Real Estate Marketing Blog

While email remains one of the most cost-effective ways to communicate with your clients, there’s danger in solely relying on it to get your marketing messages across. Most industries send emails, and the frequency is giving consumers a severe case of email fatigue. Consider the following four reasons why it’s better to create a postcard or a newsletter to help your potential buyers avoid email overload.

1. Consumers Are Savvy

Few of your buyers are rushing to check their email because they know that most of the information they’ll find in their Inbox simply isn’t relevant to them. There’s a good chance a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ sale is likely to be repeated again next week, so where’s the urgency? When you want to send out information that is actually important (e.g., a change in your phone number or your office has moved to a new address), you should use at multiple different avenues to really catch people’s attention. We have several neighborhood marketing postcard designs you can use to communicate important details to your farm.

2. It’s Too Easy to Hit Delete

Holding a physical item in your hands is more difficult to discard than an email. With emails, it’s as easy as clicking on all unread messages and then moving them to the trash folder. But, sending out a postcard or a newsletter encourages buyers to scan information. Touch creates a tactile memory. Delivering your real estate marketing messages via something physical means they’re experiencing a different medium, which can cause them to be more open to what’s inside.

3. You Want to Make an Impression

Real estate newsletters and postcards allow a little more creativity than email does when it comes to making an impression on your clients. So, when you have a new agent join the team, you now have a chance to introduce them to your farm with a little bit of gusto. From fancy calligraphy to heavy stock paper; there are plenty of ways we can help you go the extra mile. Plus, people are much more willing to open a piece of mail that’s been hand-addressed to them than they are another impersonal email.

4. You Want to Establish an Emotional Connection

Postcards and newsletters are a good way to establish a rapport with clients. You can make them themed or tell a (somewhat) serialized story about how the market is doing. You can make them funny, brief, or picturesque. It’s these little extras that you do that can help you distinguish yourself from your competition so you can tempt more people to your side.

ReaMark can help you find the postcard and newsletter templates you need to ensure that buyers will remember you. Our postcards and newsletters can be seamlessly worked into your marketing campaign, so you can give yourself the best chance of sales success!

Mailbox photo by Xavier Massa on Unsplash

An effective newsletter provides enhanced communication and connection with your clients. It bridges the gap between marketing and establishing lasting relationships with customers. As the warmer months of the year roll around, real estate agents will want to send out newsletters that touch on various summer marketing topics to ensure they stay connected with their targeted farms. Let’s explore five of these topics.

Family Fun

There’s nothing better than cooling off in the pool after a long day at work. Real estate agents can highlight specific properties and neighborhoods with pools when communicating with clients who live in their targeted farms. From pool maintenance tips to the importance of pool safety; there are many ways to touch on family activities and water fun.

Backyard Entertaining

Who doesn’t love roasting marshmallows by an open fire pit on a cool summer night? Or throwing a BBQ potluck party? With this in mind, real estate agents will want to include a bulleted list of ways to enjoy fun with friends and family in their summer newsletters. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• S’Mores Hacks
• DIY Backyard Movie Night
• Easy Recipes for Entertaining
• DIY Backyard Games

Self-Improvement

Summertime is the perfect opportunity to get out and about and get in shape. Real estate agents can use this time of the year to highlight certain walking paths and parks in and near the farms they are targeting. They can also provide a section of tips outlining the reasons to stay hydrated during the summertime when exercising in the heat.

Local Discounts

Consumers love catching a good deal, and they love people who share deals with them even more. Establishing long-term relationships with clients becomes much easier when real estate agents include a section in their newsletters that showcase the best summer deals and discounts from local businesses. This an effective way to cross-promote your services with other local businesses!

Vacation

Whether it be a two-week vacation or a two-day short getaway, summer is a time of the year when many families choose to leave their homes and get away from the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives. While away on vacation, though, these families want to rest assured their homes are going to be safe and secure. With this in mind, real estate agents will want to include a section in their newsletters that identify local resources that can be used to keep the home safe and secure while away having fun. From neighborhood watch programs that correlate with the farms they are targeting to local stores that sell video camera systems, there are plenty of security tips to detail in a newsletter.

ReaMark has a great selection of newsletter templates. With more than 60 options to choose from, we can help you build your client base and increase sales. We also have seasonal promotional items like hand fans, grilling and entertaining recipe postcards and seed packets for summer planting.

Take advantage of our anniversary sale to maximize your summer savings. Use code WEB50 to receive:
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Call, mail or fax your order today!

Virtually every successful real estate professional has learned the value of goal setting. Much of this goal setting revolves around sales and income. It can be valuable, however, to set goals on other aspects of real estate like the number of leads or prospects generated in a month. It can also be important to set goals for and track real estate marketing efforts.

