What’s in your mailbox these days?  In my neighborhood, I get two or three oversized postcards from local real estate agents every week.  Since they turn up so often and from more than one agent I figured that they had to be producing results…or else why would they continue to send them?

But, I wanted a bit more info on the ROI of sending postcards. After all, there was the cost of design, printing and mailing behind each of these pieces of mail. That HAD to be expensive.

A little noodling around on Google and I found these stats:

Direct Mail Still Gets the Best Response

1. Direct mail household response rate is 5.1% (compared to .6% email, .6% paid search, .2% online display, .4% social media). This is the highest response rate the DMA has ever reported, since coming out with the Response Rate Report in 2003.
2. Direct mail median household return on investment is 29% (compared to 124% email, 23% paid search, 16% online display, 30% social media).
3. At 6.6%, oversized envelopes have the greatest household response rates over other mediums (followed by postcards at 5.7% and letter-sized envelopes at 4.3%).
4. At 37%, oversized envelopes have the greatest household return on investment over other mediums (followed by postcards and letter-sized envelopes at 29%).
5. The top response rate tracking methods are online tracking such as PURLs (61%), call center or telephone (53%), and code or coupon (42%).
   (Source for 1,2,3,4,5: DMA)
6. For every $167 spent of direct mail in the US, marketers sell $2095 in goods. (Source: Print is Big)

The Bottom Line – Direct mail has the greatest impact because it offers a tangible experience for the customer. Oversized pieces stand out the most.

So, I was convinced that direct mail produced results.  Now, I had to find a way to get the cards printed and mailed to the houses that I wanted to target. 

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may recall that I wrote about a company called RealMailers back in February of 2017 (https://realtytechbytes.com/best-direct-mail-tool-real-estate/) so I decided to see if they were still in business.

Sure enough, they are still around and they have actually improved their offering!  You can get a postcard designed, printed, mailed and delivered for 59 cents per postcard!  That’s for one card or thousands of cards.  Each postcard costs .59 to design print and mail!  (Standard size cards, jumbos are about double that)

So, click on the link above and go read the February 26, 2017 article.  The links in there are good, they go to the current information.

If I were you, I’d be considering direct mail as part of my 2019 prospecting plan.