Real Estate Marketing Blog

Many underestimate the positive impact a direct mail campaign can have on their business. With the increased popularity of paperless marketing methods and social media marketing, this is understandable. However, direct mail is still a powerful weapon in your marketing arsenal if you approach it correctly. Read the following Do’s and Don’ts of direct mailing to use this old-school marketing method effectively.

Do Follow the 40/40/20 Rule

The 40/40/20 rule of marketing is still applicable even when it comes to direct mail. Your rate of return is dependent on three main factors. Some 40% is based on the effectiveness of your mailing list, 40% is based on the quality of your offer and 20% is based on the design, text and the overall look of your mailing.

Do Make Your Message And Imaging Clear

Make your message clear within your direct mail piece. Those in your farm who receive your direct mailer should instantly know what action you want them to take next. Also, use pictures or graphics that tie into real estate as this is your market. In other words, though the photo of a man fishing or a field with flowers might be pretty, it could also confuse your audience. Caveat being if your mailing is tied to a theme like Spring Top Local Places to Enjoy the Outdoors. For the most part, it’s wise to keep your message and your imagining clear and concise. Visit ReaMark for an example of some postcards that fit the bill. Speaking of design…

Do Spend Time on The Design of Your Mailers

In order to get a good rate of return from your direct mailing campaign, you have to create a well-designed mailer. Otherwise, your recipients will likely skim over your ad, not giving it more than a cursory glance. To prevent this, ensure you give plenty of attention to the design of your mailer. Create an eye-catching headline and bold colors to make your mailer stand out.

Don’t Underestimate The Power of a Proper Audience

Don’t blanket an area aimlessly as this is a great waste of money. Instead, use your resources to discover the most effective areas to target in your direct mail campaign. Many businesses make the mistake of focusing only on the material they send, which is important, but in so doing they neglect to properly identify their ideal audience. The end result is a wonderful piece of marketing material being put into the hands of people who won’t take action on it. If you don’t already have your ideal farm chosen, you can discover them through testing. Send out a small number of mailers and keep a close eye on the rate of returns from them. This allows you to tweak your intended audience until you have the ideal farm to target.

Don’t Exaggerate or Over Promise

Be sure you can back up anything promised in your mailer. If you say, “we will sell your home in three months,” make sure that’s a reality. Otherwise, tone down your promises. Your readers will see through overblown fluff and exaggerations, so make sure you can back up what you say.

Follow the above Do’s and Don’ts in order to construct an effective direct mail campaign. Visit ReaMark today for a full range of products to consider for your next direct mailers.

As we head into the fourth quarter of 2024, it’s time to make plans for the upcoming year. If you are like most real estate agents and brokers, you’ll be looking to getting the biggest bang for your marketing buck and ReaMark is here to help with our 2025 wall calendars. It’s time to order from our proven effective selection of calendars.

Here are six tips as to why Reamark calendars are both a powerful marketing tool and a cost-effective way to reach customers and prospects.

Six Tips on Using Wall Calendars for Real Estate Marketing

1. Perfect Timing
Offering calendars to customers leads and prospects during the fourth quarter gets them “first in home” which is important for calendars. These first calendars are more likely to be kept and displayed. Ordering calendars too late in the season can make you appear to be a “Johnny come lately” when it comes to promotional products.

2. Exceptional Value
Calendars provide valuable information for families for 12 months or more. They are put on walls, displayed on refrigerators, desks, and in wallets for a full year giving you valuable visibility for an extended period. That is value!

3. Wide Selection of Designs and Styles
At ReaMark, we have over 300 different designs of real estate calendars in 10 different styles. This means you can choose a design and style to best fit your message and how you want to brand your business. Want a customized edition? Our professional team can help with your message and graphics!

4. Calendars are Appreciated
While some real estate items are throwaways, calendars are appreciated by those who receive them. They help families plan for vacations, schooling, and celebrations. They place your name front and center every time they are looked at.

5. Multiple Marketing Uses
Our ReaMark real estate marketing calendars can be used as a “thank you” or holiday gift for current customers, sent out as direct mail pieces, hung on doors or given away at community events. You just may be surprised with how often you are asked, “may I have another for a friend?”