At ReaMark, we specialize specifically in real estate related marketing and promotional pieces. Through the years, one of our most popular programs has been our real estate postcards. Real estate marketing postcards reach consumers directly in their homes and can be targeted neighborhood by neighborhood. They have repeatedly been proven to be an effective real estate marketing tool. But having the proper goals and expectations is important for postcard mailing campaigns. Here are some tips for goal setting when developing your postcard mailing campaign.

Setting Proper Expectations

It is widely accepted in direct mail marketing that a 2% response rate is successful. While on the surface that may seem minimal, consider the impact. A 2% response rate could potentially translate into 20 solid leads and prospects. That can turn into a significant return on investment.

You should be aware, however, that response rate will be impacted by a variety of factors. If your postcard includes a free offer, it may get a better response than if it is more passive. If you are new to real estate, your response may not be as high as someone who already is known in a community or neighborhood.

Be Consistent

The best way to build your brand and increase lead generation is through consistency. ReaMark can help you accomplish that through a wide selection of timely real estate postcards and a program that gives you a free design for every 5 deigns purchased and two free postcards for every 10 purchased. Reaching consumers every month or every other month builds familiarity and name recognition.

Be Patient

Remember, you are building your business. Many of our postcard designs are designed to provide helpful information, tips, or timely reminders. While your potential prospects will appreciate the information and view you favorably, many will not immediately respond. After all, the percentage of people who are in the market to buy or sell real estate at any given moment is relatively small. Your campaign, however, can eventually bring leads into the marketplace and more importantly, keep your name front and center when they do.

Contact Our Professionals for Assistance

We invite you to contact our marketing professionals at ReaMark to assist you with your real estate postcard marketing campaign. We can even help with EDDM and custom graphic designs. Let us help you reach your real estate marketing goals at ReaMark.

Dear Fellow Real Estate Professional,

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

There has never been a better time to increase your business with a regular contact strategy to 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, inventory of homes are still low so listings are being sold quickly and for top dollar.

Each year I personally take hundreds of customer calls and the same question keeps coming 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 shared with me over the past two years. To help answer their question, I had to come up with several of my own:

• With all being equal why are some realtors more successful than others?
• What does actually work?
• What has been proven time and time again to be the Golden Truth’s of success?
• What makes a top agent?
• How can my business survive when I have less money to spend because I am making less money?

One glaring fact I couldn’t ignore is that my business only makes money if the programs we recommend to you make you money. After much thought, I came up with four things you should be doing if you are serious about increasing your yearly income.

1. 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 your contact list you are losing money. You contact list should includes anyone who knows you, your friends or your 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.

2. Mail Just Listed/ Just Sold / Market updates and Open House Postcards
Announce your success! Since referrals are the largest part of your business and you want to build up your contact list, these marketing postcards are the second most effective tool at your disposal. You should mail the entire neighborhood and also your current contact list. If your budget is strained these could be part of your planned monthly but for better results you should be doing these mailings in addition to your contacts.

3. Track your results over time
The beauty of direct marketing is that is affordable and trackable. If you have 400 contacts then you could be mailing them twelve times per year for as little as 47 cents each or $188 per month. One sale and you pay for the entire year.

4. Become known as a 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 customers thanking me two years later telling me that they now get 50% plus of all listings in their neighborhood. Walk your neighborhood twice per year with door hangers or notepads, submit articles to your local paper, become an advertising sponsor on a community podcast, create a neighborhood newsletter of community events or post educational videos about the local real estate market to your social media.

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 help you develop a plan to meet your budgets and sales goals.

I hope this letter has been helpful and has either confirmed what you are already doing or inspired you to call us. I am always available to help.  Please don’t hesitate to call me directly.

Best Regards,

Richard J. Brown
President,
ReaMark

The most successful real estate careers are built on solid, enduring relationships with clients. With fall now firmly entrenched and the holiday season fast approaching, many agents are thinking about their client relationships and how they can keep them healthy and productive in 2018.

Successful Agents Rely on a Time-Tested Relationship Builder

Using greeting cards for real estate marketing is a time-tested marketing strategy that successful real estate agents and brokers have relied on for years. Surprisingly, many are finding them to more successful now than ever before. With most communication now handled through impersonal email, the receipt of a brightly colored holiday card with a personal message from their real estate agent or broker is more apt to be warmly remembered and cherished than ever before. The only question then becomes how to make sure that any greeting card for real estate mailings you do will have even more impact.

Customizing the Mailing to Stand Out From the Crowd

While any holiday card mailing is a positive message that tells your clients that your remember and care about them, there are still some ways in which you can maximize your efforts. One excellent way is to consider sending out a holiday card for Thanksgiving or New Years, instead of a traditional mid-December holiday card.

