Probate Direct Marketing Help

[Josh Adamo]

Hey BP,

Just want to make sure I'm doing this right because I have been reading some blogs where people have sent out 1,500+ mailers and have not had even 1 deal and I dont want to be that guy. Right now I'm doing the direct mail myself and I'm targeting the probate customers. Here is my approach on the probate:
1st mailers are normally just a white professional letter expressing my condolences to the family and just letting them know that I am looking for a house in the general area of the estate and when or if they want to sell to please give me a call.
Then a month later i will check back up with them with a yellow letter, hand written, pretty much just letting them know a little more who I am and that I am still interested in there property and leave them with my number to get in touch with me.
After another month I will check back in with a post card letting them know that I'm still here and just checking back up with them pretty much.
After that last post card i will normally wait 60 days to send another post card, and then that post card will pretty much be the same as the last post card I sent them.
After that 3rd time mailing to them I only mail to them every 60 days with the same post card for up to about a year.

How does this sound to experienced wholesalers?? I have a full time job so I'm only doing this on the side right now but I'm focusing a lot of my spare time to real estate. Right now I'm trying to send about 100 mailers a week which i spread them out to about 25 a day through out the week.

Feel free to state your opinion. I'm very new to all this so i'll listen to everybody and I just want to make sure I'm going down the right road. Thanks for all your help in advance!!

[Rick H.]

Your very first objective is to actually start. Take action. Not, get ready to get ready.

Also, I think about the worst thing that could happen is that you send out ten letters and get a deal. Not that it wouldn't be wonderful and perhaps profitable, however this would suggest to you that marketing is easy. It's not.

For starters, I want to be on the record that I'm on your side and wish you outrageous success. However, most of us fail a lot along the way. The challenge is to stay in the game. As stated prior, multiple mailings will probably render a higher chance of response. And then you've got to convert and close the prospect. Oh, yeah.

I would not take a casual approach to a direct mail marketing campaign and encourage you to take the long view; that is, fail early and often so that you can determine what doesn't work in order to focus on finding the things that do work. In fact, I'm in Chicago this week at the GKIC Info-Summit working on my marketing skills. Consistently, my best ROI has been in my education by others who have previously encountered and solved the issues that I'm dealing with today

Go read Robert J Ringer's classic book, "Winning Through Intimidation" and really drill down what persistence means. Incidentally, this is NOT a book on how to intimidate others despite the title from 1974.

Plan your work, work your plan but don't plan your results!