6. Proven Effective
Many real estate professionals have built their business on real estate marketing calendars. It is a staple of their marketing plan each year. As new agents move toward more digital marketing, it increases the value of a tangible item like a calendar. You can even combine the two, offering calendars to those who respond to your email or social media marketing!

Now is the time to act as we are offering 2025 wall calendars at terrific savings during our New Year Sales Event. You can save 20-30% on everything from our magnetic calendars to our desk and 2025 wall calendars. Deck the walls, refrigerators, desks, and wallets this season with a selection of real estate marketing calendars from ReaMark!

Inject your spring marketing campaign with the vitality of the season. You can do this by sending out postcards with home maintenance and landscaping tips that enhance curb appeal. Alternatively, you can incorporate seasonal topics in your newsletters and door hangers. It’s also a great time to share your latest sales and listings or neighborhood market updates on spring-themed postcards. Are you ready to help your customers shake off the winter doldrums and spring into the real estate market now with these helpful tips from ReaMark’s realtor direct mail marketing pros?

Garden-Themed Open House

Your existing listings can generate interest in your services. Send garden-themed direct mail pieces with lush images of blooming flowers and serene outdoor spaces. As well as including details about the open house, you can feature your contact information on both sides of colorful door hangers and postcards. Door hangers are a great way to reach prospective clients without paying postage. On the other hand, spring postcards delivered through our Every Direct Door Mail services connect you with every homeowner in the neighborhood.

Curb Appeal Tips for Spring

Winter weather takes its toll on even the best maintained properties. So, send out tips to help clients maximize the curb appeal of their properties. Here are a few topics that work well on individual postcards or combined in a seasonal newsletter:

• Gardening tips that add excitement to outdoor seating and growing areas.
• Landscape maintenance checklists to spruce up properties following harsh winter weather.
• Home maintenance reminders, such as scheduling a roof inspection and turning on outdoor spigots.
• Inspirational messaging to inspire prospective buyers and sellers.
• Customized messaging that ties into your personal branding.

What topics can you include in your seasonal direct mail marketing? Incorporate tips such as planting colorful flowers along walkways and maintaining a well-manicured lawn. If you want to combine and customize your tips, the ReaMark team can help you put together a four-page newsletter full of ideas, such as how to choose the ideal exterior paint or upgrade your bland front door.

April Showers Bring Real Estate Opportunities

Take advantage of fun themes, such as raindrop graphics or umbrella illustrations. This is a great way to remind clients that real estate opportunities grow as the weather warms up. Custom postcards are a great way to connect with homeowners and prospective buyers. Spring showers bring May flowers and real estate opportunities. So, get creative with your messaging while echoing the sentiments of growth and renewal evident throughout spring.

Remember to incorporate your branding and contact information in your realtor direct mail marketing pieces. Need more tips on how to invigorate your marketing campaign? Reach out to our team any time.

Contact a Realtor Direct Marketing Professional Today

If you need inspiration for your spring postcards and newsletters, help is close at hand. Call the ReaMark team at 1-800-932-2957 or contact us online to expedite your marketing campaign. We would be delighted to help you capitalize on seasonality throughout the year and encourage clients to spring into the real estate market now!

Every top-producing Realtor will have their own proven methods of lead generation, conversion, and sales. Do you know what they all have in common?

Savvy professionals use Realtor marketing such as Direct Mail to promote their skills and attract new clients.

If you’ve heard that direct mail is dead, here are just a few stats to show that’s it’s not only alive but an effective way to connect with clients:

• 82% of millennials trust printed messages more than digital ones.
• 92% of Y generation shoppers would rather read printed than digital ads.
• Households receive up to 157 unsolicited emails every day. Compare that to two direct mail pieces per day and the possibilities become clear.

What’s the Preferred Direct Mail for Real Estate Marketing?

Postcards are the most effective method of direct mail real estate marketing!

