REIM Guy

Here’s the sixth lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #6:

Proof read the copy…

Let me tell you a little story… I sent out a resume for a job that I wanted to get; not to a specific company, but a type of job to many companies. After several weeks went by and NO response ever came (NONE), a friend of mine asked me if I wanted him to look at it and see what he could find. I said, “sure.” He said, “Do you realize, you forgot to put your phone number on this resume??”

I think you get my point!

You may have seen great direct marketing pieces that were missing “key information” like phone numbers, addresses, or other key information. Missing those key pieces of information just defeated the purpose of the mailing. Proof reading is a very important aspect of all of your marketing campaigns. Mis-spelled words look very unprofessional too!

If you feel that you lack in those skills, hire someone to proof your copy. Or ask someone who has a way with words to take a look at your text.

Proof read your copy!!!! At least 3 or 4 times!

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Here’s the fifth lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #5:

Personalize your letters …

I don’t think I can “over” emphasize this point!

Leave out the hype and commercial sounding wording. Personalize the letter as if you were writing to a friend. Your copy/letter should not sound like a car commercial. Don’t use words like people, folks, or any other words that indicate the “masses.” Remember, write in way that sounds like you’re talking to a friend.

Hi Susan.. How are you John?

Don’t use words that you don’t use when you’re talking everyday!

What do I mean???? “It is a very hot day today, don’t you think so Tom???

NO, NO NO!!! That’s NOT the way you talk and it’s not the way I do either.

I might say…”Hey Tom, don’t you think it’s a scorcher today? I’m burnin up!”

You might say, “Yeah, but I don’t even know the people I’m writing to”…. That’s right you may not, but if you ever want to get to know them, you must write in a personal way!

People hate form letters. WHY? Because they feel like they’re being treated like a number… NOT a person. There’s NOTHING Personal about an “impersonal” sales letter!

Personalize your letters and watch the response go way up!

Here’s the fourth lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #4:

Test, and continue testing to achieve the best possible response..

None of us want to “throw” our money out the window and get NO results from a direct mail marketing campaign. But, that’s what you’ll do if you don’t know how effective your letters are. OR, how ineffective they are…

After being confident that your letter has all the right ingredients in it, send a few hundred and see what happens. Did you get a response (based on the “call to action”) you hoped for? How many did you get? None? Several?

Don’t just send out hundreds, only to find out, it’s not working. If it’s not working, evaluate why. Have someone else look at it for you and get their opinion. (Not a friend who tells you, “everything you do is great.”)

Too many people find out the hard way that their direct mail piece is not effective. Make it your common practice to test out anything you plan to use. See if it makes an impact. Does it work? How well?

Here’s the third lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #3:

A clear concise “call to action”…

This is “the end,” the “concluding thoughts,” if we were writing a story. In an ad copy or direct mail marketing letter, it’s the, “OK, now it’s your turn to do what I’m telling you to do.” OR, asking you politely to do…

Do you want them to call you?
Do you want them to email you?
Do you want them to return a form in the mail?
Do you want them to order your book?

You get the idea. It’s the reason you’ve written the letter to them in the first place.

ex. Give me a call today at 555 555-3954 and I’ll make an appointment to meet with you at your convenience.

It seems simple enough, BUT.. If you don’t tell the reader what you want them to do, it defeats the point of sending the direct mail letter. Do you want them to call you? Buy something? Fill out the form at the bottom of the letter? Make it clear what they should do or they will not respond.

Here’s the second lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

Lesson #2:

Clean, legible, well crafted copy…

It’s NOT the amount of words that really matter; they need to be the “right words.” Of course, the letter copy needs to be long enough to convey the entire message, but the “right words” are what will get the response you’re looking for.

What are the “right words?”

They are words that let the prospect know that you understand and empathize with their problem, concerns, emotions and needs. (Try and put “yourself” in their position.) If you have a difficult time doing that, you probably won’t get to far with your letter.

Highlight and explain the actual “benefits” of your service. if you don’t specifically tell them what the benefit is to them, why should they care about it? That’s what you have to ask yourself when you write the letter… “Why should they care?”

