There is really no one answer to this question. Getting a better response rate depends on a lot of factors while doing direct mail marketing of any sort, whether its post card marketing, flyers or newsletters. To some mortgage professionals out there, this might sound terrible but even a 2% -3% response is not a bad response rate with postcard marketing. Once you have started to get response on your direct mail postcards, the key is to measure that response and then tweak your campaign to send out more or less number of cards every month. This should be determined keeping in mind the kind of response you want from your mortgage postcard campaigns. For example, if you have found through testing that the optimal response for you is 1.00% on your mailings and you are looking for 15 leads a week, then you need to send out 1500 postcards every week. With this method you can literally control the number of leads you bring into your business.
There are a few other factors involved in improving your response rate on your postcards. I am going to list some of them down and explain them briefly.
Tweaking and testing: The real key to getting a better response on your campaigns is to be in a constant state of testing, tweaking and improving your post cards, message, images value proposition and the audience receiving your cards. Once your changes stop creating a positive effect on your response rate that is called your optimum response. At this point you should stop tweaking and testing and should only send your optimum combination continuously.
Consistency: Be consistent with your mail. Segment your list and hit each segment at least once every 4 to 8 weeks. Not everyone takes action on your first contact with them. Most people will hang on to your card or just remember you in their mind. When you follow up with them repeatedly, that is when they will begin to see credibility in you and you will begin to get a better response with each passing mailer that you send to your list.
Track your response: Unless you are tracking the response on your promotions, you will not know whether your marketing dollars are coming back to you with returns or not. This is the same as you being blind. You cannot make well informed decisions for you business unless you know what is working and what is not. Many times, this can be a simple matter of just asking the prospect where they heard about you.
