When being cheap can cost you (a direct mail secret)
I admit. I’m a pretty cheap guy. I remember last year in the DC area we had two huge snowstorms in a row. I was driving around in my SUV looking for gas and all of the gas stations were sold out of everything but premium. And there was no way in heck I was paying for premium, so I drove around until I found a station with regular. Also, when it comes to my “play†clothes like t-shirts and jeans, I’ll go to Walmart. It doesn’t make a difference to me.
However, there are certain things in life you definitely don’t want to be a tightwad about. One of them is a lawyer. If you get in trouble or you get sued, do you want the discount lawyer on the corner, or do you want the best in the business that you know is going to win? Same thing with an accountant. Do you want to go to your local H&R Block (where you probably know more about taxes than they do, trust me on this, I had a friend working there who didn’t know squat about taxes) or do you want a CPA who owns rental properties and will keep you out of trouble with the IRS? This also goes for education. If you don’t spend money on books, courses, mentors, seminars, etc., how in the world are you going to learn this business the right way? You might be able to do it, but it will probably take you 25 years. Or you can get 4 mentors like I did and quickly make six figures in less than 24 months. The point is, there are certain things in life where it’s perfectly OK to be cheap, and other times where it will cost you more than you could ever imagine. And right now, I want to tell you about one of those times that has to do with direct mail. It involves a question I get asked a lot and probably costs cheap investors a ton of deals. So what’s the question? It’s, “Jason, when I’m sending out letters is it alright if I use metered mail and save the money, instead of using first class stamps?â€
The simple answer is absolutely not. There have been numerous marketing tests done that reveal your response rate on letters will drop significantly if you use metered mail. Using a first class stamp, is by far, the smartest thing you can do when mailing a letter if you want to get your envelope opened. We often forget that people get bombarded with a ton of junk mail every day. And that most of it goes in the trash without ever being read. It doesn’t matter if you have the best-written letter in the world if nobody reads it. And if you use metered mail it will look like a piece of junk mail and it will probably get tossed. That’s why it’s so important to use a “live†stamp on all your direct mail pieces. Doing this (along with handwriting all addresses) will almost guarantee it will get read. As you can see, this is a case where thinking you’re saving money, is actually costing you money because you’ll get less deals if you use metered mail. So don’t be cheap and use first class stamps on all your letters, and remind yourself that doing so is going to help you get more deals.
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