Creating Absentee Owner Letters That Get a Great Response
March 1, 2013 in Marketing
I have talked about direct mail several times before and the fact that you have to set up campaigns to be successful with this strategy. Sending out a whole bunch of letters once or even a couple of times and then stopping is just a waste of money. So before moving on to creating absentee owner letters that actually get a great response, I want to spend a little time going over the basics of direct mail campaigns.
What exactly is a direct mail campaign?
A direct mail campaign is an ongoing process of sending mail pieces to your target audience. It is not a one or two time event where you mail to your prospects. Folks that are successful follow some tried and true principles.
What are the 7 steps that make up a direct mail campaign?
- Decide on the type of mail piece (letter or postcard).
- Create a compelling message for your mail piece.
- Design your actual mail piece.
- Put together a list of prospects. Know who your target audience is.
- Get the mailing together yourself or hire someone to do it.
- Mail!!
- Rinse and repeat every month.
Congratulations. You have just set up a direct mail campaign.
One bit of advice; get yourself a database or contact management system right from the beginning. You won’t be able to manage this process unless you automate it.
Now back to creating your absentee owner letter.
What are the components to a good direct mail letter?
There are several key pieces to a good direct mail letter.
- Your letter should be personalized. Wouldn’t you rather get a letter that says “Dear Dan” than one that says, “Hello Homeowner” or something like that? Your letter should also have the subject property address on it.
- Headlines and sub-headlines are one of the most important aspects of the letter. You have to get the person’s attention right away. This is especially important with postcards where you have very limited space.
- Use bullet points whenever possible to highlight your message. People have notoriously short attention spans. Using sub-titles and bullet points makes it easy for the reader to scan your letter quickly. If they can easily identify with your message or your offer, they will be more likely to ready the whole letter.
- The letter isn’t about you, so don’t spend a lot of time talking about you or your company. You should say something like, “I will buy your house AS IS, can pay cash and close quickly”. Those are things about you (or your company), but they are also benefits to the seller.
- List some problems the seller might be having such as:
- You tried to sell your property before you moved but didn’t get an offer.
- You inherited an unwanted property.
- You had tenants in the property and wanted to hold onto it for income. But, it turned out to be more trouble than you thought.
6. Offer some solutions or ways that you can help them now.
- You won’t have to worry about making any of the needed repairs.
- You’ll stop sinking money into a property you don’t even want.
- We will take care of all of the paperwork for you.
People are motivated by two things; pain and pleasure. Figure out how to make their problem (their pain) go away, and in the process you can put together a great deal (pleasure) for both of you when you have a truly motivated seller.
Here are some previous posts you might also enjoy.
Putting Together the Perfect Direct Mail Pieces for Probates
Does The Time of Year Affect the Response Rates of Direct mail?
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Sharon,
In this post you talk about setting up a direct mail system in which you can automate for efficiency. I typically use just an excel spreadsheet, but I haven’t been able to find a good direct mail provider that can mail merge. Could you give me a few suggestions on vendors that may be helpful? I’ve tried Click2Mail, but doing the setup is just awful. If you have a list or can give me a few that you’ve tried that would be great.
Thanks for your wisdom,
Casey
Casey –
I used Sales Team Live for a while, but they are expensive. PostcardMania is another choice That is who I am using now. You buy your postcards in bulk, and then they personalize them and hold them until you are ready to mail. You pay for the postage when you mail. There is some upfront cost for the postcards. After that, you just send them an email when you are ready to mail. They can also update your list as needed. I use these for absentee owners.
Get a plain postcard that doesn’t look too “slick”. They will help you design one. There is a video interview I did with the owner Joy Gendusa. Look for it under the video tab then Amazing Entrepreneurs. There is a freebie on that post that will send you to an opt in. Once you do that you can get her ebook free which normally costs $20. It is a great marketing book.
You just can’t manage this process with a spreadsheet. It’s impossible. I use an ACT database. You can get it online or at Office Depot. I had to have my computer guy put my list (from Excel) into the database for me. Once your contacts are in there, you can add notes when you talk to them etc. It gives you a way to keep track of everyone.
Once you have all your contacts in there, you can also do a mail merge and merge up letters, print them yourself and mail them. I use this for my probates. I did a couple of posts on setting up and using an Act Database on Bigger Pockets. You can find the linking posts here. Just do a search.
Casey, the thing is that it is all hard to learn. But you will look back in a year or two and just go, “wow”; I know so much more than I did a couple of years ago. I am still learning just about every day and some of it is still hard.
I hope this helps.
Sharon
Thanks Sharon for the info. It was very informative.
[…] Creating Absentee Owner Letters That Get a Great Response […]
Sharon,
I’m a new discoverer to your blog and really appreciate the content. I have been doing a direct mail campaign over the last 4.5. months with great response but very little conversion thus far. My question is within your campaigns are you marketing your brand as an individual wanting to buy, a local investment company or both?
Dan –
I think you need to do both. My company name is on my letters etc. I have pulled down my website to do some rebranding. I have also bought my name in a domain. I am thinking long term what I want to do with that.
I have two things going on; one is my investing business which is one thing and is totally different from my current blog. The second is my blog.
Obviously with my “house buying company” I don’t want those folks to cross over to my blog where I teach others how to get great deals. My new company site will have a blog component in it to encourage folks to come back to it for information, but it won’t be as comprehensive as this blog. It’s simply a matter of time. One site is for motivated sellers and this blog is for investors.
Going back to my “name domain”, I see very successful marketers doing this. That will be my personal branding site, and my blog and other product sites will all be linked to this personal site.
I am moving into creating information products for folks because I get so many requests.
I hope this helps. And, just keep mailing. Most deals will come at the 5th mailing and beyond.
Sharon
Sharon your blog is incredible. I have seen you on flipthiswholesaler.net as well as on various youtube video interviews and am very impressed with the wealth of knowledge you have imparted to all of us for free on a recurring basis. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have learned tons from you and will continue to be a subscribed member of your site for as long as you have it. Again i say thank you and God Bless.
Bobby. Thanks so much for letting me know! I am getting ready to delve further into VA’s and outsourcing. Please share my articles if you like them.
Sharon
I’m new to investing and sometimes I run into though spots and get stuck I need a mentor
Hi Ashley – Start here and read, read, read. You can search by topic. You need to get a good basic foundation. I have also written about 150 articles for BiggerPockets.com. That’s another great resource.