What percentage response are you getting from flyers (and other letters) prospecting for listings? Out of the responses you get, what percentage turn in to listings and sales? Thanks.

I have recently made a decison to probably stop any mailing. I have had zero success with just listed postcards, recent sales, flyers, etc. I mean absolutley NO calls from a fairly consistent mailing campaign....

If I do not quit it all together, I will certainly rething the tactics I am using. I really have nothing good to say about direct mailing due to the lack of success I have had with it. I am thinking that money is better spent elsewhere....

HOw long did you send flyers? Did you repeat the same farm with each mailing?

I am interested to know if you were consistent with mailing to the same farm as well.

I have a once monthly mailing I've been doing (only 100 homes, I picked only homes I would actually be interested in selling) and had zero response for the last 5 months.

This weekend I had two calls inquiring about listing homes - these calls came from people in my farm. So keep at it!

All Marketing efforts require a great deal of commitment, so don't get discouraged. Typical return from direct mail is less than 1%, anything above that is good, a great campaign may yield 3%. Typically, for real estate agents, the return is below 1%.

Their is not ONE SOLUTION that will give you what you are seeking, which means that you have to diversify your marketing efforts as best you can. This means that like a financial portfolio, it should be dicersified. That being said, understanding that creative forms like TV, radio, flyers, direct mail will only work if you catch someone at the time they are looking to make a transaction, and hopefully help create name recognition.

You may want to consider directional advertising/marketing opportunities. For instance, going to real estate investment seminars for the general public, so you can network there, also, with 80% of buyers starting their searches online (NAR Statistic), you may want to find an online solution ASAP.

Also, realize this... any lead, referral, etc, is only as good as how hard you work it, as will any marketing program. Don't think that because someone says they want to buy a house with you they will. Many things could impede them fro doing that. Also, if you can find someone that also provides a good prospect management system, with trackable drip email, etc.

We provide a complete internet based marketing system, CRM with tracking capabilities, drip email, fully customizable websites (with unlimited listings and 36 pics per listing), conference calls to help you develop your skills, and much more.

If you guys are interested, drop me a line anytime.

I'm sick and tired of marketeers going after my hard-earned dollar. Please take your plugs elsewhere.

As far as direct mailing is concerned, at my broker's insistence I spent a bucket of money on just-listed, just solds and general marketing infromation for a farm area. $4000 later I had not ONE response. Note - I didn't just not get a CLOSING - I didn't get so much as a phone call or an email. I'm done with that type of promotion. Direct mail is a complete waste of time and money.

Siberian,

I think that direct mail might have been a "waste of time and money" in your market, or your materials might not have been compelling enough to get people to call.

Direct mail is a tricky business, and it's an art in itself. It is unfair to make such a blanket statement since we don't know how often you mailed, who you mailed to, and what you mailed.

Quite frankly, if you don't mail to people often, with the right materials, then your campaign won't work.

There are sooooo many reasons why it might not be drawing what you would like that to give up on it all together would be a mistake.

Maybe tweak it, send to people you have already worked with for referrals. Its always easier to sell to existings over new. What have you sent out? How have you tracked it? What was the message? Do you fall in with everyone else or better yet, how do you stand out? How did you do comparison campaigns?

There just are not as many people buying homes as there were last year! I think there is always room for some type of direct marketing if for no other reason then it provides branding. I for one, don't think anyone on this board has the marketing budget that Coke or Ford or Merck have, so all marketing MUST provide the ability to pay for itself and continue to self fund going forward. BUT, some highly targeted direct mail pcs will cheaply continue to drive your message and keep you above the chaff.

Boy, hope I didn't get too long winded on that one!

Ever try calling houses in the farm zone and see what they thought about the letter?

I know when I was walking a subdivision 3mo after I started, I asked him what he thought about the information I gave him and he said "Its nice, XXX Company sends me something similar in post cards, we think we'll sell our house in 4 years".

After doing that.....I could throw him in a followup program over 4 years and have a great chance of a listing. Its not all about mailing and that being it. I was told when i started, send 3 letters , call once , knock on thier door once for a very high responce rate.

I sent out 400 letters 4 times to the same people. 3 called and asked to be taken off the mailing list because the weren't interested or were relocating.
1 call because she was interested in buying a house.
A few hundred dollars on mailing and only 1 response , yet I am happy with the $8500. commission I collected as a result.


I'll keep mailing that same list till it disappears.

