How many counties and states to target on the first mailing campaign?

For the first mailing campaign, how many counties would you recommend targeting? And how many states?

We have 8 counties and 2 states in mind. 4 each.

Would that work? Or should we stay in 1 state at a time?

@jiniko hello. Sure some with way more experience then I do will provide a better answer (i started in April) but there are different approaches on the topic.

Some suggests to test with 200-300 in 3 different counties in 1 State, identify where it could be the best market and then go heavy there

Someone else prefers to hit a County at a time with 500-1000 mailers a month, then change county in that same State the following month.

Some other is more oriented to send 500-1500 mailers a week in one or more county in 1 state: aggressive like hell but if you have the budget, and you thoroughly identified a (likely) good market, i believe it may be worth of a try: at the end, the more mails you push out of the door, the more the possibilities to find and close one or more deals should increase (if all the rest is correctly set up). I am currently experimenting this last approach for the next 6 weeks, then i’ll assess and correct if necessary.

Finally, as @Jarenb normally suggests, you can also decide to not send constantly out mailers: just wait the result of your first campaign, make a profit and, with that, go for your second one.

As i see it, whatever is the approach you choose, i would focus on one State at a time, so to become familiar with its laws instead of picking counties all around US. Finally, as I read around, each county should be hit approximately every 6 months. Not sure this could help someway or maybe just added further confusion, in which case, i’m sorry)).

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I really like this approach.

From my own experience, you’ll learn a TON on your first mailer. So, why not ‘shotgun it’ and learn more counties and states.

The reality is - you never know if you’re really going to do deal until someone responds to your mailer saying “yes.”

Are you planning on blind offers or neutral letters/postcards?

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@jiniko Hey! On my last mailer, I mailed two counties (about 1400 blind offers in total). Got lots of calls and ended up closing on a deal yesterday for about 30% market value. (Deed is getting recorded today! Yay!) Different people like different approaches. I have tried “testing” the market strategy and did not get great results. Personally, I think more mail is the best approach for me and the market I am in. So to answer your question, I think different strategies work for different people and different markets. Try one out and then try another strategy. Over time you will learn more and what works best. Good luck!

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I used to be of the mindset that it’s better to stick to one county at a time with your mail. My only reason was the for sake of my own sanity and organization (rather than having to deal with different counties, systems, market values, etc). It just felt easier to keep each direct mail “push” isolated to a single county so I could reduce the number of variables to think about.

BUT, I think if you’ve got your intake system organized well enough so that each response has a clear indicator of which county it’s coming from (this can be done by including a unique, county and state-based reference number at the top of each mail piece, so you’ll always know where it’s coming from), this can help clear up a lot of the confusion.

I know a lot of people who hit multiple counties and states at a time and they seem to do just fine with it. I’m not sure if I would’ve handled it well on my first few attempts, but maybe that’s just me.

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I just did my first mailing campaign, and it was multiple counties in the same state. Many counties here have their delinquent lists on their website so you can pull the lists yourself. I sent out a little over 200 postcards that I typed, printed and mailed myself. I got 6 responses. Two people, really, want to sell, but they wouldn’t accept my offer. I’m getting ready to do another campaign, but this time, I’ll do, at least, 500-1000 postcards.

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