Direct Mail Done Right: A Step-by-Step Guide for Real Estate Investors

17% of direct mail pieces are discarded right away. Some promotional mail is thrown away before the recipient even opens it. This presents two key challenges for your marketing team:

• Getting the recipient to open your letter

• Delivering a compelling message that gets read

Direct mail marketing is a powerful tool for real estate investors looking to attract motivated seller leads. Even in today’s digital world, it remains an effective strategy. Direct mail helps you stand out while building brand awareness in a new niche. However, it’s not the most cost-effective marketing option—successful real estate investors send anywhere from 100 to several thousand mail pieces each month.

In this article, we’ll explore direct mail marketing and share the best tips to help you succeed.

How to Choose Your Audience?

Should I send a postcard or a letter in an envelope? Let’s talk about the audience before considering design choices or budget.

Who is going to read the postcard or your letter? Who is the recipient?

The answer: a motivated seller searching for a solution to a specific problem.

You need to communicate with a seller who is aware of the problem. You can base your mailing list on the specific problems you solve. For example, you can have one mailing list for foreclosure properties, one mailing list for inherited homes, and one mailing list for vacant land. This strategy is called grouping your audience by intention. Each of these lists has a different audience.

You can curate your list by searching through public records. You’ll need to pull public records from your county and then create a sub-list of homeowners owning distressed properties. In other words, you need to target problematic properties in your local area.

Hint:

• Choose problem-specific list

• Narrow down to your budget and property niche

Examples: Make a list of all the homeowners wanting to sell because of foreclosure. Then narrow down based on your budget and property type. If you buy only 1-2 bedroom houses, sort out your list according to the property type.

Direct Mail Marketing

How to Start Your Direct Mail Marketing Efforts?

Direct mail marketing involves letters, postcards, mailers, and flyers. You can choose among any of these formats. A postcard is the cheapest option, but it has a few drawbacks. You cannot write a complete letter on a postcard. It can also sound promotional and has higher chances of being discarded. A letter in an envelope costs more, but it comes with a personalized touch.

Envelope Design

There are countless design options. You can test different fonts, colors, and designs. The key rule is to keep a simple design that conveys professionalism. The envelope itself should spark curiosity with its colors and designs. Always conduct A/B testing to see which design generates the highest response rate.

What to Write in a Direct Mail Piece?

Newbie investors feel stuck at this stage. The content of the letter is more important than the fonts. Strong copy focuses on solving one pain with one clear solution. You can structure your content in three simple steps:

• What’s the issue? Answer: We buy houses with code violations.

• Introduce your solution: We help save money and close fast.

• One call-to-action, i.e., call this number.

You can include a supporting CTA, like a QR code, that allows the recipient to check your website.

Choose Your Communication Frequency

Direct mail marketing serves two purposes. You build brand awareness while connecting with hot leads who are ready to sell.

Your mailing frequency will depend on your budget. Like any marketing effort, you’ll see results only after consistently sending the mail cards. Consumers rarely respond to the first marketing effort. You need to warm up your prospects before they will trust to work with you. The rule is to send one letter every 1-3 months. Work hard on your campaign to make a first good impression.

Some months in the real estate world are busier. Like couples planning to sell a house before the school term begins. Most people sell in the spring season, but the sale was planned long ago. That’s why it’s important to constantly put the marketing message out there and wait for the clients to pick it up.

How to Track Your Campaign Performance?

Once all the letters are delivered, it’s time to track the performance. You will receive a few responses, and out of those, some people will choose to work with you—that’s the nature of the business. A response rate above 1% is ideal.

Important Points to Remember

Direct mail marketing is different from email campaigns. For email, you just hit send, and the email is instantly delivered to the recipient. Delays are expected as you use postal service. You won’t see immediate results. You have to prepare ahead of time.

Once the mail is delivered, verify if all the letters were delivered to the mentioned addresses. Eliminate all wrong/not-found addresses for future campaigns.

Factors that you cannot control

You can tweak the postcard design or copy. You can choose the best mail service provider. However, you cannot control the economy or the political situation in the country. You might run the best campaign and still not see results. That’s part of the business. A financial crisis or change in policies could lead to consumers turning down your offer. These circumstances can either support your business or work against you.

How Much Does It Cost?

The cost of a direct mail campaign varies due to multiple factors. It’s difficult to provide an exact number, but setting a budget is crucial. It’s important to set a budget because when you run direct mail campaigns along with SEO and PPC, the costs can quickly add up.

Choose a Better Marketing Strategy

Sending direct mail is expensive and time-consuming. There is no guarantee that your campaign will bring the desired results. Another proven way is to connect directly with homeowners who are searching for investors like you.

At MotivatedSellers, we connect you with motivated property owners. You pay for a lead and start working with the seller. With this straightforward approach, you have higher chances of success and closing more deals.