Today on the podcast we are very happy to welcome Craig Simpson to talk about ways in which direct mail correspondence can help your real estate business! Craig has built up his own business as a consultant in helping clients use this method of communication in a world where we are inundated with digital messages that are easy to ignore or delete.
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He believes the physicality of a mailed letter has a more effective impact on the recipient and is more likely to instigate a response. In our conversation, we talk about all the ins and outs of direct mail strategies and Craig’s insider knowledge of how to make the most of the medium. We discuss writing methods, stylistic choices, packaging options and more! Craig breaks down a few simple ways to build up your database and compile accurate and extensive lists of recipients. We also talk about following up, tracking correspondence and ways to make this process easier! All this and much more on today’s show so make sure you listen in!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Craig’s background, his specialty and how he uses to maximum effect.
- The three big things to keep in mind when using direct mail as your medium.
- Places to begin looking for these contacts and ways to start building lists.
- Narrowing your criteria to keep the list accurate and effective.
- Geographic submarkets and looking across whole cities and different market sizes.
- Tailoring your communication according to who you are going after.
- Important components of effects copy in these communications.
- The clear difference between commercial and residential offers.
- A few other clever tips to use in your letters; handwriting, envelopes, and stamps.
- Frequency of mailing; multiple connections over the course of a few weeks.
- Tracking your correspondence history with each person you contact.
- When to consider ceasing your contact with a potential client.
- Utilizing assistants in getting all of the handwriting letters out each week.
- The importance of timing; thing about when you send out your batches.
- How writing books has improved Craig’s business.
- Craig’s philosophy of constant marketing
- And much more!
[bctt tweet=”The biggest thing to start with is the list. Depending on who you want to approach, that’s where we’re going to determine what the mail list is. — @SimpsonDirect” username=”Whitney_Sewell”]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
About Craig Simpson
Craig is the owner of Simpson Direct, Inc. based out of Grants Pass, Oregon. Since beginning his career in direct marketing nearly 20 years ago, he has managed thousands of direct mail campaigns, helping to gross hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for his clients. His direct marketing company manages almost 300 different direct mail promotions each year. He works in practically every industry, marketing everything from auto and RV dealerships, to technical software, retail stores, real estate investment, financial services, legal professionals, diet programs, insurance, and health & beauty products. Craig’s knowledge of direct marketing techniques has helped him become the nations leading expert in direct mail marketing. He is regularly asked to speak at national events. He is the author of The Direct Mail Solution and The Advertising Solution published by Entrepreneur. He is married and has 3 kids.
Full Transcript
[INTRODUCTION]
[00:00:00] ANNOUNCER: Welcome to The Real Estate Syndication Show. Whether you are a seasoned investor or building a new real estate business, this is the show for you. Whitney Sewell talks to top experts in the business. Our goal is to help you master real estate syndication.
And now your host, Whitney Sewell.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:00:24.3] WS: This is your daily Real Estate Syndication Show. I’m your host, Whitney Sewell. Today, our guest is Craig Simpson. Thanks for being on the show, Craig.
[0:00:32.1] CS: Thanks for having me. Glad to be here today.
[0:00:34.0] WS: Now Craig has a unique skill that not everybody has, that I feel can be very useful to anybody that’s in the real estate business. A little about him, he’s the owner of Simpson Direct Incorporated based out of Grants Pass, Oregon. His direct marketing company manages almost 300 different direct mail promotions each year. Wow. His knowledge of direct marketing techniques has helped him become the nation’s leading expert in direct mail marketing. He’s the author of the Direct Mail Solution and the Advertising Solution published by Entrepreneur.
Craig, thank you so much for your time and your willingness to share your expertise with us and really teach us a little bit about this, so we can use some of these marketing techniques ourself, or even look for somebody like yourself to help us. Give the listeners a little more about who you are and your specialty here and then let’s dive into some ways that it can help us.
[0:01:25.5] CS: You bet you. Yeah, so I’m a direct mail consultant, coach. I’ve been doing direct mail for over 20 years. Even in this midst of this online world now where a lot of people are doing things online, I’m still mailing hundreds of millions of mail pieces, physical mail pieces that arrive in a mail box every day.
