Yellow Letters

[neill]

QUOTE (MKBridge @ Oct 24 2009, 06:46 PM) One thing to request on your mailing lists is first names, not initials. I received my first postal code list from Westlist and about half were intials only. Therefore you cannot insert a first name into your letter. When I realized what had happened, I requested a list from Cornerstone with first names only.
I thought I would try two lists to see if there is any difference (one for each of the two cities I am targeting). Westlists is definately a lot faster service and cheaper. Just remember to make this request.

Cheers, Kathi

Hi Kathi - thanks for tip! Glad to have met you in Edmonton, and good to see you here on the site!


Neill

 

[powerhouse]

By the end of November every household in Canada will have received 6 Yellow Letters. Will this diminish the effect?

Larry

 

[ScottS]

I`m assuming you are being sarcastic, but I`ll respond anyway.

1. Even if that were the case, people`s circumstances change every day. You could mail me a letter in January, but I could lose my job in June and need to sell in Sept.
2. I have heard of those on the foreclosure lists getting 20+ letters. They have to sell to someone, why not you?
3. Where I live, a city of 33,000 dwellings, it would take me almost 1 full year to mail to my town and all the surrounding areas at 1000 letters per week. There are 80,000 people in my area. I don`t think mailing to 30,000,000 will create much of an issue for us few people sending out letters.

Good luck!

 

[ZanderRobertson]

Another thing to consider. Of the 465 people attending the seminar, there will be maybe 5% still sending the letters in a year`s time. It`s really about sticking it out.

QUOTE (ScottS @ Oct 28 2009, 09:53 PM) I`m assuming you are being sarcastic, but I`ll respond anyway.

1. Even if that were the case, people`s circumstances change every day. You could mail me a letter in January, but I could lose my job in June and need to sell in Sept.
2. I have heard of those on the foreclosure lists getting 20+ letters. They have to sell to someone, why not you?
3. Where I live, a city of 33,000 dwellings, it would take me almost 1 full year to mail to my town and all the surrounding areas at 1000 letters per week. There are 80,000 people in my area. I don`t think mailing to 30,000,000 will create much of an issue for us few people sending out letters.

Good luck!

 

[powerhouse]

Thanks gentlemen, for putting things in perspective. I`ll have to order my yellow letters.
I`m still trying to unscamble my brain after that bootcamp weekend.

Larry

 

[neill]

QUOTE (powerhouse @ Oct 28 2009, 11:51 PM) Thanks gentlemen, for putting things in perspective. I`ll have to order my yellow letters.
I`m still trying to unscamble my brain after that bootcamp weekend.

Larry


Hi Larry - if this is helpful, I wrote this quote down from RLG`s mouth in Edm: "A little bit of movement is better than a boatload of meditation". Put `er in gear Larry, and put your foot on the gas!

Keep reading this site - the inspiration that Lynda and I get is amazing!

 

[neill]

QUOTE (MKBridge @ Oct 24 2009, 06:46 PM) One thing to request on your mailing lists is first names, not initials. I received my first postal code list from Westlist and about half were intials only. Therefore you cannot insert a first name into your letter. When I realized what had happened, I requested a list from Cornerstone with first names only.
I thought I would try two lists to see if there is any difference (one for each of the two cities I am targeting). Westlists is definately a lot faster service and cheaper. Just remember to make this request.

Cheers, Kathi

Wow - this was a huge tip Kathi. All of a sudden our list for Airdrie went from 5600 names to 23xx (in a city of 40k !). Got our final list yesterday pm, and did a quick scan. There were a couple dozen that we had to delete again that had the last name as "MC" and the first name as "KINLEY", and if I could not match a MCKINLEY, MCIVOR, MCDONALD, etc to Canada 411, I deleted them as no first name....

Also check your lists, and see how up to date they are - we found two people listed that had moved - one of them in 2008. I think given privacy laws in Canada, telco lists are the primary source for info (and how many ppl do you know that have asked the phone co to either have them as un-listed, un-published or no address shown (we are in this category ourselves)), so overall I am thinking we are giving a B- to our list quality, and maybe even a C

Nonetheless, it is getting emailed to yellowletterscomplete.com for processing!

 

[JimWhitelaw]

QUOTE (ZanderRobertson @ Oct 28 2009, 10:49 PM) Another thing to consider. Of the 465 people attending the seminar, there will be maybe 5% still sending the letters in a year`s time. It`s really about sticking it out.Right on. In fact, I`d be surprised if more than 5% send any letters at all. Ideas are easy, action is hard.

 

[JimWhitelaw]

QUOTE (MKBridge @ Oct 24 2009, 06:46 PM) One thing to request on your mailing lists is first names, not initials. I received my first postal code list from Westlist and about half were intials only. Therefore you cannot insert a first name into your letter. When I realized what had happened, I requested a list from Cornerstone with first names only.Susan at yellowletter.com told me that what they do when there is only an initial for first name is to address it like "Smith Family" instead. That seems like a better alternative than skipping addresses that don`t have full first names. I assume those must come from telephone directories where lots of people don`t put their first names.

