Which Direct Mailer Type is Best for Your Business

Postcards, handwritten letters, tri-fold flyers. So many options to choose from. How do you know which mailer is the best type for your real estate investment business? The answer isn’t as clear as you might like, but here are some guidelines to help you think through your choices.

Letters

Consider handwritten or professional letters from Open Letter Marketing to stand out from the crowd if you market to a special niche of sellers. For example, your target audience may be probate sellers or sellers whose homes are in foreclosure. You can create appealing direct mail letters that focus on the pain points of these prospects in letters that provide a solution to their problems. Letters tend to have the best response rate for this type of situation.

Postcards

If you have large lead lists with hundreds or thousands of prospects, postcards are the way to go. Our postcards get the prospects’ attention in a succinct way. They are also a cost-effective option with a solid response rate.

Tri-fold Flyers

This is the perfect mix of letter and postcard while right in the middle of price. These flyers have a response rate comparable to the letter while providing quick access more like the postcard. You can customize them to fit with your marketing campaign.

Autopen Letters and Postcards

If your real estate direct mail marketing strategy is more personalized, autopen letters and postcards are the perfect option. They use handwriting that is strikingly similar to an actual handwritten message. By using a robotic arm to write the message, these products enhance authenticity, which can improve response rate for your audience.

If you like the sound of all these products and aren’t sure which one is best suited to your audience, you can send out a test run. Track the results to see which is most effective. You also have the option to mix things up if you’re creating a multi-touch campaign.

Give us a call at 978-269-0245 and we can help you determine the best direct mail product for your business. 

Why You Should Use Tracking Numbers with Your Marketing

Would you continue to sink money into repairs on a vehicle that constantly has something new go wrong? Probably not. So, why would you continue to invest money into leads that aren’t getting results?

When you track your responses with phone numbers, you can find out which of those leads are performing best.

What is a Tracking Number?

A tracking number is a unique phone number that has been assigned to a specific type of lead list. You can then track the results and determine how successful your lists are.

For example, you could have everyone from your probate list to call one phone number and all the leads on your absentee list call another number. If more responses call in on the probate number, it tells you that you should invest more of your resources to probate lists. It also lets you know that you might want to change something in how your marketing to the leads on the absentee list.

Benefits of a Tracking Number

One of the biggest benefits to assigning a tracking number to your different lists is that it gives you quick and easy feedback. You don’t have to sift through reports or analyze performance metrics in other ways.

You can figure out a response rate easily with a tracking number. All you need to know is how many mailers you sent out with that one phone number and how many calls you got. Of course, you may want more detailed information, such as date and time of the call to know how long after sending out the mailers you received a response. You will also want to record how many of those calls turned into a conversion.

Tracking your lists with a phone number can help you capitalize on what’s working and make changes to what isn’t to improve your ROI. Don’t waste time and money with lists that don’t convert. Contact Open Letter Marketing at 978-269-0245 to find out about our list scrubbing services to ensure your lists are up to date. 

Check Out the Autopen Postcards from OLM

If you’ve appreciated the OLM Autopen letters, you’re sure to be impressed with the Autopen postcards. These postcards are simple to use and are presorted and mailed through USPS directly, so you don’t have the extra step. Since they don’t have a barcode, they will look authentic, just like our other products.

Personalize Your Postcards

With these Autopen Postcards, you get to choose the background image and even select the handwritten font to make it more personalized for your business and prospects. You can edit the message to have it appeal to your potential leads. Choose print or cursive for the handwriting and add your logo to make it cohesive with the rest of your marketing methods.

Our goal is to make it easy to create these postcards, which is why we have a Realtor Template. All you need to do is upload your list as a .CSV file and add it to your order.

Why Use Autopen Postcards?

These postcards are personal and eye-catching. They are also inexpensive, which is important if you have a tight marketing budget. Use them as part of your multiple mailers as a first, second, or even third contact to your prospects.

Right now, you can save even more money when you use the coupon code Auto 10 during checkout to save 10 percent off your order.

If you have questions or want to know more about these Autopen Postcards or how OLM can help your investment business, give us a call at 978-269-0245.

Do a Mid-year Cleanup of Your Lists

When was the last time you checked your lists to make sure they are accurate? Perhaps you’ve gotten some returned mail or maybe your response rate is down. If you’re not getting the follow-up you had hoped for, it might be time for a mid-year cleanup.

List scrubbing can help you save money because you aren’t sending out mailers to bad addresses. When you run your list through OLM’s scrubbing service, you get updated information to fix any out of date information. You’ll also find out if any of your leads are deceased, which means you can either drop them off the list or find out who the heir is and change the mailing name and address.

Our list scrubbing services include identifying vacancies, apartment appends, and lite skip tracing. Once you have the new information, you can update your lists for future mailings.

Why Schedule a Mid-Year List Cleanup?

