POSTAL COSTS / YELLOW LETTERS

[RealDealBuyer]

Hello all

I am looking to start a yellow letter campaign however i do not have a ton of disposable cash for postage i know i can go to the post office and buy a roll of stamps for 8 bucks yet if i want to mail a few hundred letters at 20 per every $8 it adds up fast

say 400 letters at 20 stamps a pack for 8 dollars
160 dollars roughly

is there a cheaper way to do bulk mailing these yellow letters that some of you may be using ??

Also i am in need of some examples of yellow letters to send to hopeful motivated sellers


im trying to turn the wheels to get the deals
thanks in advance .

[javipa]

My partner does yellow letters (sort of). 

It's effectiveness depends on who your prospect is, and how well sifted the mailing list is and how often the prospect is exposed to your ad copy.  Otherwise, "yellow letters" are an expensive alternative to postcard mailing (and not necessarily more effective).

BTW, get the "campaign" idea out of your head, or your screwed.  Campaigns are short-lived efforts to win a battle in the traditional sense of the word.  If that's all you plan to do, then you're gonna be really frustrated with this approach (or any approach).

Think "chronic infection."  That better describes what your exposure rate should resemble.  Every month, your prospect gets something slightly different from you.  If you send a "yellow letter" twice in a row, do you think the prospect will become "blind" to what you're trying to get him to open?  The answer is, "You might as well send a color brochure to Helen Keller."

To answer your question about costs, send postcards at first.  When you've got money to blow, send letters.  You get a bigger bang for your buck with postcards; all the information is right on the face of the card, and you can change the ad copy enough each time, so it doesn't look like yesterday's mail. 

If the headlines resonate with the targeted prospect, they'll read the card.  If not, multiple yellow letters are not going to overcome that problem.  Just saying.

Which brings me back to not doing "campaigns." If you're just doing a one-off project with no followup then you should expect a tiny response rate.  If you don't also send to a critical mass prospects, that tiny response rate might not show as any response rate whatsoever.  Then what?  

You need to think multiple exposures, not a one-off campaign. 

I like ugly, yellow postcards better for that reason. 

[wade1mil]

What is a normal response rate on postcards for you Jay?

[pilot76180]

The only marketing I do for sellers, adn has been for 8 years, is direct mail. I tell my admin lady the cities or zip codes I want to hit, and she generates the list of houses on the MLSin those areas, and I can even narrow it down by price if needed.
I then use a tri-fold brochure, but recently started using postcards as well to mix it up.
When I order my postcards and brochures I have my bulk mailing permit printed on them.
So forget stamps, get a bulk mail permit.
Go to the post office and find out which branch does bulk mail, because not all do. Go there and go to the bulk mail area and tell them you want a permit.  IT will cost $350 or so.
Now you are in business.  however, you want to find out if they have a class for bulk mail as there are steps to take when preparing your mailout.
AS far as the effectiveness, Javipa is right on in that it really depends on the quality of  your list. I target houses for sale on the MLS, so I'm not sending a mass swath of mailouts to people that aren't even selling.
I would also recommend starting off in what I call your bread and butter area, or the area that you will be farming the most due to it's location to you. 
I did a mailout in early June and we are still getting houses from it.
I sent 1k brochures and then followed up with 480 postcards that hit the same addresses.
I was tracking the calls but I think my numbers from that mailout so far are something close to 20 calls or e-mails from sellers, adn we got about 12 or 13 houses so far from it. When you figures we'll get an average of $3500 or so for each h ouse, the money spent on postage is well spent!!
I'm about to do another mailout this week, because TIMING is also KEY!!
You are normally most effective after school starts, because now sellers realize the market will slow and their house didn't sell as they had hoped.

[BradenMan]

Don't go cheap on the Yellow Letter! It has to be done a certain way to get a good response rate. (10%-15%) Americans sort their mail over a trash can. So, if it doesn't look like it came from a relative guess where its going. Post cards get a much smaller response (.5%-3%) but you can mail out about 2-3 of them for the same price as every 1 yellow letter. I say, Yellow Letter done correctly All The Way!

[kingcutlass]

Where do you get your yellow letters and what list source do you use?

[javipa]

What is a normal response rate on postcards for you Jay?

I send postcards (to non-listed properties) that are slightly changed up each mailing to reflect the month...and remind the prospect how long I've been reminding them of what I can offer.  My normal response rate is low at the beginning, but as I continue mailing, my responses go up.   Why?  Partly because I'm catching people 'as' they become interested in selling to me, not necessarily before.  However, because my postcard automatically sifts in a particular prospect, once they are interested in calling, they're usually VERY interested in calling me. 

Frankly, after reading pilot76180's post, I'm tempted to remail to listed properties in my farm...  I've got another idea that I need to test on that niche.

To answer your question, my response rate after three months is at least 5%, but that 5% is EXTREMELY motivated.  I narrow my usp until only the most 'perfect' prospects want to call me.  What is a usp?  It's my 'unique selling proposition.'

I have focused on a very precise, upscale, Sub2 niche.  My actual numbers of responses are usually low, but the ones that call on my highly tailored usp are ready to do business.  As anyone who knows me here knows I hate dealing with 'wanters'.  So, I do my best to eliminate as many "wanters" from calling me, so that I don't frustrate myself unnecessarily.

In fact, I don't list a website on my postcards.  Why?  Because actual, motivated sellers want to talk to ME, not go to websites.  The folks that go to websites need warming up.  Forget that.  By the time they get done browsing my web page, they'll be Googling "I Buy Houses" and have 3M people ready to talk to them.  Forget that.

Think about this... Is it really wise to send prospects to a place where they can immediately starting browsing for (other) alternatives...?  I say, "Frame your solution as something a prospect can only find by calling you, not going online where there's a sea of solutions and alternatives.""

I do maintain a business website, and I do direct traffic to it, but that's for a different purpose than finding sellers. 

I probably lose a percentage of business, because of my personal dysfunction over only wanting to deal with people that are emotionally exhausted and 'over' re-listing their house and now believe I'm their last resort.  In fact, I'll tell some prospects that call me, to call me back when they're out of options.  Why?  Because I don't get paid to educate people about what I offer.  I only get paid to buy houses.  So, if they're not ready to sell today (both hubby and wifey)  ...I'm not ready to make an offer today either. 

That's a lot of philosophy, but it was a long time before I learned not only how to find motivated sellers and how to sift out the losers, but learn to bypass the losers in the first place.  I'm talking ideally here.  I still get my share of curious losers that make it past my sifting mechanisms.

Hope this helps...