What makes direct mail unique and that could apply to those listening today is that when you’re trying to solicit somebody through the mail, they’re forced to make a physical decision as to what to do with your mail piece. They can’t click a button and it goes away. They can’t change the dial on the TV and it goes away. With mail, it’s so tangible that they actually have to physically take it to the trash can, or the recycle bin.
That’s what makes direct mail so relevant today. It’s the one media that requires the prospect to do something with it. As I’m sure we’ll talk about here in a bit, is if you’re looking to buy real estate or sell real estate, the idea that the prospect has to do something with your marketing piece physically makes it unique and different.
[0:02:27.4] WS: I hadn’t thought about that. It’s not as easy just to delete, or like you said, change the channel, or just move on to something else. It’s sitting on their table and they probably said that if they’re not interested, they set it down, forget about it, but then they see it again.
[0:02:39.0] CS: That’s right.
[0:02:39.8] WS: Then they probably see it again. Then they finally throw it away. Then guess what? They get another one. Then they see it again. That’s interesting. I don’t know. I haven’t heard that before about how it is something physically that they have to make a decision. It’s something in their hands a little longer too, than say an email, or something like that.
[0:02:56.4] CS: Yes, very much so.
[0:02:57.9] WS: This direct mail thing, obviously the listeners are – they’re looking for larger properties and probably your typical person that – maybe that’s using a lot of direct mail. I normally hear of wholesalers and/or maybe single-family buyers using a lot of direct mail, or smaller multi’s, things like that. I feel there’s lots of mom-and-pop owners who own 50 unit-complexes as well, or even a 100 plus units as well.
I feel as crazy as the market is right now, everyone is looking for that special deal and as active as everyone is, this can give us another avenue to market to find some of those deals. I’d love for you to walk through a little bit of some steps, or some things that we should consider if we’re doing some of our own direct mail.
[0:03:39.0] CS: Sure. There’s three big things that you have to keep in mind when you’re doing direct mail. Number one is the list. Who it is you’re going to mail to? Number two is going to be the creative, the copy. What is it you say to them? Number three is the offer. What is it you want them to do? The biggest thing to start with is the list. Depending on who you want to approach, that’s where we’re going to determine what the mail list is. It’s amazing the information we have on prospects today. If you are looking for people who were 70 years and older and they lived in a two-story house that was built 20 years ago and was over 2,500 square feet, you could find that mailing list, right?
If you’re looking for a ranch-style, single-story home that they’ve been in for 40 years, we can find that list. The biggest thing to know for you guys is there’s a lot of data out there with a lot of information. If you know who your best prospects are, the people who normally would buy from, or sell to, we can target those groups and find ways to get in touch with them. That’s the biggest thing is really knowing who it is you want to go to and then we can find lists that match that criteria.
[0:04:52.2] WS: I want to know, like where a good place for us to start, if we want to try to find a list like that. I mean, it’s a little bit scary that there’s that much information about us just out there for anybody purchase or to have, right? However, it is out there. Where can we start to look for some of that information? Maybe I have a couple websites we could get started with. Just tell us that and then I got another question.
[0:05:12.9] CS: Sure. Websites, places to go. You just go into Google and you type in list broker. There’s going to be a whole bunch of brokers that come up. The list broker is just like a real estate broker. In real estate, if I want to go buy a piece of property in San Francisco, California, I can look at a real estate broker and they can show me any piece of property and then they would facilitate the deal. Then they get paid a commission from the person selling the property.
The same is true in the list business. There’s over a 100,000 mailing lists available for rent. If you go to a list broker, they’ll work with you and show you all the lists available to you based on the criteria of what you’re looking for. Then when you decide to rent or buy that list, they get paid a commission from the person selling the list. A list brokerage is a great option for anyone out there. There’s hundreds of them. You could do a search and you could find one that’s in your area, or you could just find one across the country and work with them. It doesn’t really matter. That’s one way.
