Real Estate Postcard Marketing: Postcards + Website = Leads
These days an internet marketing strategy plays a vital part of small business marketing strategies (or any size business marketing strategies for that matter). Web site marketing is an important part of just about any business, small or large.
You can’t put up a beautiful (or any) web site and hope that people will just arrive. You have to let them know, IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY, that your web site is there. This HAS to be part of any Internet marketing strategy you develop. This is actually a basic marketing principle. Customers are not going to look for you, you have to look for them.
Promoting your web site on-line and building traffic is the subject of thousands of web sites, e-zines, books, courses and seminars. Using the web to promote your site, however, assumes that your customers are surfers. But there is a large percentage of our population that is not as savvy with the internet as we would like them to be.
So, what about the large percentages of the population who are not? They will only find out about you through traditional marketing and public relations media. This is particularly true if you serve a fairly local market. Fortunately these are the easiest and cheapest prospects for you to reach off-line.
Key Off-Line Internet Marketing Strategies
Here are some of the ways to make your web site known (this list was taken directly from the Traffic Building Volume of Ken Evoy’s brilliant book, Make Your Site Sell! 2002:
- TV, print and other advertising
- Stationary and business cards
- Catalogs, fliers, billboards, blimps, etc.
- Direct mail (prominently on every document)
- Telemarketing (make it part of the script)
- News releases to targeted media.
The main principle, to which you can add all your imagination, is INTERNET MARKETING STRATEGY INCLUDES ANY AND ALL MEANS OF GETTING YOUR WEB SITE KNOWN AND VISITED BY TARGETED PROSPECTS.
Unless you have a high budget, the TV, radio, classified ad route is not recommended but if you do run ads, be sure to mention your web site everywhere. Make it part of your Internet Marketing Strategy. Another guiding principle is that your off-line internet marketing activities should make it easy for your prospect to go straight to your web site. One of the best ways to market your website off-line is direct mail postcards.
If your prospect sees your website on a billboard as she’s driving home, she probably won’t look you up when she gets to the office the next day.
This is not the only medium that has problems like this. Newspapers are bulky, radio has to spell it out and like before most people are driving at the time. On the other hand, if your prospect is sitting at her computer and a post card comes in the mail announcing your web site, she can just turn around and type in your URL and she’s at your web site.
Now if someone is in the office reading a trade journal and comes across an article about you in the magazine, it’s not difficult for him to copy your URL into his browser and pay your site a visit. I don’t mean to say that those other avenues won’t drive traffic to your site, but it will take numerous impressions and repetition to get them to remember your address.
On the other hand, direct mail postcards are generally received at the home or office where a computer is present, and if received somewhere else they are small enough to keep with you until you can get to a computer. This way, your prospective customer will be able to take the take right over to their desk top computer, type in your address and go right to your site. Brilliant!
I have seen the greatest success in off-line web site promotion with direct mail, and specifically direct mail postcards.
Direct Mail Postcards – Top 10 Ways to Increase Response
Direct mail postcards are the workhorse of direct marketing. Direct marketers have used postcards for decades, for the simple reason that they work. Why else would they still be around after all these years?
But as with any form of marketing, Direct mail postcards need to be optimized in every possible way. In order to get the best return on your investment, you must seek constant improvement in every aspect of your postcard marketing campaigns.
After working in the direct mail postcard industry for a while, I’ve noticed some trends. I’ve seen which postcard strategies work the best, and which ones should be avoided. And I’d like to share a little of that with you right now.
Keep in mind, however, that the only way to truly validate a direct mail strategy is by trying it for yourself. While the following strategies have worked well for other postcard marketers, that doesn’t mean they’ll be equally successful for you. But there’s not harm in testing them for yourself!
So here are 10 of the best ways to improve your direct mail postcard response rates:
1. Start with the big idea.
A good offer will motivate people to respond. A solid promise of value will motivate people to respond. But a pretty postcard alone will not. So before you worry about the wording or the design of your direct mail postcard, focus on the big idea. What’s the whole point behind your direct mail postcards? What’s the offer, incentive or idea that’s going to make people say, “Wow, I definitely want to learn more about that!”