It’s easy to forget the last time you cleaned up your list if you don’t have a set schedule. You may notice your response rate is going down but not take the time to figure out why. If you put a cleanup on your calendar and follow through, you can prevent those decreased response rates.

You can set the cleanup any time you want, but you should make it an ongoing task to ensure you’re not missing out on valuable leads.

To find out how OLM can help you keep your list up to date, give us a call at 978-269-0245.

Why Any Response is a Good Response

No one likes to get an angry response to mailings they send out. Many would look at this as a failure, but it’s actually better than no response at all. Even a response showing you have inaccurate data is a good response. Maybe it’s time to look at those situations in a new way.

As long as you’re talking to someone, you’re ahead of the competition. For example, maybe you had the wrong address for someone. All you need to do is apologize and continue talking to them about their interest in selling their property.

One of the most important aspects of marketing is engaging your audience. As long as you have them on the phone, you’re making contact. And you never know where that contact might lead, even if it started out negative.

Outshine Your Competition

Many marketers won’t waste their time with a bad response, writing them off as a loss. If you view it as an opportunity, you gain an edge over your competitors. You can often quickly read the situation and know how to respond.

You may be able to laugh it off with the other person or a sincere apology may be all it takes to get them talking. Don’t give up as soon as you hear that someone is angry with you for a mistake you made. Persistence can pay off – just take note of the mistake, so it doesn’t happen again.

Perhaps you call at a bad time. Once again, apologize and find out when is a better time to contact them. As long as you stay calm, you can diffuse the situation and potentially gain a valuable lead.

You can avoid many situations where you have a wrong address or wrong name by scrubbing your lists. Let OLM help you with this challenge. Our mailers can easily integrate your lists, so there is less room for error. If you want to learn more about our services, contact us at 978-269-0245.

Mailing to Probate Leads

As a real estate investor, you don’t want to overlook houses in probate. They have great potential because many heirs don’t want to be stuck with a home or property they don’t need. However, many real estate investors shy away from probate properties because they are a challenging target. The potential sellers are grieving a great loss and may feel sensitive to strangers showing an interest in their family property.

If you’re interested in probate properties but not sure how to reach out, consider how direct mail marketing just might be the perfect answer.

A Non-Intrusive Interaction

Your prospects are feeling overwhelmed with all that needs to be done with the loss of a family member. They’re probably stressed out at the responsibilities of settling an estate. A phone call is cold and impersonal and a bother at this sensitive time. Direct mail is less intrusive because they can look at it when they’re ready. A professional or handwritten letter is a respectful way to show your interest without pressing them too much.

Create the Perfect Message

When you craft your real estate direct mail marketing materials, you can choose how to say what you want to say. Be subtle about your message as you start off with a version of “I’m sorry for your loss.” Consider how you can help make their life easier and explain it to them in terms they understand.

You can craft a message that shows how they benefit from selling their home or property to you. The heirs won’t have the responsibility of cleaning up the house or updating it before putting it on the market. Since you pay cash, they will have money in their hands right away.

A Faster Turnaround

When houses are in probate, it can be difficult to sell them. Many lenders won’t finance a buyer until probate is closed. The sellers may be looking to sell quickly to pay off debts from the deceased. As a cash house buyer, you can be the answer to their problem.

While it can be difficult to market to sellers with homes in probate, this is a profitable niche that you want to take advantage of. Let us help you create the perfect mailer to reach this unique audience and help you close the deal. Contact us at 978-269-0245 to learn more about how we can help. 

Affiliate Program: Are You a Coach or a Mentor?

If you have an affiliate program but it isn’t living up to its full potential, you might want to consider becoming a coach or mentor. In this role, you can teach and encourage others to maximize their results and earnings to benefit both of you.

What Does a Mentor Do?

An affiliate coach or mentor provides an affiliate program for people to join, but they don’t stop there. Along with the program’s manual, they offer 1-on-1 coaching to teach someone how to build their internet business from nothing.

Some of the things an affiliate coach does:

·         Offers ideas and teaches you how to come up with your own to increase income.

·         Motivates you to keep working.

·         Provides feedback on performance.

·         Helps you correct mistakes.

·         Encourages you to keep going.

·         Keeps you on track.

Anyone interested in becoming a successful affiliate can benefit from having a coach on their team. As you promote the advantages, you will gain interest.

How Being an Affiliate Coach or Mentor Benefits You

So, it’s easy to see the advantages for the new affiliate to having their own coach. The question you may have is how it will benefit you. Since it sounds like more work, you want to know that the payoff is worth it.

·         You get more participants in your affiliate program. If potential affiliates compare your program with coaching to someone else who just offers a plain program, they are more likely to choose you because they see the potential for success.

·         Your participants are more successful. The majority of affiliates earn very little money and fade away in time. With coaching, their chances of success go up and the amount earned increases.

