Consistency in marketing is key to building recognition, trust, and long-term relationships, and holiday postcards offer a perfect, positive way to accomplish this.
Statistics show that consistent marketing yields far better results over time. According to the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), a prospect must hear from a business at least seven times before taking action.
Additionally, businesses that stay in regular contact with their audience are 60% more likely to be remembered when they are ready to make a decision.
This is why one-time mailings don’t have the same impact. Repetition builds familiarity, and familiarity builds trust, leading to a higher return on investment (ROI).
Holiday postcard marketing
Holiday postcards are especially effective because people love receiving them. They feel personal, festive, and thoughtful, making your message stand out in a positive way.
During the holidays, a well-designed postcard can convey warmth and good wishes while keeping your name and services in mind. It’s a subtle but powerful reminder of your real estate expertise without being overtly salesy.
Schedule your campaigns
Best of all, setting up a scheduled campaign on PRospectsPLUS! is incredibly easy and efficient. You can launch a campaign in just a few minutes.
Choose your design, customize your message, and schedule your postcards to be mailed monthly. Once set, your campaign runs automatically, keeping you in front of your market with minimal effort.
By committing to this consistent marketing approach, you’ll position yourself as a reliable, thoughtful agent, increasing your chances of long-term success.
PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.
1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine
Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct, response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you. Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here
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
Dean Jackson, the ultimate real estate marketer, states, “In real estate, pairing a capital investment mindset with some capital is a winning combination,” Dean Jackson is the founder of GoGoAgent and Listing Agent Lifestyle. The following is his breakdown of how to get more listings by becoming a real estate asset builder.
Most real estate agents don’t come into the real estate business with a capital investment mindset because they’re so focused on earning commissions and controlling expenses.
I think a capital investment mindset and some capital is the ideal way to become a prolific asset builder. And the best way to build strong long-term assets is with a geographic farm.
A four-year case study
I did a four-year case study with real estate agent Tony Kelsey. He started out in a farm area of 2,000 homes and, over four years, generated an almost 11 times ROI by consistently marketing there.
Over four years, Tony spent $50,000 marketing to the people in this neighborhood every month, and with that investment, he generated $550,000 in commissions.
He mailed postcards monthly for five months before he made his first transaction of $15,000 in commission. At that point, he had spent $5,000 on marketing.
From that moment on, he was profitable, and his ongoing investment continued to realize transactions. He was building the asset of identifying future sellers and cultivating relationships with those sellers over time.
Now, let’s look at a 1000-home farm in a neighborhood that has a turnover rate of 8%. That means 80 homes will sell this year in that neighborhood whether you do anything or not.
What if you decide you want to dominate this neighborhood? What will that look like for you in four years?
Well, it costs approximately $750 a month to mail to those 1000 homes ($9,000 over 12 months). And let’s say the average home price in this neighborhood is $600,000; you’ll get around $18,000 on the listing side of each sale.
This means after the first transaction in this neighborhood, you will be profitable, just like Tony.
If, in addition to going after new listings, you cultivate a list of potential buyers in the same farm area and begin communicating with them, you’re taking asset building to a new level. Specifically, since NAR states home buyers purchase homes within 15 miles of their last home.
This strategy is especially powerful if you are farming in a competitive market.
In this case, the most valuable thing that you can bring to a listing presentation is a list of potential buyers that you’ve been communicating with over time. You’re actually demonstrating to the seller that you already may have their potential buyer in hand.
So if you’re looking at a farm of 1000 homes or maybe 800 or 500 homes to get started (whatever you’re comfortable with), all you need is the seed money to get to the first transaction.
And once you hit that first transaction, the only thing that more money allows you to do is to speed up the process of identifying who more future sellers are.
Becoming visible to future sellers
Getting in front of your market consistently through direct mail is a proven marketing strategy, and clearly, one that worked well for Tony.
It gives you the advantage of identifying those future sellers and building a relationship with them before they even know they want to sell.
Over time they will begin to view you as a helpful advocate who’s continuously serving their community without expectation.
The more you get them to think about you, the more the odds increase that they’ll think about you when it matters most, when they’re ready to sell.
That’s when the fun of being an asset builder begins.
When you have time…below are some ProspectsPLUS! marketing tools to help support your success.
1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine
Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.
Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here
2.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 and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here
3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system
The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes but is also a business-building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. –Click Here
4. 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
5. 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
6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast
Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here
Steven recently sent a postcard from the Real Estate Times Series shown above. To see more postcards from this series, Click Here.
Congratulations Steven Brown on winning this week’s contest!
Steven had the following words to say about his success sending marketing out from ProspectsPLUS!,
“They got them out fast and in this market, if it’s not extremely quick in printing and mailing, it’s not worth the money to put out! They have options to target specific markets in specific neighborhoods without having to do a random shotgun approach. Been using them for years. The easy design process with plenty of templates to choose from or upload your own design”. -Steven Brown
Steven, thank you for that incredible review. Wow! We truly appreciate you and are here to support your success in any way that we can!
