Direct Mailing With Postcards... please respond only if you have experience....

(wait's for the comments that are exactly what he didn't ask for, that is all)

I am also curious about others results as I will most likely be using this method within the next week to 10 days.

My experience with direct mail was VERY targeted so this may or may not apply. If not, I apologize in advance.

It was distressed real estate. Tax delinquencies, foreclosures, divorce, MLS listings that hadn't sold, etc.

I mailed to this target group for over 10 years and the results were pretty consistent for most of this time.

My mailings were in no way personalized. generic postcards and form letters all the way, all saying basically the same things. "We buy houses....we can help you in this difficult situation.....call BR549 today!"

For postcards I used really loud colors (hot pink or bright yellow) with all black fonts. Standard postcard sizes...no extra large ones ever.

For the letters I used standard legal size envelopes, white, and hand addressed them. This was to improve the chances of them being opened. Not sure if it helped or not because I ALWAYS did it.

I would say that the usual stats you hear of 1 - 3% was actually the average response I got with them. Practically all of the ones that responded would have sold me their house but some were not deals so I passed. I guess that would make virtually all of the responders "closeable' deals.....if I had wanted them.

I did find this.....some of the lists I targeted had a much better response rate. One in particular would generate upwards of a 25% response. I would guess the same would hold true in offline....depending on the needs of that particular niche market.

I really liked mailing and did well with it but haven't used it yet in my offline business. This has got me thinking about it now and wondering why.

I did very, very well in real estate but a "you would never believe how ugly" divorce left me burnt out on it all so I started my internet business a couple of years ago.

Guess I better get to designing some offline mailing material.

check your PM i sent you some DM info

ALRIGHT ALRIGHT my bad man it was how many times you reiterated what you don't want, and how many different ways you had to say the same thing, that I just felt I had to give it to you.

I'm sorry. I'll let people answer your thread now. =]

And btw feel free to get me "hundreds" of energy audit leads in just a "couple weeks". I know a business right now that has 8 telemarketers doing call calls everyday, spent $5 grand on PPC a month, and they only get about 20-30 leads a week max.

If you are saying you can beat a business of their size & stature, we'd pay you $1000 on top of every 50 leads you get us just for going out of your way to help us out. Plus we will pay you more than generously for each lead you get. I'd write the contract up right now if you thought you had the time...

Or develop us a plan to get those leads, and we'll pay you for THAT.
Anyway, don't want to hijack your thread anymore. Made my eyes light up for a bit there.

-Red

I was saying we'd pay you top price for every lead you got, than an ADDITIONAL $1000 bonus for every 50 leads. Why? Because someone who knows their **** is just that valuable to our business right now. Like I said, we'd pay you per lead, than an addition $1000 for every 50 leads you got us, just to keep you motivated.

For our telemarketers, we have 4 (half the amount of the other business I mentioned) and we pay $2,600 which gets us roughly 89 hours of calls. Last week we only got 6 leads from this. Our PPC and everything else I'll just put together into a more concise report and send over.

You have no idea how much money we are actually wasting its pretty sad. Although last week we did get quite a few leads by doing a street show. Still its just not a consistent enough system at this point. But rather than clutter up this thread, I'll write up a report just to show you the numbers. If you decide no, not a big deal, if you want to help us out, I think you'd be a very happy man as my boss honestly is a real nice guy.

-Red

I get a 100% conversion using postcards, every time.

I target each client. I study their website, their business and what ever else I can dig up on them. Then I use VerticalResponse and send them a post card introducing myself. I used to follow up with pens with my info on them, but I don't need to do that any more.

The day after they receive the card I call them and close. (By this time I know just as much about their business as they do)

If you're working the numbers then you could take a chance and send out thousands of cards like the big boys do and hope for a response. But if you're a lone cowboy like me you gotta to target prospects that need and want the services I offer.

