Fifteen Facts About Every Door Direct Mail™

Mar 28, 2016

Getting the Inside Scoop to See If EDDM is Right for YOU and Your Business

By Julie Escobar

Wow. We’ve had a lot of calls recently about this powerful (and affordable) service now provided by the U.S. Postal Service. It allows you to literally get in EVERY DOOR in a geographic area for as low as 18.3 cents in postage per piece. But there are a LOT of questions out there – and a lot of folks unsure about which way to go in terms of getting their message in the right hands to help brand themselves in a market. So I put on my fact-finding hat so that I could give you guys the inside skinny on some things you need to know about this service to determine if it is really right for you.

Fact #1: According to direct marketing statistics, businesses which get the majority of their clients from within a 3 mile radius of their office are: REALTORS®, mortgage brokers, insurance agents, dentists, chiropractors…(the list goes on – but did you catch that first one?) Love that!

Fact #2: This is the most cost-effective means to deliver your message to an ENTIRE market area. As a SATURATION mailing tool – you can literally send up to 5,000 pieces each day (to be delivered to EVERY SINGLE mailbox on your chosen carrier route) still pay no more than 18.3 cents in postage per piece.

Fact #3: There is no postage permit necessary – only the required indicia which is fairly small needs to be placed on your mailing piece. (We’ve got that for you- no worries!)

Fact #4 – You don’t need a mailing list. This is a biggie! One of the toughest components that agents find in building their book of business is developing their LIST. While it IS one of the best practices you can ever do to build long-term referrals and keep your customers and clients calling YOU back for the duration of your career – it is a stumbling block for many. So while you’re waiting to get your list together (go ahead and hire a broke college kid to start data entry today – they need the money and you need a database!) – the EDDM™ system is the perfect way to start branding yourself and discover NEW PROSPECTS to put into your sphere!

Fact #5: You can send standard mail flats, irregular parcels, periodicals, and bound printed flats. But – your
mailing piece cannot be more than 15′ long, 12′ high and .75′ thick.

Fact #6: The common mailing pieces for EDDM™ used by REALTORS® are newsletters, open house postcards, just listed postcards, just sold postcards, introduction/neighborhood specialist announcements or workshop invitations (first time home buying seminars, short sale seminars, workshops for seniors, renters. buy workshops, etc.)

Fact #7: You can select whether or not you want your mailing delivered to P.O. Boxes and Farm mail routes!

Fact #8: Your mailing will saturate every consumer within your carrier route AND it can also include delivery to businesses. However – you CANNOT just send to businesses.

Fact #9: When choosing your carrier routes – remember to choose WISELY. With this system – you must mail to EVERY home on the carrier route. So it’s important to look at the market you want to saturate and budget accordingly. If your route has 1,000 homes in it – then you’ll need to provide mailings for every home. The average carrier route has about 250-500 homes in it. When using the carrier route selection tool from USPS – we always recommend ‘de-selecting all’ first – when you get to that screen so it doesn’t pull up every route in your zip code (that can be a little intimidating!) Then, based on YOUR budget, you can choose the carrier routes in your market with the number of homes you can comfortably afford to send to repeatedly.

Fact #10: To piggyback on #9, while this is a much more affordable mailing option for most agents, remember this is still direct marketing. So if you can only afford to (or care to) send a mailing ONCE to an area – then it will more than likely not glean you the results you are looking for. Keep that 3-7-27 rule in mind. It takes 3 impressions for someone to recognize your name, 7 impressions to put your name with your business and 27 to become a ‘top of mind’ brand name in someone’s head. So better to mail to 300 people ten times for example than to send one mailing of 3,000 if you want to build that awareness and trust.

Fact #11: You’ll need to include a form (PS Form 3587) with your mailing that identifies the carrier routes, number of homes in the route, etc. It’s a government form so – while it’s a little mind-boggling – it’s not too bad! (And with our service we’ll even fill it out for you so no worries!)

Fact #12: Your mailers have to be bundled and banded in groups of 100 and include a “facing slip” on each bundle. So that’s not a lot of fun – but again – we do that for you if you like. Besides – you’ve got to think about those delivery folks! Can you image if you gave them one giant stack? Yikes!

Fact #13: If your best target market is actually in other cities or states, you can use Priority Mail® to ship your Every Door Direct Mail mailings to the Post Office in that area. How cool is that? This is especially helpful if you are working with vacation properties or investors.

Fact #14: You have OPTIONS. Whether you’re an all-hands-on-deck kind of person and want to do everything yourself or whether you just want to choose your mailing piece, pick your routes and have the rest all done for you – we’ve got a solution that works for you, your market and your budget. Learn more about how Every Door Direct Mail – just click here!

