Direct Mail Response Rates...

Just curious what everyone else is seeing on their mailing campaigns.

I’ve seen a drastic response rate drop in the past 18 months or so in the Raleigh area, and I assume it’s because the market has improved so much over that time period. What are all of you seeing lately? What have you done differently to improve your results?

All the Best,
Merrick

I think direct mail is getting less and less responsive overall.

But the thing about DM is that most advertisers are chasing greener pasture. So there’s less DM going out every day than there used to be.

From a reader’s perspective, mail was originally highly sought after and people eagerly anticipated receiving a letter.

Then junk mail cropped up and people had the pile A, pile B sorting method to weed it out.

Now we’re living in the era after that. The pile A, pile B is happening online with email, FB messenger, etc. And DM has appeal again.

After all, how often do friends and family send you letters these days?

Higher email marketing responce rate depends on:

  1. Finding emails in your niche
  2. Effective Email subject that make readers to open your mail.
  3. Get to the Point and Be Specific In Calls to Action

Hi,
Great tips to improve email marketing response rate.
Thanks!!

I have seen direct mail rates drop in the Salt Lake City area over the last year. I attribute a lot of that to so many investors entering the market. I currently market to only distressed lists…probate, NOD’s etc. I will be starting a much bigger list soon.

they’ve taken a nose dive here in California. Less than 1%, but that’s just from my experience. obviously there are a ton of variables to consider.

I track my cost per lead for direct mail and I can say that it has increased significantly over the last few years. More investors are entering the market. You have to spend more to get deals but the key is consistent mailings. People often say to me “you sent me a number of mailings and because of that I chose to call you over someone who just sent me one letter”. It took me a while to realize how important mailing multiple letters to the same person is but once I did there was no turning back!

We were getting 0.6% (and it was in decline) until two years ago when we switched to MarketingByHand and their handwritten letters. With them we are at 2.3% response now and couldn’t be happier. All lists are pre-probates and LTV lists that our chief partner sources for us. Ultimately, with the handwritten approach, we spend less than $2000 to make a purchase.

For handwritten letters, I recommend yellowletterscomplete.com. The service is top notch and prices are very good.

Thank you, MarcTro! I appreciate your recommendation. We used two different companpies doing yellow letters but found the actual results per dollar spent to be better with marketingbyhand.com. Almost two-fold. But thanks anyways.