The Million Dollar Foreclosure System - Part 5 6-
3
Chapter Seven
Direct Marketing Details
What you mail to your prospect is very, very important. It must motivate
him to ask for your help. It is a major challenge to move him to that point.
Fortunately you know some things about him that will help you. You know he is
distressed, under financial pressure and has some anxiety and embarrassment
about his situation.
Research shows he has other characteristics that you must be aware of.
These are traits he has in common with most other people (whether or not in
default) and your odds of succeeding are greatly enhanced if you design your
mailings with them in mind.
He is a procrastinator. It is difficult to get him to act even when it is for his
own good. You must make it as easy as possible for him to respond to your
mailings. Research has shown that he hates to write letters and he may have a
fear of calling you on the telephone. You can boost your rate of response by
including a postage paid reply postcard in some of your mailings. Check with
your post office for costs and procedures.
The average prospect’s handwriting is illegible. Ask him to print his name
and address on the return postcard. He will resist completing and mailing the
postcard if the space for name and address is small. Design your card so there
is plenty of room to easily write in the requested information.
The card should ask for name, address, phone number and what days and
times would be best for you to call him. Don’t ask him to provide any other
information. To ask for more may just give him an excuse for not filling out the
card at all.
7-1
Now here is a strange bit of information learned from test mailings. You will get a
slightly better return from any response card if you give the prospect a yes/no
choice. Example:
Please check one:
_________ Yes, please contact me so we can have a no obligation talk.
_________ No, I’m not ready to accept your help at this time. Perhaps later.
Why should that choice increase the number of people who will return the
postcard? Who knows? But direct marketing experts spent a lot of money to
uncover this bit of information, so be sure to put it to use.
There are some prospects that will never complete and mail a postcard.
They are the ones who are ready for quick action. They want a phone number
they can call. Research shows that a toll free, 24-hour FREE RECORDED
message will increase the rate of response.
The message reinforces your ability to help the distressed owner out of a
tight spot and gives him or her the opportunity to connect with you immediately.
Once such service can be found at FreedomVoice.com
Having a regular cell phone is OK at first, but always answer it in a
professional manner. Never allow a child to answer your phone!
In all the material you mail indicate the hours you can be reached by
phone. Stress this point. If you are working at a regular day job indicate the
evening hours you will be by the telephone. Your best bet is to use a cell phone,
so that you are always able to answer a call.
As a last resort you could use an answering machine. When distressed
owners are ready to take action they will seldom leave a message on a machine,
or will they try a second time to reach.
7-2
Part of every message you send should be aimed toward telling your
prospect exactly what he should do to get a hold of you. Your instructions should
be clear and easy to follow – "Call me this evening between 6PM and 9PM. Just
dial 000-0000. I will be there to answer the phone." Then make sure you will be
there to take any calls.
...
,PSRUWDQW
... .
Your prospect does not want to be made to think. Make everything so simple it can be understood
by a fourth-grader. He or she will not be put off by simple language and instructions. Just the
opposite, they will be pleased that they understand your message with so little mental effort on
their part.
Simple language is one of the keys to good communication. If every thing you send the prospect
can be read and understood quickly and effortlessly it will have a subliminal effect. The prospect
will tend to recall your name and message even though they may not remember actually reading
your material. What’s more, your message will be recognized with little more than a quick scan of
your letter or postcard.
Please read those last two paragraphs one more time. To understand this
principal is to be armed with the most powerful secret of successful sales letters
and sales copy of all kinds. Your prospect will be suspicious of your material if it
is too fancy. Keep it simple and uncluttered.
The prospect will be offended by a high-pressure message. You want a
soft, understanding, friendly approach. Don’t make promises you can’t live up to.
Don’t offer hope unless you can deliver. Let the prospect know you have helped
others in their position and you may be able to help them.
The homeowner really wants to find a friend. He wants to trust you and
allow you to help him out of the financial mess he finds himself in. He may feel
alone and under siege. He wants someone who can lift the load from his
shoulders. Who can say, "Let’s talk and see if I can solve some of your problems
just as I have done for others."
7-3
Then, when you have gathered the facts and found that there is some
financial room for maneuvering you can say, "Yes, here is what I can do for you.
If you can agree to my offer you can then just sit back and relax. I’ll take care of
everything."
That’s what the distressed homeowner is looking for. He or she wants
someone they can pass their troubles to. Someone they can believe in and trust.
Someone who will step in, do the work and allow them to retreat back into as
near a normal life as possible.
These points should be kept in mind whenever you are creating mailing
pieces or talking with prospects. They are basic, but vital to your success. To
ignore them is to make a simple task almost impossible.
You must recognize these human traits as being present in all of us. They
do not change, but they may be intensified in those individuals who are
experiencing the stress of foreclosure and personal financial disaster.
Knowledge of these truths gives you a powerful tool in your efforts to gain
a prospect’s confidence. Don’t get so caught up in the other elements of your
system that you lose sight of this. Just remember that these points are based on
human understanding and kindness.
You will spend time, money and effort to place yourself in a position where
you can really help this distressed homeowner. You have thought through the
mental and emotional state of a person facing loss of his home. You are aware
of and sensitive to his fears and anxieties. You have prepared yourself through
study, business organization and financial preparedness to provide a needed
service to the homeowner.
