New week. New opportunities. Houses to list. Dragons to slay. Goals to crush.
Consistency counts. Remember the 3-7-27 Law of Branding. It takes 3 contacts for someone to remember your name, 7 to put your name with your business, and 27 to become a top-of-mind brand name.
We’re here to help! Contact our team at 866.405.3638.
“I think I’ll send my new patient a $50 Macy’s gift certificate to thank her for allowing me to perform her annual physical,” said no doctor, ever. Come to think of it, my hairdresser, accountant, and lawyer have never gifted me either.
Yet real estate agents, somewhere along the line, came up with this notion that they absolutely must provide a closing gift to their clients.
Obviously, the agent who first gifted a client must’ve found the practice successful because it was quickly copied and has now become standard practice.
Does giving a gift to a client make you memorable? If that were the case, more service industries would take up the practice, don’t you think? I don’t know about you, but I return to my hair stylist every month because I love the way she cuts my hair.
My accountant saves me money on my taxes. So, is it the gift that makes them remember you, or was it your performance?
Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of giving closing gifts, to real estate clients.
I’m not a tax expert or an accountant, but the IRS says agents can deduct up to $25 for each person they gift during the year. No, that’s not a whole lot of money and if you make the big bucks, you’ll need to buy a whole lot of gifts throughout the year to even put a dent in your tax bill.
If you feel you must give a gift, consider handing your clients the keys to their new home on a quality (meaning, not plastic) keychain. With your branding on it, you’ll be able to deduct it as a marketing expense and possibly get a larger deduction. Talk to your tax professional.
A swanky annual client appreciation event, on the other hand, will give you a bigger tax deduction as well as put you right back there at the top of their mind.
The Content Card Series is shown above. To learn more, Click Here.
Since referrals are the lifeblood of a successful real estate practice, and keeping them coming in requires remaining top-of-mind with former clients, it would have to be a major gift to make you memorable throughout the years.
What will make you memorable is frequent contact throughout the year — the birthday cards, the client appreciation events, and the ongoing direct mail campaigns.
Here’s something else to consider: you are a buyer’s agent. You have been at your client’s beck and call, spending weeks or even months driving your clients to house after house before they finally found one they wanted.
You submitted the offer, you coordinated your client’s end of the transaction, and you smoothly paved the way to a successful close. All parties are satisfied with the outcome. In return, you are paid a percentage of the sales price of the home.
You did your job and you got paid. Shake hands, as business people do, thank them for their business, and move on to your next client.
The subject of closing gifts, as you know, is a point of contention among agents. How about you? Do you gift?
2. The Free 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here
3. The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review
The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review allows you to enter your business goals for the remainder of the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closings, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here
4. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
Before you launch your next direct mail campaign let’s take a moment to review the three rules for direct mail marketing success.
Read on to discover how to launch a successful real estate direct mail campaign.
Reaching the right people at the right time is key to the success of any type of marketing, including direct mail. Choosing the people who populate your prospect list is your first job.
To decide who goes on the list, determine your purpose with each direct mail campaign. Are you trying to build brand awareness in a farm area? Generate new clients? Which type, buyers, or sellers? What niche specifically renters, move-up market, baby boomers, fence-sitters, absentee owners, or luxury market (to name a few)?
It’s critical to determine your “why” and “who” before you begin. “Why am I conducting a direct mail campaign? Who do I want to reach?”
Then, laser focus your list to that audience using our targeted prospecting list tools.
Suppose you want buyer leads from a particular subdivision. Sure, homeowners may be thinking of moving, but it’s more likely that those currently renting are the best prospects. NAR states most buyers purchase a home within an average of 15 miles from their previous residence.
Or, you may want to target homes in the subdivision owned by absentee owners but target the tenants living in them with the MapMyMail tool.
The second rule refers to your offer, the second most important aspect of a successful direct mail campaign.
Retailers have an easier time with this one. Offering a percentage off, free shipping or buy-one, get-one-free are all popular.
What about real estate agents? What can you offer that might compel a recipient of their postcards to act?
If you offer enticing seller services, such as free home staging or a free pre-sale home inspection, by all means, play that up as your offer.
If you don’t offer free services, consider choosing one to use as your offer just for the direct mail campaign.
Keep in mind, however, that the number of hoops you force your prospects to jump through to take advantage of the offer impacts the response rate, according to Bob McCarthy at DMNNews.com.
The more they have to do, the lower the response rate.
“One strategy we use to get our highest response rates is to make the offer the centerpiece of the direct mail piece”, McCarthy claims.
Whether you choose to include an image of the free report or use text to describe it, mention it boldly and repeatedly.
Your message (its length and graphic requirements) will determine the medium. Keeping it plain and simple? A standard-sized postcard may do the trick, although jumbo, panoramic and mega-sized postcards stand out in the mailbox which makes for a genuinely lasting impression.