Take the time to do several re-writes until the copy will grab the reader’s attention.

Here’s the first lesson on the 8 critical components of a “successful” direct mailing campaign.

If you read the home page at http://www.real-estate-investors-marketing.com, you already got a pretty good explanation of those components, but NOW, I’m going to send you a lesson everyday that will go “deeper” and expound more on each one. I’ll send all 8 lessons in 8 days. That’s right…. one each day.

So check em’ out everyday and learn how you can benefit using them for your direct mail campaign.

Lesson #1:

You must use a quality, current, and highly targeted list…

If you want to find people that are in “foreclosure” for instance, you can go to the courthouse, look in the newspaper or best yet; use a “foreclosure service.” These services usually give you all the information that you’ll need to put your offer together. It saves you a lot of time and provides you with plenty of leads. One of the best services I’ve found is: http://tinyurl.com/55mgjd

If you’re serious about making an income from foreclosures, it’s worth every penny to use a service. Otherwise, you’ll be working “very hard for little results.” You can spend hours at the courthouse waiting for help and even if you know what and where to look for the information you need, someone else already has it, “from one of the services.” Now you’ve wasted your time and lost the opportunity to find a deal.

Whatever the “target” is, you must use a “current” list. Using a current list is the ONLY way to get results from a Foreclosure list, a Bankruptcy list, Distressed property owner list or any other lists, where circumstances will be changing in “days” sometimes. Otherwise, you’ve just wasted your money!

The biggest mistake that you can make is to use a mailing list that doesn’t represent your target audience. Too many people send out mailings, get no response, and wonder why. Make sure that your list is “current” and “targeted” to meet your needs.

I’ve been “preparing,” over the last few years, to be the real estate investor I’ve always wanted to be. But, as one wise investor once said, “Education, without implementation, is simply entertainment.”

I didn’t spend the money I’ve spent, to learn what I’ve learned, just to be “entertained!”

Earlier this month, a guy I respect as a person, real estate investor, marketer and wholesaling godfather… (He doesn’t know that’s my title on him!) Well, he had what he called, a “No Pitch” conference in Tampa, Fl., where many different investors and “leading” teachers shared their tips.

Here’s a list of “The 10 Biggest Mistakes” investors make… according to Mike Collins. Not only do I agree with him, I just had to share this list from Mike, with you too… in case you missed the seminar, like I did. Here’s the list. LEARN from it.

1. Buying rentals before ever wholesaling.

Back when I started and still today people preach the way to success in real estate investing is to buy rental properties and hold them. While I don’t disagree in the long run, not wholesaling first and/or adding wholesaling to your existing rental acquisitions program will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars and years, maybe decades, of your life.

2. Attempting to Rehab Homes before wholesaling.

All of the rage today is flipping houses, witness all the television shows where people buy, fix up and resell houses. While that can be a profitable strategy for some. Neglecting wholesaling and not learning the values of these houses will again cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. If we agree that the commodity we deal in is houses then wouldn’t it make sense that the first job we need to learn or the most important job we need to learn is how to find, value (or evaluate) and secure contracts on this single family home commodity?

3. Buying houses for a rental or rehabbing without understanding how deep a discount I could really get.

Many people, Rehabbers and Landlords, could make so much more money for their efforts if they first learned through constant repetition of buying and selling houses what the real lowest value is they could get on deals.

4. Not understanding the value of homes at a deep level before I made offers.

Many people try and buy houses rehab, rental, and wholesaling without a detailed comparable sales program. There are many cheaper alternatives to a quality comparable sales program; but if you were a carpenter would you go to work without a hammer? This tool (the comparable sales program) is your right hand in wholesaling houses.

5. Not understanding marketing is the most important part of my business.

“You don’t gotta get it right, you just gotta get it goin!” Everyone’s heard the term, guerilla marketing. Anyone, at any level of finances and willingness can start this business from their spare bedroom and build up to any level of marketing budget they wish.

