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First direct marketing campaign, need some help

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Hello Group,

 

I had been doing emails on craigslist for a few months now and it's time to expand my marketing efforts. I signed up with listsource.com and will be targeting absentee owners. I have a letter to send out, but have some questions about the whole process:

 

1. First of all I have no idea how to fill in the names and addresses that I will import from listsource. I'm not very tech savvy and have never done anything like this.

 

2. Should I try to do this on my own (all the printing, labeling, mailing, etc.) or should I hire a company/website to do it for me?

 

3. Is listsource a reliable source of leads or would you recommend a different website?

 

Thanks in advance for your responses. I can't wait to send some letters out and start getting calls from sellers.

 

Iliyan

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I have never used listsource, so I can't comment on that, but the lady I have do my list send me the list in the Word doc in the AVery TEmplate, so I just print them then I have a young undocumented child from the Philippines that puts them on the brochures for me.

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I'm working on some videos on direct mail that addresses those questions, I'll link 'em here when they're on YouTube

 

You can take the .csv file (which is probably the format you'll get from most list brokers) and set up a "Mail Merge" in your word processing software. This is easier than it sounds, it should be under "Format" I believe (Format -> Mail Merge Wizard)

Basically you will write your letter or whatever it is you're doing and insert the mail merge fields where you want certain info to go that's specific to the recipient. (property address, their name, etc.) It will then duplicate the letter for every name on your list and fill in the appropriate data. Once you get it, you get it, and you won't have to worry about it after that. Let me know if you need help with it.

 

How many people are on your list? How frequently are you gonna mail them? What are you mailing? (Letters? Yellow letters? Post cards?) If you are on a budget and have some time, do it yourself. It can be done in a fairly short amount of time by yourself once you get in the groove of addressing envelopes and stuff, but if you can afford to, pay someone else to do this for you. It's not the MOST fun part of the business.

 

I don't think I've used listsource before, I've used MelissaData, but I know people who DO use ListSource... I'd feel pretty comfortable with them.

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I use listsource a ton... It is fairly easy and I can walk you through it... as for doing mail yourself or hiring it... Depending on the piece. postcards and yellow letters I would hire. vouchers and professional letters do myself.

 

You can grab my number from this site or mine. btw and sorry if this is against the rules if so please delete but my yellow letters are on sale till the end of the month for 99 cents. each

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. . .You can grab my number from this site or mine. btw and sorry if this is against the rules if so please delete but my yellow letters are on sale till the end of the month for 99 cents. each
No need to apologize, Michael. Sharing ideas and helping out isn't against the rules. That's what the board is here for.

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Thanks everyone for your responses.

 

Chris, I have a pdf version of the letter that I will be sending and wanted to convert it to word, so I can edit the letter and mail merge as you advised. I used several online services to convert from pdf to word and the document that I received after the conversion was still non-editable. Any ideas how to go about that? Once I have an editable word document I will try to mail merge and possibly bug you with more questions :P

 

Thanks for your help.

 

Iliyan

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As long as it isnt a pdf created from a picture I can switch it to word format. Just post it or email it. You have to have Adobe Professional.. BTW mail merge using Publisher is so much easier then word.

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As long as it isnt a pdf created from a picture I can switch it to word format. Just post it or email it. You have to have Adobe Professional.. BTW mail merge using Publisher is so much easier then word.

 

 

Hi Michael,

 

I tried to attach it in a PM, but I didn't see an attach option. Can you PM me your e-mail address?

 

Thanks for your help.

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Iliyan, for the record there is definitely an option to add an attachment via the Private Message system here. Check again, amigo.

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I haven't used Word to do direct mail since about 8 months ago when I started using RealProspect to manage my direct mail and email marketing. If you're serious about direct mail and automating the process it might be worth checking out what CRM software can allow you to do, managing prospect records as well as keeping track of all your direct mail campaigns

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Michael Q - thanks for promptly sending me your e-mail address, just e-mailed you.

 

MC - I did find the attach option - sorry, I didn't mean it to sound as a shortcoming to the website, just didn't find it the first time B) . I'm still learning how to navigate around here :P.

 

Chris - thanks for the input. As of right now I will go with importing data into a word document. This is the first time I'm doing this, so there will be some learning curve. Later on I will try alternative ways of doing direct marketing, but for the time being I will keep it basic for simplicity purposes.

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