When you use postcards in your direct mail campaigns, you put the information you want the user to know directly in their hands. It’s nearly impossible for prospective customers to handle the postcard without at least catching your contact information and headlines. So, if you’ve recently listed or sold homes in the area, they are likely to know about it even if they immediately throw the postcards away.

That’s another thing to consider. Full-color jumbo postcards are likely to remain in the home for at least a few days. That gives prospective buyers and sellers plenty of time to read your recipes, home maintenance tips, and contact information!

Follow up your postcard campaigns with real estate calendars, magnets, or real estate newsletters to solidify the connection with multiple touchpoints.

How Long Does It Take to Work?

There is one goal and one goal only when it comes to direct mail marketing—or any other marketing for that matter! That’s securing leads to buy or sell houses. However, it doesn’t happen overnight. It can take up to 6 to 8 months to see results in a particular farm area. Don’t become discouraged. It’s like dominoes. Once you make one buyer or seller happy, you begin to grow your reputation and can use the bragging rights on your next batch of just listed/just sold postcards!

People learn about anything through repetition. Therefore, the more you can get your name and face in front of people, the more likely they are to think of you when they need real estate assistance.

Research shows that direct mail is more effective than other forms of marketing put together. If you need help coming up with a direct mail strategy for your Realtor marketing, feel free to reach out to one of our friendly team members for help.

Target Your Audience

Cultivating a personal list of past and future clients is the most effective way to build an effective direct mail list. However, you can also use tools such as the USPS Every Day Direct Mail service. EDDM allows you to target all the addresses within a certain zip code or postal route with your direct mail pieces.

If you have the time and energy, you can even go door to door with door hangers containing success stories, tips, or other information of use to prospective clients. Always make sure that your contact information appears on the front and back of your messaging. You want maximum exposure, so anything that gets your name in front of prospects improves your chances for future sales and listings.

Don’t miss our Realtor marketing tips for detailed strategies on running a successful direct mail campaign. We also invite you to review our customer testimonials to find out how ReaMark direct mail products have improved sales for other real estate professionals.

Contact us today to get started with your real estate marketing strategy!

First-time home buyers often begin searching in the fall, after the kids are back in school and competition is less fierce. According to Trulia, starter home listings increase up to 7% in the fall. Of course, modest homes at modest prices are a rarity in the hot seller’s season we have going. To attract both buyers and sellers, amp up your fall real estate marketing by meeting your clients where they already hang out.

Here are three realtor marketing strategies to build your brand and increase your customer base.

1. Fall Community Events

Community events, such as school football games and block parties, and charitable events, such as 5Ks, all present ample opportunities to get the word out about your services. Volunteer in a booth at the harvest festival, hand out school or sports calendars with your marketing information on them, and network with area homeowners.

Remember to collect names, addresses, and email addresses so that you can add prospects to your realtor’s direct mail marketing database. You can even sponsor events that benefit local groups by providing T-shirts or purchasing advertising space on local sports fields. Supporting the local community earns you automatic bonus points with parents and neighbors, and it’s a fun way to connect with potential buyers and sellers in the area.

2. Stay Helpful Online

Although spring and summer are the monster seasons for buying and selling homes, it’s not too late to get additional listings and buyers to close out the year strongly. Use your online resources for free marketing by sharing insights and blogs with your clients and prospects. You can stay helpful online by adding insight for fall buyers such as those seeking starter homes.

Additionally, you can use direct mail to boost your real estate agent marketing. Check out our spooktacular Halloween postcards and awesome autumn themes. Don’t forget to add your website and email address to make it easy for customers to contact you any way they wish.

Do you have leads that have gone cold? Follow up with jumbo postcards with fall recipes and home maintenance tips.

3. Take Advantage of Lower Competition

As volume slows down, other agents tend to dial back their realtor marketing efforts. However, it’s a great time to take advantage of the lower competition. Send an email or direct mail newsletters reminding clients that the market is still going strong. You could also educate buyers and sellers with informative postcards on recent sales information for their neighborhood.

Contact ReaMark today to finalize your fall real estate direct mail marketing order. Need more ideas for your fall marketing campaigns, we’re happy to help you choose direct marketing materials that your prospects find helpful and memorable.

