Wholesale campaigns in another language?

Question

Hello all! 
Just wondering if any of you ever target Spanish speaking communities with any sort of marketing? Ive been reading about yellow letters and now I'm curious to see if any one has done any campaigns in Spanish? It seems like it would be hard to get a list going for this type of campaign but here in my area I see a lot of potential in targeting Spanish speaking homeowners. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

Chris Reck · Answer

Hey Abraham I have tried it before. Right near me are a few Spanish speaking communities. The only thing I have found is when sending the letters to the owner it actually goes to the person who rents the place out (lots of rentals in these area's). Most of the time they do not speak Spanish haha. I could see for example if you lived in Miami where many speak Spanish it could work really well.

Michael Quarles · Answer

We have found that Spanish letters work well. Today was our first request for Chinese.

As for having to speak Spanish... I have bought a lot of property using translators..  Most title companies have a list of 30 or so available language translators.

In California if a language is spoken more than 50% of the time during the negotiation then the agreement must be in that language or there must be an affidavit by a translator that they translated.

I personally see a ton of value in using a Spanish tag or letter. Heck we tag all of our voicemails with Spanish.

Abraham L. · Answer

Dev Horn I'm looking into those list websites that you mentioned and a few others but Im definitely looking for the most cost effective options. I will keep everyone posted with the results as i plan to send my first mailings in about week.

Michael Quarles 
I will be calling the title company I plan to use and check to see if they have any specific rules like your example of California. Thanks for Heads up!

Dev Horn · Answer

Abraham L. - there are couple of approaches ~

First is to purchase mailing lists with ethnicity coding - absolutelists.com and dmdatabases.com offer lists but - disclaimer - we have not used them.

Second approach is to drop mail within "area trade zones" inside of zip codes - hitting every address in zones that are 80%+ Hispanic, etc.  We're working on strategies in that second approach with a vendor called National Mail-It.  If you want to learn about it (it's very cost effective), feel free to contact Gary Garvey there at gary@nationalmailit.com and ask him about "shared mail" (they're just a vendor for us - we get no benefit from recommending them)...

Approach 1 is more targeted with a much higher cost/address; Approach 2 is carpet-bombing ethnic areas at a low cost/address.

Chris Reck · Answer

Lyall Storandt Yes it will say their name however sometimes when going through just trying to blanket an area I don't always check.

Lyall Storandt · Answer

Chris Reck Not sure what the tax rolls look like in Connecticut, but here in Houston there is a separate field for the address of the owner. Typically, if it's a rental property, the owner's address will be different from that of the subject property.

If you can figure out who's getting the property tax bill for the house and where it's being delivered, that's where you want your letters to go.

Best of luck.

P.S. - I haven't tried any marketing in Spanish, but I do get calls from Spanish speakers and luckily usually have someone near by who can translate for me.

Abraham L. · Answer

Dev Horn,

I am fluent in Spanish but would have to look into getting some Spanish contracts (might be bigger challenge than this). The direct mail company you mentioned is exactly what Im looking for. Do you have any more info on them? Can they just sell me a list kinda like listsource or do you have to do the mailing and everything through them? Thanks!

Dev Horn · Answer

Ha - I was thinking exactly what Jerry Puckett said - if you do marketing in Spanish, you better be able to TALK to people in Spanish, make offers & give them documents in Spanish, etc.

But if you can work in Spanish, this is a great strategy.  We're working with a direct mail company that enables us to target by ethnicity within zip codes.

Abraham L. · Answer

Jerry Puckett,

Thanks for the ideas! I think that would be the way to go now that I think about it. I would be sacrificing the "personal feel" of a yellow letter if I do one paragraph in English and one in Spanish but might bring in better results in the long run. Sometimes its kinda obvious by the persons name so that might help a bit too. I think this will be one of my first campaigns and we will see how it goes but ill keep researching more options.  Thanks!

Jerry Puckett · Answer

Abraham L.,

I've done this with decent success in DFW where there are many Spanish speakers. If you keep your letters short, I mean bare bones minimum, you can write your letter in English and Spanish, 1 paragraph or so for each on the same page.

Another option which is pretty popular, is to add the line "Se Habla Espanol"

Just make sure you have someone who can speak Spanish ready. My Spanish is broken at best, and I've had a hard time retaining anyone consistently to take these calls for me.

Wholesale campaigns in another language?

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