Picking Between 2 Sales Funnel Options

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We are a real estate investing company. We are about to launch a direct mail postcard campaign to find people that would be interested in investing with us for real estate projects.

The recipients of the mailings (approx 1500 households) are targeted leads, based upon their interests, household makeup, levels of wealth, etc.

After much thought and research on constructing the proper sales funnel, we've narrowed it down to two options:

Option A) Send postcards promoting the investment opportunity that sends them to a squeeze page. At the squeeze page, they'd have three options:

- To call us, as our phone number would be on the squeeze page
- To download our free ebook that teaches them about "private investing" (including how it works, how to secure their investments, how to make sound decisions as one, etc.)
- And A "Contact Us" form, in the event that they're interested, but they're not ready to talk verbally just-yet


Option B) Send postcards promoting the opportunity, with a SINGLE call-to-action for them to call us for more information. Once we get them on the phone, our goal is to establish a one-on-one 30 minute meeting to fully talk about our program, our experience, and how we can help them with our opportunity.

We would also offer to send them a copy of our ebook manually via email at the conclusion of that call.


Our Thought Process:

Being that the eBook would provide a ton of value for our targeted market, we definitely want to leverage it to create credibility and trust.

I'm iffy about Option A, because I was under the impression that when you have squeeze pages, you only want to give them ONE call to action, and not THREE.

On the other hand, having multiple options could potentially get more prospects in our funnel, being that some of them that aren't interested in interacting with us just yet might at least download the eBook, which would allow us to build a relationship via the email list.

My other concern with Option A, is that sending people from the postcard to a website, with an ultimate goal of meeting with them to discuss the opportunity creates too many hoops for them to jump through to get to the where we want them in the process.

I also read that it's extremely difficult to take someone from the mailbox, to the Internet, with the ultimate goal of getting in-front of them to meet them personally, which, if true, seems to be yet another reason to avoid Option A.

My question:

WHICH IS BETTER FOR WHAT WE'RE TRYING TO DO; OPTION A OR B?
#offline marketing #funnel #options #picking #sales
  • Option B.

    I know several folks that have tested the URL/Squeeze page option vs a phone-in option and most of the time phone-in produces a better return. Now is that going to be applicable to ALL situations? Of course not, and you should probably test both, but if I had to wager a guess I would say Option B is going to be the winner.

    As much as we're "All Internet" here, there is still a large segment of society that will not use the net for much more than email. I do a lot of offline stuff and part of our order taking process is getting their email address. I can tell you that about 40% of folks that call in for our products or respond to offline advertisements do not even have email addresses.

    Also the nature of your business is that you're (of course) looking for folks that have a stable lifestyle and disposable income in which to invest... And that's going to be a lot of folks who are 50+, and of course that's the area where folks are less inclined to use the Internet on a regular basis.

    Finally if it were me I would test a postcard vs a sales letter. A sales letter, without a headline, with a first class stamp and a hand addressed envelope that truly looks like a personal letter. I wouldn't be surprised to see the sales letter out-pull the postcard.

    I would consider the postcard as a follow-up piece.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • The other thing I forgot to mention is that yeah, I think you've got too many options built within Option A.

      You're trying to get in front of people in the effort to get them to give you a lot of money and I think you're rushing the "marriage".

      I think there's going to have to be a whole lot more "romance" involved before they cut you a sizable check.

      For the ones that raise their hands to the initial offer, I would bombard them with mailed pieces, interspersed with phone calls that aren't sales heavy.

      You're looking to ease them from one non-threatening step to another. For what you propose in Option A (and probably to some extent in Option B) I think the steps are too abrupt... too "threatening" for them to have the amount of confidence in you and what you're offering in order to get they to invest.
      • [1] reply
    • I like the idea of a hand-addressed envelope. We've used that for our mailings to home owners, however for something as sophisticated as investing, I was thinking that while a hand-addressed envelope might indeed encourage a higher open rate, it could also make us look a bit un-professional in the eye of the prospect.
  • I agree with you wholeheartedly. In fact, I've never used postcards, only sales letters in the past, but I was open to trying something new.

    I hired a "sales funnel advisor" (for the lack of a better word) to advise us on the best method to use in this situation, and he believed we'd get better responses from post cards.