2. Invest in your mailing list.
Now that you have a big idea for your direct mail postcards, you’ll need to match it to the right group of people. In reality, you should already have a profile in mind of your ideal customers — that’s Good Business 101. But you’ll need a direct mail list that matches your ideal audience profile as closely as possible.
Don’t skimp on this step. An in-house list of qualified prospects is usually the best way to go. If you don’t have one, call in the experts. Use a professional data company like InfoUSA, or a highly regarded list broker to assist you.
3. Polish that postcard headline.
Direct mail postcards have only a brief moment to capture the reader’s attention. I refer to this as the “golden glimpse” — that moment when your postcard comes out of the mailbox and either engages them or loses them. A strong direct mail headline goes along way in helping you survive the golden glimpse. So rewrite your headline as many times as needed until it is (A) easy to read at first glance, (B) interesting in some way, and (C) suggestive of the value to come.
4. Choose the right postcard image.
Obviously, direct mail postcards have limited space. So in most cases, you should only have one dominant image on the non-address side of the postcard. Don’t choose an image just because you think it’s neat or pretty. Your postcard’s image will support the headline mentioned above, and vice verse. Together, they must identify and engage the audience. So choose an image for your Direct mail postcards that is (A) eye-catching, (B) relevant to your headline and message, and (C) relevant to the reader in some way.
5. Limit the postcard’s scope.
We’ve already mentioned the limited space of a direct mail postcard. Because of this, it’s wise to limit the scope of your message to one major product or idea. Make it your direct mail copywriting mantra: “One idea per postcard!”
By limiting each direct mail postcard to one product (or service, or idea, or topic), you can develop it in a way that is more likely to generate a response. You could explain the primary benefits, offer a testimonial or two, include some product photos, and make a strong offer. But you can’t do all that while covering several topics, not on a direct mail postcard anyway. Save the multi-topic sales pitch for your brochures and website.
6. Clarify your message.
I’ve read a lot of marketing pitches over the years that I simply did not understand. This comes from a writer who makes assumptions about his or her audience. Don’t ever assume that people will understand your product or service as well as you — they don’t. So on your direct mail postcards, your message has to be crystal clear and easy to understand, with only one read-through. If people don’t get it the first time around, they won’t give you another chance.
7. Sell the next step.
Alternately, this tip could be labeled “Support the overall process.” I can think of few occasions where the direct mail postcard is the only vehicle in a sales process. Usually, it’s just a link in the chain between introduction and conversion. The reasons are simple. It’s hard to sell a product with only a direct mail postcard — except maybe for products under $50.
As for services, that depends on the type of service you’re selling. But the direct mail postcard should still offer a next step in addition to “call me.” Define your sales process before mailing your direct mail postcards, and make sure you’re not putting too much burden on the postcard.
8. Use a strong but realistic call to action.
The call to action is the culmination of the direct mail postcard’s message. It’s what the entire postcard leads up to. It tells the reader what he or she should do next in order to learn more or take action.
With everything a call to action must do, it’s critical that it be clear, simple and realistic. Strip away all the complexity and give people an easy way to respond. Give them toll-free 800 number to call, or a simple web address to type. Be realistic — people will not jump through hoops to reach the next step.
9. Balance the desired response with the right incentive.
The more you ask of people, the more you must be willing to give them in return. Think of it as a seesaw. If you ask for too much with your direct mail postcards but offer too little, the seesaw will drop to the ground. If you have a relevant offer and your next step is relatively simple, you can get by with a smaller incentive. But if you’re asking people to go online and fill out a lengthy form, you’ll need to offer a stronger incentive. You have to be realistic to strike a balance.
10. Track and measure your postcard success … constantly.
Eugene Schwartz, the author of Breakthrough Advertising, stated that “[t]here are no answers in direct mail except test answers.” What he means is this. You can take a direct mail postcard strategy that well for another marketer, apply it to your own audience, and have it flop. On the other hand, it could be a huge success. You won’t know until you try it and measure the results.
Think of it this way. Using the best practices of direct mail postcard marketing will put you ahead of 75% of your competition. Testing can help you surpass the other 25%.
