All Forum Posts by: Sharad M.

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You're only a few clicks away from a professional and well run direct mail marketing campaign.

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Additional Pricing info:

https://resimpli.com/pricing

Postcards:

$0.60 for less than 200

$0.45 for 200-1,000

$0.40 for more than 1,000

Letters:

$0.70 for less than 200

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$0.50 for more than 1,000

 Hi Sonny, you want to have your mail piece stand out but it's more important to start with a good list. Without a good list, your mail piece won't make any difference. If you have THE BEST mail piece in the world but sending to incorrect list, it won't do any good.

Assuming you have a good starting list and a decent mail piece, you want to send about every 6 weeks to 2 months to the same list non stop. Direct Mail works but you have to be persistent with it. Make sure you have a good follow up system in the backend to stay on top of all the leads that come in. Without it, you will be missing out on some really good deals.

 Many people get overwhelmed by all the details.

1) When doing a direct mail campaign, your most important factor is a good list. If you don't have a good list, you will not get a deal no matter how good your marketing piece is. If you are sending best mailing pieces to people who bought their houses in last 6 months with FHA financing, you will not get anywhere.

2) Secondly, ONLY do direct mail if you can commit to 6 mailing campaigns. Each campaign can be about 6 weeks apart so about 9 months of mailings.

3) Have a good lead capture and follow up system. You can have something free but it needs to be a system that you consistently follow.

4) IMO, persistently sending mailing to a good list is more important than the actual mail piece but mailpiece is important. It should be professional looking and should have good call to actions so you are guiding the seller to the action you want them to take like calling you, going to your website, etc. It shouldn't be offensive in any way. It should be easy to read.

And no, you don't need separate messages for in-state and out of state owners.

Hope this helps.

Check out REsimpli Direct Mail Service starting at 40 cents for postcards and 50 cents for letters. In addition to great direct mail service, you also receive access to FREE CRM to easily manage your leads. The best value for Real Estate Investors.

The prices include printing, stuffing envelope, packing, mailing (including postage). NO hidden fees.

Why choose reSimpli.com for your direct mail?

You're only a few clicks away from a professional and well run direct mail marketing campaign.

Sample designs:

https://resimpli.com/ourdesigns

Additional Pricing info:

https://resimpli.com/pricing

Postcards:

$0.60 for less than 200

$0.45 for 200-1,000

$0.40 for more than 1,000

Letters:

$0.70 for less than 200

$0.55 for 200-1,000

$0.50 for more than 1,000

Check out REsimpli Direct Mail Service starting at 40 cents for postcards and 50 cents for letters. In addition to great direct mail service, you also receive access to FREE CRM to easily manage your leads. The best value for Real Estate Investors.

REsimpli Direct Mail

The prices include printing, stuffing envelope, packing, mailing (including postage). NO hidden fees.

Why choose reSimpli.com for your direct mail?

You're only a few clicks away from a professional and well run direct mail marketing campaign.

Sample designs:

https://resimpli.com/ourdesigns

Additional Pricing info:

https://resimpli.com/pricing

Postcards:

$0.60 for less than 200

$0.45 for 200-1,000

$0.40 for more than 1,000

Letters:

$0.70 for less than 200

$0.55 for 200-1,000

$0.50 for more than 1,000

Check out REsimpli Direct Mail Service starting at 40 cents for postcards and 50 cents for letters. In addition to great direct mail service, you also receive access to FREE CRM to easily manage your leads. The best value for Real Estate Investors.

REsimpli Direct Mail

The prices include printing, stuffing envelope, packing, mailing (including postage). NO hidden fees.

Why choose reSimpli.com for your direct mail?

You're only a few clicks away from a professional and well run direct mail marketing campaign.

Sample designs:

https://resimpli.com/ourdesigns

Additional Pricing info:

https://resimpli.com/pricing

Postcards:

$0.60 for less than 200

$0.45 for 200-1,000

$0.40 for more than 1,000

Letters:

$0.70 for less than 200

$0.55 for 200-1,000

$0.50 for more than 1,000

@Tim G. Absolutely! I am enjoying this conversation with you as well. This is the power of the forum to discuss ideas that are working for investors across the country. All markets are different and each investor is different.

Like you said, trial and error, test and tune. Its important to take these concepts and ideas and find ways to test and measure them for effectiveness.

This is exactly what I was trying to say but it probably got lost in all the other points. The most important thing an investor can do is trial and error.

I have a suspicion my market of Southern California is likely on the leading edge of more tech friendly marketing. I am aware deals get done here frequently via direct mail but I believe the cost per acquisition means it is not a profitable business model for wholesaling. The deals must be flipped to capture more margin on that lead that likely cost over $10k to acquire. 

I would agree with that. So Cal and Nor Cal are probably 2 of the most difficult markets right now. The best deals are the ones you can get from referrals because they don't cost anything. In marketing like SD, I think $10k would be conservative number for cost per deal via Direct Mail. I would guess it would be closer to $15k but then again the returns are higher also.

If a wholesaler and flipper are competing for a dealing and both are negotiating with the same seller, 90%+ of the time the flipper will end up getting the deal because he can afford to pay more for those deals and cut out the wholesaler. That was one of the reasons we started doing direct mail in our market. We are able to consistently find deals now with our marketing but we are not looking to be one trick pony and rely just on direct mail. This year our goal is to start implementing at least 4 new marketing channels - 1 per quarter and have a higher volume and more consistent deal flow.