Fact #15: You don’t have to do it BY YOURSELF. The truth is, this is an exciting and affordable opportunity to saturate a market with your message but there are variables, budgets and geographic areas to consider. Sometimes (all right – most of the time) it’s good to have another person to help walk you through the process. Our EDDM specialists have the experience and knowledge to do just that – just give them a call at 866.405.3638. They’re happy to help.

Hope that helps! Happy marketing!

Know Before You Go

Mar 21, 2016

A Guest Post from Our Friends at ReboGateway

Brian Fox, VP Business Development, Benutech, Inc.

We live in a world today where we know where we are going before we even get there – and life is easier and better because of it. The best restaurants, stores, and shops can be located online, reviewed on various sites such as Yelp, viewed on a map, and if we want we can even see the front of the location using a street view before we arrive. In other words, there are very few mysteries in area of direction in today’s world… we can very easily know before we go and for the most part, it’s how we roll.

Yet for some odd reason, this know before you go mentality has not been used in real estate as often as it should. Most Realtors, seem to market into geographic areas or to family and friends… as in the people closest to where they live, or closest to where they work. It’s random, it’s best known as the “shotgun approach” to marketing, and it’s like heading to a new spot in your city without reviews, maps, or direction. It was how it was done in the 1980’s but why so today?

Real estate coaches throughout the U.S. seem to be on board with the know before you go mentality. Seems every coach I have ever read or heard, is focused on finding areas that are selling (areas of 7% turnover rate or higher per year), and then coach their students to market into those areas for better marketing results. Turnover rates or other “reasons to sell” such as divorce, mortgage default, or empty-nester status are all available… and easily accessible. So why in 2016 should we market from Front St., to Market St., between Main St. and South St. when we could be marketing to owners that have reasons to sell their property?

To illustrate this point, let’s take a quick look at the wonderful city of McKinney, TX. It happens to be the city that CNN Money named in 2014 First Place for “Best Places to live in the U.S.” The U.S. Census Bureau also named it the fastest growing city from 2000 – 2003 and again in 2006. The Realtors in McKinney obviously have a lot of selling points for their fine city and the sellers in McKinney should be in a good position to profit from these accolades if they choose to sell.

But let’s use data to take a closer look at the city… There are 15,187 rooftops in McKinney, most of which are single family residences. For most Realtors, it’s not possible to market to all 15,187 of those residences. There are just too many rooftops in McKinney, not enough funds in the marketing budget, and not enough time to accomplish marketing to each of those residences once per month. So rather than marketing to all residences, or just the residences nearest you… can we find the needles in the McKinney haystack? In other words, can we find the folks that have a higher probability of selling their homes in McKinney this year or next? The answer is: Yes.

Homes in McKinney traditionally sell at rate of about 3.3% per year. In the most recent couple of years, homes have been selling at better than 10% per year with the added popularity of McKinney. But newly sold homes rarely go back on the market and sell in the upcoming few years… so today, how do we find the most probable sellers for 2016 & 2017 in McKinney? The same way you use your phone to find the best lunch spot in McKinney. You leverage information to know, before you go.

All Realtors can think back to listings they have taken and sold in the past and why they were able to acquire them. A homeowner filed for divorce, and then they listed and sold their home to make an equitable split. A mortgage default occurred at a property, you got the listing. An owner passed away, then you got the listing. Preceding most sales is a “life event” of some sort… and the life event may simply be the increasing age of the homeowner that then leads to their property selling.

Most life events are available to the general public. Divorce, eviction, probate, bankruptcy, and mortgage or tax default filings are all made public by courts. When matched to owned property, it creates a database of homeowners that are much more likely to sell in coming years than their neighbors. When homeowners decide to go FSBO, or have an Estate Sale to sell personal belongings prior to a move – they post the information online to drive traffic to the event. Again, knowing these addresses provides a timing advantage to the Realtors that find them and market to them.

Let’s now get back to McKinney. We have already discussed that there are 15,187 rooftops in the McKinney haystack. A closer look at available information on “life events” in McKinney reveals the following: There are 87 homeowners that have filed for divorce in the past 12 months that have not yet sold their homes. These folks may be going from 2 incomes to 1, and may need to sell. They may have more equity in their property than money in the bank. Either of those reasons could lead to the equity being liquidated by property sale in order to facilitate a fair split between the owners. Statistically, 22.1% of couples that file for divorce sell their homes in the first 12 months after filing. A good Realtor is going to be an important piece of that puzzle.

