First, I must confess that I too at one time in my early real estate career sent out a stupid mailer with stupid content; but it only happened once. My company had sent all of us agents to a seminar on making money in real estate utilizing mailers. I was very excited to go and along with many others sat and listened to a mailing guru talk about the power of mail.
At the end of the seminar our company gave all of us one free mailer that we could send out to up to 300 people. I loved the idea of a free mailer but the only catch was we had to use the mailers provided by the company. I had no problem with that at all.
The postcards we had to choose from all included a recipe at the bottom. I remember choosing one with a cheesecake recipe because I thought, “Hey! Everyone loves cheesecake! My recipients will appreciate a cheesecake recipe!”
Well, was I wrong.
About four days after the postcard went out I received a call from a lady asking me if I was the agent who had sent the postcard. At first, I was excited because – just like the seminar speaker said – the calls were starting to come in! However, I soon was to find out this would not only be my first call from my mailer; it would also be my last.
The lady on the phone was NOT impressed. She specifically told me my mailer was “stupid” and she couldn’t understand why a real estate agent would be sending out “stupid” recipes. She went on to ask if I had even tried to make the cheesecake myself because the recipe was mediocre.
Lesson learned.
From that point on I became extremely interested in the quality of content for any mail I sent to my clients. I never sent out anything again that didn’t pertain directly to the community or neighborhood that I was mailing to or to the real estate market in general. It is a rule I have practiced ever since and one that I have always told my clients to adhere to.
The last few weeks, clients and members of your database are usually inundated with postcards reminding people to set their clocks ahead an hour. Why are they inundated? Because vendors from insurance to lenders and even car dealerships are marketed to by print mailing companies and those vendors see it as an easy way to connect. But remember, easy does not equate to quality.
I remind agents all the time that if the content they send out doesn’t pertain to real estate then don’t waste your time and money. If you are signed up for some easy mail-out campaign that sends out generic messages and you wonder why the only activity you receive is from the bills that come in on your credit card to pay for it then you need to rethink your strategy.
Your voice needs to be a part of EVERY mailer you do. Your clients and potential clients need to hear from you. They don’t need your recipe cards and they don’t need to be reminded to set their clocks forward or back. They need you to talk about real estate and what is happening in their area. They need to be advised of things that might affect them. STOP trying to convince yourself that these generic mailing campaigns that don’t have your voice will get you the business you deserve.
Do it right, put the effort in, do your research, and make your whatever you send out a real estate resource center. You will be rewarded royally when you have people reach out to hire you rather than to chastise you for sending them STUPID recipe cards.
Our broker wants us to do direct mailings, social media and networking to improve our business.
The only postcards that I like to send must be related to real estate and have some tracking code for the homeowner to email reach out to me.
Real Estate marketing can be a timely and expense to me. I need good, updated information that creates prospects to reach out to me.
You are right, mailer marketing can be expensive and – if something like a QR code (for print) or other way of tracking (for online) works in your area – that can be a helpful way to understand what your marketing is doing for you once it leaves your hands.