I farmed two different subdivisions for four months. It cost me about $2000 and I got zero response. A top producing team in my office says it may take up to one year before you get results. It failed for me and I do not plan on doing anymore direct mailing at this time. Good Luck!

I think it all has to do about marketing and creativity. I am starting to mail out on yellow bright paper and also door knocking >>> I will sell your house in _"_______" days or I will "_________" call for details
straight to the point in one sentence really big to catch their attention just to get the phone ringing. My goal is to get the appt. and not to go over too much over the phone till I get in the door . then give them options (todd bates)
Just started doing it will let you know what happens

I've been mailing postcards for the last month. About 150 postcards so far and still no response! I'll give it another 2 months. I send mine out to expired listings.

It didn't fail for you - you simply didn't do the minimum that was required to see if it works. You even said yourself a top team that has experience in doing this told you it would take at least a year.

It takes a minimum of 12-24 months for a farm mailing to work WHEN you are consistently sending something at minimum twice a month. These are specific numbers for a specific geographic farm in which you have done nothing face-to-face.

How many times and how often are you sending a postcard to the same expired listing?

What content are you including in your mailings?

In direct mail, your highest response will be between mailings 4 - 6. Additionally, the closer the mailings are together, the better your response rate will be.

For expireds, try sending something the first, third and fifth day - then once a week until 8 weeks. Then, add them to your bi-weekly mailing program - newsletter and whatever else you send out every month.

SIGH....I've been through this so many times before. $4000 is too damn much money for ZERO response. Since these are coops, I would have to now sell two units just to break even....and that would require yet MORE mailing to achieve. We have far too large a glut of agents in our area for mailing to do much of anything.

I picked two areas to farm. High turnover and no one agent or agency had any kind of toehold or monopoly in the area. These complexes I picked have a lot of younger people who are moving up. Since its a very expensive area to live in, this means they will move at least twice before they are done.

What I sent was market reports as well as "just listed" and "just sold" cards. I kept track of what had sold in each complex etc. I didn't do stupid crap like pumpkins or magnets. Most was very useful information. I did this monthly for almost a year. But when I added up the cost and the fact that there was ZERO response I stopped. You need at least 5-10 responses to get one listing - since I hadn't had even a response, I realized I would spend a fortune before I saw even one listing or sale and it would take several sales (maybe 5-6) to break even. That didn't compute for me. Nor should it for ANYONE.


Most people in my current office and former office have had the same result from mailing - ZIPPO. They still do it though. Talk about dumb. Why throw good money after bad? Frankly, I EXPECT a good return on my investment. If I don't get it, I move on. Doing anything else would be stupid.

I think there is a lot of brainwashing that goes on in any field. The notion that "mailings really work if you just stick to it" and "door-knocking is assertive and doesn't make you look desperate" are part of and parcel of the brainwashing that real estate agents undergo.

In my previous field they had another form of brainwashing. You were paid for 35 hours a week and EXPECTED to work 60-70 without any compensation. If you didn't do this, you lacked a "work ethic". The pay was **** poor and the education required extensive (Ph.D. required). But you were doing something for the "betterment" of the world and "money isn't everything - if you have passion for your work - that should be enough." Yep - try and tell that to your creditors when the bills are due!

Its all the same thing. Then only thing that changed is the venue.

Realestate.com is pathetic!!!!!!!

You told us you used to be in the mortgage business why are you hustling leads management these days?

The problem in this industry is there are too many damn agents. NAR, realtor.com and all the realestate.com likes don't give a slurpee about what's going on this business. They're out selling hopes and dreams to people that don't know any better.

Let me give prove my point. Realestate.com doesn't even know what it wants to do. Is it a referral company, a lead management company, or a full service brokerage?

What the heck do you guys do?

In one area of the country you put on your brokerage hat. In other parts you sell leads management.

IF YOU COULD ( WHICH YOU WON'T SINCE AGENTS ARE SMARTER NOW ) YOU WOULD SELL REFERRALS FOR 35% A LEAD.

I never understand why people get excited about a 98% failure rate...

Even with 4-6 mailings and consistency, it's still at best, on average a 95% failure rate.

Talk about lighting dollars on fire.

Direct mailing has limitations but so does referral business. You have to find the highest ROI lead and trickle down.