6. Thinking I was looking for people in financial trouble.

This is one of the biggest mistakes new people make. They search foreclosures or advertise for people in financial distress. In reality the commodity we are looking for is a property that has repair issues. We can’t purchase a property at a deep enough discount unless there are repair issues we can solve and thus increase the value and price of the home.

7. Borrowing money of any kind, hard money, family money, bank line of credit against my home, any type of money borrowing for real estate investing while I was wholesaling or before I learned to be a good wholesaler.

“Find the deal first and the money second,” is the rule you should live by. Everyone gets bogged down because they don’t personally have the money, or they don’t know where to get it, or where to find a buyer for the property. This is truly a scenario of putting the cart before the horse. “Deal first - money second!!”

8. Thinking mistakes, were the end of the world.

“You fall you learn!” Learn to fail faster, if you make mistakes in rehabbing or landlording it could be years before your back in the game or back on your game. In wholesaling making a mistake means only that you learned what houses not to buy. Think of the old adage, “What would you attempt if you could not fail?” Wholesalers know that there is very little at risk, including their earnest money deposit, on well written contracts on single family homes. (In the commercial real estate world they call this a free look.)

9. Not knowing what I was looking for.

Most everyone starts their real estate career looking for houses that they might like to live in, when in reality they should be looking for the investment grade rehab and rental properties in their area. These are below the median price ranges in stable blue collar neighborhoods.

10. Wholesaling too many houses and not keeping enough for my portfolio.

Rank this as the biggest mistake I EVER made, Here I was, the gateway to my clients 100, 200 and I even 400 house portfolios and I was selling them for what amounted to tips. Don’t feel too sorry for me, as I learned my lesson and started keeping rentals! I wish I had done it sooner, Just please don’t do the same and keep the best houses with the biggest equities for you and your families future.

Even after 20 years of wholesaling houses writing this blog post takes me back in time and I feel all the frustration I did when I first got started. I want you to bypass all that frustration. Take this list, print it out, put up by your desk, and make sure you reference it frequently.

BUT…

Just because those were MY mistakes, it doesn’t mean they’re the ONLY mistakes one can make.

All the best,
Steve Berchtold
http://www.real-estate-investors-marketing.com

Do you know what the #1 problem is for anyone
struggling to make money online?

No, I’m not trying to sell you anything.  I’m
simply asking a question.

===============
What Is The Problem?
===============

Some people say it’s not having the right information,
and even more say it’s not knowing where to start…

And what’s odd is that their both right… BUT…

The real thing holding you back is:

*Lack Of Personal Attention*

Or maybe you could call it…

*Lack Of “Guru” Involvement*

Seriously.

Doesn’t it just feel like they publish these
dorky eBooks and then run off into
the night… never to be seen again?

=======================
Think About This For A Second:
=======================

How many times have you bought some random
”Guru” product and had a question about a process
or system that just didn’t seem to make sense?

Well, if you’re like just shy of 100% of struggling Internet
Marketers out there then you’ve run into this issue before.

You bought the thing in the first place because
the “sales letter” promised all sorts of great
wealth and power…

Now you’re eagerly reading page after page… hoping
to uncover the secrets of the universe…

And what ends up happening?

======================
The Product CAN’T Deliver…
======================

What do you do?  Most people do nothing.

But a small, select few will try to “clear up” the
issue by sending the “Guru” an email.

And that’s where the silence begins.

You never hear back.  It’s like nobody exists
at the end of that big, black cyber-hole called
email.

==============================
What If I Told You All That Had Changed?
==============================

No, this still isn’t a sales pitch, I’m just asking
some questions!

Just what if…

… you could actually find a program that was
not only really built for new and struggling
internet marketers… (rather than the millions of
products build for people who ALREADY have
successful businesses…)

…that had direct access to the person who
made the program?

And what if…

===========================
The Program Was Built Around YOU?
===========================

Freaky idea, huh?

What if there was a program developed by
a guy who was not only extremely focused
on getting you and your business either off the
ground or blown up to the level you dream of…

… Do you think that would be worth
checking out?

No?