If it’s graphics-heavy and you’ll include substantial copy, using one of the larger postcard sizes (jumbo or panoramic) becomes even more important.
Choose a font that’s easy to scan as people sift through their mail. Many direct mail experts recommend using a sans serif font, such as Arial, rather than Times New Roman or another serif font.
Consider varying the font size throughout the text, with more important items highlighted with a larger version of the chosen font.
Additional design tips to keep in mind include:
To save time, take advantage of our already professionally done-for-you postcard designs covering a variety of niches and topics.
Consistency is key when it comes to sending direct mail to your prospect list. Whether you choose to run your campaign bi-monthly or monthly follow the laws of branding and keep sending.
Market conditions may prompt a change in frequency as well. New listings, just sold-homes, and other real estate news deserve an additional “mention” to everyone in your farm area.
Tracking your results is vital to your direct mail campaign. One of the most popular methods used by agents is the creation of a dedicated landing page on their websites. The URL should be unique to the campaign so that you’ll be able to learn your exact response rate (number of responses divided by the total number of pieces sent).
Marketing experts vary when quoting an “average response rate” for direct mail. The most recent figure puts it at 9% percent. How close or far you are from that figure depends on how closely you follow the guidelines outlined above.
Ready to Launch a Direct Mail Campaign? Schedule a FARM, Call to Action Campaign in Just Minutes.
They’re currently on sale 10% OFF the first month – (sale ends 7/17/21).
FARM, Call to Action Scheduled Campaign (shown above). Learn more, HERE
TO LAUNCH A FARM, CALL TO ACTION CAMPAIGN:
Hit “CLICK HERE”, below, to schedule your campaign (from a desktop or laptop computer).
Use promo code: ACTION10 to save 10% off the first month.
And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out).
Launch a FARM, Call to Action Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!
Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.
PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.
1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here
2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan
The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here
3. Become a Neighborhood Brand
Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.
4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide
The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here
5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
6. The Free Online ROI Calculator
Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here
7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”
The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here
The bare minimum. Every profession includes those who work just hard enough to be considered “doing their job.” Real estate is, sadly, no exception.
It’s the “list and pray” listing agents who feel a sign in the lawn and an MLS listing is sufficient. It’s the buyers’ agent who skips the counseling and doesn’t listen to the clients’ wants and needs in a new home.
Agents like these cast a cloud over the profession, even though the real estate industry is populated with many customer-service-oriented agents who go the extra mile with each client.
Take a look at some ideas contributed by agents with clients who love them.
Buyer counseling is a vital aspect of your job. Buyers who understand the process and paperwork and are aware of some of the pitfalls they may face along the way are more relaxed. They are thus easier to work with and come out of the transaction feeling positive about their agent.
Although we rarely see this same counseling suggested for sellers, it should be.
Explain to your buying and/or selling clients, in detail:
Then, ask what they expect of you. It’s hard to go above and beyond something you aren’t aware of.
Whether your client is the buyer or seller, they’ll both face the huge task of moving. You can make it easier on them while making yourself memorable.
There are many things you can do, including turn your assistant into a concierge-for-a-day. Some of the services he or she can provide include:
If you only handle a few transactions at a time there really is no excuse for your clients to not receive update calls from you or your transaction coordinator.
Keep them abreast of what’s happening with the transaction. Unresponsiveness is one of the things clients most complain about.
For agents who handle many transactions simultaneously, consider purchasing client communication software that they can log into online and follow the transaction’s progress.
Clients also appreciate a closing folder with all of the pertinent paperwork organized inside. Sure, they’ll receive one from the lender, but yours should be different—far more user-friendly. Include the listing, all marketing materials, and all paperwork involved in the transaction.
Finally, plan at least one annual or biennial client appreciation event to help you remain top-of-mind with former clients. Going “above and beyond” is something to which many agents merely pay lip service. Make client satisfaction your top priority for each client and enjoy the payoff: Loyal, referring, and returning clients.
Ready to add more clients to your roster? Launch a FARM, Fence Sitter Campaign in just minutes.
They’re currently on sale 10% OFF the first month – (sale ends 7/24/21).
FARM, Fence Sitter Scheduled Campaign (shown above). Learn more, HERE
TO LAUNCH A FARM, FENCE-SITTER CAMPAIGN:
Hit “CLICK HERE”, below, to schedule your campaign (from a desktop or laptop computer).
Use promo code: FENCE10 to save 10% off the first month.
And, remember, YOU DON’T PAY for each mailing until it actually goes out (cancel or change each mailing up until the night before it goes out).
Launch a FARM, Fence Sitter Scheduled Campaign now, CLICK HERE!
Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.
PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.
1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan
The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here
2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan
The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here
3. Become a Neighborhood Brand
Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.
4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide
The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here
5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook
Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here
6. The Free Online ROI Calculator
Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here
7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”
The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here
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