My favorite:

Pay Per Click
Repeat business
Referral
Direct response

My least favorite:

Direct mail
Newspapers

Siberian, you are absolutely correct. It isn't called Direct RESPONSE Marketing for nothing. It's supposed to produce a response EVERY time you mail out, not sometime hopefully down the road.

I've done a lot of direct marketing and can tell you that it is not only possible to get a response with direct mail, but to get a huge response from a single mailing.

When I got started I heard all the nonsense about 0.25% - 1% response over 8+ mailings being a "good" result. I have since learned that there's no need to struggle along with such poor results.

Today my direct marketing pulls a minimum 10% response on the first mailing. And I have some campaigns that have hit as high as 70%.

The secret is in the message. Some will tell you it's the list, but a recent campaign that pulled just over 70% was sent to the same demographic (different names) a week later and got ZERO response. The difference? The Message.

When everybody is sending "just listed" and "just sold" and "market reports" you won't get much if any response, period. You have to be different. I've only ever seen one mailing from an agent that caught my eye. It had a picture of this falling down old shack and said: "Is it time to move?"

You have to develop a truly great USP that stands out from the crowd. Every agent tries to market themselves as the most caring, or the hardest worker, or the local expert. The problem lies is the fact that EVERY agent competes on the same points. Everyone tries to make themselves out to be the best and the most professional.

Paul will no doubt reply in a minute and say: "Realdealer isn't an agent so nothing he says matters." And it's true that I'm not an agent. But I have to compete with agents as well as other investors and I have to make myself stand out from the crowd just like everybody else.

I do that by going in the opposite direction, being non-professional, personal if you will. I don't try to convince people that I'm the best at what I do, that will be apparent when we do business together. But no one responds to that from mailings.

So instead of saying: "I'm So-and-So (insert designations here) at XYZ Real Estate and I can get you more money in less time blah blah blah."

I say: "Hey I was just wondering if you might be interested in selling your house?"

It makes all the difference.

RealDealer,

That's pretty much what my direct marketing letter stated. I've shared it to many people here and it worked. It was four sentences long and got one listing for every hundred letters I sent out. No, the percentage isn't great but when you consider I spent a total of $50 per hundred letters, the return was well worth it.

You are also correct that if you send the same info that every other agent is mailing out, you will not stand out in any way and will probably be ignored.

Most people come into this business to make a little side income. They have absolutely no experience no skills in marketing. After they come in they meet these hucksters that sell them on the idea of direct mailing for 2% response.

Of those 2% response, maybe less than .0000089% will become a customer.

Real Dealer is right on. Marketing is marketing regardless of the business you are in. The only difference is the message.

There was something wrong with what you were sending. Too many people have had success with direct mailing as a part of their overall approach. What you sent was:

1) Too ordinary
2) Homemeade rather than professionally printed
3) Had your picture on it and you are unattractive
4) Sent in an envelope
5) Was not sent consistently
6) Was never received
7) Was received by too many sub-tenants
8) Some combination of the above

Further, $4,000 is chump change for a direct mail marketing campaign. Try $20,000/year for 3 years.

The materials have to be some mix of:
Compelling
Exciting
Professionally printed on 100lb glossy
Humorous
Consistent in appearence for the repetition to have an effect
Naked (no envelope)

In short, just like a good commercial on TV.

Navarac's back? Granted, I haven't been as active here lately but I haven't seen a Nav post in quite a while!

I love it when people think this way.

Gives us more business.

That '98%' failure rate nets us 7 figs in commission every single year.

You nailed it. And many of those in the industry don't know what they are doing.

In our MLS (Trend) covering 5 counties in NJ, Philly area, and DE and a couple counties in MD there are 33,000 agents and about 41,000 active residential listings.

yep and no amount of marketing is going to make all 33,000 agents successful. I don't care who is offering that marketing course it ain't gonna happen.

We need to chop the agent population by at least half. Let's start by setting a standard and those that don't follow lose their membership.

NAR tried that and it didn't work because they too want to make money.

Well that depends on what you mean by "failure" If 2% of my mailings resulted in a listing or sale - I would make a great deal of money. Each mailing costs roughly $.75. ( and yes, they are glossy - professionally done and NOT in envelopes - with a consistent style - I mailed them out faithfully once a month). That would translate into roughly $5000 in gross commission for a $75 investment. When you get NOTHING - that's a problem. If you are talking about "responses" then that's another story. Let's say 1 in 10 responses results in a transaction - that would be 2 transactions for 1000 cards. $750 investment for $5000 in gross commissions - a profit but at a high cost.

