YELLOW LETTERS
A yellow letter is a handwritten letter that is used by real estate professionals such as investors, realtors, mortgage brokers and even insurance agents. They are written on yellow "legal pad" paper. It is designed to be a friendly note that attracts motivated sellers and other prospects. If you are sending out yellow letters looking for these prospects, there are some things to do to make sure that you have a successful yellow letter campaign.
A very important part of your role as a real estate investor is to act as a problem solver. Some of the problems to be solved are in your marketing strategies. They need to be evaluated and adjusted as you go. Looking at your data on a continuous basis allows you to figure out what pieces are not working and others that are
The data to track and then analyze is the basic characteristics of a mail campaign. Keep track of how many letters you send on a daily basis. The magic number of 20 letters a day will get you basic results. Increasing that number will increase your opportunity of attracting a prospect.
Sending out letters should be done on a regular and consistent basis. If you want results, you will need to send letters four to five days a week. This allows you to keep track of an exact area that you saturate within that week’s time.
You will need to send these letters over and over again for a minimum of three months, preferably for six months. When figuring out your marketing budget, you will have to include how many times you will mail a certain number of pieces over a six month period.
Next, you will have to keep track of the number of phone calls you are receiving from the mailing of the letters. If your phone call numbers are low, you will have to analyze the contents of the letter and who you are sending them to. Over the course of a year’s worth of calculations, you should have approximately a 12% response rate. This rate is generated by mailing your list five to seven times in that 12 month period. There will be some months that your percentage is very low and then others where it is through the roof. That is why you analyze a year’s worth of stats!
Answering your phone during a yellow letter campaign is essential. Responders want to talk to YOU, not someone who will take a message. If you miss a call, you must return their message! You will see a far greater success if you talk to the sellers on their time, and that is the moment they are calling you!
When you do get a phone call and you are the one that answers it, you need to double check what you are saying. Something in your yellow letter got the receiver excited enough to make the call and you want to keep that excitement up! On the first call that they make y to you, you will need to ask them why they are selling their home, what they are looking for from you and how quickly do they want to sell their home if you make them an offer.After those questions, start making the caller your friend and build a rapport.
Appointments are the ultimate goal of a yellow letter campaign and you want to get one as quickly as you can especially if the caller is a very motivated seller. Remember that your excitement needs to remain high all the way through the process. Keep the momentum going and make the callers thrilled to get to meet you!
Writing an offer is where you want to finally end up in the yellow letter process. Write your offer at the appointment and then leave it for your prospects to consider. Even if they don’t want an offer, leave one anyway. Let them contemplate what the value of the whole experience is worth. Most times, people just have to take events into their minds in order to make a decision. If you are honest and forthcoming and the prospect trusts you, they will come back with a counter offer and you will have a deal and a full success from a yellow letter campaign!
Everest Direct Mail and Marketing offers a yellow letters mail program and it is customized to fit each clients’ needs and make every penny count. There are no limiting letter templates that bind you to just two or three content options – meaning no two mailers are alike and your letters are exclusive and one of a kind. You have free reign on what you put in your letter, including the type of handwritten font, the color and size of the font, and whatever content and merge fields you’d like to include. This way, you can be sure your yellow letter is unique and will stand out from any other yellow letter mailer. We use real yellow lined and white lined memo paper, with blue lines and red margins, just like the notepad paper you’ll find in the stores. It’s as if you ripped a page right out of a memo pad, wrote a real letter, and sent it personally to the client yourself! The lightweight look and feel is sure to catch potential clients’ attention because of the authenticity of the paper quality. We never cut corners by simply printing lines on regular copy paper or using fake memo paper. These yellow letters can be stuffed into a multitude of different colored envelopes, also boasting legitimate handwritten or chaos font for the return and recipient addresses, optimizing the chance for open rates and a high return on your investment.
