The marketing message I use to buy houses is basically a 3 page sales letter I’ve refined over the last 6 years. It was created by taking ideas for several sources and tweaking it, improving it over time.
I use the same message on a flyer, in a large display ad, on an over-sized postcard or as a free special report.
The postcard we are taking about is written and designed by me and copyrighted. Of course you can create your own marketing message, even using mine to steal ideas.
If you have any good “free special reports” in real estate course you own, then convert or use that.
How can I tell if someone uses my message? Trust. Agreements. A meeting of the minds. If someone uses my copyrighted material without permission, and I never know about, so what. It doesn’t hurt me. It really hurts them (my belief) if they know what they are doing. But if I learn about then I will need to take action to protect my clients.
For Mark and my other clients, I give them a lot of benefits and reasons to use us to print and mail. They can print and mail on their own. If they did, I would follow up to find out how many cards were mailed and the results. I then share those results with everyone using the service.
I have written an “how to” article on how to do this postcard mailing system… it is the best marketing method I have found to date. I have submitted it to JP and she will post it on CRE Online within the next week or two.
The article will show you how to do it on your own. But since I have already done the legwork to set it up for myself, I am offer the mailing service. More details on that can be found at www.richardroop.com
I also hope to do a CRE radio show on the subject very soon… watch for announcements from JP.
Posted by Mark-CO on February 11, 2003 at 22:37:14:
Yea, I will send out almost 5k postcards in a targeted mailing this week. I am expecting the results to be good. If Richards results are typical, you will get a .5% return on a shotgun method such as this. Thats 25 responses and that should result in 1-2 purchases. I like the idea much better than chaseing deals. BTW, I ran an ad on the front page of the local shoppers re section using the same advatorial and have received more than 10 calls so far this week.
I experienced a .35% response on my last postcard mailing, building to .4% over time. That means I mailed 10,000 cards and got 35 calls within 30 days or so, then 5 more calls later. Postcards hang around.
Out of the first 35 leads, I bought 5 houses, 4 good deals and one I could have passed on.
For your 5000 cards, we want 10-20 calls and 1-2 deals. I saw your ad in the weekly paper. Good job… looks good… you did not screw it up
Perhaps it won’t take so long next time to get another article out of me
Congratulations on the job you’ve been doing taking tasks away from JP, allowing her to focus on “big picture” tasks. Maybe we can get together this year and take a look at your long-term marketing goals.
CREOL is so awesome for new and experienced investors. I’m interested in helping you guys grow even more. But my plate is full now.
Mark is paying 3 cents each to license my marketing message in postcard format mailed to exclusive zip codes, then 30 cents each to have us get the list, print, address, sort, mail, everything. He just takes the calls.
30 cents includes 15.2 cents postage for a 11" x 5.66" (big!) double-sided postcard.
Thanks for sharing the link to my site, however, that is a local prescreening page. I have two sites.
First is my “buy & sell” site at www.ResultsQuick.com where I send buyers and sellers. On that site there is a link called “For Investors Only” which allows local investors (and those looking for my investor site) to submit a questionniare to access my investor site.
I do this because I do not want all my prospective buyers and sellers learning all my secrets! So there is no direct link to www.RichardRoop.com.
Therefore, CRE onlline folks do not need to jump through that hoop (completing a questionnaire) to browse www.RichardRoop.com. They can go directly, and then submit the questionnaire only when they want to work with me more closely… which was it’s original purpose.
It’s funny. I started getting a flurry of Investor Questionnaire sourced to CRE Online, so I had to come here to find out what happened
I thought it had to do with my new article on postcards. That will be up next week.
Re: where in colorado are you mailing to… - Posted by tang-0-rang
Posted by tang-0-rang on February 14, 2003 at 11:59:11:
Richard…sounds good. Are there limits to how many someone must purchase. Obviously the more sent the better the responce, but maybe someone(me) doesn’t have a very big budget to start out with.
thanks for your time
Todd Williamson
The minimum mailing to a saturation list to get the lowest postage rate is everyone on a carrier route, usually 300-700 homes.
We get a break on printing because of volume. I recommend mailing 5000 at a time (maybe 3500 minimum). We print 15,000 at a time (3 different investors, 5000 each, 3 up on a 11" x 17", card stock).
You want enough calls to get a good measure of response, so we can determine when and how often to go back and hit again.
You also want enough calls to buy at least one house and make $15,000 to $35,000. I suppose you might flip a deal for less than that.
Watch for my article Tuesday. I reveal all the steps. My clients hire us to do all the steps for them, saving time and trouble. Since there is a certain amount of setup included customizing the postcard, analizing local occupant lists, etc., our clients license 50,000 cards upfront at 3 cents each.
They don’t pay for printing and postage until they do mailings. If they are not happy (capture at least $50,000 in cash and equity) after mailing 25,000 cards, we’ll refund the license fee. I figure there is little risk of that if I’m working with them directly.
