Marketing during the Holidays?

[Michael Spencer]

Hey BP,

I'm relatively new to REI but had a question regarding marketing during the Holidays. Have you seasoned investors noticed a drop in your response rate during the Holiday season? I want to send out my first direct mail campaign of yellow letters to absentee owned properties but wonder if I should wait a month until everything calms down.

If you do market during the holidays, do you find yourself adding things like, "Hope you have a happy Holiday season!" to make it more personal to lead? (I wouldn't add Merry Christmas just for the fact that some people don't like that)

Any and all input on this is greatly appreciated!

Hope you have a happy Holiday season! :)

[Jon Klaus]

Originally posted by Bill Gulley:

The holidays is a good time to wind up the year, get the management stuff done you put off, the minutes for you LLC, taxes, etc. not be mailing your marketing efforts. After the 10th I'd think people that are considering any RE moves will put it off to Jan.

What would you do if you got your letter on Dec 20th? I might think this guy must be desperate or just think it was inappropriate now that I don't have time to haggle about RE.

Why not mail out holiday cards to everyone you do business with, closing companies, appraisers, your loan officer, buyers and sellers?

I'd say in about 10 days wind it down. Hit the ground running on Jan 2nd. :)

This is completely my experience in B2B.

I suspect just after Jan 1 is a very good time to market to home sellers as they may be ready to change/improve their situation.