Don’t Forget to Enter For Your Chance to Win a $125 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card! (see how below)*
What Can You Do With a $125 ProspectsPLUS! Gift Card? Here are 5 Things:
Launch and pay for the first month of a Sphere or Farm Scheduled Campaign consisting of 130 jumbo postcards.
Send 130 jumbo Just Listed or Just Sold Postcard to a radius surrounding your listing.
Send 130 Jumbo Get More Listings postcards to an area where you want more listings.
Create a niche prospect list (empty nesters, move-up market, etc.) and send a mailing of 130 jumbo postcards.
HOW TO ENTER: Just leave a review regarding how using marketing from ProspectsPLUS! has impacted your business, and you’re automatically entered into our next contest.
*If you’ve already entered our contest in the past and haven’t won, you don’t need to enter again. Your entry remains valid and you still have a chance to win.
Don’t forget to watch out for next Friday’s email announcing the weekly winner!
PLUS: When you have time…below are some helpful tools 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 Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – 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
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
Ah, the humble postcard. So simple, yet filled with so much power.
For a time, it appeared that the selfie would replace the non-business postcard, but recent statistics say no.
In fact, in the recent Harris Poll Essential 100, Americans named the U.S. Postal Service as the number one most essential business’ in the country.
Never has this been more evident than in the real estate industry, which is seeing a resurgence in the use of “time-tested” marketing methods and direct mail is at the top of this list.
A late April Valassis survey found that 30% of consumers are spending more time reading the direct mail marketing pieces they receive.
There is an art to creating an effective postcard marketing campaign, though.
No, it’s not difficult, but there are certain strategies that work better than others. Let’s take a look at the most important of these.
It all starts with your audience
A Scheduled SOI Campaign is ideal for keeping in touch with your past clients and other VIPs in your sphere. And, ProspectsPLUS! offers a 3 extra closing guarantee when you Schedule a one-year SOI Campaign.
Postcards are also ideal for another type of lead generation – niche marketing. Decide on who it is you want to attract, buyers or sellers, and more specifically which niche of buyers and sellers, and launch a campaign.
The narrowing down of possible leads to focus on helps the rest of your marketing plan go more smoothly and increases your potential ROI.
If you’re looking for listings, find out the median duration of homeownership in your area. ATTOM Data Solutions’ most recent U.S. Home Sales Report shows that homeowners owned their homes an average of 7.95 years.
As we know, all real estate is local, so if you can find the data for your area, rely on that instead of the national numbers.
For instance, ATTOM also finds that homeowners in five Connecticut cities have the longest tenure, while those “… in Colorado Springs, CO … Oklahoma City, OK … Grand Rapids, MI …Denver, CO … and Minneapolis, MN had the shortest.
The Absentee Owner Campaign is shown above. Learn more HERE
This information helps you narrow your mailing list even further. You’re now looking for homeowners who purchased their homes at least six years ago (or whatever number is appropriate for your market).
How far back should you go?
“If someone bought last year or 30 years ago, they’re probably not looking to sell,” according to James McGrath, co-founder at Yoreevo in NYC.
“You want to be in that sweet spot of owners of 5-7 years,” he concludes.
The more you drill down in demographics, tenure, and the like with tools like the Demographic Search Tool (for niche marketing) and MapMyMail (for radial and pinpoint polygon lists), the more targeted the list and the better the response will be to your real estate direct mail campaign.
Absentee owners have been a popular target market this year. A targeted list of absentee owners in your local market can be easily created with the MapMyMail search tool (just select the “absentee owner” radio button in step 2).
We offer a number of brilliant Absentee Owner postcards as well. Make your marketing easy by scheduling an automated Absentee Owner Campaign.
Prefer targeting buyers?
Why not bring YOUR OWN buyer to the table. NAR states home buyers move within 15 miles of their last location. This means there’s a good chance your farm’s home buyers are renters located in the same area.
Geographic farming in some of the most popular apartment and condo complexes in your market is a good place to start. Narrow the search to tenants between the ages of 30 and 49. You might also want to narrow your target audience further, according to income.
Did you know our Farm, Get More Listings Scheduled Campaigns are currently on sale 10% OFF the first month?
Farm, Get More Listings Scheduled Campaign is shown above. Learn more, HERE
TO LAUNCH A GET MORE LISTINGS CAMPAIGN:
Hit “CLICK HERE”, below (from a desktop or laptop computer) and choose the Get More Listings Series of postcards.
USE PROMO CODE: LIST10 to get 10% Off at check out.
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). This sale expires on 9/18/21.
