Paul McComb has been a real estate investor and broker since 2008. He’s developed successful real estate investment marketing strategies and processes to acquire and nurture leads. As an independent broker, he handles all the lead development himself with no office staff to help. Mr. McComb knows keeping the pipeline full requires constantly working the system he’s built, but that takes time. Every hour he spends on tasks like preparing direct mail letters is better spent in other, revenue-producing activities. He decided a marketing automation system was the way to free him from the tedious administrative work of manual direct mail.

McComb concentrates on mostly residential properties. He can either purchase the property outright and resell it, or list and market the property as a traditional real estate agent. Real estate investing is a popular profession, but Mr. McComb believes it takes dedication and a willingness to spend money to be truly successful. Strategic direct mail is an area that sets McComb Realty apart from other entrepreneurs searching for investment properties.

Postalytics is equally suited to handle high-volume complex customer communication strategies and support small operations like McComb Realty. With no need for application integration or complicated interactive elements, companies with modest requirements can still reap the benefits of automated direct mail, saving them time and money over traditional approaches.

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The Challenge: Good Real Estate Investment Marketing Calls For Systematic, Multiple Touches

McComb Realty’s direct mail solution had to be consistent and automatic. Successful real estate investment marketers know that it sometimes takes months to convince property owners to sell.

McComb has developed a long-term series of contacts, all done through the mail. A new batch starts the process at the beginning of each month, resulting in hundreds of prospects at different points in the mailing sequence at any point in time.

Any direct mail solution that required McComb to initiate timed manual mailings would not work for him. As a busy professional, time is money, and the manual steps associated with traditional direct mail were a non-starter. A need for automation drove him to seek an affordable direct mail system.

I needed to automate the direct mail. I wanted to start campaigns and have the system do the mailings by itself.

Paul McComb
McComb Realty

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The Solution: Direct Mail Automation Software That Schedules Multiple Touches Weeks In Advance

Mr. McComb didn’t need to invest in a separate CRM system. The nature of his business allows him to upload his prospects to Postalytics and then maintain the data there. He updates the list weekly by removing uninterested prospects. Otherwise, Postalytics continues the drip sequence of mailings to the end of the six-month campaign.

Why 6 touches over a 6 month period? Paul McComb is putting into effect a long held belief among top direct marketers: It typically takes between 4-7 touches in order to build awareness and drive the response you’re looking for.

Add A Mail Drop Feature Automates Multi-touch Scheduling For Real Estate Investment Marketing

All Postalytics plans include a key feature used by many successful real estate investors. The “Add A Mail Drop” feature enables a marketer to quickly (1-2 minutes) schedule multiple “mail drops” or touches to the same audience or list.

How does it work? McComb simply clicks through an easy to follow wizard that enables him to select his creative, and whether or not he wants to send to the full list again or a segment based on response. The final step enables him to choose a date in the future when Postalytics will automatically send the chosen creative to the chosen list.

Investing a few minutes in automatically scheduling multiple touches can generate huge results!

Simple Letters Built In The Postalytics Editor Generate Leads

The McComb real estate investment marketing system uses only letters sent to his targeted prospects. The letters are brief and feature only text to convey the message. Though the built-in Postalytics editor supports photos and graphics, McComb has found that for his purposes, plain text works the best.

The letter content is personalized, but McComb takes the time to edit the data in Excel files before uploading to Postalytics. In this way, he’s sure the personalization is accurate, and he avoids irritating the prospects by being too familiar or using improper references.

Because of the speed and efficiency associated with automated direct mail production, Mr. McComb was able to focus on testing his audience to see which format works best. Some of the best performing direct mail campaigns in history are unadorned and simple.

The letter text McComb sends in the first half of the campaign differs slightly from the text sent in the last half. Postalytics easily supports this functionality. With operations in two cities, McComb Realty can segment the lists. Their letters bear two different return addresses, depending on the location of the property. A local presence is important in the real estate investment business and the mailpieces must bear the addresses of the relevant location.

Other Postalytics customers have found success using various sales letter and postcard formats. Here are some examples of real estate investment “pre-built” postcards available to all Postalytics customers.

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The Results: Motivated Sellers Who Call To Schedule In-Person Meetings And Tours

Because of the automation capabilities in Postalytics, the system provides all the functionality McComb Realty needs to pursue its targeted set of prospects. The system is uncomplicated, and the automated sequence of letters is the key.

“I know direct mail requires multiple touches. For managing campaigns of mailings at pre-set intervals, Postalytics has been the right solution for me”

Paul McComb
Real Estate Investment Marketer

All the letters encourage a single call to action: Call Paul McComb.

With these phone calls, McComb can further qualify the prospects and schedule in-person meetings and a tour of the property. The company feels the personal connection on the phone is more effective than any additional marketing they might do via their website.

After a relationship with the seller has been established and the property evaluated, McComb decides whether to list or sell the home. When people call in response to his letters Mr. McComb notes they are usually motivated to sell the home quickly.

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What’s Next: Customized Envelopes To Drive More Leads

Like many Postalytics customers, Mr. McComb is interested in custom-printed envelopes to make his letters grab attention from his target audience. Custom envelopes are a new feature Postalytics recently added to the solution and offer an additional way to increase the effectiveness of direct mail.

McComb will continue to operate as an independent broker. He feels his experience, personality, and his work ethic will allow his business to grow in his preferred markets. With Postalytics handling the direct mail details, Mr. McComb can spend more of his time on high-value activities like searching for properties or talking with prospective clients.

The flexible Postalytics system will support McComb Realty should the company decide to change their direct mail strategy. With a wide range of variable data and variable logic options, no minimum list sizes and a pay-as-you-go billing structure, Postalytics allows real estate investment marketing organizations like McComb Realty to take advantage of affordable and effective direct mail.