 

[TodorYordanov]

QUOTE (MKBridge @ Oct 24 2009, 08:46 PM) One thing to request on your mailing lists is first names, not initials. I received my first postal code list from Westlist and about half were intials only. Therefore you cannot insert a first name into your letter. When I realized what had happened, I requested a list from Cornerstone with first names only.
I thought I would try two lists to see if there is any difference (one for each of the two cities I am targeting). Westlists is definately a lot faster service and cheaper. Just remember to make this request.

Cheers, Kathi


I talked to Cornestone and Westlists about it. What is the big deal with using First name vs. last name - ie. John vs. Mr. and Mrs Willson? I don`t see a big problem there!
I`ve decided that it is better to send a letter addressing them as Mr. and Mrs. Willson that not to send letter to this address at all.
For example in a particular postal code Cornerstone can provide me with 5000 names, but only 1643 of those records have First name instead of initial. Should I only target the list with the first names and drop the rest - NO. I am going to modify my list by adding "Mr. and Mrs." for First name and target the entire postal code.
I did talk to Ron Legrand`s office regarding this yesterday and they agreed with me on this. It is better to have the first name, but why leave all these other people out.

Think about it this way. If you receive this letter, you immediately know that you don`t know the person that is sending this letter to you. Would how you are addressed in the letter change your action to call back or not?

How do you feel about it?

 

[powerhouse]

QUOTE (neill @ Oct 29 2009, 09:21 AM) Hi Larry - if this is helpful, I wrote this quote down from RLG`s mouth in Edm: "A little bit of movement is better than a boatload of meditation". Put `er in gear Larry, and put your foot on the gas!

Keep reading this site - the inspiration that Lynda and I get is amazing!


Hi Neil,[/size] I realize that I`m getting away from the topic at hand, but thank you, & Zander & Scott for your encouragement. I`m from Ontario & I`m sitting in a hotel room in Red Deer trying to rent 1 of the 9 doors that I have here. I know, I know, I shouldn`t be doing this, but I can`t yet relinquish control to a property manager. I have been contacting fsbos in Ontario, practising my technique via email. Only suspects so far. I`ve been spending a fair bit of time reading all the info posted here since the bootcamp. What an incredibly valuable resource. Because I`m only familiar with buy & holds I`m having a hard time getting my head around some of the terminology used with these new techniques. Different terms being used for the same technique. I`m familiar with the home building trade & there are so many terms used to describe the same technique or building component that your eyes become crossed at times. Maybe REIN could create a glossary to identify all the terms & techniques associated with quick turn real estate. It would help to eliminate the confusion. I know I`m not the only one confused Larry

 

[Ian]

QUOTE (neill @ Oct 29 2009, 06:21 AM) Hi Larry - if this is helpful, I wrote this quote down from RLG`s mouth in Edm: "A little bit of movement is better than a boatload of meditation". Put `er in gear Larry, and put your foot on the gas!

Keep reading this site - the inspiration that Lynda and I get is amazing!


Questions:

Is everyone going with the Patlive account with a monthly fee of $29.95? Also, are people sending out yellow letters to postal codes only without any other target specific variables?

Thanks.

Ian

 

[MKBridge]

[quote name=`TodorYordanov` date=`Oct 29 2009, 09:34 AM` post=`69638`]
I talked to Cornestone and Westlists about it. What is the big deal with using First name vs. last name - ie. John vs. Mr. and Mrs Willson? I don`t see a big problem there!
I`ve decided that it is better to send a letter addressing them as Mr. and Mrs. Willson that not to send letter to this address at all.

Hey Todor:
One of my lists does have many initials and I was wondering how to send letters to these people. Didn`t want to leave them out of the picture but I do want to start with letters to people with a first name listed.
I agree with your thoughts on how to deal with the ones with initials. Thanks!
Kathi

 

[JohnSoucie]

QUOTE (MKBridge @ Oct 29 2009, 10:06 PM) One of my lists does have many initials and I was wondering how to send letters to these people. Didn`t want to leave them out of the picture but I do want to start with letters to people with a first name listed.
I agree with your thoughts on how to deal with the ones with initials. Thanks!
Kathi

I`m a little confused. Is the perceived problem the fact that the envelope will be addressed with an initial for the first name or is it the "Dear initial;"greeting?

I never worried that the envelope address with an initial was a problem. It`s common.
The "Dear" greeting however is. You could easily make an "initals only" list and send them a different version of the letter that simply said "Hi;" instead of "Dear xxxx;". Whether it`s personal or not, if they have a house for sale and "NEED" to sell it, they will call regardless of if their first name is on it. It might actually screen out the suspects a little quicker. Remember you don`t want to work with people who don`t want to work with you.

