to pull my list. Unfortunately I have found that I'm not able to pull exactly the details I wanted from listsource. For some reason when I filter using any criteria related to equity or loans, it 0's out my list. I am not sure why this is the case??

Anyway, without the equity filter I get my list back up to around 1200. I was almost ready to buy it and I checked the box for 'remove duplicate mailing addresses' which took the list back down to around 650. That is short of what I had budgeted for, at 1000 addresses. I am considering supplementing the 650 with an additional 350 of SFR, absentee, with high equity, to bring my total back up to around 1000 names.

So here are my questions:

1. Does it make sense to combine two potentially different target audiences into a single campaign? I don’t know if this can work with the same messaging to each.

2. If these are really 2 separate campaigns, is my list big enough? ie. are 650 MF and 350 SFR segments big enough to get any result running them separately.

3. Would it be better to expand my geography for the MF in order to get the number back up to 1000 and then do a separate campaign later with SFR if desired when my budget allows?

4. Is there different criteria that I should use to filter with, that work well specifically for multi-fam properties, since I can't get pull the equity?

This is my first time doing direct mail so I want to get it right. However, I know from my reading here that there is no single 'right way' and results will vary depending on my market. So I have to just get out there and try it. My biggest fear is I spend a few thousand dollars and have nothing to show for it. I'm pretty much over that fear but it still nags me at times. I keep telling myself the other option is do nothing, and that is just not acceptable.

I'd appreciate any advice or tips folks may have on this. Cheers.