One of the challenges of participating on a discussion forum like this is that you have to take everything with a grain of salt. Just because something works for one investor in one market doesn't mean that you can take that system and replicate in a new market. There are demographic variables that play a huge role in what marketing channel will work best.

For example, it would be a horrible strategy for Apple to start doing direct mail for its products but a product that is designed for seniors would do well with direct mail marketing.

@Cody L. I assumed based on where you live, my apologies. I do agree that SD is a crazy market but there are investors like @Tim G. who are doing really well and hats off to them.

I would imagine that's also a very competitive market may be not at SD level but compared to an average market. Good luck with your investing in Houston.

@Tim G.

Can you give some examples of what markets are crushing in direct mail vs online and vice versa. This statement without any type of data behind it leaves me without any information to believe it. I agree that markets out side of major metropolitan markets can be successfully targeted with direct mail, but there needs to be a real discussion on how ineffective it is in large markets. I have the data to back this up in San Diego.

I am in NW Indiana market and Direct Mail performs better in my market compared to Online. I have closed deals from both sources but Direct Mail gets me more leads and deals compared to Online Marketing. I am part of couple of Masterminds and there are investors who swear by Direct Mail and there are investors who swear by Online Marketing. Again, it depends from market to market. I do agree with you that direct mail isn't as effective in large markets as it is in marketing surrounding the major cities. I guess I am 30-45 mins outside of Chicago so I fall in one of the markets where Direct Mail still works well.

The statement that people who send out volume in direct mail must be only doing it because is also something I would not agree with. I can point out countless new investors who come to this forum for guidance, create a direct mail campaign that bombs and they fizzle out with nothing to show for their efforts. Those that got rich during the gold rush are the ones who sold the shovels and buckets. I believe that to be the case when it comes to marketing in the real estate world, especially within the bigger pockets community where vendors participate in the discussions.

It's not about volume. It is about consistency in your marketing and it doesn't apply to Direct Mail but it applies to any marketing channel. I can spend $100,000 in PPC or Direct Mail but if I spend all of that money in 1 month and I don't have a good follow up system, then what good will that $100,000 do to me? I would be lucky to close a deal with that kind of strategy. Generally speaking, the best marketing strategy for any investor is the one they can stick with the longest.

A lot of investors fail with their marketing strategy because they don't stick with it long enough to work whether it is Direct Mail, PPC, SMS Blast, RVM, etc.

If your company is marketing for and soliciting business for direct mail services via this forum that creates the opportunity for a bias. 

Many of the participants in this discussion have no dog in this fight. We don't offer marketing services and benefit from information being posted in support of direct mail. It would appear that you would. While I don't mean to sound disrespectful, I am very suspicious of the business services that frequent this forum and provide information in favor of their product/service. I am unsure if it is truly in the best of intentions. 

That's totally a fair point but I will point that my intention is not to solicit business for Direct Mail but to answer a question from experience. There are several other great companies out there that investors can use for Direct Mail like Yellow Letters, Open Letter Marketing etc. and I am more than happy if someone chooses them over us. They are fantastic companies to work with.

We can all agree to disagree, but my experience from mailing 40-80k pieces of direct mail annually in Southern California from 2012-2015 showed me I would be out of business if I continued to feed the beast. I had to find a more effective way to find deals for my business to survive and get creative. I am aware of successful wholesaling operations in B markets doing well with direct mail, but I also believe the trend is shifting away from direct mail and its effectiveness will continue to decline. We don't look to a mailbox for an answer to our problems, we pull out our phone.

I 100% agree with you that the trend is shifting away from direct mail but that doesn't mean that there aren't still deals to be had via direct mail. I live in Carlsbad so I am very familiar with your market and I can introduce you to investors in the area who are consistently buying deals from Direct Mail but they have found their niche in how it works. They have their list and their letter and postcard design that is working for them.

But you are 100% correct that direct mail effectiveness will continue to decline. It is very important for investors to have a balanced marketing approach but the only way to do that is if they have real numbers in front of them and have KPIs for each of their marketing strategies. There is no point in throwing money after Direct Mail or Online Marketing with the hopes that the deals will come. 

I know investors in Dallas market who are doing really well with Radio advertisement and they have figured out what works for them and how to use it most efficiently. They absolutely hate Direct Mail and don't see any point in doing that because their ROI isn't worth it. You are right that in major cities that are super saturated, investors need to be more creative and Direct Mail is not the answer for them.

Like I said in my previous post to Cody, I am not in favor or against any particular marketing strategy but I believe in testing a few of them out and analyzing the KPIs and then making a decision on which one works and which one doesn't work as well.

Each investor needs to take a strategic approach and always be analyzing the numbers and that's the only way they can make an informed decision as to what works and what doesn't work.

Just because there is someone who doesn't have good business processes set up doesn't mean that a particular marketing strategy doesn't work well. Now I see you are from SD market and like I said previously each market is different. In some markets depending on demographics you will see sellers respond better to Direct Mail and in other markets, sellers might respond better to Online Marketing. 

The only way to find that out is by trial and error. If they don't test out different marketing channels and believe a blanket statement that Online Marketing doesn't work or Direct Mail doesn't work, then they might be leaving a lot of money on the table for other investors.

I am not in favor or against any particular marketing strategy but I believe in testing a few of them out and analyzing the KPIs and then making a decision on which one works and which one doesn't work as well.