A big list out there, list compiler is called Info USA. You just type into Google ‘Info USA’, they have thousands of lists available for rent. You can basically get in contact with somebody there and they will help walk through your criteria for you’re looking for and then they can help you rent that list. Those are the top two ways to go and find a list probably for this niche. Maybe a question I would ask you is who is it you guys would traditionally look for, and maybe I can walk down that path with you.
[0:06:35.9] WS: Yeah, now that’s great, because I was going to ask you, obviously finding a larger properties and obviously its owners that aren’t living in the unit, it’s not a single family home where somebody’s lived there for 40 years, but this is actually maybe somebody that’s owned a complex for 30 years, or even 20 years. It wouldn’t even have to be that long, honestly. I was trying to think about how to narrow that seller down by other things that we could get that list narrowed down, because you have to know who you want to approach, like you’re talking about, or else, this list is just going to – I mean, it’d just be millions of people, right?
[0:07:08.5] CS: One of my most successful mailings I do for real estate investors and this may or may not apply to your group and you can tell me, it’s those who are going after absentee owners. They own a home, but they don’t live in it. For a lot of investors, they’re looking for the person that just has one home, maybe two, because they’re usually inexperienced. Maybe they’ve owned a home, they moved out of it and bought another piece of property and they thought, “Hey, let’s go into rental business and let’s go ahead and rent this home out.” Then they’ve done that for a little bit of time and they’ve realized, “This is a pain and I’m not been to this. I don’t want to do this anymore.”
[0:07:39.4] WS: Yeah. In our case, I mean, there are always going to be absentee, because it’s a large complex. Let’s say it’s 20 units or more, 50 units or more, something like that. There are always going to be absentee, but it’s going to be a larger property. Still, we can find mom-and-pop owners and that’s where we can find deals, because they’re usually going to be self-managing and things like that, where we can create more value.
That’s our bread and butter in the syndication business. It could possibly be somebody over a certain age, somebody that’s owned the property a certain amount of time, certain number of units. I’m sure the listener would to build and narrow it down by say this many units or more.
[0:08:15.5] CS: For example, if you know the age of the average person that’s going to sell to you, that’s super helpful. Maybe it’s somebody who’s 70 or 75-years-old. They’ve owned it for a long time. They’re ready to unload it. We can narrow this down by age. We can also do a commercial property versus private. If we’re looking for commercial, or if we’re looking for apartment buildings or duplexes, we can do those as well.
In some case it’s not a list. In some cases, they’ll tell us if they’re a property owner of more than one unit, or units. Do they own more than one apartment complex or not? A lot of that data we have available to us.
[0:08:50.2] WS: Okay. It would be possible, but sometimes these mom-and-pop owners they bought that one complex 30 years ago and they’ve self-managed it the whole time and that’s the only complex that they’ve owned, or possibly they purchased another one. In town that’s similar or something like that. Now that’s interesting. It would be commercial property more times than not, because that’s probably going to be five units or more as far as that’s concerned. No, that’s great. It would be commercial property. It would be probably somebody that’s say 60 or older.
Then let’s say, if I get this list and let’s say, we say commercial property, 60 years or older and maybe we say, okay, this city, this demographic area, how narrowed down can we get there to different specific sub-markets, or is it going to be one big city? What’s that going to look like?
[0:09:32.1] CS: Now what’s wonderful, so we could give an address and we could say give us a five-mile radius of this address. Now if you’re in a smaller market, say Wichita, Kansas, you’re not going to have as many opportunities as somebody in the Los Angeles area, right? Because of the number of people available with that information is going to be much smaller. If you’re in a small city, it’s going to be tougher to get it. Maybe you get a list of one or two, right? If you’re in a big market, maybe it’s a list of hundreds. It all depends on the market size.
[0:10:01.3] WS: Okay. Now we went to Info USA, or we’ve contacted somebody like yourself, or we’ve got this list, but now we have to come up with this thing we’re going to mail to them, right? Whatever that may be. Is that going to very – I’d love to get into some details of what we need to have in that and what that needs to look like, but however, maybe it varies between somebody that owns a single-family home, say a wholesaler is contacting them, as opposed to somebody that’s maybe a little more sophisticated, or owns a larger apartment complex.