Hello I’m Richard Brown, President of ReaMark. I have been in direct marketing for over 30 years with the last 18 years helping real estate professionals like you, to substantially increase their listings, sales, and ultimately, their income.

There has never been a better time to improve your business by using a consistent strategy to contact anyone who knows you and can refer clients. All signs are pointing to a steady rise in the real estate business since interest rates are at record lows. In addition, home inventory  is still low so listings are being sold quickly and for top dollar.

Each year I take hundreds of calls from realtors. The same question comes up time and time again, “Rick, what works best? How can I make more money?”

So, last week I sat down, got away from the kids, and really thought about all of the success stories, trials and errors that realtors have told me during the past two years.

• With all being equal why are some realtors more successful than others?
• What does actually work?
• What makes top agent?
• How can my business survive when I have less money to spend because I am making less money?

One fact that kept coming up is that my business only makes money if the programs we recommend to you makes YOU money. To that end, I came up with a few things you should be doing if you are serious about increasing your yearly income.

Four Real Estate Marketing Strategies for 2019

Reach Out to Past Clients

You MUST reach out to your Past Client contact list at least every month. Over 50% of your business should come from referrals. If you are not mailing to this specific contact list you are losing money. Your Past Client contact list should includes your colleagues, past buyers and sellers, friends and family. The larger the list, the more successful you will be. You really need to sit down and put this lists into a workable database.

Utilize Postcards to Market Yourself

Announce your success! Since referrals are the largest part of your business and you want to build up your contact list, these are the second most effective tool at your disposal. You should mail the entire neighborhood and also your current contact list. Our Just Listed/ Just Sold, Market Updates and Open House postcards are a great way to showcase the strength of your business. If your budget is limited, these could be part of your planned monthly marketing, but for maximum results, you should be doing these mailings in addition to the ones you send out to your Current Contacts.

Track Your Results

The beauty of direct marketing is that is affordable and track able. If you have 400 contacts, you could be mailing them twelve times per year for as little as 47 cents each or $188 per month. One sale and you’ve paid for the entire year!

Become Known as the Specialist of Your Farm

A business with no prospects will die. You need a reliable, consistent source of leads. Since most consumers perceive all real estate professionals to be pretty much the same you must find ways to differentiate yourself. I get calls every day from past customers offering thanks for orders placed two years ago. These agents and brokers tell me they now get 50% plus of all listings in their neighborhood because of our marketing materials!

Walk your neighborhood twice per year, create compelling online content, submit articles to local publications, and/or advertise in neighborhood newspapers, send out newsletters and be the one to consistently educate your community on the local real estate market.

I feel great about sharing these strategies with you for a very simple reason: if we can help you become more successful in your business then ReaMark will be more successful in our business. Call one of our Marketing Specialists today at 1-800-932-2957 and we will work with you to create a real estate marketing plan to help you meet your budgets and sales goals!

I hope this letter has been helpful, confirmed the efforts you are already making or inspired you to call us. If I can help, please don’t hesitate to call me directly.

Regards,

Richard J. Brown
President
ReaMark

Photo credit: by Álvaro Serrano on Unsplash

Name recognition is important for real estate professionals. Your name is part of your brand. Building a recognizable brand creates trust within your community. How can agents build name recognition that eventually generates sales and commissions?

First, realize that networking, marketing and name recognition all work together. Done properly, using this triad ensures people know who they can trust when it is time to buy or sell real estate.

Here are eight ways real estate agents can establish name recognition in their communities.

1. Become the go-to person for your chartered local association of REALTORS®. If you don’t have a local chapter, take the lead toward forming one.

2. Stock up on pocket-sized business cards, refrigerator magnets or pens. Never miss an opportunity to introduce yourself, and hand out your contact information.

3. Get caught volunteering. Images in the local paper of you ladling soup at the local shelter, or handing out water during the charity 5K, go a long way toward building your brand – without investing marketing dollars. Since the giving season is just around the corner, this might be a good time to designate your office as a drop-off point for  a Toys-for-Tots drive, or host a giving tree in your lobby.