We probably all should be measuring our marketing results for these type of unique wrinkles, so we can maybe be collectively deciding if we are worrying about nothing,

John Soucie

 

[JanBowler]

QUOTE (neill @ Oct 29 2009, 06:29 AM) Wow - this was a huge tip Kathi. All of a sudden our list for Airdrie went from 5600 names to 23xx (in a city of 40k !). Got our final list yesterday pm, and did a quick scan. There were a couple dozen that we had to delete again that had the last name as "MC" and the first name as "KINLEY", and if I could not match a MCKINLEY, MCIVOR, MCDONALD, etc to Canada 411, I deleted them as no first name....

Also check your lists, and see how up to date they are - we found two people listed that had moved - one of them in 2008. I think given privacy laws in Canada, telco lists are the primary source for info (and how many ppl do you know that have asked the phone co to either have them as un-listed, un-published or no address shown (we are in this category ourselves)), so overall I am thinking we are giving a B- to our list quality, and maybe even a C

Nonetheless, it is getting emailed to yellowletterscomplete.com for processing!

Which list broker seems to provide the most up to date information? I would imagine it would be the one that uses the phone book rather than census data which is usually older? At this point who thinks their chosen broker is a good one, or is it too early to say? We tried contacting Westlists but after two phone calls they have not returned any messages - now 4 days later from our first enquiry! Maybe they got jammed by all you guys getting in first! We`ll just wait for the bottle neck to clear...probably not a bad idea anyhow!

 

[JanBowler]

QUOTE (WJW @ Oct 22 2009, 11:00 AM) Terry,

I`m waiting for a local number from PatLive too, but they can give you an 800# and switch it over to the local number when its available. Then you can go to www.freephoneline.ca and get a local number for free and have that number forward to the 800# PatLive gives you. That way you can start right away


Also I`m looking at using www.YellowLetterComplete.com for my campaigns. They charge $0.99/letter with 500 minimum order.


Cheers!

The freephone.ca website indicates that one can only get a free number if one lives in certain Ontario towns and that one cannot call forward to US or 800 numbers.

 

[ZanderRobertson]

We found WestList a little slow, but they compiled an entire list of 5000 names with first names, so we were happy about that.

i think a few of these types of service providers have been overwhelmed.


I just heard from PatLive that my answering service number will be a little late because there`s been a huge run on 780 numbers. luckily they got mylive receptionist number up and running.

zander

QUOTE (DavidB @ Oct 30 2009, 03:48 PM) Which list broker seems to provide the most up to date information? I would imagine it would be the one that uses the phone book rather than census data which is usually older? At this point who thinks their chosen broker is a good one, or is it too early to say? We tried contacting Westlists but after two phone calls they have not returned any messages - now 4 days later from our first enquiry! Maybe they got jammed by all you guys getting in first! We`ll just wait for the bottle neck to clear...probably not a bad idea anyhow!

 

[fhabib]

Just a quick questions everyone, how much does a stamp cost in ontario for the yellow letter. Is it $0.54, do we know that the letter is less than 30g?

thx
Fadi

 

[therealpotentials]

[Hi, Jim. I am interested in going with you to buy in bulk to avail of this lowest rate. Would you be able to coordinate that?

Have you seen the list yet? How`s your assessment of it?




quote name=`JimWhitelaw` date=`Oct 23 2009, 09:10 AM` post=`68923`]
I pitched this idea to Info-Canada about doing a bulk order to get the cost down below $0.07 which is the lowest I`ve seen so far. Here is the response:

If the records were purchased over a one year period through ONE single source like yourself, your group would need to commit to an annual purchase of 100,000 records. Purchases would have to be made in minimum 10,000 piece orders,Your cost would be $.065/record.

I`d be willing to co-ordinate the purchase for the group if there`s interest (although I have to admit I`m a bit concerned it might turn into an unpaid part-time job...). Maybe REIN admin would take it on?

I made a small purchase of 1000 records from Info-Canada for $235, just to do a test run on the quality of the records. They are selected by postal code and filtered for homeowners only according to census data. I know that the per record cost is high, but the total outlay was a bit easier to swallow for our first test run.

 

[JudyGreen]

QUOTE (MarkKruse @ Oct 22 2009, 12:41 PM) I did locate the following for creating, addressing, stuffing your letters based on a mail list you provide. It`s $0.99 per letter without stamps.
http://yellowletterscomplete.com/yellow-letters-in-canada/

I`m positive I heard someone at the seminar talking about a yellow-letter type of outfit operating out of Canada that will do all the above as well as adding the Canadian postage and optionally mailing for you from their Canadian office. I`m still searching for that...


Hi Mark,

I hope you and Terry are doing well!

Hello everyone Ive decided to look into opening a Yellow letter Company up here in Canada

Just wanted to ask you what your thoughts were about what you found on Pricing?

Judy
403 998-1604