Am I the only person who has ever thought about using a fake name on their direct mail letters?
For the campaigns I’ve sent out, I have always felt uneasy about putting my full first and last name on the hundreds of mailers going out to strangers. Maybe it’s because I know some of them will get angry and it’s hard to put my finger on why, but something just feels weird about it.
Would it be unethical for me to make up a fictitious person and put that name at the bottom of my message? Say for example, I could end each letter with,
Sincerely,
Nancy Smith
Outreach Manager
And when the person calls, or when it comes time to sign the deed, I could just start the conversation with,
“Im glad you received the letter from our Outreach Manager! As the Closing Officer for this file, I’ll take it from here...”
The idea isn’t to mislead anyone or lie. I’m just trying to keep my name OFF the thousands of letters I send out. I’m okay sharing this info and being myself once I get into an actual conversation with a seller, but I’d like to hold that information back until then, if possible.
As you can see, I’ve thought this through in painstaking detail. 😂
Am I crazy for wanting to hide my name until I get to the next stage? Is there another way to accomplish this objective that I haven’t thought of yet?
@charlotteirwin, I don't know if it's crazy or not, but I had similar concerns in the past, especially when I was first starting out. I didn't exactly use a "pen name" on my first couple of mailers, but I did only list my first name and last initial, due to the same concerns, I guess. I don't think that it impacted my response rate, but after I closed a couple of deals, and actually had sellers thank me for helping them resolve their issue of not knowing what to do with this property that they owned, I guess I just got past the concern and decided to start listing my full name.
I've wondered about this before when sending out big advertising pushes. I also don't like the idea of putting my name on anything unless I know who I'm dealing with. If you figure out a way to do this and still get results, let me know!
Our blind offers have my signature at the bottom (not very legible haha!) but under my signature it reads 'Managing Member, XYZ Land Company" - It works, and nobody seems to pay attention or care..
I have been thinking about the exact same thing getting ready to send out my first campaign. It's one of the things I'm tinkering around with, procrastinating on pulling the trigger on this first mailing! I agree with your thoughts and will probably do something similar to keep my full name off a huge number of mailers.
I recommend not using your real name. I did test out using a fake name. That was ok. Now, I just use a derivative of my real name. Why? I had a few people that were persistent, intelligent, and a little crazy. They would search for me on linked in and then email me with comments that were personal and creepy. Or, a couple of people searched and found my home address, and then let me know that they knew were I lived. One guy went to where my PO box is, to try to meet/confront me in person. The people working there had to deal with him and turn him away. On your mail, using a fake employee name, or a pseudonym is wise.
That's a good compromise there. I am wondering, however, if less people will open a letter with a company name on it as the sender instead of a personal name. Has anyone been able to split test that?
@johannes - I recently sent out a couple thousand offers with only my company name on the mail piece. My personal name never appeared on either the envelope or the letter inside it. I got 5 acceptances from this campaign, and nobody took issue with it or questioned who I was. They basically just said "OK" and prompted me to give guidance on the next steps. When I responded to their acceptances, that was the moment where I introduced myself.
Granted, there was no split-testing involved here (I didn't simultaneously send the same number of letters to the same audience, at the same time, with the same offer pricing, where my name WAS included), so the results may have been better or worse under that scenario, so I can't say for sure if there was a negative impact by leaving my name out.
What I do know, is that it definitely wasn't a flop just because my personal name (or for that matter, ANY person's name) wasn't included. :)
@charlotteirwin not at all weird. I was going to do the same thing. I don't really want people googling me. I'd rather have them see the image of my branding for the company. Not me personally. If anyone thinks this is an issue.. let us know!