The difference is that you are in Idaho and I am in the NY Tristate area.....There is a lot more competition for eyeballs around here. I have nothing against the Mid-West - just that I see a lot of agents from that area crowing about their instant success. Although its tough to get started anywhere it is MUCH TOUGHER in the areas around NYC, CA and the like. You see it in the commission rates as well....

Humm, then how come it works for me and I'm in South Jersey just 10 minutes from Philly.

How long have you been in the business? Are you a broker or an agent? I think a lot of the mailing actually markets the brokerage more than the agent. That's why they push you to do it. If your name is "known" your marketing will be more effective - a newer agent is advertising their brokerage, the experienced agent is better able to promote him or herself.

I am a broker , hence the name Broker-In-NJ.
I think the fact that I know what I'm doing (including who to send to) helps. Most new agents (Especially the part time folks), don't know what they are doing and so don't have anything to convey that would warrant a response.

People ask me why I am sometimes not-so-nice to long-time agents/brokers. This attitude sums up why I have that attitude quite neatly.

I'll tell you this much...I've been around long enough to recognize that my BROKER'S best interests are NOT necessarily mine - and in fact, my best interests and my broker's are often at cross-purposes. Those stupid cards benefit the BROKERAGE more than the AGENT. I figured you were a broker- so the question is this: do you try to push your agents to do things that benefit YOU at THEIR expense. If so - SHAME ON YOU. If you foot the bill yourself - OK. But you should drop the smug attitude. You weren't BORN a broker - you had to start somewhere.

I have been farming 400+ homes for 9 months (1-2 times a month approx $3K) and have not gotten 1 lead. I understand farming takes time. But, not even one lead. Bah! I am starting to think I am throwing my cash into a big hole.

This thread has shed some more light on direct mail campaigns for me, and I am glad I havent done any yet. Isn't it foolish to spend thousands of dollars on mailings for maybe one or 2 deals to go through? Or maybe none, which it seems like alot have done. Lots of agents do them, and they get tossed in the trash as soon as they see the agent's photo. I would like to see these expensive, non-effective, indirect mailings (because you are showcasing the company) be a thing of the past. There are close to 35,000 agents in my area alone. That is insane! And I agree with the comments made about NAR, Realtor.com, etc...they are businesses and nothing else. This day in age, agents will need to get craftier in their ways of marketing and advertising and spend the money elsewhere, where it can really get yourself noticed.

It comes down to this. If you are unwilling to break from the mold and do what's necessary to get noticed. Then you shouldn't complain about your poor results and you definitely should stop throwing your money away.

It doesn't matter what medium you're using to deliver your message, if your message is the same old junk, no one will respond. And on the flip side if your message is great it will work in any medium. Ask enough people and you will find that NOTHING works and EVERYTHING works. It's all a matter of how each one is using the tools at their disposal.

I just did my Income Taxes. $4,000 in cards and postage. I use nice stuff from Color For Real Estate. I got one response from a lady who had listed her home with someone else and was asking me if I knew of anyone interested in her home.

I sent cards monthly to the same farm AREAS, Just Listed Cards, Just Sold Cards, Holloween Cards, Thankgiving cards and on and on. Not one lead from all that.

The other BIG waste in advertising $$$ is those free Realty Magazines at the grocery store. Cost over $500 a month. Split that with a mortgage company that I have to chase to get them to pay their half of the cost.


My best leads come from the Free stuff like Craigs List! My web site brings in quite a few leads too. $49.00 a month.

Very well said RealDealer, I agree. I have made so much money in this business using direct mail and so have thousands of our customers and clients. Direct mail works and works incredibly well when used correctly with the right message to media mix.

I'd like to ask all the newer agents out there this question....Did your BROKER encourage these mailings and push them aggressively or was this your idea? My former broker pushed and pushed for mailings. My gut told me that they were a waste of money, but he twisted my arm. This is what is making me angry. If I fork up over 50% of my commissions to this brokerage (including franchise fees) - I have the right to expect something very nice in return. Either in the form of outstanding training and innovative ways to prospect or some decent LEADS to help get me off the GROUND. The only suggestions they had was mass mailing and they pushed it incessently. Mailings, mailings, mailings - and if you didn't do them, THAT was the reason you weren't getting business. What garbage.

