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A recent study showed that it takes less brain power to process information obtained from direct mail, meaning your potential customers may instinctively act upon your mailer. So to put it in other words, direct mail is more effective because people understand it easier.
There are a million ways you can market your real estate business and these steps are only one of them. However we have gathered proven tricks which if used correctly will help you in finding and capturing new home sellers/buyers.
Real estate direct mail marketing is not easy but it will definitely pay off in the long run.
So without further ado let’s talk about steps you could be taken to boost your next campaign.
There are four things you should be considering before crafting your direct mail campaign.
Have you considered how much are you willing to spend on your campaign?
Your budget is important as it will define the type of mailer you can send out and how many prospects you can send it to.
Start with your database. If you have thousands of prospects you want to target, informational mailer or flyer/postcard could be your best option. If you have less but high value prospects, consider sending them a nicely designed brochure or accordion mailer.
This brings us to next step.
To optimise your mailing campaign for success, it is important to understand who your target audience is.
Are you trying to find and capture new home sellers or buyers? Are you trying to capture high or low income home sellers or buyers?
These questions are important as it will help you to create and design a copy that sells. If you do not have a target audience – you do not have the message to spread. And if you do not have a message, you surely do not have a direct mail campaign.
Important thing to remember here is that every audience has a problem and your message should solve that problem.
A study showed that millennials made up 36% of the home buyer pool which most of them came from reading direct mailers. Millennials grew up in digital marketing world so direct mail piece looks intriguing and different, hence the higher likeability for it to be read and act upon.
How are you going to monitor your campaign? Sending a lot of letters out to your prospects is not enough. You need to think bigger.
You need to monitor how many and how often your marketing campaign is sent out. How much you spend and whether a certain audience has a better response rate.
Those will help you track the success of your real estate direct mail marketing campaign.
What systems do you have in place to measure and track your direct mail responses?
If your aim was to get traffic to your website, have you created a dedicated landing page to track how many prospects are clicking through?
What if you sent out an offer, have you dedicated a specific code or phone number in order to see how successful it is?
You also need to have returns management system to keep removing invalid addresses and saving yourself some pennies.
Not tracking and measuring your campaign can have unwanted cost related consequences.
Seasonal trends dominate the real estate market and that is a known fact. But it is also known that those trends are predictable.
People tend to sell more houses during spring to fall than during winter. So if your campaign is promoting selling houses in winter, you might as well throw the mail away yourself.
Also finding ideal frequency is a key as you do not want to annoy your prospects but at the same time you want to raise your brand awareness.
Try experimenting with different frequencies at first and see the impact. Send out your mailers more frequently during selling season and less during holidays.
Using accordion mailers or odd shaped flyers help real estate direct mail stand out from the rest of the recipient’s mail.
Imagine receiving a triangle shaped postcard through your door. The brain will send a signal that it is something new and unseen so curiosity kicks in and you already reading what’s written on it.
Do not be afraid to experiment with different shapes because that will make you to stand out from other competitors in your area.
The same applies to the size of your mailer. Make your postcard three times bigger so it grabs the attention.
Now you managed to capture your recipient’s attention, it is time to move a step further.
Making your mailer feel luxurious and distinctive can have an impact on how likely your prospects will be willing to contact you.
When you have a limited space on your mailer (e.g. postcard or flyer), you try to put as much information on it as you can. DO NOT!
It will look messy and people find it hard to understand when they are bombarded with a lot of different information at once.
Instead get to the point quickly. Tell your recipients who you are and why your message is important to them. Your audience can sense if you are trying to trick them into buying so be helpful instead.
Every homeowner is curious to know how well their home is doing on the market even if not currently selling.
So provide them with free home valuation opportunity on your direct mail piece they could access through your website. That gives you a chance to capture new leads. And because your recipients do not feel like forced to sell or buy, it also boost their confidence in your brand.
Or you could send your direct mail piece with a gift included. If your aim is to raise brand awareness, a pen or notepad sent to their home or office will stay in their focus longer than a letter or flyer.
Get creative. You can send a postcard to your recipients with a personal secret recipe on the other side. Time them right and send those during holidays or festive period.
You could also think about having an interactive quiz or meme on the other side of your mailer. This will give positive feelings and create a positive belief in your brand.
Find a professional direct mail company.
By this point you should have a killer campaign and budget set aside to boost your real estate business.
But you cannot physically enclose thousands of marketing pieces on your own. Not only it would take you ages, but you have to be focusing on your next goal.
So finding a professional direct mail company is your solution to having a peace of mind when it comes to printing, enclosing and sending out your marketing campaign.
The advantage of using a direct mail campaign is that it saves not only your money on postage, but it can fulfil your campaign in few days. This is a huge relief when you have a strict deadline to meet.
Contact us today to see how we can help bring your estate agents direct mail marketing to life.
