Cheaper Way?

[George Cox]

Direct mail campaigns don't come cheap. Costs really add up, even if you are outsourcing to a company to do it for you. Then there's the cost of the leads themselves. I go after estate properties and in Philly, those leads don't come cheap. I've heard a lot about online marketing bringing in deals. Of course you have CL and backpage etc...but some folks are talking about getting found by motivated sellers on search engines. Anybody know a good strategy to position yourself online and attract deals....besides an expensive website?

[Barry Hammond]

George Cox:

After 20 years, and the advent of the internet, I have yet to loose faith in direct mail. The single most common mistake marketers make is to buy a list, write a letter, send it out and wait for the phone to ring. It's a huge error that fills talk space with nonsense and anecdotes that can point you in opposite directions depending on who you talk to.

So before you give up on Direct Mail, let me make a couple of suggestions.

1. Don't be cheap. Plan on mailing not one, not two, not three but four pieces to the same list. It is a statistical fact that most consumers do not respond to the first touch. It sometimes takes as many as four touches before someone responds to your call to action.

2. Be prepared to quantify. Without exception, every business owner I've ever consulted for, has made the mistake of estimating the response to direct mail. I have yet to find a business owner who does direct mail and guesses about the results. On the contrary, the businesses who consistently use direct mail, know down to the penny how much postage is, and how much each resulting call has cost them.

3. Don't rely on just Direct mail. Integrate your methods. If your list includes phone numbers, send a piece that tells your audience to expect a phone call, and then call them. Or You can do something I've had incredible amount of success with and that's the use of PURLS (Personalize URL). This is a method in which you create a website using the name of your recipient. For example, if I'm sending a letter to Joe Blow, My letter reads - dear Joe, I've got great info for you. It's so awesome that I had to put it on your own website at www.website.com/JOE.BLOW. Now I not only know how many people are calling as a result of direct mail, I know who's visiting my website.

4. Don't make a decision based on one mailing. You should not expect much from your first mailing other than to provide a performance baseline. Once you know what your piece can do, then you can make decisions about tinkering and modifying things in a way that will improve your response rate.

The bottom line, is I've been doing this long enough to know that there are no shortcuts to success in direct mail. There is a right way and a wrong way. If you don't experience success in direct mail, there is usually something you can do about it. 9 times out of 10, it comes down to your budget, and how much "testing" or "learning" you are willing to go through with your particular list or piece.

I say keep at it. Quantify, and experiment, and integrate your strategies.

Good Luck.