They also wanted us to pop for a web page on their site. I believe the cost was $400 a year for the page. No one got anything from that either except grief. Some lost sales. The office siphoned off inquiries that went to the main number to their "fed" agents. I was suspicious of the web page so I didn't pop for it. It made no sense to me. 100 agents with 75% of them having a page made no sense to me. Why would anyone go to my page? I'm not "A" in alphabet. The only purpose it would serve would be for me to direct my prospects to the page so they could read what I had on it. But why should I use the firm's website for this? What's the advantage? There were no potential plusses and many minuses to my mind. The agents who bought the web page got nothing from that either. Some did find out that their leads were siphoned off to other agents. So after paying for the site, they lost leads...marvelous!

This isn't funny folks. New agents look to their broker for guidence and advice. To take advantage in this way is outrageous, but not unexpected.

SiberianWinter,

You have a very valid point and a good discussion point for a thread, but the issue you are discussing is not related to direct mail as far as I can tell other than that is what your broker told you to do.

And you are exactly right, it isn't funny. Unfortunately there are a lot of brokers out there who practice exactly what you are talking about.

However, just because your broker practically shoved direct mail down your throat with absolutely no guidance on how to effectively use direct mail doesn't mean direct mail doesn't work

Interestingly enough, I think that the style and form that I was pushed towards actually made the situation worse. It was styled to promote the office not the agent.

At first I let them set up the cards for me. When I realized that all the contact info was geared towards the office (office number in bold with my voice mail in regular type) I insisted on some changes. My cell phone was first, my voice mail second and I insisted that the office number be removed. I knew full well if someone called the office the message would never get to me. The postcards in their final incarnation were at least a bit more geared towards my interests.

The fact is that it would be nice if those who had success would share some ideas rather than merely crowing about how the rest of us failed while they did well. There is a lot of arrogance on this thread from those on top of the heap which is neither informative nor helpful to the rest of us. Telling us "to do something unique" isn't much help. If a forum is to be helpful, then those who have met with success should try and do more than make those of us who didn't do well with mailings feel stupid and inadaquate.

Man, I could not agree more. I have seen quite a bit of arrogance in this thread and I am not certain it is necessary.
Case in point. How does this help anybody?

The problem I see here in metro Phoenix is that there are 40,000+ agents. I live in the suburbs and I have no less than 10 people farming my neighborhood. I have no problem being number 11, but I guess I am stuck on what would differentiate me. I see the comps, the just solds, the sports magnets, the recipe cards, the holiday cards. So, maybe there are too many folks farming this neighborhood. thats cool, if I move down the road a piece, how do I know there aren't just as many there? Not whining here, but I guess some constructive feedback on how to deal with an over abundance of people would probably serve me and others on the forum better than a message telling us that you know what you are doing and other don't. I am certain you do, please share it.

You are right I did have to start somewhere. It was with a broker that offered absolutely NO support. That helped me because by nature I learn things on my own. Most people need to be at least pointed in the right direction. My job, as a broker, is to make sure my agents make money. I do pay for basic advertising for them and sometimes they go beyond that. More than anything though I help them to become competent- Something badly lacking in this industry.

You can do great marketing - maybe even get enough response to make a living - but that does not make you competent. I see VERY little said here about training or the types of training that a good agent should have. Some companies even advise against the kind of thing I advocate. Agents should know something about home construction, they should know when to check with assessors offices, and construction offices. They should be able to alert buyers to many home conditions that will come up in their home inspection so it won't be a surprise. They should be able to offer statistical analysis to home buyers when the buyers ask for it or could benefit from it. What do you do when a buyer has a list of a couple hundred list and sold prices of homes and asks you for the standard deviation. Do you say? Huh. Do you know how to use a spreadsheet.

Forget that you are an agent. Sit down for an hour and pretend you are a buyer or want to list your home. Then, think about the skills you would want your ideal agent to have. Don't be limited by what you typically see. You may start to begin to see what you should become.

Most agents are self-centered and yet cannot distinguish themselves because they are not distinguishable.

It may be the case that your borker's best interests are not necessarily yours. However, your best interest is definitely the brokers - if the broker knows what they are doing. Many are so tied into a franchise template that they can't see a bigger picture.

You may see my attitude as smug - I don't really care. My agents definitely don't see it that way.

SiberianWinter & smgardner, I told you both the style and the message I use. Non-professional, non-professional, non-professional!