Here’s the good news. Testing direct mail postcards is relatively easy. If you send 5,000 direct mail postcards out and get 250 phone calls about that postcard, you’ve just measured a 5% return on your investment.
Summary
Direct mail postcards have proven successful for a wide variety of company’s selling an even wider array of products and services. The versatility of postcards allows them to be adjusted for almost any marketing purpose. But as with any other form of marketing, Direct mail postcards have their own set of best practices. I hope this article has opened your eyes to some of those practices, and I wish you the best in your direct mail marketing.
Advanced summary: This articles offers advice on improving your real estate marketing program by combining your postcard marketing and Internet marketing channels.
Your real estate marketing program should cover more than one channel or medium. When you combine multiple marketing channels to serve a common goal, you can accomplish more than if you simply used one form of marketing.
Here’s a specific example using real estate postcards along with your website:
Real Estate Postcards + Website Lead Generation
Many real estate agents and investors use postcards to promote themselves within their community. In fact, real estate postcards are one of the oldest forms of agent marketing. Today, most agents / investors who use postcards also have websites — personal marketing websites designed to help them attract clients and grow their market share.
But many of these same agents fail to combine the two marketing channels as effectively as they might. I know this for a fact, because I’ve worked for the two postcard marketing companies — one of which catered almost exclusively to the real estate industry.
Missing the Real Estate Postcard Connection
After being exposed to thousands of real estate postcards daily over a long period of time, I’ve learned one thing above all else. Most real estate agents / investors are not combining their postcards and websites as effectively as they could.
In fact, the most common “call to action” I saw on real estate postcards was the ubiquitous “Learn more at www.whatever…” Not a single reason was given to visit the websites, other than the exciting opportunity to “learn more.” Yawn.
With small adjustments to their strategies, these same agents could probably have doubled their response rates — at least. Now I ask you, if you could double your postcard response rates, wouldn’t a little extra effort be worthwhile? Of course it would!
Make People Want to Visit
Instead of simply saying “learn more at my website,” what if the postcard recipient had a really good reason for visiting the website? And what if, upon reaching the website, they were captivated by what they found and wanted the big “prize” mentioned on the real estate postcard? And what if they offered up their contact info in exchange for said prize … and revisited the website again in the future .. and sent the web link to their friends in the area?
I’ll tell you what if. You would have (A) some viable leads to follow up on, (B) some free word-of-mouth marketing and PR, and (C) the beginnings of a postcard-to-website lead generation program that you could use, modify and repeat well into the future.
What Would Your Audience Truly Desire?
Aside from the logistics, the key to this real estate postcard marketing strategy is the “prize.” To come up with a prize, you simply have to determine what your target audience would really want. I mean what they would really, really want! Information works great, provided it’s done properly and not in a lazy or lackluster fashion.
I’m not talking about the “Ten Home Buying Tips” kind of reports here. I’m talking about creating a web-based resource with a login requirement (leads) … or a high-value information report on the local school system, delivered by email (leads) … or … you get the picture.
The bottom line is, you provide something or real value in exchange for the opportunity to communicate with a prospective client. Your real estate postcards simply initiate the exchange.
Postcard Direct Mail Marketing Tips and Ideas
Postcards are perhaps the least expensive way of reaching a large number of people with your sales message. Although they have their drawbacks, they are cost-effective at attracting new customers. But only if you follow some simple rules that professional direct mail copywriters follow.
Grab their attention on Side A
Side A is the side with the picture on it. One beauty of a direct mail postcard is that your prospective customer does not have to open it. There in the morning mail is your sales message, seen by all. So make sure you put something on Side A that arrests the attention of your prospect. Here are some ideas:
- a wacky photograph
- a photo of your product in an unusual setting
- an outrageous (but true) claim
- your unique selling promise stated in a clever or intriguing way
- your prospect’s problem (the one that your product or service solves), stated or presented in a compelling way
The only goal of Side A is to arrest attention and stimulate interest. OK, so that’s two goals. You must motivate your prospect to turn your postcard over to read the other side. So make sure Side A is arresting and interesting but does not tell your whole story.