Also in McKinney, there are 32 homes with mortgage default filings in the past 6 months. Better than 50% of these will result in property sale within 12 months. Eight homeowners have filed bankruptcy in the past 6 months. Fourteen homes are trying to “For Sale by Owner”, but have not yet sold. Seven homes are in Probate. There are also 1,498 homes with approved “Senior (Property) Tax Exemptions”. Of those, 570 of them also have 4 bedrooms or more (large homes). These are your classic “Empty-Nesters”, and they sell property for many reasons. The home may be too big for them now, the stairs are no longer a good idea, they may soon need an elderly care facility, or their passing may facilitate the home sale.

In each of these situations, it has been statistically proven that when these types of events occur, the properties associated to them sell more frequently. There is no way of knowing that these events are occurring by looking at the street address or by staring at the outside of the home. Life event data has to be matched to owned property, and when that match occurs, the results are eye opening.

ReboGateway, a product by Benutech, Inc., identifies and matches these types of life events and more to owned property. ReboGateway allows Realtors to quickly identify probable sellers by “life events” so that they can be smarter about whom they market to and when to market to them.

So the next time you are in McKinney, TX or in your hometown, don’t just stop at any lunch spot. Use select data to know before you go. In case you were wondering, in a state known for its barbecue, the best BBQ in McKinney, TX is Hutchin’s BBQ and Grill. It is ranked the 2^nd best restaurant in the city and 356 reviews say it’s a “must go” as the “Best BBQ in North Texas”. Similarly, the next time you choose to make yourself known to homeowners with your focus on acquiring new listings… find the addresses that are more likely to sell, and market consistently to those addresses. The correct select data matched to a consistent marketing plan is how it should be done today and in doing so; Once again, life is easier and better because of it.

To learn more about using Life Event trigger data from ReboGateway to market in your area, watch our webinar on demand at blog.prospectsplus.com/rebogateway-prospectsplus-webinar-on-demand/.

If you’d like to learn more about how Brian and his team are helping real estate pros across North America use technology and systems to grow their businesses more efficiently and effectively, join us April 7^th at 1pm Eastern for a powerful new webinar – Everything You Wanted to Know About Every Door Direct Mail!

Listing INVENTORY is the Name of the Game

Feb 29, 2016

Insights and Strategies from Real Estate Coach Darryl Davis

By Julie Escobar

Since the dawn of real estate, it seems we’ve been hearing phrases such as, “Listings are the name of the game” or “List to last.” While those sayings are as true today as they’ve always been, we caught up with our old friend and real estate coach Darryl Davis to learn why “just listings” aren’t enough to propel your way to the top and stay there anymore. Today’s agents need to focus on building listing INVENTORY if they want to stay in the game and compete at the highest levels. Here’s an excerpt from our interview:

Q: Darryl, you’re teaching your students and coaching members that they need to step up their game in terms of building (and keeping) listing inventory. Can you share a little more about that with our readers?

A: Sure! First, I like to share the WHY – WHY it’s important to build and maintain listing inventory. I’m a big analogy guy, so I sometimes ask agents to think about their friends, family members or neighbors and what they make. You know, a lot of times you don’t know exactly how much other people make, but you have an idea, and sometimes you think to yourself, “I know I make more than that, but they have more than I do or don’t seem to struggle as much as I do.”

Two words explain that: cash flow. See, those other folks are usually salaried people with consistent income, so they can budget and plan their lives around that. In real estate, we don’t have that. Most agents run their business in surge-and-drought mode – right? But it doesn’t have to be that way. If I asked every agent reading this if he/she had a consistent $5,000 (or whatever your number is) every month, would it make your life less stressful? The answer is 100% yes.

Q: That helps put it in perspective, doesn’t it? So there’s the WHY. Can you tell them HOW building inventory solves their surge-and-drought problem?

A: Yes. I like to tell agents to focus on listing inventory rather than listings like this: Imagine you’re selling shoes instead of houses. If you want to sell shoes for a living, you’ve got two choices: One is to get a store, some racks and some shoes, and promote your store… right? The second is to find a buyer who wants to buy shoes, put him/her in your car and drive around to every shoe store in town until he/she finds the perfect ones. Get the picture?

Here’s the thing: Every time you put a buyer in your car to show a listing that’s not your own, you’re basically taking that buyer to another agent’s “shoe store.” You’re essentially becoming an “employee” of sorts for that other agent. Bottom line? No inventory = no business.

Q: Great analogy. Can you expand on that?

