Yellow Postcard Campaigns that Generated 502 Calls, $96,900 and 3,421% ROI

Joy Gendusa

Want to see how one investor generated 502 calls and an ROI of 3,421% from ONE marketing campaign?

And better yet — he's currently earning $60k–$100k a month using postcards as his ONLY form of marketing.

Then keep reading:

An investor located in North Carolina decided to try direct mail to drive qualified calls into his business.

The first and arguably most important part to building your direct mail campaign is the mailing list. This investor compiled his mailing list separately, focusing on 7,200 distressed homeowners living in the area he wanted to target.

Once you know the homeowners you're going after, it's time to design your mail piece.

This investor bypassed the more formal stamped envelope and letter approach — instead, he chose yellow postcards.

Here's where he got clever:

His design jumped right to the THIRD NOTICE. This creates a big sense of urgency while saving money on mailing “first” and “second” notices. Another clever design option would be advertising that this is a “final notice.”

This investor utilized variable data on their cards.

Variable data enables specific data points from your mailing list to be printed on your postcards automatically from a list, so that each postcard reflects the personalized info of that recipient.

Personalizing direct mail with variable data can definitely move the needle. Check out the numbers:

90%1 of consumers find personalization appealing
88%2 of U.S. marketers report measurable improvements due to personalization
78%3 of consumers said personally relevant content increases the likelihood that they’ll buy

Plus, personalizing your postcards costs sheer pennies extra per piece, yet the increase in response (up to 135%4) can mean BIG business!

In real estate investing, here are some of the items you can personalize on your direct mail:

First name
Last name
Property value
Property address
Date

This investor took advantage of a tried-and-true REI lead capture tactic — “listen to my recorded message.” This strategy is a very low commitment method to capture a lead AND a phone number at that! I'll take phone numbers over email addresses all day.

I actually interviewed this investor about his success, and here's what he had to say:

“My advice to another investor, in terms of marketing, is to automate the process and pump up the volume, because what we all understand in real estate is that the marketing is a numbers game.”

That was his plan from the get go. His mailings were very high-quantity — 7,200 postcards every month.

After just 3 months

502 unique calls
13 new homes purchased
$96,900 in immediate revenue
And later, when I caught back up with him, he said that he was generating $60,000–$100,000 per month thanks to his postcard campaign.

And again — this is the ONLY marketing he does! Not a bad campaign, right?

Here’s one more example from an investor using a similar design:

This investor mailed yellow postcards to property owners (in Champaign-Urbana, IL) with homes valued at $180,000 or less.

Here's what I like most about their design:

A bold headline that creates urgency by telling prospects they’ve been missed
A special offer that pays 100% of closing costs to give prospects serious savings
A 30-day deadline so homeowners need to act NOW to take advantage of said savings

Today, they alternate their mailings between different postcard designs so that their prospects continuously see their special offer and message.

Their most recent mailing generated the following results:

54 calls
4 deals
$40,000 in revenue
And a return on investment (ROI) of 518%.

This investor has been using direct mail since 2014 to grow their business because it works. Every time they send out 1,000 cards, they receive about 3 calls. And because about 1 in 12 calls convert with a house they can sell, that’s an average of $10,000 profit per close. With consistent results like those, would who stop?