But what immediately followed my post? A laundry list of how to make your mailings MORE professional, followed by complaints that no matter how professional your mailing pieces are, no one responds.

I'll say it again. In my experience people DO NOT respond to professional sales pitches in printing. They might do so in person or on the phone, but not with mail or email or flyers or classified ads or craigslist ads, et al.

You guys talk about full color, glossy, professionally printed postcards/letters with all kinds of "useful" information like market analyses and just solds. I don't think any buyers or sellers care about that stuff if it's delivered in an impersonal way such as mass mailing.

On the other hand, I head down to the office supply store and pick up a pack of the cheapest cardstock they've got. I print the message in courier font so it looks like it was done on an old typewriter. I cut the sheet into postcard size by hand which always turns out uneven.

And finally the message is right to the point:
"Want to sell your house in the next two weeks?"
"Please call me immediately if you're willing to sell your house by the 1st."
"Are you willing to rent your house?"

These aren't headlines, they're the entire text of the postcard. I've given you these samples to help you get into the right frame of mind. You don't need to use them word for word. But you do need to get the point of the styling. I don't add logos or company names or office numbers or websites.

It's just a simple note from one person to another. Even though it is mass mailed, it looks and feels personal. That's what gets results.

I hope they don't heed your advice. I might have more competition. I don't read, respond to, or project slick either.

Every single person is different and I want them to know that I know that, without saying it to them.

Thanks Realdealer..for what its worth, my comments were not directed to you. I do appreciate your feedback and sharing of your tactics.

I think folksy "personal" postcards is a terrible idea. I completely disagree that people do not respond to a professional mailing that is slick and good looking with great content.

But whatever works for your market is what you should do.

I think the "personal touch" is vastly overrated. We need more competent professionals in this business, not "friendly" people who usually don't know squat. This is a business, not a church social.

I find it sad that all the direct response mailing companies and gurus have no clue what "direct response" means.

Direct response. What's your name? My name is Jack Brown.

If you mailing doesn't ask for a response why the heck would people respond?

A lot of agents should spend some time at the local book stores and read marketing books NOT WRITTEN by real estate gurus.

You should watch tv sometimes. There's not a single ad that's professional that I can recall.

We sure do need more competent professionals or actually we need to keep the competent ones and get rid of those that are not. Still, it does not hurt for competent professionals who know what they are doing to be friendly. The buyers and sellers will spend a lot of time with an agent. If the agent cannot deal with and empathize with people from very diverse cultural backgrounds they will be much less successful than those who can.

I am much more apt to respond to an adv that doesn't look like it was created as part of a slick marketing plan than the slick stuff I usually get - but that is me. When I feel someone is trying to "sell" me I shut them down real quick.

It may not be a church social, but it IS a very personal business.

Why can't we be friendly AND knowledgeable people?

I don't care how much you know, if you're not personable and able to relate to me as another human, you're not going to get my business - I'm hiring an AGENT, another PERSON to help me, not a robot.

You should read a little more about me first. You might want to look at the thread regarding "how many houses did you show?" I suggested there that we had turned into marketeers not real estate agents and that our FUNCTION had changed. We seem to FUNCTION as deal makers and money makers (for ourselves). We were so busy trying to grab up customers that once we get one we try to force one of the first 10 houses we show them down their throats so we can move on and keep up our momentum. The result is that the quality of service has fallen to a level that is nothing short of appalling. Small wonder the public doesn't trust us. We've converted from offering a SERVICE to cut throat marketeers that spend 90% of their time shoving ourselves at the public trying to grab market share and 10% actually WORKING - by that I mean providing said service to the public. When we do get a customer, we offer precious little service because marketing has consumed all our energy and time.

As far as spreadsheets go, I provide one to every one of my new customers and clients. In particular, I work out pricing, and I also use spread sheets to help show first time buyers the tax implications/benefits of owning vs. renting. I find they often don't "get it" until they see it on paper. I certainly understand spreadsheets and know standard deviations - I happen to be a Ph.D.

When I changed firms, I did it with an eye towards understanding zoning, construction and the local codes governing construction and renovation. Everyone is buying up these little 60s ranches and trying to blow them up and out right now. Although this is not my personal taste and its excessive, that's what they want. My customers/clients need to know what they can and can not do to a house. The training at my previous office was nothing short of pitiful in this area. When I changed firms, I picked a brokerage that was very well geared to train me in these areas. Its a smaller firm, but they are known for having a strong understanding of these very issues. I had learned a lot on my own the year before, but there was just so much you could do by yourself.