A: Think of it like this: You’ve got six listings or, for this purpose, we’ll go back to shoes. So you’ve got six pairs of shoes, and you put four under contract this month. YEA, right? That’s terrific! Well yeah, it is – BUT look at your inventory. You went from six to two. When you close on them, you’ll have a surge of cash, of course, but if you don’t replenish your inventory, then you’ll head into a drought. To create continuous cash flow, you have to at least MAINTAIN or, better still, INCREASE your inventory.

Let’s say you’re brand-new, and you want to build inventory by one per month. You start out month one with one listing. Month two you get another. Month three you get another, but you close on one. So that means month three, you have to get TWO to make up for the one under contract and keep your inventory up. If the average commission is $5,000 per listing sold, and you start with zero and focus on building your inventory by one per month, you should be able to earn $100,000 within 12 months.

Q: It helps to put it in dollars and cents, doesn’t it? It’s more than just the money though – it’s about managing time as well, right?

A: Exactly. When you think like a businessperson instead of solely like a salesperson, you can balance your time. I’ll give you an example: I’ve got a student who earns a quarter million per year and takes two full months off every year to spend with family… two full months! Now if he owned a shoe store instead of a real estate business, would he close down those two months? Of course not. He’d hire a manager to handle things. In real estate, if you don’t have a “store,” or inventory, that can sell while you’re away, you can’t take time off. No inventory = no income, no time off. Lots of inventory = consistent income, ability to take time off.

Q: Love that… treating your business like a business. What a concept, right? Darryl, you’ve always been amazing at teaching agents how to succeed by marketing to FSBOs and expireds, but recently you’ve been sharing why it’s important to stay top of mind with a book of business and geo farm as well. Can you tell me more about that?

A: Because the worst of the housing market crash is mostly behind us, we’re going to see more and more people come into the market in the next few years. Because of that, it’s important for agents to have a consistent marketing campaign. People need to know your name, your face and what you do for a living. I still say working with FSBOs and expireds is a great way to generate listings fast – simply because they’ve already identified themselves as the hand-raisers. That said, think of your business like a wheel – the more spokes you have, the more efficient the wheel works. You eventually hit a point of diminishing return, or too many spokes, but it’s important to find the balance. One or two spokes isn’t enough to generate business momentum.

I’ll give you another example: I have a student named Marty who makes a six-figure income. He lives in South Carolina, but his business is on Long Island. He goes to Long Island once a month to take listings and meet clients. He can do that because one of his “spokes” is a mailing campaign that he sends out consistently to his sphere and farm promoting himself, his business and his listings – all while living in another state! THAT’S the power of staying positioned consistently with the right marketing tools.

Q: Wow! That’s incredible. One of the things our readers tell us is tough for them is following up. They’re either afraid of it (picking up the phone) or don’t make it a priority. Can you share some secrets to success in that area?

A: I would say focus on the activity rather than the results. Why do people fail? Because they don’t see immediate results. So they do what? They QUIT. When you switch your thinking to focus on the ACTIVITY, not the results, it helps you get past the fear.

Think of it like baseball averages. Ballplayers know the more times they get up to bat and take a swing, the more likely they are to get a hit. After a while of playing, they know their numbers… their average. The same is true in prospecting – you’ll get to know your numbers. So maybe out of 10 calls, you get five connects and two appointments. I tell my students that their goal should NOT be to get the appointment; it should be about building relationships. Why? Because it takes the pressure off. Focusing on getting an appointment is a win/lose scenario. If you don’t get it, your reaction is, “I lost. I’m bad.” When you focus on building a relationship, every call is a win. The truth is, you’re not going to get an appointment unless there’s trust. By building relationships, you build trust – and the appointments will happen by themselves.

Going back to the last question, one of the things I like best about consistently sending out mailings is that it helps agents “warm” those calls – which makes follow-up easier, because you have something right off the bat to talk about.

Q: I love the title of your new book, How to Design a Life Worth Smiling About. I just downloaded it and can’t wait to read it! Can you tell us about it?

A: Absolutely. It’s got a lot of fun content in it, and people seem to love it. You know, I ask agents all the time, “When a homeowner lists their house with you, what do you think they want as an end result?” I get a variety of answers, of course. “To sell the home.” No. “To get the most money.” No.

Tune in, and take it all a step further. When you’ve been in the business a while, you’ll often hear homeowners say something like, “If these walls could talk.” They’re not selling a house – they’re selling their HOME. Shelter is the second most important thing to people. They’re leaving the comfort of shelter and going into an unknown. When you’re the agent who can tune into that and realize that every client you help is heading into a new chapter in their lives – and you are a part of that – don’t minimize the powerful impact. Great agents help change people’s lives for the better. When you get THAT… you’re no longer selling.

Q: Darryl, any last words of wisdom?

