Anyone doing direct mailings?

[Gary (MO) 0]

Doug - how many have you sent so far?

[Doug Pretorius (ON) 9]

Gary, 40. I was pretty disappointed that I didn't get a single call or email (not even a hang up) so I ended up not sending the 3rd batch last Thursday. That's what I've always hated about marketing: spending money and getting no results, it's been the same way with ALL the marketing I've tried in this area. Did I mention that I've never done a deal that came to me through marketing?

[Gary (MO) 0]

WHERE then do they come from Doug?

[Doug Pretorius (ON) 9]

The MLS. And one (my first deal and only LO purchase to date) was a referral.

[Gary (MO) 0]

You know Doug - from what I've read on direct mail pieces you have to send out hundreds to get a handful of replies. Again, it seems to be a numbers game.

 

I'm guessing that there is probably a scientific view on the roi on this marketing. It may be that no one has collected, tracked and recorded the results but I'd be willing to bet that you could predict your response on any given marketing effort, if we only knew the data. You would have to adjust for local variables of course.

 

Probably a project that we could easily do, each of us as we went, simply record our roi on each mode of marketing and at the end of 3 years compile our results.

 

Hmm....sounds like I'm rambling....

 

Gary

[Doug Pretorius (ON) 9]

Well, I know from my past marketing experience that those 'local variables' might amount to 1 deal out of 100 calls (if I'm lucky). So if I need to send 100 direct mail pieces to get 1 call that means I'd spend about $7,000 for each deal ... that's not going to work for CAs.

 

I wonder if that old listing agent trick might work out better. You promise sellers the moon to get as many listings as possible, then you spend as little as possible marketing each house. And hope that one of them sells.

 

Of course I'm talking about straight options here, and offering the sellers the "no commission solution". You get a dozen or so listings and the only thing you spend money on to advertise each house is dirt cheap posterboard signs. You can run ads too but advertise your company rather than any particular house.