Building A Marketing Machine – Part 4c, Direct Mail (Mailing)

This is the third post in the four part series for direct mail. If you haven’t read the first two parts, start HERE.

You should now have a well-prepared lead list imported into your lead database. As I mentioned in my last post, you can gain access to my lead database by signing up at the top of this page to become an Insider. I should note that my discussion of direct mail only includes letters. I’ve sent postcards in the past and continue to do so to maintain contact with some leads but I don’t feel this form of marketing is as good as letters.

The first step in sending direct mail is to figure out if you’re going to do it yourself or outsource to a mailing house. Both have advantages and disadvantages that go beyond time and money so you’ll want to be sure to consider the items below before making your decision:

*You’ll notice that I starred Customizable and Exclusivity. While these can very easily be overlooked and are often an afterthought, I believe they are very important aspects in need of consideration. The ability to customize your mailer is a great way to stand out from your competition. If you take a look at all the real estate investor mail houses, you’ll notice that they are severely lacking creativity. Almost all of the mailers look identical. So what do you think will happen if your prospect is receiving a sea of the same letters, and then you send them one that looks completely unique? That’s right, they’re likely going to open your letter because it’s captivating or so different that they need to see what’s inside. This is the response you should aim for, however, the only way to achieve this right now is to do-it-yourself. In addition to customization, exclusivity is key. When you create your own mailers, no other investor has access to your “secret sauce”. This means you won’t have anyone else putting out the same product, which makes your mailers much more effective. Again, the only way to accomplish this right now is to DIY because companies are not offering it.

My general recommendation for determining whether to create your marketing in-house, or outsource is dependent on your time vs. money resources. If you have more capital and little time, outsource. If you have more time than money, produce it in-house. And if you want to reallyincrease your response and deal rate, focus on how you can take advantage of the 2 aspects that I mentioned above – Customization & Exclusivity.

If you decide to outsource, you’ll want to put a lot of thought into who will be sending your mailers and what they are going to look like. Remember, this is the most important aspect of the mailing process because it’s the first impression that will either get your prospect to open your letter, or to rip it in half and throw it away with the rest of the junk mail (that hurts just thinking about it).

So what TYPE of mailers should you be sending? Over the years, I’ve found that a handwritten-style letter is best to mail as your first touch. This helps build rapport with your prospect because it appears that you actually took the time to write them a letter. Now, if you’re printing the “handwriting”, make sure it actually looks believable. There’s nothing that kills a first impression more than a poorly executed handwritten-looking letter. And believe me, people will definitely let you know when it’s bad. Your message should be short and concise. People won’t give you much of their time so you want to make sure they get the idea in just a couple of sentences.

Your second mailer can go a bit more in depth. Hopefully you used a unique first mailer that stood out so your prospect will remember you. If so, and you’ve begun to built rapport with the first letter, then they are more likely to open and spend a bit more time reading your next mailer. This is why I would recommend that you send a longer letter, either handwritten or professional, typed. This message should reiterate your interest in buying their house and discuss what you can do for them and why they should sell to you. Some examples include: stating that they won’t have to repair their house before you buy it, they won’t pay real estate commissions or closing costs and they don’t have to wait for a bank to finance the purchase. You can also customize your message specifically to your prospect. So if you’re mailing to a pre-foreclosure prospect, you can say something like, “You’ll be able to stop the bank from foreclosing, get the bank off your back and sell your house all with one phone call.” This message is clear, tells them how they will benefit and gives them a motivating reason to call you.

Subsequent mailers can be a mixture of handwritten and typed letters and they should build off of your previous mailers. It’s a good idea to make the series of letters act as if they’re a conversation with your prospect. This goes back to building rapport. People are much more likely to do business with those they like and trust – so be that contact for them.

The final piece to the mailing puzzle is how often you should hit your prospect. Based on my experience and others I’ve consulted, mailing 4-6 times in a cycle to your prospects will ensure you maximize the number of respondents. Most people will take a while to respond because they need time to get to know you and your brand. Once I complete a cycle of mailings, I’ll hold off mailing to them for a couple of months before starting the next round of mailings. The frequency of your mailings should be dependent on the prospect and/or the amount of competition in your market. For instance, you’ll need to mail a pre-foreclosure prospect more often than an absentee owner. There is a non-negotiable deadline for the former (the auction date). For the latter, there is no hard date that you are up against. Therefore, put some thought into how often you need to get your mailings out to hit them 4-6 times in one cycle. When there is more competition in the market, your prospects will be receiving more mail. Therefore, you want to ensure you are always the first one they think about. For my company, this means we reduce the time between mailings to only a couple of weeks. On the other hand, when the competition is somewhat low, I would recommend a longer period time between each mailing, about 4-5 weeks.

Once you get a deal, or two, or three…It is important to continue to market your business in order to maintain brand awareness (don’t stop your mailings altogether). Think about large companies that are extremely well-known, like Apple. They’re a huge name that is recognized around the world, so why do they still need to market their products? The answer is because they want to maintain their brand awareness. People automatically think of the company when they need that product or service. However, if they were to stop marketing altogether (although it’s hard to imagine), people would eventually begin to lose interest or forget about the brand and another company would swoop in. You should think about your marketing the same way. Your goal is to build (and maintain) awareness of your company, something that certainly does not happen overnight.

Now that you’ve set up your mailings, the next step is to track your leads to get the most out of all of the time, money, and effort you’ve put into it. Some of my best deals have come from following up with people who just weren’t quite ready to sell during our first conversation. I will go in depth on creating a follow up system in my final post on direct mail.