4. Offer to write a guest blog for local builders, lenders and other industry connections.

5. Give something away. Marketing expert Jay Baer explains in his book, Youtility: Why Smart Marketing Is about Help Not Hype,

“if you sell something, you make a customer today, but if you genuinely help someone, you create a customer for life.”

This concept is why items like customized memo boards and recipe calendars are so popular. Update your print and online content that adds value with no strings attached. Think real-time weather and traffic updates added to your website or social media channels. Print media updates might include names and contact numbers for city officials.

6. Speaking of providing value, make sure your social media posts aren’t all about the priced-right-two-story-home in the perfect neighborhood. Share content that teaches people ways to make their life happier, easier or more convenient.

7. On social media, share-worthy contests and quizzes are a great way to expand your brand. Host a photo contest where viewers vote, or maybe create a quiz that tests followers’ home buying knowledge.

8. Build relationships with local and regional influencers. You know who these people are. When they talk, everyone listens. Look for online and on-the-ground community members. Remember, you want to form long-term relationships that complement each other, no one wants to always be on the giving end.

Building name recognition is all about making an emotional connection with your community. ReaMark customer service agents can help you explore customized promotional material that seamlessly complements your marketing and networking strategies.

Real estate agents are constantly looking for new ways to farm for new leads. While word of mouth, signage and networking are effective ways to build a base of potential customers, nothing beats effective direct mail strategies as a way to keep the pipeline of buyers and sellers fresh.

Why Use Direct Mail to Farm for Leads?

Direct mail is a proven approach that has been used for decades. Even in the digital era, receiving valuable information in the mail, along with some advertising for those needing real estate services, creates an impression that can linger for those who receive the materials.

Consistent and persistent direct mail strategies also help to drive insights and information about where your best customers are, how they respond to different appeals or products, and how to better reach them. By fine-tuning your messages and products that are a part of your direct mail outreach, you can better use your marketing dollars to reach the best customers.

What’s more, direct mail helps build awareness about you, your agency and your services. Very few of us buy on first glance. Over time, as we begin to develop an understanding of a product, service or brand, we gain a deeper understanding of how a particular provider can best serve our needs. Direct mail is a great way to help create that long-term awareness.

How Does Direct Mail Help Get Your Message Out?

Direct mail is only as effective as the strategy behind it. You need to identify the direct mail pieces, add-ons, and frequency that work best for your region and client base. When creating your direct mail marketing campaign, here are some things to consider:

• Message – What are you trying to convey? Options can include your experience, your areas of expertise, knowledge of local markets, reputation. If you offer quick closings, serve a niche market or live in the community, you may want to focus your message on those particular attributes. Similarly, don’t try to cover too much at once. Instead, make sure people know what you’re offering, who you are and how to contact you.
• Length and Frequency – How long will your direct mail campaign run? You want to keep your message consistent and deliver it several times, but you also want to be sure you hit people enough times that the message sticks.
• Response Rates Understanding – Typical response rates for your real estate direct marketing campaign is important. The first direct mail piece may have a very low response rate but patience is a virtue. The more awareness you provide, the more likely you are to get calls or responses to your follow-up efforts.

What Are Good Real Estate Direct Marketing Ideas?

At Reamark, we offer a full range of products to make your direct marketing campaign more effective. Whether it’s full-color postcards, real estate newsletters or calendars, we offer prompt turnaround to get you products you need. We offer online and print catalogs with thousands of products and titles to keep your message fresh and eye-catching. To learn more about how Reamark can help with your marketing needs, contact us for a free catalog!

It’s that time of year again. Yes, it’s time to start handing out your 2019 real estate marketing calendars. As you already know, handing out free calendars with your agency’s branding prominently displayed is one of the most effective, and budget-friendly, tactics in your overall marketing strategy.

A Proven Solution

In an age when so much emphasis is put on digital marketing, which is of course vital to your overall marketing approach, it’s easy to neglect the classic, time-proven marketing tools. Although it might seem counterintuitive in this digital age, paper calendars are still extremely popular with consumers, and the industry has seen impressive growth over the last decade. Surveys have shown that the average household has at least three calendars in use, of different types, including wall calendars, magnetic calendars, most often attached to the refrigerator, and desk calendars.