I don’t blame you.  I wouldn’t have thought
so either.

Why?  Because it sounds like “Marketing
Hype” and yet another load of crap.

But then I heard…

=========================
… He Works Directly With YOU
=========================

And this is where it gets freaky.

The guy actually responds to his emails!

Not only that he works with you in the forums…

AND… not to get your hopes up or anything,
but he’s even doing Joint Ventures with some of
the people in his program!

Now THAT is worth taking a look.

========================
But That’s Not The Best Part…
========================

The best part is…

It won’t cost you a dime to try out the program…

…and see for yourself if all this stuff I’ve been
saying is true.

==================
No Cost To Try It Out
==================

Like I said, I’m not selling you anything.  I’m
just pointing a few small issues and letting
you know there’s a “different” sort of marketer
in town.

See for yourself.  Here’s the link.
http://www.goldbar.net/ua/link.php?affID=U3RldmVCZXJjaHRvbGRfYWQ=||

No kidding.  You can take a look at Zero Cost.

P.S. The other thing you should know about
this guy is that he has the most *entertaining*
online business development training you’ll
probably ever run into.

Take a look, on the 3rd or 4th page he
even has some video samples…
http://www.goldbar.net/ua/link.php?affID=U3RldmVCZXJjaHRvbGRfYWQ=||

Remember back in September 2007, I wrote about the emotional aspect of what was happening in the real estate investing scene. (Well, of course you don’t, but I looked at past blog articles and found I’d written, “Too many invested right past the “line of safety.”) The “bungee” cord was “frayed” when they jumped off the bridge! It cost them dearly.”

Well now, very few are moving anywhere fast… not even cautious to slow… some are “fastened into their seat” like a 10 year old on a Disney ride. There’s a new emotion invading the real estate investing landscape… it’s fear. Like when you get thrown from a horse when you’re young and you think, “I’m not getting on that horse again!” Well, hold up a minute cowboy… you won’t learn how to be a real cowboy, unless you get on that horse and ride again… someday soon.

I’ve talked with many real estate investors and other people in real estate and they are saying, that there is activity and the pricing market value will not be finished bottoming out for about another 6 months, but most have already reached the bottom price now.

Keep in mind, this information is coming to you from the WORST place in America for foreclosures. (It’s the first time I’ve ever known of, where being #1 was nothing to be proud of.) I live in a house that appraised for $275, 000.00, just two short years ago. Today, if I could even find a buyer, I would be doing well to get $110,000! (I got that straight from one of the best Realtors I know.) And with the current assessments of the new city water, sewer and irrigation in place… I’M ACTUALLY UPSIDE DOWN!! That’s right, $23,700 is the new COST, in addition to my mortgage balance. I don’t know who’s crunching the numbers or what they’re smoking, but to me, the 45% loss of value most ascribe to homes in my area is about as “accurate as a Donald Trump bad hair day.” According to my calculator, that’s a whopping 150% loss of market value. There are stocks that have never lost that much!

Very sadly, my neighbor (who we love) just finished loading up his family, dogs, birds and household possessions and moved into a rental about 15 minutes from the house he’d paid on for over five years, because the loan AND assessments, just pushed him over the edge!

He has been a hard working man (deputy sheriff) and his wife a dedicated school teacher, who now have a foreclosure staring them down the throat and losing everything they worked for. The foreclosure rate is “staggering” and the greed of banks and people alike has come back to create “heartache no one could have imagined.”

OK, I’m not saying real estate is a bad or risky investing tool, I’m just looking at the depth to which we’ve sunk. When will it get better? I’ll tell you now.

The day we realize that we have to start putting some emotion back into the ‘business of real estate investing” and start caring about people enough to say, NO. “It wouldn’t be good for you to borrow $300,000.00 since you work at Mickey D’s and bring home $320.00 a week and your husband brings home $390.00 a week at his job.” “I can’t, with a clear conscience, loan you this money.” Let’s replace GREED, with an emotion I call, CARING!

And, real estate investors, let’s get going again, because there are still a lot of opportunities!