Will I Over Do It With This Campaign Schedule?

[carlos34747]

I'm planning to do a direct mail campaign but don't want to overdo it, however I really want to make sure people get to know me. I market a resort area so I will be sending mailers to absentee owners all around the country that own property in the area. Here is what I have planned for now.

I’m planning to mail about 500 to 1000 people, but my plan is to do it gradually to reduce costs. For example, I might start mailing 250 people first multiple times per month during the first 2 months, then once a month there after. As my mailers reduce, then I start with another group of 250 home owners. Then I will add those home owners to the once a month group as well. Eventually, if things work, I will keep doing this endlessly even if once a month list grows to 4 or 5 thousand.


How many mailings are too many for one given month? I’m currently thinking to do it as follows:

Month 1:
Send 2 the first week.
Send 1 the second week
Send 2 the third week
Send 1 the fourth week

Month 2:
Send 1 the first week
Send 2 the second week
Send 1 the thrid week
Send 2 the fourth week

Then start sending just once a month there after and occasionally twice per month.

Or I could do a campaign as follows:

Send 4 the first month.
Send 4 the second month.
Send 2 the third month.

Then one a month after that and start with another batch of 250 people and do the program again.

These mailings will all be different but with the same theme so they get to know my colors and my name. The content however will be different each time so they don’t get bored.

Let me know which method you would prefer most as I don’t want to overdo it. If the first method is ok then that would be my preference.

Thanks

[DMG]

I would do your #1 choice but if it were me, IMO, I would skip doing 2 in one week; it’s too much I think. Then after 2 months go monthly.

I had good luck with the "dominate in eight" strategy; send one mailer each week for 8 weeks. The average person needs 7 touches BEFORE they even remember the message. I then went to monthly, to 6 weeks, to 8 weeks and now we do 2 per year and that’s it, our call ratio has not dropped even though our newsletter is almost non-existent to the way it started out.

Most property owners know 5 or 6 agents already. To stand apart you must answer the consumer’s unspoken question: "when I have so many agents to choose from, why should I choose you?” Keep that in mind when you design the campaign, it looks like you said you were changing it up each time, great, each message should be different yet the layout-colors-branding the same. Best of luck

[carlos34747]

Thanks for the great reply, Derrick.

I value your imput since you've put a system in practice that has worked for you.

[KSA]

Carlos,

If you're investing that much in direct mail, consider doing direct response marketing using your website as the vehicle for the response. You'll get much better results!

For more info:
http://www.buildrealestateresults.co...onse-marketing

Kathleen

[carlos34747]

Hi Kathleen,

All my direct mail marketing will be directed to getting prospects to visit my seller’s only website to find out more about my great home marketing campaign that will sell their home fast. It might sound like what every other agent does, but there's quite a lot I will offer that others don't and I want to get that message out there. Also, my marketing motto will be what makes people visit my website, so I think it will be effective (fingers crossed). My motto combined with a few other words will be my call to action.

I don’t know if that’s going to be a good enough offer, but if my “direct” web traffic for my seller’s only website doesn’t show any hits, then I’ll know I have to offer something more compelling.

I'm open to ideas because currently this is something that I have on the drawing board and I will twick it as needed to make it successful. So please keep them coming.

Also, because of costs, I have decided to go with the 2nd option. I will be mailing 1 postcard per week for 4 weeks during the first 2 months, and then 2 postcards during the 3rd month. After that, I will mail one per month to that list and I will begin with another list. I have also decided to mail only 100 people at a time. This will give me a reach of 400 people by the end of the first year. My budget for this campaign will be about $3,500 for the entire year.

I’m hoping to get at least 5 listings from this campaign during the first year and then 10 during the second. However, that’s just the worst case scenario that I will accept. My hope would be to get 15 during the first year to build my inventory faster. I also want to sell at least one listing from this during the first year, that way my investment will double because the average commission should be about $7,000. We’ll see how it goes.

[KSA]

Sounds like you've got a good plan together. And, planning to keep a close eye on the results is an EXCELLENT idea. That's the step a lot of folks let fall to the bottom of the To Do list, and it really hurts them.

If you monitor hits that you can identify as coming from the mailings, and they're not good, you can respond before you get in too much deeper.

If your offer is to review a marketing plan, you're right - you'll need to do some clever things with the calls to action to get people curious enough to check it out.

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!

Kathleen

[SLP-NYCT]

I agree with KSA,

All my junk mail ends up in the recycle bin or as paper to start my wood stove. I don't even read it!

Today, with just about everyone On Line, you would be much better served using that money toward Pay Per Click Ads directed toward people actually looking to buy or sell a home.

[carlos34747]

Hi Larry,

Thanks for the reply.

I currently do PPC ads and my website has produced most of my income this year. However, I only get buyers from the internet so I feel that I need to do something different in order to reach out to sellers. I will give direct mail a try for this purpose. It could fail miserably but I won’t know unless I try it.

I’m hoping it works because my online marketing can only do so much for me and I need to create other sources of leads.

[SLP-NYCT]

Try this then: Target neighborhoods where homes have just been listed. Also, do you have a direct mail/e-mail campaign for all your buyers? Remember they will become sellers! You need to stay in contact with them. Also, they are a great resource for Referrals!