[0:10:28.7] CS: Yeah. I mean, who you’re going after on the list is going to greatly determine what it is you’re going to say to them. If you’re going after the single-family residence and you’re doing more residential, the type of mail piece you use is going to be different than the guy who’s in the commercial space. For those that are doing residential, what we found that works best is the inexpensive three by four postcard and sitting in multiple times. They’re really cheap to mail and you can mail a whole bunch of them for a really inexpensive, and you guys have probably seen that.
When we get to the commercial side, we have to be a little more savvy. We tend to do better with a two-page sales letter. That goes in an envelope, handwritten address and we make it personal. If we’re mailing into a market, say it’s Portland, Oregon, we’re going to reference things in that market to make a deeper connection. Maybe we’re going to reference a famous coffee shop, or we’re going to – “Hey, we’ve bought property near this Starbucks on 3rd and Elm Street or something,” right?
We’re telling the buyer, the seller of the property that we know their area, we know the market, we’re personable, relational and we’re trying to create a different level of connection than a whole business letter would do, right? When we solicit them and we’re trying to get information, we’re trying to make it feel like they know us already. That’s by mentioning key landmarks and things in that area is going to make that connection deeper. That’s why we would use a two-page letter, instead of just a simple cheap postcard.
[0:11:55.9] WS: Yeah. It’s all about knowing who you’re approaching, right? Who you’re sending this to, it goes back to that. That’s awesome.
What else in the copy, what else should we have in that, other than maybe something referencing something local? Anything else as far as mentioning a specific property, or maybe a meeting, or something like that?
[0:12:13.0] CS: Yes, totally. Ultimately, we’re not going to come out and say, “Hey, can you sell me the property at a discount,” right? That’s not going to happen. We have to come up with creative ways to talk about what it is we want. Maybe ultimately, it is a face-to-face meeting that we’re asking for and maybe it’s to say something like, “Hey, I noticed that you own property, you own this 123 Elm Street. I’m purchasing similar properties to those. I’d love to get some advice and feedback from you. Maybe we can collaborate and talk about it.”
You’re not coming right out and saying that you want to buy it from, and you’re also not saying that you don’t. You’re just talking how you guys have this common interest in properties, like 123 Elm Street. Boy, I would love to buy you a cup of coffee at the Starbucks on 3rd and Elm. Something like that. In fact, I wouldn’t even use Starbucks. I would use a local coffee shop that’s a little bit more personal and friendly, right? We don’t want to be the big brand that they want to be more personal. That’s the whole concept of this. You’d want to talk about that.
Sometimes, I have clients who will put their photo in there or picture of their family and hey, this is the things we like to do. Just mentioning things in passing and connecting it to why they want to talk. Well, we’re immersed in the Elm Street area. My family’s lived here for 20 years. My kids go to school down the street. Boy, I’m interested. I love to know more about your property there. Could we sit down and talk, because I’m interested in those and maybe some others like it. You follow what I’m saying here? Does it makes sense in how we make this personal?
[0:13:39.0] WS: It does. It does. It’s very different than say, somebody that’s wholesaling. I was thinking about this offer, because we talked about the list, the copy, the offer and I feel our offer for somebody that has a larger commercial properties, we’re trying to get to just that meeting and have them feel it’s a personal meeting and develop some rapport and friendship, where say a single family or residential, they’re really finding those people who are desperate to sell, right?
They have a problem, they’re needing to sell right then. That may have a specific number on there, right? “I’ll pay you this much today, or this week, or something like that.” I like how you said, as far as the commercial property, it’s a different type of offer, right?
[0:14:17.2] CS: Yeah. You made a very, very clear point here that was – I don’t want the guy, anyone listening to miss. With a residential, it’s all based on pain. It really is. That’s reason why they’re going to sell is they’re tired of being renters, or dealing with the distressed property, or dealing with family members that live in it. They hate it. They want to get out. On commercial, it’s so different and we really have to be clear about that. I’m glad that you specified the difference between the two. It’s very important for everyone to catch.