    He's recently went "missing in action" on me, so that's why I decided to post my current question on here. Luckily, we've been paying him by-the-hour up to this point. :-)

    One of the keys to postcard marketing, from what I've read and heard, is that you don't have to rely on them opening the letter. But on the other hand, there are things you can do certain things to make the letter look more personal.

    I think both approaches have their positives and negatives. Ultimately, I think the key is testing, like you alluded-to.
    • [1] reply
    • You don't need a sales funnel advisor. Just the will and resources to run about 4 different tests initially to see what works and what doesn't.

      I love post cards... I really do, but I think they've gained way too much traction amongst marketers over sales letters, just because they're cheap(er) to produce and do... and not necessarily because they out-pull sales letters on the front-end.
      • [1] reply
  • Another question:

    Let's say I went ahead and had the direct mail CTA be a phone call to us. I guess I could always use the eBook for an opt in from our website, where we have investor-related SEO optimized content...

    Right? I would just hate to get nothing out of the eBook, being that we put so much work into putting it together.
    • [1] reply
    • Hey I understand the ebook thing and the resources you've put into it. I've been there, done that.

      But again with the demographic that you're targeting I wonder how much perceived value an ebook will have over a real ink-on-paper product, i.e. white paper.

      I think the white paper would get you more oohs & ahs from those requesting it.

      That being said can't you take the best parts of your ebook and convert it into a ink-on-paper special report?

      The likelihood is that you're not going to have a huge response to this, it's the nature of the beast, but each person who does respond is going to be a warm-lead, so instead of focusing on how little you want/desire to spend in order to inform them about your opportunity, figure out how much you can comfortable spend in this process in order to woo them.

      My guess is that you're talking about investments that are 4 figures or more... So how much is it worth to get just one person to invest say $10G?

      I would think that it would be worth several hundred dollars at least.
  • From what you have said, I believe you can get a more targeted list.
    One that has only buyers of investment property. Past buying habits
    are a good indicator they will buy same and similar again.

    Can you be more specific about your proposed list?

    Best,
    Ewen
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • The criteria for the list we're getting from infoUSA is as follows:

      -People that live within driving range of where we live.
      -Age: 35 to 59 who have income of at least 3 times the average income in the area.
      - Married
      - People that have home value of double the average home value in the area
      - They are homeowners, and have been for at least a year
      - They have a mortgage
      - Personal Finance between $60,000 to $1 million
      - Have an interest in investments and finance

      I'm open to finding a better target market, I didn't come up with that, I got it from someone online that claimed to have experience with a similar campaign.

      When I think about it, and re-read what I typed, that's a pretty crappy list, at best.
      • [2] replies
  • Just thought I would chime in.

    I have had huge experience with trying to get high net worth individuals to raise their hand via direct mail and fax broadcast to business owners. It was for selling very large insurance plans.

    1,500 is a small list. The guys I worked with were in the game for 30 years! Even with very large lists you cannot imagine the time it took to discover superstar funnels that worked. I will share 2 quick things that gave them crazy conversions.

    One was sending people to a pre-recorded messages and they could tell instantly after someone had called that message and what the number was and they would call that person to see if they had questions. The message had the option of being transferred to a human at any time. The message of course was created by an A list writer and recorded by a professional voice over that sounded so sincere you would of given this guy the keys to your house.

    The other was a fax piece to business owners. The piece was crafted to look like a newspaper article and to look like it had been badly photo copied and in the bottom left it had a human signature of "Thought you should see this, Steve" This piece offered the recorded message option and a web site where one could get a valuable report and also threw them into an autoresponder series..

    The real key to success in this was the mail piece, voice script and fax that went out. It has to be gold! It really has to be gold when you only have a list of 1,500! I would not dream of getting any response unless it was created by an A list writer with HUGE experience in getting replies from these type of folks. Look up Ewen Mack on this forum see if he might be interested or can point you to someone that is if your piece has not been created by someone that has a huge proven track record in getting responses from mail pieces.

    Finally, assuming you can sell, I mean really really sell you gotta be able to get on the phone with them as soon as they raise their hand. Not in 15 hours, not the next day. I sat across the hall from 2 guys that were in their 60's that were the top grossing life insurance sales guy in Canada. When someone raised their hand either on their site or by calling in that line they were on the phone with them in minutes and holy hell did they sell insurance. They also always found a way no matter what to get permission for further discussion.