Sell them on Side B
Side B is the one with the address and postage stamp. Here you create desire and motive your reader to take action. You do not have much real estate upon which to give your sales pitch, so stick to your strongest benefit. Describe in clear, compelling language what your reader gets by buying your product or service. You don’t have enough room here to say enough to make a sale, so just sell the next step.
Ask for the next step, not the order
The next step these days is often for the prospect to visit your website. That’s a great use for a direct mail marketing postcard: driving potential buyers to a special page on your website (called a landing page) where you give the entire dog and pony show and give prospects a convenient way to part with their money, if I may put it that way.
The next step may also be for the reader to call you, or to visit your business. Both good uses of direct response postcards. So make sure you say enough, and in a strong enough way, on this side of the card to motivate a potential buyer to lift the receiver or start heading in your direction. Which brings us to your offer.
Make your offer irresistible
All direct mail pieces should contain an offer. The offer is what you dangle in front of prospects to motivate them to take the next step in giving you their business. What you are selling and what your offer is are two different things.
For example, using direct mail, banks promote credit cards. That’s what they are selling. But to persuade you to act today they extend you an introductory and time-limited interest rate of only 2.5% (some conditions apply, of course!). That’s their offer. Their offer must overcome inertia. And so must yours.
Make sure your postcard features a strong offer.
DOWNLOAD A FEW SAMPLE POSTCARDS HERE
IMPROVING YOUR LETTERS
Top 10 Things Needed In A Successful Direct Mail Campaign
These are the top ten things that you need in any direct mail marketing pieces’¦we’ll use a restaurant in this example:
1. Format
A picture only aids if it is compelling and aids in telling the story. NOT a picture of an empty restaurant or dining room or your logo. If you have a photo of food or people make sure it demonstrates they are enjoying themselves.
2. Headline
This is often the major flaw of the restaurant marketing I see. All of your marketing needs to have a strong, offer based headline that answers the question in the guests mind “What’s in it for me?”
One option is including the offer in your headline, and on the delivery address side. The more outrageous or bold, the better.
3. Personalization
Tests show that this will increase response by 30%. When you speak directly to your audience you’ll get better results. When you can put someone’s name in the headline it will get better results.
It also means you should segment your lists and match the message to each list.
Existing guests should get a different mailing than those that came from a purchased list. It’s easier to get existing guests to come back to celebrate their birthday and as a result it requires less sales effort. Often a well designed postcard is good enough.
However with a new guest that hasn’t visited your restaurant before it requires more sales effort. That’s hard to do effectively with one postcard. That’s why I advocate a full blown sales letter with first class stamp with the personalized approach.
4. Call to Action
You need to give them a specific direction. Tell them exactly what to do and how to do it.
Sometimes this is combined it with the deadline below. “Bring in the enclosed certificate before XXX to receive your FREE Dinner “.
If you are mailing to a cold list of people that have not been to restaurant before you should give them directions. That’s why you should include a map to your restaurant on the back of the certificate so people end up somewhere else when they intended to come to your restaurant.
5. Story
When you justify your offer, typically your response will go up. Engage the reader. Use your own voice, as if you were talking to a familiar friend. Talk about how your restaurant is different/better than all the other options available to them what makes you standout, unique.
The reason is that once they try your restaurant you know they’ll come back. It saves you hiring some fancy New York advertising agency. It doesn’t have to be a complicated reason you just need one.
6. Deadline
Everything has deadlines to need a valid offer. I recommend you feature an expiry date in large print and underlined, designed to stand out in the middle of the postcard. On a birthday anytime during their birthday month is usually very effective.
7. Offer
Test until you find a couple of offers that make people want to respond. Keep in mind the long term value of a customer. If it costs you a $10 offer ($3.50 if you consider you are only paying for the food) to get a new customer, it’s still worth it.
Once you have them in your database, you can get them onto the newsletter list and get them coming back again and again. Once they are on your database and a regular guest it shouldn’t take as big of an offer to get them to come in.
8. Testimonials
What others say about you is at least 10 times more believable than what you say about yourself. Use testimonials on all of your restaurant’s marketing. Why keep your happy guests’ positive opinion of you a secret?
