Direct Mail Reponse Time

Hi Everyone,

Looking for some advice. I recently sent my second ever direct mail campaign of 170 post cards to a county in Florida and so far I have yet to receive a call back. My postcard I sent myself arrived on Friday of last week and before getting to far ahead of myself and sending out another campaign I wanted to see the results of this one. I have yet to do my first deal so I'm just trying to ensure I'm playing out the process right and not going to become inundated with a heavy call volume out of nowhere. What sort of time period I should expect for receiving calls from a direct mail campaign in most peoples experience?

Hi @jasonpdykstra I’m TOTALLY new in the business and just learning but is there any possibility that 170 post cards (and only second campaign) might be a too small number to expect calls back? From what I read around, it seems to me that a good number to start should reasonably be 300-500. Let us know how it goes and good luck with that Jason!

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@jasonpdykstra
Hello Jason, I am TOTALLY NEW here also. I sent out just shy of 1700 blind offers on Jan 22. My first response was in two weeks. But my First signed acceptance agreement was JUST RECEIVED last night. I wouldn’t worry too much about too many phone calls at this point. If you get overwhelmed you can always use a company like Patlive or if you prefer just start with Googlevoice it has worked well for my first mailer. I hope this helps. Good luck!

@jasonpdykstra 170 is a very small campaign, especially for a market like Florida which (depending on the county) has gotten a bit more competitive in recent years. It’s not impossible to get responses or even deals with that amount, but I wouldn’t expect to be overwhelmed with that kind of mail volume.

It can also vary a bit depending on what type of list you’re using (some lists get a better response rate than others) and what kind of postage you used (first-class mail will usually get there within about a week, but standard presort will take a few weeks). Mail does seem to be moving a bit slower these days, so that could be playing into it as well.

Other factors that can affect your response rate…

  • What your template said
  • What you’re telling them to do
  • How many different contact methods you gave them
  • Whether an offer amount was included

but just based on what you said above, the lower number of mail units seems to be at least one of the culprits.

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Hi @retipsterseth,

Thanks for following up. I was using one of the postcard templates provided in the masterclass with a few tweaks. I know I probably wouldn’t be getting massive volume off of it but I was hoping to at least see a call or two however it sounds like I should give it a little longer. These were not blind offers rather just inquisitions to see if I could generate any level of interest. My contact methods at this time was limited to a merely a phone number as my hope is to get a few deals under my belt before starting up a website.

@bootstrapbill thanks for your response. Hopefully it’s a matter of waiting a little bit and I’ll get a few responses.

Good feedback here. I’m in the same boat, Jason. I sent out a hair under 500 postcards middle of last week. Click2Mail said they were hitting on Tuesday and I got a call right away at like 10 a.m. It was landlocked so not a fit, but I was stoked, hey this thing works! I received mine that night and Click2Mail as of yesterday said nearly all are delivered now, but no other calls or visits to the website or anything! Kind of baffled tbh, basically the first lady to receive my mail called me and then nada. I wasn’t expecting a flood of calls from < 500 mailers, but I figured at least 5 would be a a bloop base hit. Hoping some more come in the next week or two but in the meantime going to mail a couple other counties and see if maybe it’s a little hotter market elsewhere in the state.

170 is a pretty small sample. Direct mail is a game of numbers. Here are some of our actual stats… on 108,173 mailers from 2020, we had an average response rate of 1.59% and a conversion rate of 0.12%. We had some dud campaigns in there, but that’s part of being in the mail business. So, with those numbers, we get a response on 1 in ~60 mailers, but we’re closing less than 10% of our responses. It takes us ~850 mailers to get a conversion. We primarily use neutral postcards, but we have used blind offers too. To give you a sense of the variability, we had >7% response on two campaigns, and a >1% conversion on a different campaign altogether. Lastly… unless there is low competition, and you’ve found a gem, which is unlikely unless you’re targeting specific subdivisions (larger tracts frequently get hammered county-wide because there just aren’t that many of them given how cheap mail is), you have to catch owners at the right time, or be willing to pay up, which isn’t most people’s business model. Send more mail.

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Also… the mail system seems to be pretty jacked up right now. I’ve been sending direct mail for over 6 years, and I am seeing the worst delivery times I’ve ever experienced. One of the mail houses I used, based in Wisconsin, is projecting 6-26 day delivery (no clue on the average or median) for standard class mail.

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@jasonpdykstra maybe get 20 responses per 1000, sending blind offers at 30-35% market value. Buy 1.7 properties per 1000 mailers
Some campaigns get zero response.
Mostly Florida mailers.
Hope that helps for some context, but so many variables to consider you can drive yourself crazy.
Experiment and keep mailing.
Good luck!

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Update:

I’ve started receiving calls on my mailer. I received one Wednesday and one this afternoon. Based on the fact my first caller said they’d received another postcard and my second securing a deal to sell between his first call and the time I was able to return his call, tells me this mailer went to a competitive area. That said I was pleased to get my first two call backs and am hopeful I’ll maybe secure a few more in the days ahead.

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