Most of the people you help will be grateful that you were there to come to their
rescue. You deserve to be rewarded for your foresight.
It is easy to understand that what you mail to a prospect is extremely
important. The success of your entire system starts with an effective direct
mailing program. You are firm in your belief that you can help at least some of
those facing foreclosure. You must do everything possible to break through their
habit of ignoring advertising, so they will be aware of what you have to offer.
7-4
Your direct mailing system is a method of advertising. You are trying to
sell your service, just like every other merchant or manufacturer is trying to sell
their product or service.
In most areas there will be others who recognize the opportunity and are
contacting the distressed homeowners. Yes, you will be competing with them.
But think about it, you are really competing with anyone who is trying to get an
advertising message through to your prospect.
We are all bombarded with thousands of sales messages every day. TV,
radio, newspapers, billboards, telephone sales and direct mail. They all cry out
for our attention. That is what you are up against. You must create and deliver
your message so that it will be one of the few that capture your prospect’s
attention. Even for a few seconds. And yes, you can do that!
A basic rule in direct marketing is the rule of seven. It says that you
must get your message in front of your prospect at least seven times before it
will have an effect. That is why you see the same ads running again and again
on television.
Whether seven is really the magic number is not important. What you must
learn from the rule is that you have to get your message to your prospect a
number of times to have any chance for him/her to take notice of it. That is why
this system is based on sending a message to the prospect about every ten
days for a total of ten impressions.
Remember that you are composing these messages in very simple
language, so they will have a subliminal effect on the homeowner.
Understanding this concept greatly increases your chances of having your
message remembered and acted upon. It is a good bet that none of your
competitors will be utilizing this plan.
You will find that others who are attempting to contact the distressed
parties during the pre-foreclosure period make two mistakes. They fail to contact
the prospects often enough and they all send the same type of letter.
In addition to mailing up to ten times, you are going to be mailing a variety
of materials. You will alter the vehicle that carries the message, so it won’t be
easily recognized and automatically rejected.
7-5
That is what happens to a lot of direct marketing mail. Think about your
own habits. Don’t you often thumb through your mail and discard what is
obviously "junk mail", without opening or reading it? Sure, we all do that. Your
challenge is to design your mailing so it will escape rejection.
It is no secret that we all fall into certain groups when it comes to
communication. Some people have grown up watching television and are
programmed to receive their information accompanied by pictures. Others are
not well educated and reading has never become a habit with them. Still others
are detail oriented and must have things in depth explanations.
With this knowledge you can plan on including in your mailings something
that will appeal to everyone. If you send just one style of message over and over
again you risk losing every person whom does not respond to that type of
message.
One of the key points in this system is that you change the form of your
message, while following all of the principals that you have learned to this point:
1. Multiple mailings.
2. Simple language.
3. Variety of form.
4. Warm, friendly tone.
5. Attention grabbers.
Number five in the list means that in some of your mailing pieces you will
want to use strong, attention getting devices. Your primary job is to get the
prospect’s attention. You have to do that before you have a chance of getting
him/her to notice your message.
You must use anything – ANYTHING that will get the homeowner’s
attention! If your message fails to get noticed, even for a few seconds, your
efforts are wasted. Your message is simple, so you just need his attention for a
moment. In that moment his mind opens and in pops you offer!
Some of your material will use slightly outlandish devices to gain attention.
Not all of them, because not every person will respond to that tactic. Some will,
so be sure and use them.
7-6
Now let’s get into exactly what you will be mailing. What follows are
examples of the variety of materials you will want to mail. Use them exactly as
presented or alter them to suit your tastes. In these pages we have attempted to
give you an understanding of not only what you will be doing, but also why you
are doing it. As you study the examples you will see how the concepts are put
into practice.
With this knowledge you will be able to create your own material if you
desire to do that. Others may blindly copy what you are doing, but it is doubtful
they will understand why you are doing it. You will be equipped to create
effective new mailings whenever they are needed. Your material will always be
based on solid, proven creative principals.
Keep your mind open for new marketing ideas. Jump on hot topics and
trends. Work them into your mailings. They will help you capture your prospect’s
attention.
If you are in an area where there is plenty of competition stay abreast of
what others are doing. When you make friends with a homeowner ask him to
show you what other material he is receiving. Ask him to save all these mailings
for you. This will allow you to stay ahead of the others and keep your mailings
unique and attention getting.
Your chances for success will increase with the effectiveness of your
mailings. You can never afford to stop working to improve them.
Let me mention here foreclosure seminars. Every so often a good
promoter will travel the country teaching a miracle method for getting rich
through foreclosure investing. For a few weeks after those seminars distressed
homeowner’s are flooded with the same letter from dozens of seminar students.
This lasts only a short while. 99% of these people give up when they see how
much effort it takes to get rich.
Don’t worry about them. Just keep working what you know is a proven
system. This document and accompanying materials are designed to provide authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered in it. It is for illustration purposes only and presented with the understanding that the author and publisher are not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or other professional opinions. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. |