9. Ability to Track Response
Make sure you keep detailed numbers for all your promotions. Not having accurate statistics may mean that you are making marketing decisions on emotion rather than the facts. That is a problem if you make decisions based on a few people instead of your overall results.
Track each of your restaurant’s marketing pieces using the same formula each time. Track the changes you make to each subsequent piece, making only one change at a time so you know what works and what doesn’t.
Once you find something that works, keep using it until you notice a change in response.
10. Guarantee
Come up with a big, bold and solid guarantee as a marketing selling point. If a customer is unhappy it’s in your best interest to make the customer happy anyway. By promoting a guarantee you just get added mileage from something you would have done anyway.
As long as you are providing a good quality product the amount of people that will take advantage of you are very small compared to the benefits of using it in your restaurant’s marketing material.
DOWNLOAD SAMPLE DIRECT MAIL LETTERS HERE
How a few changes can you make you $50,000 more on a deal
Discover the six things that could dramatically set you apart from your competition.
Firstly, Envelopes!! The condition and appearance of the envelope will determine whether or not it is opened. Now I’m sure that most folks are content to send out those standard business-sized white envelopes and think that those will do just fine. THEY WON‘T!
Using boring old envelopes cost you money, time, and energy and results in most folks tossing them in the trash before they are even opened. Why in the world would you spend money to send someone something that they don’t even open? If this is the type of mailings you’re doing now, it’s ok, we can fix it. What should my envelope look like?
#1. Size of your envelope.
Size matters in direct mail. You don’t want your envelope to be too big, but at the same time don’t want it getting lost in shuffle with the rest of the mail. So what do you do? You have three options.
Option #1: You can go with an invitation-sized envelope. I know you’ve seen them before. They’re the size you get when someone sends a birthday, wedding, or anniversary invitation in the mail. They are shorter and square. Sometimes, they have colored foil on the inside of the envelope (depending on how ‘œswanky’ you want to get).
Option #2: You can go with a business-sized envelope (called a #10 envelope) but you will absolutely have to follow my instructions throughout the rest of this book in order to get it opened. If it’s white, you’re wasting money.
Option #3: You can go with a smaller, #6 envelope (it’s the size that people use to use when they sent you a letter just to see how you were doing). However, sections 3 through 7 must be followed exactly!
#2. The color of your envelope.
Did you even realize you had a choice of colors? I found www.actionenvelope.com, They have every size, shape, and color of envelope you can find! They even have some that look like priority envelopes! Now lets look at the color scheme. You want your envelopes to look like grandma sent a letter, or that the seller is getting invited to something special. So color is one area that you can really let your hair down on. I’ve used these envelopes for years now and have found a few things to be true. First, you don’t ever want to use fluorescent colors. That’s just tacky and reeks of sales letter. No one’s going to open it if they think you’re going to sell them something. So NO neon pink, green, blue, yellow, etc.
Second, Use pastel colors. They are appealing to the eye and for some reason that’s the color that gets opened more than any other I’ve tested. The color I’ve found to be most effective? Pastel yellow.
Don’t use pastel pink! Apparently one of the major insurance carriers uses that color when they’re about to cancel your policy. Avoid pastel pink like the plague. Other colors that I’ll put my stamp of approval on: pastel blue, pastel green, pastel purple.
Finally, if you know that special holidays are coming up that have specific colors which hold meaning, use them. The obvious example would be Christmas (green and red). You can also use pastel green for St. Patty’s Day, red for Valentine’s Day, you get the idea. Autumn colors would be nice around Thanksgiving.
**If you are on a tighter budget, do not blow it all ordering every color envelope under the sun! Order one color (pastel yellow works well year-round) and stick with it until you reach the point that you can keep multiple colors on hand.
# 3. The return address labels. Why in the world would I talk about them? Does anyone even notice those? You’d better believe it! There are several items we’ll address when dealing with return address labels.
The first point will debate buying labels at your local office supply store vs. ordering them pre-made. This one to me is a no-brainer. You want to order them pre-made every single time. The company I use is www.ipclabels.com. I get the ones with the American Flag on them. They are red, white, and blue. As of the time of this writing, they are $6.45 for 400 labels.
