I read through all of your posts and got some very valuable information.

One poster mentioned that you shouldn't send anything out in envelopes......I was just curious what was that?

Thanks

~Dee

Ok,

I think they are right about that.

Look at it this way...
A couple of us talked about people opening mail over the garbage can....You are standing by your garbage can opening the mail. You see a letter from an unknown sender (partiularly with a RE logo on the envelope) and you say "junk mail" and it goes in the trash unopened. Not even a SHOT at getting their attention.

If you send a post card - it too will register as "junk mail" but there is a tiny, tiny chance that it MIGHT catch their eye. Something on it looks familiar or interesting. They might pause long enough to see your name before they dump it. If it is truly imaginitive (and it has to be very,very good for that to happen) they might even look twice. But you don't get that chance when its in an envelope.

I'd say the caveat here is that you had better have a VERY good plan that attracts a specific niche that can easily be targeted by direct mail. Unless I can think of something very, very unique...no more mailings. As one poster said, most new people can not afford the big $$$ required to rise above the noise. There is so much noise out there you need a vast amount of mail to even make a tiny dent in a farm. The most you can expect is 5-6 sales after a few years. That's a miserable ROI.

Personally, I think a lot of BROKERS love this. It does work for large brokerages. Look at it this way, In my former office, there were over 100 agents in one branch alone. The broker had 6 branches. I think about 189-220 agents at any given time. Now..he twists agent's arms to pony up for mass mailings (he did put in some money, but most came from us). The name of the BROKERAGE goes out with EVERY CARD. The agent gets a whisper of publicity while the brokerage gets an almost FREE megaphone - all at the expense of a struggling agent! People who are throwing the cards into the trash with abandon aren't going to remember the AGENT who sent them, but sheer volume will allow them to remember the BROKERAGE. So what happens? When its time to sell their house they don't call the AGENT who spent a fortune on the cards - they call the OFFICE. If its a listing, it probably goes straight to a top producing but "fed" agent. So the struggling agent who threw away thousands to send out these cards just spent their money to give leads to a favored top producer. That's why I'm speaking out so strongly. In many cases it's a matter of brokers scamming newer agents trying to gain a foothold into publicizing the brokerage.

Thanks SiberianWinter (sp) for your reply. I guess I can see the logic in that. I just mailed out newsletters in plain white envelope, but I did use a really nice font for my labels. Who knows....maybe someone will be just curious enough to open up the envelope to see what was in it.

I've been a agent in MD for almost 1 year BTW and unfortunately we are required to have the Brokers information on ever piece of advertisement that goes out of the Commission comes after us.

I did a mailing of 500 pieces at the beginning of January and I did get one listing out of it and a possible referral from the seller to a co-worker of hers.

Looks like I may have to think of a creative way to send out my newsletters, but I will give it a few weeks before deciding. I don't want to deviate from my Marketing Plan just yet, but it is really good to know.

Thanks again.....

~Dee

I think the broker's information is required pretty much everywhere. It sounds like you spent about $450 obtaining that one listing - which is not bad at all. It means, you've got something to work with.

In my former office, they had no respect for how the call came in. If they got a hot listing call it wasn't forwarded to the new agent who sent the publicity UNLESS the agent was in the office at that moment...and then only maybe. It was generally given to a top producer - who was more of a sure thing as far as securing the listing. So there may indeed have been a response, but I never saw it.. Although agents from other offices told me pretty much the same thing..the mailings did nothing. Truth be told, the brokerage that I was in wanted leads from new people, but they got nervous when new agents got plum listings. They preferred to have the tried and true handle anything of any significance. This is one of the many reasons that I left.

However, I do think the experience points up the fact that what is "good" for the brokerage may well be at the expense of the agent....

Hmmm....I had posted another response, but I think it must have been lost in the software upgrade.

---Actually, I spent approximately $340 for my first mail campaign because I used postcards I designed myself and then uploaded to http://www.overnightprints.com.

My plan is to spend on average $300 per month for my farm area. I know that's not a lot, but since I print and prepare items as much as possible it helps cut down onthe costs quite a bit.

I just mailed off 200 newletters, but I used plain white envelopes. I did use a fancy font and now that I've read the posts I'm hoping it is enough to make sellers curious enough to open the envelopes. Now I'll have to think of a creative way of sending out my newsletters to make sure my prospects actually open them.

Thanks again....I really enjoy reading ALL responses positive and the not-so-positive. It's all valuable information to Newbies such as myself.

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Direct mail advertising is used in our business to support our marketing techniques. It is a cost effective process to reach our local customers and ability to handle them and improve their business techniques.

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I have been planning to start a direct mail campaign (actually 2 campaigns) lately.

One would be mailing expireds & FSBOs.

Another was going to be a farm of 10,0000.


A lot of people have tried to discourage me from doing this, but the fact is my market is fairly pricey, I am probably only mailing expireds & FSBOs over $200,000 and the farm will average $750k a home. I need a very, very, very low conversion rate to make it profitable. If anyone is willing to give me extra guidance or take a look at my piece once the proof is ready for some pointers please shoot me a PM. I have some strong offers for money saving and information, but not a great "magnet" or "fear of loss" or anything along those lines. Anyone who knows their direct mail marketing hooks please pm me.

You know who I get more direct mail from than anybody? Geico (ie Warren Buffet). I figure he might know a thing or two about business??

if you are going to farm thats smart to target higher end..

but before you do that..
whats the turnover rate in that area?

did you look in the mls to see if any homes are being sold in that area?
aree they even selling..meaning actually for sale in that area?

and you must make specific offers to them..

direct offers

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free area home sales market reports

try..

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Or Fear Of Loss

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do not go with image brand building

we are #1 kinda stuff..you really think they care?