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…below are some helpful tools 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. The Automated Way to 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. 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
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
Did you know that according to a national survey, over 75% of consumers that receive marketing postcards in the mail, not only read them but keeps them for weeks or more?
With this in mind, it just makes sense for real estate postcards to be a part of your marketing strategy. The following are three tricks to help you begin winning big with postcard marketing.
Direct response marketing
The intent of direct response marketing is to elicit a measured and often emotional response from your prospects. Methods used to trigger this response include a call to action, a question or something that compels your audience to reply.
A great example of direct response marketing using a question is shown in one of our Expired Postcards. The postcard reads, “Did you know more than 90% of people who have had the misfortune of having their listing expire change agents to help improve their ability to sell sooner rather than later?” Quoting statistics is a great way to lend credibility to a point you are making.
Another direct response option is educating your prospect, by raising their awareness and showing your expertise. An example of this is shown in one of our Market Quote Postcards. It reads, “Statistics show the typical FSBO home sold for $210,000, compared to $249,000 for agent-assisted home sales. A professional will net you more!” Again, the use of statistics helps validate the statement.
The last direct response example uses a “call-to-action” that gives your prospect an exciting reason to contact you that benefits them personally. An example of this is demonstrated in our Free Offer Postcards. These postcards contain offers for a “Free Home Market Analysis”, “Free Home Lists” or a “Free Home Equity Analysis”. Providing exactly what the consumer is in need of and at no cost to them makes it easy for them to raise their hand.
Keep in mind, although you may be tempted to send a postcard with a beautiful image and/or saying, because it’s simple and you know it will be readily accepted, be careful it’s not your only choice, specifically over compelling direct response content.
Most of all, remember a postcard has limited, valuable real estate available on the front and back. So make the most of this space with the right images and copy to drive home your point and gain your audience’s attention.
If you decide to create your own postcard, make sure to ask yourself the question, are you using copy and images that will evoke a response from your prospects?
If you speak to the heart of what your target audience is thinking and feeling, you will create a connection that makes people want to reach out to you.
Consistency
Begin your strategic marketing by sending out compelling postcards to a designated area and then do it, again and again. Because this is how often you need to “show up” in your prospect’s mailbox and in their lives to make an impact.
I can not stress this strategy enough due to the positive impact it will have over time. In fact, among other things, it signals to your prospects that you have a quality brand and service.
University of Wyoming’s Anthony McGann and Raymond Marquardt researched the effects of repeat advertising. They found that businesses that advertised with high rates of repetition tend to be rated as “high quality” in consumer report studies.
In addition, the results of another study published in the Journal of Consumer Research showed that consumers think that products and services repeatedly advertised are “good purchase choices”.
Consequently don’t waste time, effort and marketing dollars on a one-hit mailing because it will not have a worthwhile return on investment or positive long-term effect.
Finally, if you are not consistently seen in your targeted market through marketing, consider what message you are sending to your prospects about your level of commitment? Success comes to those who show up over and over again with the right message, the right attitude and the right promise of service.
A powerful database
Your mailing list is not just a compiled list of names and addresses. It represents the lifeblood of your business. And it includes people that, if cared for and kept in touch with, will take care of you for your entire career.
In fact, studies show that one out of twelve on this list will result in a transaction each year. This means a list of 200 will provide you 17 transactions per year. That is if you give them the attention they deserve, by consistently and effectively staying in touch.
Therefore, to keep your list information organized and easy to access choose a database program. But don’t stop with inputting just names, addresses, and phone numbers, also get personal with your entries. Aren’t you impressed when someone remembers your name, asks about your children, spouse, and hobbies?
This is why your database should include spouse and children’s names and don’t forget special interests, likes, dislikes, and personality styles. Begin the habit of contacting your list at least three times a year. Over time you’ll be able to feed more personal details into your database.
Finally, don’t forget about the mailing lists you get when you purchase a Just Listed Postcard. Every time you send a postcard out and do a radial or neighborhood search, for the perfect mailing list – that list is yours to keep. Use it to continue to build that prized book of business. Add these individuals to your database and start building a relationship with them.
For more ideas on how to create a powerful database, download our Free BusinessBASE book. It’s an informative and free resource that explains exactly how to grow your database effectively. And contains information that applies to both short-term and long-term career success.
Start applying these success tricks now. Send the Free Market Analysis Offer postcard from our Free Offer Series to at least 100 new prospects in an area where you want more listings.
Need help? We are here to help you succeed. Just call 866.405.3638 for assistance!
PLUS: When you have a moment…here are 3 Free things to check out that will help you CRUSH IT in 2018!
1. The Free Real Estate Business Plan Outline
Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out the perfect one page Online Real Estate Business Plan – Click Here
2. The Free Marketing 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
3. The Free Strategic Marketing Planner
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, Listing Inventory, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence – Click Here
