Learn what successful real estate professionals say about the best ways to use direct marketing in a real estate business.
Whether buying or selling, the most successful pros use direct marketing in their real estate business. The main reason why direct mail is so effective is that it lets you send your sales message directly to your customers and potential customers. Unlike many companies, you are not interested in broadcasting your message to a wide audience. You have a very specific, targeted base of current and potential customers whom you’d like to see take advantage of your services. Meaning you should be directly marketing to this specific audience.
Direct Mail Is One of the Best Strategies for Finding Properties
Why? Because it’s been shown that most motivated sellers respond very well to direct mail pieces. Even better than websites, online marketing and email campaigns. Simply put, direct mail delivers the best bang for the buck, by far. Another advantage is direct mail can be easily tracked. You know who the piece was mailed to and you know who is responding and why. You can send out 1000 or 2000 postcards and see within a few weeks what the response rate is. For example, if you send out 1000 pieces and you know that piece generates a 3% response rate, you will get around 30 calls.
Direct Mail Call to Action – Remember that in all your direct mail messages you will need to have a strong call to action. A call to action is a statement telling the customer what you want them to do. It can be something as simple as “call me now” or “Please visit our website”. These are basic marketing fundamentals. It’s important to keep in mind that you don’t want to do what the big advertisers do. Big companies have huge brand strength and they focus their advertising efforts on building their brand. Don’t try to compete with that. They have millions of dollars to spend and you don’t, so don’t even try.
Direct Mail Message: Don’t be Boring – The number one rule in your direct marketing efforts is don’t be boring. Try to set yourself apart. Try to be funny and personable. Basically try to be a real person and let your personality come through.
Consistent Leads = Consistent Deals – As long as you have a consistent stream of leads in your real estate business you’ll have consistent deals. You might consider sending out around 1-2000 letters or postcards to a targeted geographic area. Mailings of this size, if done properly, can consistently give you around $5-$10k in wholesaling income per month. This breaks down to between 1 and 3 deals that is a direct result of each mailing. And if you’re rehabbing and flipping instead of wholesaling, it can amount to a whole lot more.
Naturally each mailing will result in different returns. Some mailings will result in 3 or 4 deals and others will not result in any deals. But over time they average out to between 1 and 3 per mailing. Remember that consistency is key, so do the mailings on a regular basis to keep the leads coming in.
Establish an Incoming Call System
If you’re going to do direct mail, you should set up a voicemail system, call center, or other system that can handle your incoming calls. We don’t recommend the calls go directly to your cell phone. Experience has shown that incoming calls can be interrupting important business. You don’t want 10 or 20 phone calls coming in while you’re trying to work. At the same time, you don’t want the calls to go unanswered, so it’s important to establish some sort of system for taking the calls, before you begin the mailing.
You can try a system like “Patlive”, which is a live call center where the calls are prescreened. They ask the caller all the right questions, then that lead is sent directly to your email. You will get a lead sheet that spells out all the necessary information that you’ll need to determine if you want to pursue the deal, saving you a lot of time.
Two Important Books About Marketing
- Influence – The Psychology of Persuasion. This book will change your mind about the marketing world and all that world entails. It’s highly recommended reading for folks handling their own marketing.
- Hypnotic Writing. This is a great book if you want to start writing your own postcards and other direct mail pieces. You’ll learn about words that sell, as well as how to get a better response from your mailings. You’ll also learn about how to write business letters, and any other business related writing.
As you go about growing your real estate business, you will need to learn how to market your company in order to sustain that growth. The first thing to remember is to allow all your marketing efforts to fall under the Direct Marketing umbrella. This direct marketing approach will focus your message and laser beam on your current and prospective clients.
