Think about the last letter you received. Not an advertisement, but an actual letter. What made you open it? Remember how it made you feel when you realized that someone took the time and effort to personally write you a letter? That is a powerful response.
In real estate, leveraging direct mail marketing is one of the most effective real estate lead generation tools available. It allows you to personalize messages and even add interactive elements to your message, and it continues to be one of the most successful means of generating leads.
What Is Direct Mail Marketing?
In real estate, direct mail marketing involves delivering physical letters or postcards to prospective real estate leads who may be interested in buying or selling properties.
Direct mail marketing doesn’t just have to be a traditional letter; it can also take the form of…
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Postcards
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Flyers
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Brochures
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Case Studies
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Coupons
Sending Direct Mail To Potential Buyers
This type of strategy “casts a wide net” so you may need to utilize printed, handwritten-style font for this type of outreach. This direct marketing campaign involves sending letters to individuals and investors who may be interested in buying a real estate offer you may have, or who are looking to make a real estate investment in general.
Sending Direct Mail To Potential Sellers
This is one of the best uses of direct mail marketing in real estate. You’ve likely used real estate software to identify property owners who are highly likely to sell. Since you’ve targeted a select group, the number of contacts will allow you to take the time to handwrite and personalize each of your outreach letters, starting the conversation and, hopefully, setting up a meeting.
5 Reasons Direct Mail Marketing Is So Effective
1. Its Tangible
Leads can hold it in their hands. Sending something tangible, that delivers value to your leads, can be much more effective than something intangible (such as a cold email).
2. It Stands Out
In a world where we feel like we’re constantly being marketed to, direct mail campaigns (when done correctly) help to humanize your offer and set you apart from the mass-produced letters and messages that your leads receive daily.
3. Allows You To Be More Creative
Maybe you create a mail asset that looks like a coupon. Maybe it’s a postcard, or maybe it’s a popup card. Either way, direct mail marketing allows you to use your creativity to capture your audience’s attention.
4. You Reach Users With Low Online Presence
Everyone has that family member that doesn’t use smartphones or the internet. So how do you reach this huge swath of potential leads? Direct mail is a very effective way to do it!
5. It Helps You Make A Great First Impression
Great paper, high-resolution images, and rich color ensure that your direct mail assets are high quality and make the first impression that you want - that of quality and trust. These are huge first steps toward getting a positive response.
Understanding Your Target Market
To engage with your clients and investors successfully, it is necessary to understand who you’re targeting and how best to communicate with them. By gaining a deep understanding of your target audience, you can craft the perfect marketing strategy that will ensure successful client engagement. If your direct mail marketing campaign is big enough, it may even be worth forming small focus groups to help you answer these questions.
With this knowledge in hand, drafting effective direct mail campaigns becomes much easier as well. Tailor-made messaging that resonates specifically with each group allows for more accurate results and higher response rates.
And remember, to truly understand the needs and desires of your leads, you must be able to put yourself in their shoes. What appeals to them? What could appear unprofessional or insulting? What would they want to know about your business? What do they get out of this sale or investment?
Although these questions may seem simple at first glance, it’s amazing how often they are overlooked!
8 Direct Mail Hacks That Boost Responses And Save You Money
1. Send First Class Postcards First
To start your direct mail series off on the right foot, send out a first-class postcard to identify any bad addresses in advance. You will save more money going this route rather than opting for a yellow letter and envelope combination. Additionally, sending with first-class postage ensures that you'll get back any return mail so you can remove them from your list or use it as an opportunity to find valuable information (tip #6 has even more details).
2. Scrub Your Email Lists Using NCOA
Don't let your business suffer from outdated address information. Make sure you utilize the National Change of Address registry from the USPS. This will allow you to stay ahead of any address changes and avoid wasting time & resources sending mail to the wrong addresses.
3. Use Multiple Phone Numbers To A/B Test Your Direct Mail Campaign
Are you planning to A/B test different letter styles? To track their effectiveness, make sure to assign different phone numbers for each letter variant. Sign up with services like Phone.com or Callrail.com to create multiple phone numbers. Then set up call forwarding to calculate how many calls are generated from each touch point. This is a simple, yet effective, method of gauging your direct mail campaign's return on investment.
4. Use Multiple URLs To A/B Test Your Direct Mail Campaign
Just like the third tip, you should use a distinct website URL to gauge how successful each variant is, and which mailers or frequency work best.
5. Select Handwritten Fonts
If you're going to print your letters, make sure to select a handwritten font. After all, think about how many pieces of direct mail you get every day from companies that clearly look like they are one of a million identical letters. Stand out from those by selecting a font that looks like it was handwritten.
6. Use Skiptracing
In real estate, skiptracing involves using data points to uncover leads' phone numbers and email addresses in order to market to them. This means you get a leg up on the competition by getting into the inbox or on the phone with these high-value leads first.
7. Send Direct Mail From Your Home Address
Taking the time to send your mailers from a residential address instead of an office or business location will make it appear more individualized and can result in increased open rate success.
8. Write Your Letters By Hand
If you're looking to achieve a greater open rate with your mailings, then hand-written letters are the way to go. Yes, it may take time and resources, but those are the reasons why your competitors aren't doing it and you want to stand out from the group.
Want to scale your ability to write authentic handwritten letters to leads?
Leadflow offers personally penned letters so that you can increase open rates and pique the attention of your highest-value leads!