For some, you are freaking out right about now. ‘œThat’s too much to spend on just labels!’ No, it’s not. Even if you have a beginner’s budget the very best thing you can do is to get your labels made for you. Why? Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes. You just got a letter from someone who obviously printed the labels. Never mind what’s on the rest of the envelope. The fact that this person is not willing to spend the few extra pennies it takes to get a professional looking return address label is enough. our envelope is the very thing sellers will have of you! Make it a good one. Get the good labels. .
Your letters to your sellers should not have your business name on them…at least, not on the outside. I‘ve found that people are a lot more willing to open the letter when you have the name of a couple or husband and wife. . The final item to worry about on your return labels deals with the actual address printed on the label. NEVER, EVER, EVER put your real home addres for the return address labels. These mailings are business
Say you got a house under contract, figured out that the seller judgments from here to eternity and you decide to let the contract expire. You don’t want to worry about some disgruntled seller coming back and finding you (and your family) because you didn’t hold up your end of the bargain. So no home addresses, got it? Now we just have to figure out if you need a post office box, or if want to get one from a UPS Store type location. The advantage to a UPS Store address is that it looks like a business address… Post office boxes are easy to find and relatively cheap.
# 4. Stamps.. If grandma’s sent me a letter, would she have metered the mail? I don’t think so. Now there are new stamps that give you the same perks that a $.39 stamp does. Using a live stamp can mean the difference between getting a good response rate on your mailings, and getting a great one!
# 5. The actual mailing addresses themselves.
You might choose to hire a fulfillment center (aka mail house) to do it for you. There are pros and cons to them, but in my opinion, its your job is to buy and sell houses. I use a mailing list manager program to do my follow ups and print my letters.
You can get handwritten fonts to choose from. There are plenty right on your computer assuming you are using Microsoft Word. You can also go online to your favorite search engine to find many free downloadable fonts as well.
Now for the sellers name. Would grandma send a letter to ‘œHomeowner’ or ‘œCurrent Resident’? No. If for some reason you can’t find the homeowner’s name, I tend to use ‘œTo the family at’ as default name. I hate to do it, but it has to be done sometimes. In fact, the sample envelope enclosed has just that! Regardless of whether you use the seller’s name or not, be sure the invitation or just something out of the ordinary. That alone gives you a better chance at being opened not immediately thrown in the trash!
# 6. THE BIG SECRET………… Stickers
Go down to your local dollar store and buy as many funky non-real-estate-related stickers as you can. I don’t care what they have on them; aliens, dog, butterflies, stars, whatever! Right now we have a lot of Pokemon and next we’ve got monkeys. PATRIOTIC STICKERS ALWAYS DO WELL. on the envelope, the sticker or between the return address labels and the mailing address. When people see your envelope you’ll get it opened more times than not. I mean, who sends a letter with stickers of teddy bears? The farther away from real estate you can get, the better. The stickers should be one to two inches in height. I’ve had some that reached from the bottom to the top of the envelope!
In this case, don’t go small. It just does look right. My favorite stickers are to make them holiday specific. Think about it, most folks will open an envelope that they receive at Christmas, Easter, Kwanzaa, Valentine’s Day, any holiday if the envelope looks like it came from someone they know and has something holiday-specific on it! St. Patty’s Day, lovers, Valentine’s hearts, Santa, Jesus, Patriotic for Veteran’s Day or any Presidential birthdays…your options are limitless! Have fun with it and enjoy the returns you’ll get as a result.
In Conclusion, I feel that with behind your direct marketing campaign, your lead certain to skyrocket! I know I’ve received testimonials from countless other investors who tell me that by using the tools described here in their direct mail that their response rate is in the double digits! Considering that the national average is about 1%, I’d say that’s pretty darn good! keep in mind the idea you need to test, test, test before you go whole hog. The envelopes are no exception. What works for some does not necessarily work for all. Play around with colors, shapes, sizes, and all of the other elements we’ve discussed here. just remember, at them see your personality and character within the information you’re sending out, they aren’t go call you in the first place. Make sure to make it your own and HAVE FUN! There are no practice sessions in life. You either do it all the way or don’t do it at all.