Direct Mail - Branded vs Non-Branded?

Question

In your Direct Mail postcards, do you vote for a branded postcard, with your branded website following the specific design language of your brand, or do you vote for the handwritten non-branded personal postcard coming from the concerned rich neighbor down the street?

And why?

Anthony Sarrouf · Answer

That's really interesting!Here's some backstoryI'm not trying to get listing leads, I'm trying to get off-market deals. Reason I'm preferring to go branded, is because I do have a website and a brand, and I'd like to continue growing it. I also feel more comfortable dealing with sellers as a company because it makes them more comfortable most of the time as well.What you're mentioning about the lowest quality smallest size postcard with misleading and offensive headlines is exactly the opposite of what I thought works lol.Also, I think it matters, but I'd like to get your opinion on that as well. Do the type of leads matter in terms of choosing the small misleading postcard vs the big company branded ones? I'm targeting high medium to high motivation lists (evictions, divorce, etc...).

Adrien C. · Answer

I do both. Different people like working with a company while others respond to the small guy type letter.

Colby Hager · Answer

@Anthony Sarrouf

First of all, don’t go hand written on a postcard. How handwritten got so convoluted that it shows up on a crappy postcard is beyond me.

Second, don’t go all sleek design and branded. Are you a realtor? Do you want to get a listing? Or are you trying to get a steal from someone who is looking to get cash for their dump like yesterday?

Guy/Gal who needs to sell their house fast for cash doesn’t care about your company, your neat graphic and your well thought out color scheme.

You need a postcard that halfway pisses people off.  If you do it right, most people calling your number are going to cuss at you. If this happens, you are on the right track. I’m envisioning a headline like “FINAL NOTICE” on an official looking postcard.

That really makes people who were never going to sell you their house anyways really mad.

You know who it doesn’t make mad?

The guy who desperately needs to sell his house and doesn’t care about your offensive misleading headline because he read your message and realized you might help him.

This needs to be on the cheap card stock. Smallest available. After your anger inducing headline, convince the seller you know what they are going through and can help them.

If you don’t like this method, then spend all of your effort on your postcard getting them to visit your website and convert them there. Only do this if your website is good enough to actually convert motivated sellers.

Since you asked, I think you should take the make people angry route.

Bonus tip, record the incoming calls so you can get a good chuckle out of all the threats to call the FBI for mail fraud.

Good luck!

Colby Hager · Answer

@Anthony Sarrouf

The reason I stopped doing branded postcards was I was spending thousands each month testing different looks and styles and getting little to nothing in return. A quiet phone line.

I had enough.

I decided to make a total change. I went with the cheapest, smallest card available.

In big bold letters it said FINAL NOTICE

Underneath was all the typical cash buyer sales copy.

This postcard looked like crap. Seriously.

They hit the mailboxes Tuesday. And man,  by about 3pm my phone line was hot and so were the people calling!

I was all the bad names you could think of.

I have a website as well (actually a pretty good one) but I left it off of the card and it’s a good thing I did. 90% of the people who called were mad.

The thing is though, I was getting about 10 legit interested leads per drop with that version. I was lucky to get 10 calls per drop with the nice postcards.

Regarding the type of leads...

I want the lead that wants to sell me their house yesterday. I want the lead that isn’t discerning regarding a reputable company. (Which I happen to be)

I guess my point is, a really motivated seller... I mean REALLY motivated, they don’t care about anything but getting their house sold today.

Let me ask you, do you think people who go to pawn shops when they are in a financial pinch shop the interest rates on their short term loan? Do you think they see which one has the best reputation, customer service, which counter clerk is the nicest?  Or which one will give them more for their lawnmower?

I tend to think not. I tend to think they are in a bind, need a solution and go to the nearest pawn shop willing to get them what they need.

If a pawn shop was in a great office building downtown, they might be the best, but no one would sell them their stuff in a pinch because they aren’t on the corner with a bright colored sign shouting out pawn shop.

All that to say, the point of the headline isn’t to be deceptive or offensive, the point is to get noticed. No one notices or cares about generic corporate postcard. The people who are willing to sell their house for pennies on the dollar are most of the time past the point of caring about the nature of the person helping them.

No one ever asks me for proof of funds. No one ever asks for references or any other qualifying attribute.

So if you are targeting highly motivated sellers like you mentioned...trust me on this...the really motivated ones that will give you a great deal, they don’t care about any minor details. I’m amazed to this day. People don’t even care to read what I’m asking them to sign. Even when I explain the contract line by line, they aren’t listening. They are thinking how great it will be to get rid of the burden.

Quality of lead? Can you imagine a more quality lead than this? The type of postcard you send doesn’t filter leads by quality. Postcards is a numbers game plain and simple. In order for the numbers to work though, people have to actually read enough of your message to know if you are right for them or not. It’s a no for most, some get angry and a very few will call you with a deal. In my experience in mailing hundreds of thousands of postcards, the crappy ones make the phone ring.

Now I’m just rambling.

Anthony Sarrouf · Answer

This reminds me of PPC leads. People who get bombarded from other wholesalers, but just want to go the "professional looking" way. Thanks for your input

Braden Smith · Answer

Typically you will get more responses with the generic postcards, but lower quality leads. With the company branded material you get less leads but better quality. Personally I use all company branded material in all my marketing because I dont have time to sift through tons of crappy leads.