I agree with everyone here that the yellow letter campaign has to be modified, but the benefit of the handwritten and personally addressed letter is that people actually open the envelope. This does not happen with typical direct mail, which usually gets thrown into the garbage. I think there are two problems with the yellow letter. 1) People are unable to decipher after opening the letter that it is direct mail rather than some strange stalker sending an odd letter, and 2) Due to privacy laws we are unable to target specific types of sellers. So, it ends up a mass marketing piece with a niche message.
QUOTE (tonypeters @ Jan 15 2010, 03:38 PM) For those of you that know me by now, you have probably become accustomed to me..."telling the brutal honest truth, and telling it just the way it is!"
So here goes…
If you are a "positive" thinker, and I am sure most of you are, you probably go about your life saying, that doesn`t work, but how can I MAKE it work, RIGHT? You have probably heard this famous quote by Einstein. His definition of insanity is…"To keep doing the same thing expecting different results"
Now that we have got that stuff out of the way, I will start off by asking a few simple questions;
Question: it is safe to say there are (potentially) MILLIONS more home owners in the United States that are either in foreclosure, or they are facing imminent foreclosure?
Question: would it also be safe to say there are many more that are potentially facing some extremely tuff and or difficult financial times?
Question: are Canadians (for the most part) in similar situations or facing the same kind of financial problems?
I think you are starting to get the picture right now!
So, if you are one of those poor homeowners in the United States and you received a "yellow letter" (or anything for that matter) in the mail that was sent to your "HOME ADDRESS" with "YOUR NAME" on it, would you care less? My guess…probably not! Why, because if you are in trouble, you DON`T care less WHO is interested in purchasing your house! All you care is…SOMEONE is interested in purchasing your house!
On the flip side, if you are a "Canadian" and you receive a "PERSONALLY ADDRESSED" letter in the mail stating that someone (including their wife) wants to purchase your house, do you care? And what would YOU think?
My guess, you probably wouldn`t care, but ONLY if you are in some type of financial trouble or a nasty situation! I think you are starting to get the picture of where I am going with this one as well, RIGHT?
I don`t know about you, but if I am contacted by one of those "telemarketing" companies my immediate reaction is…where did you obtain my personal information from? Personally, I do NOT like the idea that my "PERSONAL" information being obtained by someone I do NOT know, and I do NOT like the idea that any part of my personal identity may have been, or could be compromised in the future!
On the flip side, if I was in TROUBLE, I probably wouldn`t care less who was contacting me!
Here is something else for your consideration. Since venturing down the Creative Real Estate Investing path we (my wife and I) have transacted on 250 (plus) properties. Of that number, very few were of the "distressed" type. In fact, we have purchased many, many properties from people that were NOT in distress, and did NOT necessarily NEED to sell!
So, I will leave you on this thought; if your marketing campaign SCREEMS…are you in TROUBLE, how many great opportunities are you potentially passing up. Here is a TIP for you: when we first started I literally had piles and piles of Seller Lead Sheets, but I had very little deals to show for it. As soon as I adjusted and tweaked our program…I think you know what happened, RIGHT?
oman">So let`s talk about marketing for a minute; Marketing is about playing the odds. So what do I mean by "playing the odds" you may ask? The reality of the situation is this; for every thousand impressions (yellow letters that are received by homeowners), you will only receive "so many" calls. Of those "so many" calls, only a limited number will be potential prospects, of those (extremely) limited number of prospects, you will only purchase one or two houses (maybe). That`s just the way it is! It`s a numbers game!
So what`s my point? My point is this. If you target the "RIGHT" audience your "conversion ratio" will be that much higher. On the flip side, if you target the "WRONG" audience your conversion ratio will SUCK! Hopefully I did not offend anyone here, but I think this word really puts the situation into perspective, doesn`t it?
Let me put things into perspective in another way: If you are planning on mailing "yellow letters" to addresses in the United States (and depending on the area) your conversion ratio may very well be HUGE! However, if you plan on mailing "yellow letters" to Canadian addresses, your conversion ration has a very good chance of being extremely SMALL! You will most likely (and I know that`s happened already) meet with a lot of "hostility" and in some cases, you will even receive (and I know this has happened already too) a visit from "the boys in blue" (your local police). I don`t know about you, but I do NOT like "negative" attention?
The reality of the situation is this: it doesn`t matter how many times the phone rings, it`s how many properties you actually purchase! Like any marketing campaign, mailing "yellow letters" will COST you money, but converting on deals will actually MAKE you money! Would you prefer to speak to LOTS of people and purchase NOTHING, or would you prefer to speak to LESS people and purchase one or two properties? I don`t know about you, but I know what I would prefer to do!
That`s why it is vitally important for you to track your different marketing strategies and your conversion ratios. Plain and simple…Know Your Numbers!
As I always say, a lot of these Creative Real Estate Investing strategies (including marketing) can, and do work, but they MUST be adjusted and tweaked in order to work here in Canada. 3-->With this in mind, the "yellow letters" CAN work, but NOT by utilizing the "personally addressed letter in the mail" strategy. This is my own personal opinion, so please take it for what it`s worth. I have personally utilized this (letter) method of marketing, but I elect to NOT place my letter in an envelope. Instead, I use a "direct unaddressed bulk mailing" style campaign and my letter contains waaaaay more information. Why? You should NEVER assume that EVERYBODY is in TROUBLE! The other thing about this style of letter and distribution, it does not offend anyone and I have NEVER received a visit from any uninvited (local police) guests!
Here is another Tony`s TIP: if you only have enough money to purchase and mail 10,000 letters, do NOT mail to 10,000 different addresses. You will be better served to mail 2,000 letters to 2,000 "different" addresses and do it five different times. The key to marketing is "frequency and consistency". Is has been proven, that it will take between three and eight impressions in order to maximize your conversion ratio.
So, don`t give-up! Make some minor (Canadian) adjustments and you WILL achieve some pretty amazing results!
I ask that forum members please utilize this thread to share their "new and improved" experiences and their success stories in an effort to motivate others.
I hope that my feedback will be of assistance to you all?
Good luck!