Further, consumer research has shown that 82% of people love receiving a free calendar, and that 70% of those consumers will consider doing business with the companies they get them from.

Reasons Paper Calendars Are Effective

Part of the reason that paper calendars are still so popular is simply because they are low tech. People often feel overwhelmed by the amount of digital information they’re surrounded by each day, so its something of an escape to use a simple, familiar calendar. Plus they add an aesthetic appeal that can’t be achieved with digital calendars, one that everyone who enters a room can enjoy, and they can be personalized in an observable way.

Bottom line, the customer appreciates a free gift, and it’s a practical one they can use every day in the home, the workplace, or even their car. Real estate marketing calendars work, and they should have a place in every agency’s marketing strategy.

Tips For Designing A Real Estate Marketing Calendar

As with any marketing tactic there are ways to ensure you’re getting the maximum out of your calendars. Here are a few things to remember:

• Get them out sooner rather than later. Although it might seem like if you start handing out 2019 calendars months before the New Year that people will misplace them and not use them, it’s just not true. The majority of people will keep their free calendars until they need them, and they tend to keep the first ones they receive, so it’s important to start handing them out early.
• Make sure your agency’s info is noticeable. It’s tempting to keep your business’s banner small and at the bottom of the calendar page so as not to interfere with the function and aesthetics, but the whole point is to make people notice you. Make sure your message stands out.
• Make sure your contact information is correct. A real estate marketing calendar is no place to let typos slip through. People will be using them for a year, and giving referrals from them, so make sure your displayed info is accurate before ordering.

Order your calendars and start giving them away now, and you’ll enjoy the benefits till the end of 2019, and beyond!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with real estate professionals taking advantage of digital marketing and social media opportunities. Many have found success in their online efforts and should continue to do so. Real estate agents and brokers shouldn’t, however, ignore proven real estate marketing strategies have consistently produced results across the country. Here is why and how you can grab the attention of real estate prospects using direct mail pieces.

WHY Use Direct Mail in this Digital Era?

The answer is pretty simple: Because it works. You should also understand, however, why it works.

• You can target your market. Direct mail allows you to target specific neighborhoods or zip codes to “farm”. There is less waste than “broadcasting” your message.
• It reaches prospects at home. This lets the person receiving your piece know you are interested in them and their real estate goals.
• You can “own” this vehicle in reaching prospects. Some agents never use direct mail marketing. This provides a marketing opportunity you can drive a truck through. You may be able to own direct mail marketing for real estate in your community.
• They are tangible. Direct marketing pieces are perceived to have more value and their messages carry more weight. This can help position you as a stable, trusted source.
• Pieces can have a long shelf life. Direct mail pieces like calendars, sports schedules, recipes, and motivational or scenic cards can stay in a home for an extended period of time, often on display where they may be seen by others.

HOW to Use Direct Mail in Real Estate

Direct mail is a versatile way to reach real estate prospects, giving you plenty of options on how to use it.

• Use EDDM to reach prospects. Every Door Direct Marketing is the perfect way to reach every home is your specific target area. It is a great way to introduce yourself and your services.
• Create an annual direct mail marketing plan. When your prospect gets a new recipe, decorating or home improvement tip every other month, it builds your brand and name recognition. You are providing prospects with something of value.
• Send out Just Sold or Just Listed postcards. Who isn’t interested in what a neighbor’s house is listed or sold for? When combined with a free home valuation offer, these informative cards often turn up multiple leads.
• Use to promote your digital marketing efforts. Use direct mail pieces to reinforce your online media by promoting your website and social media. Include your email address for prospects to sign up for a newsletter or enter a contest.

Get Professional Assistance

For 18 years, ReaMark has been creating effective direct mail, marketing, and promotional pieces specifically to help real estate professionals grow their businesses. Our marketing professionals can help you choose items to help you reach your goals. Our design department will help you build your brand and help you turn prospects into leads and leads into sales. Contact ReaMark today and put the power of direct mail marketing to work for you!