Nine Steps to Successful Direct Mail for Real Estate Sales - EXEC-U-MAIL DIRECT

Nine Steps to Successful Direct Mail for Real Estate Sales

Real Estate - Whether a premium listing or typical tract home, Exec-U-Mail Direct helps sell homes

by Jane Franz

Exec-U-Mail Direct - We Mail Things!
Marina del Rey, CA

With new laws that block telephone and fax solicitation and growing hostility toward computer spam, a well-designed direct mail campaign can provide a better way to deliver your message to prospects and existing customers.

An additional plus to direct mail is the ability it gives you to control every aspect of the process, providing you follow the nine essential steps to a successful direct mail campaign.

Real Estate - Let Exec-U-Mail Direct help move your real estate listings

Select the aspect of your business you wish to market, whether listings or sales.
A direct mail approach to solicit new listings is a traditional approach for real estate offices and agents, but used correctly, direct mail can all be used to generate sales. Technology provides new tools, and recently, distributing CDs and DVDs, via direct mail, to show properties to their best advantage to a select list of prospective buyers has become the newest way to sell high-end homes and commercial properties.

PLAY RESIDENTIAL VIDEO SAMPLE

PLAY COMMERCIAL VIDEO SAMPLE

Decide on the response you wish and what a successful campaign means. Usually the desired response is to elicit a decision to list or purchase, but an interim step could be to drive traffic to your website, to make customers aware of a new location, or a new real estate agent who specializes in a certain type of home or customer.

Target your market.
Direct mail is a proven advertising medium that allows you to precisely target, but to do so, you must know your market. Your insight into your market's habits and lifestyles will help you make decisions on lists. Accurate targeting is considered 40% of the equation for successful direct mail and finding the right list is an art. If analysis of your listing and sales history shows that your best customers are within certain income or demographic ranges, it makes more sense to target your mailing accordingly.

Research the competition before you decide on the strategy and concept of your mailing.
Ask friends to save competitors' direct mail pieces for you, then look for feedback from your family, friends and neighbors on these mailings versus the one you propose. Also check with people who have different backgrounds and values who fall within your target market. Ask them what appeals to them about both yours and your competitors' mailing pieces. For most businesses, the offer is considered the second 40% of a successful direct mail campaign, but if you don't negotiate on your commission, your "offer" may have more to do with the steps you'll take to market a seller's home, or how you help buyers find a home.

Choose an easy way for people to respond. If your response mechanism isn't clear and easy, the customer may fail to respond despite interest.

Think backwards on the timing of the entire direct mail process and add the costs of the campaign per recipient into calculations of your offer.
Know the costs of and the deadlines you need to meet to:

develop your in-house mailing list and purchase a list of targeted prospects,
finalize copy,
finalize graphic design,
test offer,
print all components,
purchase postage and mail
response.

If you're working against a hard deadline, such as obtaining new listings in spring in time for summer sales, build in extra time to accommodate delays. The direct mail process should be about making your business more profitable, not more stressful, so be realistic about deadlines.

Select the Best Direct Mail house You Can Find.
You need a partner in direct mail that has the expertise to advise you on mailing regulations and costs of printing and mailing. This partner can also advise on the most reputable sources for lists that have been verified and updated.

You also need a direct mail partner that can get your job done smoothly and on-time. Check with the Better Business Bureau, though your best prospect need not necessarily be in the same city you are located in. Check with the Mailing & Fulfillment Service Association website (www.mfsanet.org), a leading trade association to the direct mail business, to locate direct mail houses.

Work with a Graphic Designer who can both advise and accept guidance.
Clear and attractive presentation is considered the final 20% of the successful direct mail equation. Graphic design, however, needs to serve the tastes of your market, postal regulations and your budget. Don't let the designer drive the process with design that fails to sell or doesn't meet your other parameters.

Test your offer and your mail piece on a small portion of your list first.
If the extrapolated response from a small mailing does not cost-effectively meet your goals, reconsider all the steps in the process.

In addition to its ability to target, another beauty of direct mail is that you can easily chart the response. Once you've found a successful approach, it can be duplicated and expanded. The rewards are great. Persevere!

Exec-U-Mail Direct can help!
Please call 310-574-9333
and ask for one of our Production Specialists,
or,
send us an email message

In the following months we'll examine a new industry or service, along with a specific example of a recent program for one of our clients. So check back often, or call us so we can discuss what we can do for you.