To those who don't think this is important, I'll site an example from just last week.... I showed a house that lacked any bathroom on the ground floor. Aside from that feature it fit my customer's parameters perfectly. I suggested that they could convert a huge pantry area to a powder room and asked my broker about it to be sure. If he didn't know, I'd have to check with the city. He told me that I was dead wrong. Apparently, you can't build a bathroom off a kitchen in this city...there is a zoning ordinance against it. I was stunned because I had seen plenty of homes with that exact feature. What I hadn't observed was that they were all older homes that had grandfathered bathrooms. Since I was a buyer's agent, it was my job to KNOW this. You have to be very careful. I would much rather spend my time on these issues then run around trying to market myself.

Marketing is fluff - I try to offer substance. That's the only way I've survived at all. My former customers/clients - few though they are - have unhesitatingly refered me to their family and friends. Even though I'm only in this 18 months, most of what I get is from referal. Unfortunately, thats not nearly enough - so its back to the marketing drawing board....

That is great that you are knowledgeable and learning, however, let me ask you a question. What is the point of knowing everything there is to know about zoning or any other topic if you have no customers to convey that knowledge to?

I would suggest coming up with a few different strategies to mix your knowledge into your marketing to show prospects how your knowledge benefits them if they use you.

Press The Flesh!!

Physically talk to people. It costs nothing! It works!

-jeff

Yes, it does work, but that is a single stream of leads and an active stream, which is great. But, while you are out "pressing flesh" you can have your direct mail, Internet marketing Campaigns and other lead streams working for you at the same time.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jeff Olsen:
Press The Flesh!!

How many flesh do you have to press to get one sale?

Physically talk to people. It costs nothing! It works!-jeff

It costs nothing if your time isn't better spent at something else.

How many people do you have to talk to to get a listing? While you are talking to them do you have another tool to get more business?

I am not saying that marketing isn't important. But I know many who are marketing machines that don't seem to know anything about the area, the building codes etc.

There are a lot of agents who don't know what they are doing - nor do they really care. They just want the sale.

The point is if we are spending all our time marketing - then we are no longer offering a valuable SERVICE. People seem to forget that to make money you had better offer something other than a few slick ads.

The public doesn't like us because they preceive that we don't CARE about service - we just want to make that sale. If there weren't so many agents, this would not be such a big issue...which circles back to my original thought that it is the brokers who create puppy mills that have created this market that is out of control. It's too easy to get placed in a brokerage. The hungry hoards flood the field all looking for a quick slice of the pie.

Siberian, I understand what you're saying and in many ways agree. But service isn't something you TALK about, it's what you do and who you are. Whereas marketing is strictly what you say and how you say it, although it does SUBTLY (not explicitly) communicate your service value.

Like it or not no matter what business you're in, we are all marketers FIRST and providers of our service/product second.

The single most important thing for any business to have is: Customers. In the real estate business you KEEP customers by knowing your stuff, but you must become an expert marketer to acquire those customers in the first place.

On my side of the industry, nearly all new investors think that the secret lies in the contracts and the techniques. So they spend tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars on training and study courses and they master 1001 ways to creatively buy and sell property. But if they don't learn how to market they fail 100% of the time now matter how much they know.

If I were you I wouldn't worry about the "hungry hordes", they're hungry for a reason. They may be looking for a slice of the pie but the piece they get (if they get one at all) is so tiny to be almost inconsequential. If you take the time to learn how to properly communicate (which is all marketing is) with your customer base, then you can be in the 5% who do 95% of the business.

1. If a neighborhood is dominated at 35% or more with one company's signs - don't farm the neighborhood.
2. Farming takes time. Factor in a minimum of 18-24 months of a minimum of twice a month mailings.
3. Face-to-face prospecting and giving something of value at least once a quarter will exponentially increase your rate of return on your farming mailings.
4. Use marketing that has a specific call to action. Sending out a recipe card doesn't do you a whole lot of good, unless you have a call to action on it.
5. Farming does not have to cost you thousands of dollars a month. We send out a 3 page, double sided, 4 color newsletter that costs us 85c from start to finish. Don't have the money? Send out a single page newsletter with one caption or one thing in one color - instead of mailing it, hire a youth group or a boy/girl scout troup to deliver the flyer to each house in the neighborhood for 10c each.