[0:14:42.3] WS: What are some other distinctions, maybe you’ve seen to help us to be more successful in this? I’ve heard of lots of different techniques like leaving the envelope unsealed, or handwritten versus printed, or printed font that looks like it’s handwritten, things like that. What are some of your thoughts on that?
[0:15:01.5] CS: Yeah. There is some very big things. There are simple things to do, but are big in terms of response. Handwritten is always important. Always handwrite the thing. We’re not mailing to tens of thousands of people, we’re mailing to hundreds and very qualified people. Let’s handwrite it and let’s make it in blue ink, let’s make it not the standard black. Make it a plain white envelope, no return address. Don’t let them know who it comes from, but with a handwritten address.
Now when you get a plain white envelope with a handwritten address, there is nobody who’s going to throw that away, because they don’t know what’s inside. It could be from their aunt, it could be from a friend. They’re clueless. They’re forced to open it. The other thing I like to do is the stamp is so – it’s much more important than you can imagine. When you put a Liberty Bell, or a flag stamp, that’s the most common types of stamp and that could make it look mass mailing.
What I prefer to do is let’s find the commemorative stamps that are just released. Maybe it’s trains, or maybe it’s one of the recent presidents, maybe there’s ones with the national rivers, the famous rivers in the United States, or maybe it’s one that has a thing that’s about your specific state. Maybe it has something about the state of Iowa. Well if there is, use that stamp.
Right now for example, there’s this river stamp and it has all these famous rivers in the United States. Well, there’s one called the Deschutes River, which is right near where I live. If I were going to go to somebody in my area, I’m going to get a whole bunch of those stamps and put it on there, because that’s going to connect with them on a deeper level. This isn’t a flag or a Liberty Bell like everyone else is using. This is different and unique. When you think about everything you do with this, you want it to look personal.
What else can you do? They open it up and you’ve got this typed letter. If you were to take a highlight and just highlight some things, a red pen and circle some things, now that’s something, looks like you typed this on your computer, what you read then and now somebody’s physically going through and marking it up, just make things stand out, oh, that just makes the response that much better. If you want to go the extra mile, throw a post-it note on it that says something nice. “Hey, Bob. Thought you would like to hear from me on this. Please take a moment and read this letter.” They open up the letter, they read it. I mean, these are things that get people to respond.
[0:17:10.7] WS: I look at other industries too and how they do this as well. I got this and you’ll probably appreciate this, I got this letter in the mail, I don’t know, last week or the week before and it’s from a car dealership. There was a letter inside and it had that yellow post-it at the top. I can’t remember what I said now, but, “Whitney, please read this, or we want to buy your car.” They’re wanting to buy our car. The printout was a printout of an email supposedly from this person’s boss telling him to contact me to buy my car. I did read it, but just mostly because I’m interested in how they do marketing.
[0:17:46.1] CS: Yeah. I actually have a piece like that I do for a company that sells food to the [inaudible], the survivor [inaudible]. We sell this food you can store for 20 years. We do the whole email thing. It’s look like an email. It is an email. We put it out. We make it look photocopied and then we put a real letter with it. We’re showing them the evidence of why we’re doing this.
It works every time. Yeah, there’s some fun things like that. Now I don’t know if that would work for this space just because who’s going to be telling you to go buy this property, to look at this property, but the idea is right that it’s unique and different and personal and that’s what we want. That’s what everyone is looking for.
[0:18:20.9] WS: I really like the touch of just the plain white envelope and even having it handwritten. And the stamp. I haven’t really thought about the importance of the type of stamp and even something local on that stamp. That’s really smart. It’s something they’re probably – if they’re local, they’re going to recognize that. Do you leave the envelope open, or do you always seal it?
[0:18:38.7] CS: Now, I close it because I worry something might fall out. I have heard that before. I know that there’s some that will fold it over and stuff it in there, right, so it’s not sealed. I’ve always sealed it and I’ve had just great success with that. Yeah.
[0:18:53.5] WS: How often are you mailing? If we’re mailing this type of person that owns this 50 to a 100-unit complex, how often should they receive our mail?