·         Your earnings also increase. Most coaches take a percentage of the profits in return for their assistance. As your affiliates earn more, so do you.

You can take your affiliate program to the next level if you have the time and willingness to invest in the affiliates as a coach or mentor. 

The Invention of Direct Marketing

William Wrigley Jr. is credited to the invention of direct marketing with his first mass mailing of Wrigley’s chewing gum. The story is intriguing in its own right, and it can provide valuable information that is still relevant today.

Seizing an Idea

Wrigley didn’t start out thinking about gum, as his first idea was soap. William Wrigley Jr.’s father had a company that made scouring soaps where he worked. He started off as a production worker later moving on to a salesman. The profit margins were low and Wrigley included free items to entice merchants to buy, such as baking powder. His sales went well, but he moved on from soap to baking powder.

Now that Wrigley was selling baking powder, he decided to add a freebie to it as well. This time it was two packs of chewing gum for every purchase of baking powder. Soon he completely moved away from baking powder and focused entirely on chewing gum. He developed his own brand and developed the idea of selling the gum beside the checkout counter as he recognized it was an impulse buy.

Change in Strategy

With an economical crisis at the turn of the century. Chewing gum was viewed as a non-necessity, luxury item. Wrigley didn’t give up though. Instead, he bought more advertising and touted his gum as an after-dinner product to help clean teeth and soothe the throat. He also used the strategy that if someone could afford to have a telephone, they could buy a pack of gum.

Once Wrigley hit upon this idea, he mailed a pack of his gum to every home listed in the phone directory at that time – the first direct mailing campaign. He continued to follow this plan and ended up mailing the gum to around seven million homes.

His motto was simple: Keep looking for ideas and “tell ‘em quick and tell ‘em often.” His answer to a magazine who asked about his secret is still as relevant today for marketers. 

The Future of Mass Text Messaging

Have you ever gotten one of those texts telling you about some product or service? Maybe you signed up for a rewards program and now you get texts about special offers and deals. As an investor, you may have thought, “Hey, why don’t I try marketing with text messages?” This is a great option, but you should always make sure the laws and regulations in your market allow it.

Limits Imposed on Text Messages

Text messaging is going to be a regulated industry for businesses and other organizations. With new stipulations in place, companies won’t be able to send text messages without registering their phone numbers. They must be approved before they can use this option for marketing. Even if you’re approved, you must stay up to date on any changes to the rules of text messaging for marketing. If you fail to maintain compliance, the cost of fines will also go up. Remember this is not a cost per message but per recipient. So, if you send out a text message that isn’t compliant to 100 people, you pay the fine times 100. That can add up to a lot of money.

Not as Powerful as You Think

Text messaging has held some appeal as marketers look at it as the “next new thing.” However, it’s more powerful when used in conjunction with other marketing methods. You’re limited on your message and even the look of the message. Compare a plain text message to a direct mailing campaign and you’ll quickly see how much more you can do with direct mail. However, it can be a partner with direct mailings to add that extra touch.

Direct mail may seem old-school, but it’s stuck around for this long for one simple reason – It works! With the modern tools available, you have more options to customize it for your needs and audience.

If your direct mail campaign is looking a little tired, instead of looking for other options, let Open Letter Marketing help you revitalize your campaign with new ideas. Contact us today at 978-269-0245.

The State of the Economy and Your Marketing

The United States is in a unique position, one that hasn’t been seen for decades. Lumber has nearly tripled in price while inventory for buyers is almost nonexistent. As with any situation, change is coming. Real estate investors must be ready and begin building their brand in anticipation of change.

Where Things Stand Now

Inventory for new homes is at the lowest it has ever been recorded in history. Contractors are swamped with new builds, which means anyone looking to build now may need to wait for months before they can even find an available contractor.

Lumber is nearly triple in price while other materials for building can’t even be found. The cost of building a house has gone up significantly. The contractor isn’t making more money; they are just trying to recoup from the increase in expenses.

The Future of the Real Estate Economy

Right now, evictions and foreclosures have been suspended across the nation. However, that will change at some point. Places are opening back up, and the world is starting to look like it once did, pre covid, and once evictions and foreclosures are allowed, there are an estimated 11 million people in that situation.

For now, landlords are stuck with tenants who aren’t paying. They still have a mortgage to pay even with no income.

Even with the unpredictability of the real estate market right now, real estate investors can place themselves in a position to benefit from the changes. They must begin building their brand ahead of time, getting their name out there when people need to call on a cash house buyer.

Statistics have shown in the past that it takes up to five times of seeing an ad campaign or name of a company for it to register. Our Multi-touch campaigns address this issue by creating multiple points of contact. To begin or revamp your direct mail marketing, check out the products from Open Letter Marketing. Give us a call and let us help you develop your brand in this unprecedented time.