All Forum Posts by: Troy Sordin

The phone is ringing, and this is supposed to be a GREAT moment! Your smart marketing is bringing in motivated sellers… but you don’t think you are ready. You decide you need more time to put together your notes, a script, or just collect your breath, so you don’t answer the phone. However, if you let the call go unanswered, you have just wasted your precious marketing dollars! Don’t let this happen: prepare yourself. Talk to your peers, get a few words of advice, and just go for it.

The first call can be intimidating, but it gets easier! Once you’ve taken a few calls, you’ll figure out what works for you. But in the meantime, here are some basics:

Ask questions.

With each call, you should first ask for your lead’s name and phone number. This way, you will be able to follow up with them after the initial phone call.

The main goal is to buy their property, so you need to know about the property in question. What is the address? How many beds and baths does the property have? What is the condition of the home? Is it vacant or is it occupied? How much do they owe on it, or do they own it out right? These questions should all be part of your call script and will help you make an informed purchasing decision.

Here is a tip: if they don’t sound motivated to sell, chances are they aren’t going to sell. Trust your gut, and don’t waste your time! Keep it professional, but don’t let them take time away from other motivated sellers.

Peanut Butter and Jelly, Macaroni and Cheese, Cake and Frosting … all are amazing duos in life. They compliment each other. However, there is another great duo you might not have heard: Yellow Letters and Targeted Mailing Lists!

Yellow Letters in hand addressed envelopes are a great way to market to your target audience. The hand addressed envelope looks like an invitation or a letter from a dear friend. They are more likely to get opened and, in turn, increase your response. Once your leads open the envelopes, they will see a unique, personalized letter. So what will they do? Read it!

Still, while letters do a lot of the heavy lifting so to speak, the mailing list is equally crucial to a successful campaign. Who is receiving your mail piece? A mailing list can determine how a campaign performs. If your letters are not reaching motivated leads, your message may not bring in much response. However, making sure to use a high quality, targeted mailing list will help your message reach your ideal audience.

We notice that yellow letters work well for lower and mid-level properties, and what works for those does not always work for upper level properties. If in your area a $250k house is mid-level, then yellow letters should work just fine. If $250k is a nicer place, then there are some other things you can do to improve your response rate, the biggest being a more formal approach. One way to do that is by putting it on letterhead. Here's an example that's been working pretty well recently: http://yellowletterscomplete.com/color-letterhead-letters

Hi Will,

Here is a link to some example letters we have used http://yellowletterscomplete.com/yellow-letters/yellow-letter-templates

Good luck!

Hi Shawn,

You can have letters written and mailed out for you or shipped to you for you to mail out yourself. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach.

We actually personalize the letters by hand, and another (cheaper) approach is to use a mail merge.

There are numerous templates to choose from for your verbiage, or you can create your letter. You can see some templates on our website here: http://yellowletterscomplete.com/yellow-letters/yellow-letter-templates

We'd be happy to walk you through it.

Any calls yet, Christopher?

Good luck, Christopher!

If you ever decide that you'd like someone to prepare your yellow letters for you, check us out at yellowletterscomplete.com

Keep us posted on your campaign!

Industry average response rate on postcards is less than 1%, while the average response rate on handwritten yellow letters is between 5% and 15%, depending on the list, area, computer font vs real person's handwriting, etc.

Postcards can work, but it will usually take a lot more postcards to generate the same number of responses as yellow letters. Instead of focusing on the front end cost, think about the true cost of the marketing.

For example, say you spend $1000 to send out 2000 postcards and you get a 1% response, which would be 20 phone calls. That's a cost of $100 per phone call. Then think about spending the same amount for let's say 500 yellow letters with leads, and if you get just a 5% response that would be 25 calls, which comes to $20 per call. If you get a 10% response that would be 50 calls and $10 per call. Would you rather spend $100 per call, or $20?

I think what ou may be referring to with 200 letters per week is that whatever marketing you choose to do, doing it consistently will give you the best results. Starting with what you an afford can get you going, and then you can build from there as your budget grows.

We used to use the verbiage you mention for our clients several years ago, and in fact we still have it posted on our website here:

http://yellowletterscomplete.com/yellow-letters/yellow-letter-templates

I know lots of investors and other yellow letter companies are still using this language, but we've noticed a stronger and more positive response rate from other verbiage options. It's a little softer, but concise enough that it can still be read in a few seconds.

Yellow letters definitely still work, but they need to be done correctly to get a strong response rate. Think about the verbiage, the type of postage, your mailing list, and especially the font. Yellow letters work in part because they do not look like an average marketing letter, they look like a letter from a relative.

Would a relative send you a letter with a cut rate stamp? No, so don't use a cut rate stamp on your yellow letter.

Would a relative send you a letter in computer generate font? Again, no, so don't use computer generated font.

Yellow letters will pull stronger than any other type of direct mail marketing if they are done correctly, but like anything else if they are done by cutting corners they will not work as well.