I still have clients using my services since 2008 and I got their initial business with post cards. I don't need more clients right now, but when I do I spend an hour or two targeting before I send the card.

Other than using my opening line in person, sniper post cards have been the best initial contact method that's worked for me.

Try it. Check out VerticalResponse, you can send one card at a time without getting off the couch. Follow up with a phone call and close.

It's been awhile, but I have direct experience with direct mail postcards. I had a very targeted list. It was directed towards healthcare providers who didn't bill Medicare electronically. Most did, but there was a very small amount that didn't at that time.

My best response was around 5%. My lowest was no response. The average response was around 3%. I only got 5% once and couple of mailings yielded no results. My total list was around 3000 providers. I staggered the mailing and mailed to the entire list twice.

I created my own postcard using MS Publisher. It was bright yellow with black print and graphics. My headline spoke to my market. I think it was "Doctor, are you losing money by not billing electronically?" and a strong call me now. It had picture of a clip art doctor looking pensive. I tested handwriting the name and address and using the "ugly" white labels. I didn't notice any measurable difference, so I used the labels for most of my mailings.


As I said, I only mailed to the list twice, but that was all I needed. After that referrals kicked in. I wasn't overly scientific as I had a small list and I was doing this flying my the hem of my skirt.

Don't think this will help you, but from 1999 to 2007, I helped design and mail over 4.3 million postcards (4"x6" size - full color front, black and white back) within a specific vertical - home loans.

Products offered were purchase, first-time purchase, refinance, reverse mortgages and second loans. Some were sent via neighborhood drops, others were targeted to specific homeowners (based upon lender data) or apartment dweller.

Response rates varied from .6% to 6.3%. Yeah - huge variation (based on seasonality, offer, current interest rates.)

Minimum mail size per drop was 1,000 postcards.

Del

Just a quick comment / question / thinking out loud & not to hijack the thread.....couple threads recently about working full time and/or not being able to cold call etc.

Doing a quick 5 minute search I priced up a quick post card here in expensive Oz (and I didn't pick the cheapest I could find either) with postage - and someone could send out (say) a committed 1,000 every week for only ~$240.

0.05% response rate = 5 responses, or $12 per lead. If those responses convert well, that could be well worthwhile for the person with other commitments / not running a full time business.

Thinking out loud here.....
Feel free to shoot holes!

I have tried this method, with slight success. You need a VERY targeted list and VERY good sales copy and a OFFER THEY CAN'T REFUSE. My best success was to promise them 100 new Facebook Like's for a meeting. Closed 6 deals at $1K a pop using that copy.

I sell burial insurance and have used direct mail as my primary source of lead generation.

I've used 2 pieces. Both were business reply mailers; you know, where you fill out the card to request more information.

One piece was a hot-pink postcard; the other was quasi-mailer type, the kind with perfing on the sides to keep it sealed.

They are both designed to look "official," -- Words like "Government," "Benefit," "Supplement," "Social Security," etc..., are plastered all over them.

Response rates are between .6% to 1.2%, depending on literacy and mailer saturation. Response has decreased tremendously over the years, because our market has become so saturated with agents selling burial insurance, so it's not typical for a prospect to receive 3 or more burial insurance mailers every week. Mail houses who sell leads have opened up the spigot and are now mailing 50-60 year olds to pad the response, even though arguably many in those categories aren't buying burial insurance yet.

My preferred list is 60-80 year olds between $0k to $50k, although it is next to impossible to make the income filter accurate; more of an educated guess.

I convert on average probably 20% to 25% of my responses into policies, which is typical of 80/20 rule anyway.

Bottom line, I'm sure you know this, if your copy's halfway decent, the biggest variable in your campaign is the quality of your list. I'll probably never see response bigger than 1.5% because I'm mass mailing to a certain extent, as I have no clue how to target those in my age range who would be more susceptible to buy burial insurance.

Also, we mail probably anywhere between 1500-2500 pieces weekly.