If sending a Thanksgiving card, consider adding extra value by choosing postcards with turkey cooking tips or a delicious recipe to help the recipients enjoy turkey leftovers. When sending a New Year’s greeting card, consider including a customizable magnetic calendar for their fridge to help them keep you top of mind throughout 2018.

Streamline the Process With These Holiday Card Mailing Tips

The holidays are busy times for agents and brokers both at home and at work. Unfortunately, this level of activity can push marketing activities to the back burner, even when agents and brokers know how critical they are to their continued success.

To avoid this problem and ensure that your holiday card mailings are sent out exactly when you need them to be, speak with your ReaMark customer service specialist about ordering early and having them handle the entire mailing process. By doing this, busy agents and brokers can relax and enjoy their own holiday season, all while knowing they have successfully reached out to all their past and current clients and their entire sphere of influence.

Just sold postcards have long been an effective way to reach real estate prospects. What makes these particular real estate marketing post cards so effective? Let’s take a quick look.

1. They are informative. One of the reasons just sold postcards are so effective is they contain valuable information the recipient can relate to. In the consumer’s mind, the card isn’t a sales piece as much as it is “news.”
2. They appeal to natural curiosity. As a real estate agent, you know how many neighbors will visit an open house just out of “curiosity”. This is the same curiosity you are peaking by sending out a just sold postcard to the neighborhood.
3. They cause a prospect to think and consider how the information could impact them. Even if a just sold postcard doesn’t cause a particular recipient to leap into action, it gives them a reason to “think’ about it. It also may be a conversation starter with other neighbors which can spur activity.
4. They position the sending agent in a position of being an expert. Sure, any information on a just sold postcard is publicly available, but YOU are the one getting credit for delivering it to the neighborhood. This positions you as the expert and the one to turn to for more information.
5. They are great for cross-marketing. Agents can use just sold cards to promote their website, social media, or encourage email sign-ups. Use just sold postcards to expand your list of contacts and prospects. Encourage recipients to “learn more” or “sign up for our free quarterly newsletter”, and to “stay up to date on real estate in your neighborhood.” Nurture your leads and start with just sold postcards.

How ReaMark Can Help

ReaMark offers 40 design styles of just sold postcards that can be ordered in as little as 100 postcard lots. Our team of professionals can help you select the right postcard for your brand and in creating a marketing message that works for you. If you haven’t made use of this important and proven real estate marketing tool, discover how just sold postcards can go to work for you. Contact ReaMark today and build your real estate business for tomorrow.

While many real estate agents and brokers experiment with unproven digital marketing techniques to improve market share, there are still solid, proven real estate ideas that will make you money. Here are three of them.

Real Estate Marketing Postcards

With over 400 card designs and 10 styles to choose from, real estate postcards are versatile and customizable. They also have been a proven way to farm a neighborhood and build your brand. Some agents have built loyalty through years of sending recipe postcards that clients look forward to receiving. Others build their brands by sending motivational postcards or home maintenance tips. Still others use postcards to educate their target market by sending “Just Listed” or “Just Sold” postcards. Right now, you can order five postcards from ReaMark and get the sixth free, or order ten postcards and get two free. We even have clearance postcards on sale for as little as 8 cents each. Keep in mind, 63% of people will end up choosing the first agent they call, so get to the top of the mind with monthly or bi-monthly postcards from ReaMark.

Real Estate Marketing Calendars

A long-time staple in real estate marketing, calendars work because they are used. They are also extremely cost-effective. When calendars are the first-in-home, each can bring you 13 or 14 months of exposure. Calendars can be selected that are magnetic or to hang on walls. There are options for desk calendars and wallet size calendars. Select the theme and style of your choice. Our team will even help you customize your calendar to suit your personality. Right now, you can save 20%, 30%, and even 35% off some calendar designs from ReaMark. Order early and save. Discover why so many agents and brokers have built their business, in part, through real estate marketing calendars.

Quarterly Newsletters

You may be surprised how much attention a local or neighborhood focused newsletter will bring to your real estate business. A newsletter can not only include practical homeowner and real estate tips but can include a calendar of local events. You can discuss homes that recently sold in the neighborhood or include new listings. A newsletter places you in a position of being the area’s real estate professional and can even help you promote your website and social media. ReaMark offers a variety of choices in real estate newsletters. If you are ready to reach out in a new yet proven way, consider using a quarterly newsletter to your marketing agenda for 2018.

Contact the professionals at ReaMark for proven marketing tactics and strategies including postcards, calendars, and newsletters. Let us help take your business to new levels in 2018.

Real estate season is just kicking off, and you can be ahead of the game with targeted real estate postcards sent right to the neighborhood of your choice! Early in real estate season, promotional postcards keep you top of mind and position you as the local expert. Bright images, relevant stats, and key messaging such as “just listed,” “just sold,” and “free home evaluation” are just right for this time of year, and show that you understand what your potential customers are looking for, and where they are in the listing or buying process.