[0:19:03.1] CS: I would try and hit them multiple times, like two or three times over the course of three weeks, mailing seven to 10 days apart. First one would go out, then seven to 10 days later mail a second one and put somewhere in there on the top in red highlights. It’s basically the same letter, but you’re saying, “Frank, I have not heard from you. I want to make sure you didn’t miss this.” Then maybe two weeks later, a week later, “Frank. Hey, I sent you two correspondence. It’s really important that you get in touch with me. Please, can we sit down and have a cup of coffee and see the letter inside,” right?
You’re trying to make it push a little harder each time. I would do a series of two or three letters. Take a break for a month or two and then come back and do it again. There is definitely going to be some things with consistency that helps these guys respond. Multiple times is good.
[0:19:50.6] WS: No, I like that. You’re calling them by name and you’re saying – it’s not just the same thing over and over and over.
[0:19:57.1] CS: That’s right.
[0:19:57.5] WS: I mean, then it’s obvious, right, what you’re doing. Yeah, it’s much more personable now when you’re referencing that recent letter. How are you tracking that? If you’re sending a bunch of these, how would you track to know, “Okay, I did send this person.” Okay, what does that look like?
[0:20:11.4] CS: Well first of all, I try and send them in batches, because if I’m just doing one or two a day, it can get real confusing on the timing. If I’m going to do a 100 of these, I’m going to mail all a 100 this Friday. Then the next 100 of the follow-up letter, step two, is going to go out the following Friday, or 10 days from there and you’re going to mail them all at once. I think that’s really important. Those that try and do pieces here and there are the ones that get out of sequence. They end up sending the same person the same letter twice.
I try and do it in batches. I think that’s super important. As far as tracking, you have a mail list and let’s see, if you have two mail lists, you’ve got those names so you can look back and see which one that came from and determine which mail lists worked better for them.
[0:20:52.9] WS: Okay. When should we stop mailing?
[0:20:54.7] CS: Oh, boy. That’s a tougher one. I mean, if they obviously call up and say, “I’m done.” I think you’ve probably seen this too, where there’s somebody that you’ve followed up with for years and all of a sudden they bite and you’re like, “Oh, I’m so glad I didn’t stop following up with them.” I’ve heard of investors getting deals from people that they had been mailing them for two years then they finally caved in. They said, “We were going to work with you because we’ve gotten all this mail from you. We decided that when it was time, you were the one we were going to go with.” Right?
I don’t have a specific number of when to stop. I feel if your market only has a 100 people and with the specific parameters you’re looking for, don’t ever stop. Constantly go after them until they say no.
[0:21:36.6] WS: My hand is getting pretty tired if I’m writing a 100 letters. Is that something that — hiring that out? I used to do some direct mail. It’s been a few years ago, but I had a virtual assistant, and so a lot of people ask me about using virtual assistants. One of them actually handwrites me letters and mailing them for me. Is that something you see that’s common, or something you do?
[0:21:57.3] CS: Yeah. I think it’s very important, because if you are the one doing it and you’re exhausted from doing it, your motivation for sending these out week after week is going to go away. It’s better to have somebody else do the manual labor side of it. It may cost you a little bit upfront to pay them to do it, but it will be well worth it. Because if you want the motivation, you want to be excited about the marketing of it and the selling of it and the buying, but you don’t want to be the one dreading that you have to do this. You put in someone else’s hand.
[0:22:25.2] WS: Anything else about the direct mail that we just have to know, Craig, that’s like, “Wait a minute. If you’re going to do this, you’ve got to know this about direct mail.”
[0:22:32.7] CS: I think the last big thing is timing. I would be real careful with when you do this. If you’re going to try and do this between Thanksgiving and Christmas, not a great time. People are distracted. I try never mail before a holiday. If Memorial Day is coming up, I’m not going to mail and have my mail arrive the a week before that weekend, because people or busy. I’m not going to mail just before the 4th of July, because I know people are busy.