    They would do things like this:

    "Listen Mark I know its too soon to make a decision but I can see there is some interest. I don't usually do this because they cost me money but what if I send you a hard copy of the XYZ report to look at. All I ask is you keep it to yourself and later if you have questions we can talk"

    Of course there was always a follow up call no matter if the prospect called back or not.

    Also for my 2 cents if you are only targeting 1,500 people the mail piece had better look personal such as hand written address etc...

    Good luck.
    • [ 4 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Thanks for chiming-in. I really like the pre-recorded call idea.

      When you said "look personal," I assumed that you're more in-favor of a hand-written, stamped envelope that has a no-heading sales letter in it.

      Do you prefer sales letters over postcards, as well?
  • Instead of burying something like that in one of the chapters - this may be something you'd want to make prominent up front and in fact consider for a starring role in your piece.

    Hmmm, it may yield better to promote the benefits of the investment op.
  • I think you should....
    Use your dang funnel. Although, it didn't sound like a very drawn out funnel.
    Take your ebook, and rip all the gold out.
    Make your ebook, a 5 page or so, short report.
    Make your report address the concerns going on inside the minds of your prospects.

    I would test the phone number vs. report option.
    I wouldn't do the... phone number with report with contact form option.
    On your report piece, I would include your number along with your business address.
    If you have any questions, you can give us a call at 555-1212

    From the report, I would sell them something.
    This has to be a small sale. Think of something valuable that you can provide and sell for under $20.

    From the small sale, I would sell my core real estate investing service.

    Then grow the funnel more from there.

    You should be able to get other companies to help support the marketing.
    I know of a title company around here that will pay a minimum of $500 towards the cost to have their logo displayed in a one inch by one inch corner.
    What other companies benefit from your services?
    Who do your clients go to before, during, and after using your service?
    • [1] reply
    • I think part of what has been completely missed is it's not so much about your funnel, it's about HOW you're going to mail. It sounds to me like you're only going to mail once, if you're only going to mail once, just write me a check for $1,500 and you'll make about the same amount of money. Except I'll use the money better than the US postal service.

      I agree with Ewen, you need a better list. I did exactly what you're talking about through 2000-2005. You can go one step further, and find people who have already done exactly what you want them to do. All mortgages are public information, they must be recorded. Spend that same grand or two, hire some $2-4 an hour outsourcers to research all recorded mortgages and assignments and look for people or company names that aren't your normal banks. Now many of these are going to be complete crap, not really real estate investors but family planning activities. But you can use the cheap labor to find the raw ore, now it's up to you to get the gold out of it. If they've made loans and mortgages before, then chances are "they get it", and they'll do it again. It's much harder to educate someone who happens to have wealth but has never done it before.

      There are only going to be a handful of those people in your city. But they are the definition of HOT prospects. They want to talk to you, they want what you provide. You only need 1-2 guys with access to capital, many of them have access to millions. And now you don't mail them once, you never stop mailing them, you do lumpy mail, you do fedex, you call them(if you can do it legally). Forget the funnel, it's irrelevant. They want to pick up the phone and talk to you. At least that was my experience, it was also ten years ago....so...

      Regardless if you don't heed my advice, still find a way to get a better list, and if they are worth mailing once, they are worth mailing at least 3 times, they are worth being creative with. It's about putting in a sequence, a true marketing campaign. You won't know what funnel will work until you try it out and test it, but without a true marketing campaign the funnel is kind of irrelevant.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • Why not send a yellow letter to people who have funded 1 or more all cash purchases in the last 12 - 24 months?

    This could easily be found in public records, btw.
    • [2] replies
    • Those purchases could be their own home,
      or hoilday home.

      The list won't indicate they are investors which are
      the target audience.

      Best,
      Ewen
    • I thought about yellow letters, but yellow letters come across as being a little unprofessional for an initiative to solicit investors. But maybe not.
      • [2] replies
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    Picking Between 2 Sales Funnel Options

    We are a real estate investing company. We are about to launch a direct mail postcard campaign to find people that would be interested in investing with us for real estate projects. The recipients of the mailings (approx 1500 households) are targeted leads, based upon their interests, household makeup, levels of wealth, etc.