“If you aren’t a little different than your competition, you’re in trouble.” ~ Mark Sanborn, Author of The Fred Factor
You have saved money for the past five years for your first real estate deal. You are probably going through all the available online material to market your company. After all the hard work is done, you’re ready for your first direct mail marketing campaign. And, you send out your first set of postcards/letters; no response!
But, you’re quite enthusiastic, so you send your second one; still, no leads.
Same results with your third campaign!
And now you are wondering if that’s normal.
While in some cases, it may take a couple of months to start seeing the results of your campaign, but for new marketers, it is always advised to reassess your strategy and approach if it doesn’t seem to be working.
If you’re a beginner marketer, chances are that you may have committed one or more of the common mistakes.
No one gets it right the first time, so take it easy on yourself.
Let’s find out some common mistakes novice real estate investors make in direct mail marketing.
Did you ever notice that over-enthusiastic realtor who handed his visiting card to everyone without even breaking a word? What was your reaction? Are you likely to give him business?
Not quite likely.
The same happens with new marketers who do not spend enough time on identifying their target audience and rather send mail to everyone. Are they likely to get a positive response? Highly unlikely.
The first step is to identify your target audience. Spend some time identifying their demographics, geographic location, and interests.
The good news is that you don’t have to compile mailing lists yourself, they are readily available for a price. The right list provider can provide a highly precise list based on your customer demographics.
Direct mail marketing is probably the most self-explanatory marketing term in the entire marketing landscape, but people miss it anyway.
It means a direct chance to interact with your client.
Imagine a face-to-face conversation where the other person generalized every single sentence. It never works that way, nor does direct mail marketing.
Always put a personal message, and use ‘you’ as many times as possible. It’s even better if you can put their name on the postcard/letter. Aim to build rapport instead of putting a sales pitch in every third line.
Try if you can identify their pain point and offer them a real solution.
How did you feel after reading a brochure that mentioned everything about the service/product but didn’t tell you the next step? Even if you impress the reader, they are not likely to contact you if they couldn’t find an easy call to action.
Tell them what to do next. Give your phone number or website.
You can create a sense of urgency by offering a limited period discount. ‘No question asked closing before xx/yy/zzz’ or something similar.
If you’re redirecting them to your website, make sure to use a landing page designed specifically for your target audience, helping them understand the next step.
A lot of beginner investors often spend their entire marketing budget in the first few months only to find little to no response at all.
The key to a successful direct mail marketing campaign is consistency. You would want to be consistent with your mailings, and touch your target audience at least a couple of times throughout the year. Consistency helps you create brand awareness and your prospect is likely to contact you in the case of a trigger event.
You joined a gym to lose some extra pounds, but you didn’t take precise measurements. How would you know if those three months of regular workouts worked or not? You wouldn’t know.
The same principle applies to direct mail marketing. If you’re not tracking your results, you wouldn’t know if your strategy is working or not.
Start by building a strong conversion tracker system. It could be something as simple as using a separate phone number for your mailing list or creating a new landing page for potential prospects. You can even use separate URLs for different campaigns.
Use this data to further streamline your mailing lists and continue doing so until you have created a precise customer database.
In a nut shell
Direct mail marketing is a science and the best way to learn it is to test and then test again. What works for someone may not work for you. The key is to keep testing until you find what works for you. Remember to be creative and consistent in your mailings!