Now, it’s okay to mail right after it, but just don’t make your mail pieces hit right around the holiday, because they will lose interests. They’re more likely to get tossed. Really look at a calendar and say, “Okay, here are the dates I want to avoid due to holidays and then here’s what I can map out the schedule and do it because the timing is right.”
[0:23:12.6] WS: Great advice. Yeah. Craig, what is a way that you have recently improved your business that we could apply to ours?
[0:23:19.7] CS: For me, I read books. Writing a book for me establishes you and gives you credibility. I’ve written two books. That really helps me out. I think even in your space, there’s got to be something to writing a free report. Maybe you don’t have to write a book. Maybe it’s a couple different reports that establishes you as the expert and makes those people who you’re buying from want to work with you.
[0:23:42.6] WS: For sure. A lot of people in this space are writing books now. I can see that. It’s just like having a podcast. Some way to distinguish yourself. The different type of thought leadership. What’s the one thing that you would say has contributed to your success?
[0:23:57.0] CS: I think that you always have to be marketing. I think you never stop. I think that even when you’re busy running the business and you’re busy making deals, that’s never enough. You never want to rest on your laurels there. You want to keep going. No matter how busy I am and how full my client load is, I’m always marketing myself and promoting. I think that we business owners can get to the place where they’re comfortable and they stop doing that and then business starts to dry up. Now they’ve got to restart the machine. I say, always run the machine, always be marketing. I think that’s a key to the success of my business at least.
[0:24:33.7] WS: Nice. Is there a way you’ve recently improved your marketing?
[0:24:37.3] CS: I don’t know.
[0:24:39.0] WS: Man, I know it’s this constant thing that we’re always trying to improve, but anything that you’ve recently done?
[0:24:44.0] CS: Nothing out of ordinary. I mean, I’m writing – I’ve started writing a third book now. I’m constantly blog. I constantly send out e-mails. I send that direct mail. I try and do it all. I don’t know if there’s one thing. I think it’s just really doing everything you can to constantly market.
[0:24:58.8] WS: Nice. Well Craig, you’ve been a great guest and I appreciate you just elaborating on this, the skill that you have I think is beneficial to all of us. I would like for you to say too, how does somebody like myself work with somebody like you? What is your business do for us as far as the direct mail and what does that look like?
[0:25:14.9] CS: I do two things; I manage direct mail campaigns and we send out – my team and I send out over 300 different mailings every year. That’s 300 different print jobs, 300 different sets of list stores, 300 different tracking reports. I mean, we do A to Z. That’s not a fit for everyone, but that’s our core business is managing direct mail campaigns for clients. The other part is coaching. It’s where we come alongside. We coach you through doing the campaign yourself. Maybe you’re a smaller business and you want to do it yourself, but you need somebody looking over your shoulder to give you feedback on copy, or design, or list. That’s the coaching side of my business where I do a lot of one-on-one coaching, helping people get in to the mail and grow their business that way.
[0:25:53.9] WS: Great. Wow. Well, before we have to go, how do you like to give back?
[0:25:57.2] CS: I actually do a lot of volunteer work, all help non-profits. I’ll give them feedback and suggestions on marketing, sometimes I’ll coordinate campaigns. I’m a huge believer in giving back. Definitely always trying to work with non-profits and doing those kinds of things.
[0:26:12.3] WS: Then tell the listeners how they can get in touch with you and learn more about your business.
[0:26:15.9] CS: Yeah, the best way just to go to my website, which is simpson-direct.com. simpson-direct.com. Or type in Craig Simpson Direct Mail in Google and I’ll pop up.
[0:26:27.5] WS: Awesome. Thank you, Craig.
[0:26:29.0] CS: Good. Good. I hope it was good information for your listeners and hopefully, it will help someone out.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:26:34.2] WS: Don’t go yet. Thank you for listening to today’s episode. I would love it if you would go to iTunes right now and leave a rating and written review. I want to hear your feedback. It makes a big difference in getting the podcast out there. You can also go to the Real Estate Syndication Show on Facebook, so you can connect with me and we can also receive feedback and your questions there that you want me to answer on the show. Subscribe too, so you can get the latest episodes.
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[OUTRO]
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