A: The money we make is actually the thermometer as to how many lives we’ve helped. Focus on the lives you can help, and the money will come.

Awesome insights, Darryl. Thank you so much for sharing with us. I look forward to reading your new book and, as someone who’s known you more years than we care to count, I know all of your students, coaching members and audience members are fortunate to learn from you. Your ability to help people both laugh and learn is extraordinary.

About Darryl Davis

Darryl became a real estate agent at the age of 19 and quickly climbed the ladder to become a top producer, averaging six transactions a month. He became a licensed broker and manager of a new office that became the #1 listing and selling branch within its first 6 months of operation. He’s been named one of the highest-rated speakers at the National Association of REALTORS® convention for the past several years and is the ONLY real estate speaker who is a best-selling author with McGraw-Hill Publishing for his book, How to Become a Power Agent in Real Estate. He is the founder of The POWER Program®, a yearlong real estate coaching program that has proven results of agents doubling their income over their previous year. He’s also the creator of the nationally acclaimed three-day program S.U.R.E. Results, where agents generate an average of $33,504.82 over their previous year. And as creator of the nationally recognized term “Next Level^®,” Darryl strives to bring his students and attendees to their “Next Level^®” of success by training them on how to have more fun and less stress in their business and personal lives. To learn more about Darryl and his training tools and services, visit www.DarrylSpeaks.com, or contact him at 1-800-395-3905.

To learn more about staying in consistent touch with your sphere and farm (as Darryl teaches), visit www.prospectsplus.com, or call our support team at 866.405.3638 today.

8 Holiday Card Sending Tips to Remember

Nov 2, 2015

When Sending Your Season’s Greetings

by Julie Escobar

Planning on sending season’s greetings out to your sphere and farm over the next few months? Great idea! Staying in touch and top of mind never goes out of season. Before you buy a card, stick a stamp of figure out where your mailing list is — consider these five holiday tips!

Be clear about your message. Even when you’re sending holiday postcards, you can use the reverse side to send a great message to your customer base. If you are sending to both your sphere and farm, you may want to consider altering the message slightly for each. Make it personal and heart-felt, with a note of thanks for allowing you the opportunity to serve them as customers — or in the case of your farm – the community.
Serve two purposes. Are you having a holiday open house? Customer event? Charity drive? Looking for a good time to stop by with a small gift? You can include that information on the cards as well.
Don’t be salesy. Holiday greetings are not about the sale – they are about the connection. Keep it warm and personable.
Don’t wait for just Christmas. Many top agents send a holiday message once a month to their sphere. Thanksgiving, New Year’s, Valentine’s, Easter and beyond. There’s something to celebrate all year round, and it’s a fun way to stay connected and stand out as someone who is “there” more than just in the month of December.
Have some fun with it. Got a great team? Or just a great personality? Take some fun pictures and opt for a photocard rather than a more traditional card and don’t be afraid to get a little creative with your photos.
Don’t leave anyone out! You know all those mailing lists you’ve been collecting throughout the year? For Just Listed postcards, or the stack of business cards that have been sitting on the corner of your desk collecting dust?
Order early. We suggest sending your holiday cards out at LEAST two weeks in advance of the holiday every month — and sending first class as opposed to standard-class to ensure timely delivery.
Follow up. Sending cards is a great way to easily stay in touch. Pick a postcard, edit your message, add a list – and you’re done! In a matter of minutes you’ve created a connection. However to really get the full impact of ANY mailing (holiday and otherwise) — be sure to follow up – at least with the top 25% of your list. There is no substitution for this step. Imagine if you made it a point each year, every year, to speak with every single person in your sphere at least twice a year? Touch base, see if they have questions, thank them for being great customers, and say hello. Here’s what happens when you do: they remember you. They don’t list with another agent because your name wasn’t on the radar. They are grateful that you take the time to call. And one out of 12? Statistically will do business with you or refer business to you.

Here’s to a great holiday season ahead – and to staying in touch with your sphere and farm! We’re even going to make that a little easier on your budget! From now until January 5th, send any holiday postcard, photocard, or calendar card and save 15% off your order excluding postage!

Use these money saving promo codes to get your discount!

HOL15S – standard size, mailed First-Class
HOL15J – jumbo size, mailed First-Class
HOL15P – panoramic size, mailed First-Class
HOL15JSC – jumbo size, mailed Standard-Class
HOL15PSC – panoramic size, mailed Standard-Class
HOL15SH – any size, shipped to you
HOL15M – any size, magnetic stock
HOL15PDF – any size, PDF Download

Need help? We’re here for you! Call our team at 866.405.3638 today. We’ll help get your holidays started and save you money at the same time! Have a great one!

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