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a service that allows you to stand out to your farm with timely postcards delivered only to the specific zip code(s) of your choice! Using EDDM allows you to market to a highly-targeted audience, even to a specific subdivision or neighborhood. As real estate season begins, send a neighborhood marketing postcard to ensure that you are the first person thought of when homeowners are ready to sell their home, or begin the search for a new home.

Additional options for Spring include images of colorful flowers, fun humor, recipes, and adorable animals. Postcards like these keep you connected with your community and provide great options for staying in touch with prospects, leads, and previous customers – who just may be ready to be new customers again.

You can make your marketing even more effective by following up your postcard with a door hanger or magnet. Door hangers are personalized, highly-visible twists on classic messaging, while sports fans will surely appreciate magnetic baseball schedules, which showcase your services each time someone visits the fridge!

Sending postcards is a fantastic way to get a jump on the competition, too! Let your prospects and customers know you’re there when they need you, and that you understand their needs and can help them meet their home buying and selling goals. Right now, you can buy 5 designs, get 1 free or buy 10, get 2 free. Start your season the right way, and keep it going strong with monthly messaging that provides guidance and takes your leads through the conversion process.

If you haven’t yet ordered your print marketing postcards for your real estate business, get ready to. EDDM (every door direct mail) postcards can generate mountains of customer leads for you and your agency. Your biggest challenge will be how to organize your new call list!

EDDM is a service provided by the USPS where you can have your postcards delivered to every door on a route without having to put a name or address on it. When you combine this service with ReaMark’s print marketing postcards, that’s a winning combination too good to pass up. When you order your custom postcards or pre-designed postcards at ReaMark, be sure to include the following for best results.

1. Your Professional Photo

Homebuyers and sellers like to see whom they will be spending their time with. When you include your professional photo on your postcard, new customers will be able to see that you’re professional and friendly looking. For the best photos, hire a professional photographer. Selfies won’t deliver the professional lighting and other effects you’ll need.

2. Knowledge About the Area

Buyers and sellers like to know they’re working with someone who is familiar with the area. Prove that you’re a “local” by including some pertinent information about the neighborhood, such as information about a local house that just sold, or trends in the local real estate market.

3. A Line About Your Expertise

Don’t forget to include something about what makes you the expert. Under your name, mention how many years you’ve been in the real estate business or any certifications or awards you have. This will tell buyers and sellers that when they work with you, they’re working with an expert.

3. Lots of Color

Your postcard should be bright and colorful. Remember that it won’t be the only thing your potential customers receive in the mail that day, so you want it to really stand out. Use images with lots of color and positive imagery to entice recipients to read it.

4. All Your Contact Information

Be sure to include all your contact information; not just your phone number. Remember that different people prefer different ways to contact professionals. Some may prefer text, others email and still others like calling on the phone. Let your customer decide by including all the ways they can get in touch with you.

Print marketing postcards and real estate newsletters are made even better when you remember these essential elements to include. Get your postcards today at RealMark.

If you haven’t yet ordered your print marketing postcards for your real estate business, get ready to. EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) postcards can generate mountains of customer leads for you and your agency. Your biggest challenge will be how to organize your new call list.

EDDM is a service provided by the USPS where you can have your postcards delivered to every door on a route without having to put a name or address on it. When you combine this service with ReaMark’s print marketing postcards, that’s a winning combination too good to pass up. When you order your custom postcards or pre-designed postcards at ReaMark, be sure to include the following for best results.

1. Your Professional Photo

Homebuyers and sellers like to see whom they will be spending their time with. When you include your professional photo on your postcard, new customers will be able to see that you’re professional and friendly looking. For the best photos, hire a professional photographer. Selfies won’t deliver the professional lighting and other effects you’ll need.

2. Knowledge About the Area

Buyers and sellers like to know they’re working with someone who is familiar with the area. Prove that you’re a “local” by including some pertinent information about the neighborhood, such as information about a local house that just sold, or trends in the local real estate market.

3. A Line About Your Expertise

Don’t forget to include something about what makes you the expert. Under your name, mention how many years you’ve been in the real estate business or any certifications or awards you have. This will tell buyers and sellers that when they work with you, they’re working with an expert.

3. Lots of Color

Your postcard should be bright and colorful. Remember that it won’t be the only thing your potential customers receive in the mail that day, so you want it to really stand out. Use images with lots of color and positive imagery to entice recipients to read it.

4. All the Ways to Contact You

Be sure to include all your contact information; not just your phone number. Remember that different people prefer different ways to contact professionals. Some may prefer text, others email and still others like calling on the phone. Let your customer decide by including all the ways they can get in touch with you.

Print marketing postcards and real estate newsletters are made even better when you remember these essential elements to include. Get your postcards today at RealMark.