Is Your Response Rate Better Then Mine?

One thing you should always keep track of when sending out direct mail is your response rate.  Over the past year, I knew I got phone calls from my mailings but I never really knew how well or poorly my letters were getting people to call.  I also had no clue as to what percentage of people where calling off the first letter, second letter or third.  So I wrote up a quick script to pull the data from my si lead manager database to let me know and here is what I found out….

First Mailings

They are working like gangbusters!  14.1% so far this year is wonderful and I couldn’t be happier.  This doesn’t mean that all these people were motivated sellers however.  In the future I’d like to be able to capture the percentage of people who…

• Just wanted off my mailing list
• Tire kickers
• Motivated

Doing so would help me try and fine tune the letters to weed out, or pre-screen, the non motivated people.  This would save my partner some time because he wouldn’t have to talk to these people on the phone.  However, I will say it would cause me to spend more money because I wouldn’t know these people were not interested unless they told me to stop sending them mail right?

Second Mailings

This big drop off from the first mailings is what I pretty much expected.  The second mailing to me seems more of a scrubbing exercise.  I say this because many of the responders wanted me to stop sending them mail.  This is okay as my mailing list is getting leaner and meaner.

Third Mailings

A good response rate of 4% here.  This is the letter where I explain to the leads what they would expect if they called and what we are all about.  The hope is to remove some of the trepidation a caller might have when picking up the phone.  We have a few calls to action in this letter as well, telling them to “Call Us Now” or risk missing out.   The percentage of motivated callers compared to unmotivated should start rising with this third letter.

Fourth Mailings and Beyond

My mailing schedule hasn’t had me send out any 4th mailings just yet.  I was originally thinking of sending postcards, but the more I think about it I’m going to stick with letters.  They are more personable and more likely to get read.  I’m most likely going to say something like…We are still interested in purchasing your property, yada yada yada.  I may also start seeing if their property isn’t for sale, if they know of any distressed/vacant properties in the area that they know are for sale.  I could offer them a couple hundred bucks if we close on the property they referred too.

For those people who send out 4th mailings, what do you usually say?