Ask Paul Wells

Paul,

What have you found to be the most effective way to get people in FC to actually call based on letters from the Notice of Default lists. I send out a number of letters a week but no responses come back!

Michael

Timing is everything Michael. It is all in a sequence if indeed you want to do direct mail. I have a direct mail marketing Mania book that you could use that has different types of copy in it. But in the foreclosure arena you have got to realize that this is the path of least resistance and that is attractive to a lot of people that only want to use the easiest of methods but methods with the least results. A 1-3% response, from my experience, should be considered "fantastic" from most large direct mailers across the board that do a lot of testing....which is why direct mail can be very expensive (in terms of profit/loss) if you go the wrong direction. Direct mail is not for the faint of heart in the world of foreclosures.

Why? Well when people are headed to foreclosure and about to lose their house to the foreclosure process the majority of them are not looking for solutions. Then the Notice of Default gets filed, the foreclosure process starts, the public is notified by some sort of public advertising and now everyone knows that there is a prospect. Investors that use direct mail will now start their marketing campaign and the person that is in foreclosure is about to be inundated with mailers from those investors. And many more.

Also, many direct mailers pour money down a hole with bad marketing, inappropriate offers, and poor-quality list management. You're going to do it right; consequently, aim for 2-5% new customer response. PARW, for instance, consistently maintains a response rate in this range. Still, base your projections upon the lowest responses you can safely count on; then you won't get burned if you're wrong. If a mailing starts to pull 2-3% response, it¹s clearly a winner. If you achieve a 5% response from people who haven¹t dealt with you before, consider yourself a certified marketing genius and hang out your shingle as a consultant.

So for the foreclosure business I think that there are many other marketing strategies that will “PULL” better than direct mail.

Hope that helps.

Paul