The key to every single one of these is:
1. Consistency - absolutely, positively DO NOT skip a single mailing. Your success is cumulative and builds off of each mailing.
2. Don't start the program unless you are fully and completely, 100% committed to following through for an entire 18 months - no matter HOW you feel at month 7, 9 or 14.
3. Consistency beats creativity any day of the week. Don't be so creative you hinder yourself. Just get something out there. A simple 1 page letter with the monthly stats for the neighborhood and a simple postcard. Both providing tips and information, both asking for business in some way or another.

Northidaho, What you are describing would not work here. I guess you make more per sale than I do.

My only shot around here is to go after low-lying fruit.. That means coops..and you are not allowed to go door-to-door in any of these complexes. Even if I managed to get inside the complex and leave my information behind, I would probably find myself in serious trouble with the management.


$.85 x 300 (average farm)x 18 X 2 = $9180
$.85 x 300 x 24 x2 = $12,240

$9180- $12,240 is an absurd amount to be spending on coops - or for any prosepecting unless you are planning on getting a $20k commission. I gross $2600 per unit on average (using median price in the area at "full commission".) That means to break even I would have to sell a minimum of 4-7 units to just break even and I'm not even accounting for expenses.

People move every five to seven years. So you are targeting roughly the 50 people who MIGHT be moving within that period. Since 80% will use an established agent and not me - that's just a FACT of life - that leaves me with roughly 10 prospects - which means I would have to get 7 of those 10 to assure I got my money back.

Sorry but that makes absolutely ZERO sense. I'd be a terrible business person if I thought this was a valid marketing method.

One thing you can do is purchase lists of co-op owners - are you in NYC? There are lists available through mail house firms. Go for higher priced co-ops. Also, are you talking about leasing as opposed to sales - I know in NYC a significant business is made through brokers fees for leasing apartments, etc.

Change your strategy. Go for buildings that have higher turn over. Go for buildings that have higher co-op fees, aka higher commission.

Then again, nothing may work for you.

Agree. The whole answer to all direct mail campaign questions is right there.
And I would add, everybody has a valid opinion, however, follow advice from people who have done lots of mail and made lots of money from it.

I partly agree as far as something usually being better than nothing. But I know a lot of people who have plowed a lot of money into marketing and seen little or no results for their trouble.

I don't think that sending the same junk everybody else is sending and hoping that a long-term commitment will make up for it is the right approach.

Consistency is required to maintain a full pipeline, but it is NOT required to get a response. The right message will pull a response from the very first reading and it will keep on pulling month after month. The trick is that it can't be too generic. It has to target a time-sensitive situation which keeps coming up for different people in that farm.

Example: "Do you want to sell your house this month?"
If you send that to 100 people this month about 1% will say yes. But over the course of 100 months nearly 100% will answer that question with a yes. And what's more roughly the same number of people will say yes month after month, perhaps with some seasonal variations.

You don't have to reinvent the wheel but you shouldn't send what everyone else is sending either.

Siberian,

I am a new agent. My broker did not push me to do mailings, she just showed me where I could find them in case I wanted to do so. I have sent out 3 mailings so far to my farm for a total of $240 my broker pays for postage. I have already seen $9,000 in commissions from just those cards. I am happy with them so far. I am also looking into newsletters which I think I have decided on one just to change it up a bit.

As for a website, they do offer me one for a fee that I never asked the price because it was too dull to me. I went out on my own and am in the process of having one built. The website is costing me $3,200 that includes building the site, marketing it (search engines), they will handle all the maintenance of the site, hosting, domain name, lead manager, drip e-mails and many other things I am forgetting at the moment. I could have that site built for $500. I just don't want to maintain it, market it and so forth.

As far as training from my broker, she will help me with whatever I need,I just need to ask. I also received training from the company and was also assigned a mentor. Sometimes I am afraid to ask for help from my broker because holy smokes she can talk forever!

I also do a ton of reading when I can, books, forums, more books, researching the web. I try to gather up as much information as I can and when something I come across seems logical I take bits and pieces of people's ideas and make my own plan.

If 100 people on here say "don't do mailings, they don't work"! Guess what, I'll do a mailing and another and another so on. I have all the patience in the world but let me see for myself that something doesn't work, let me learn from my own mistakes. I am constantly looking at what other agents are doing and saying "how can I be different". "what can I do that they are not doing"? "What are they doing that I can tweak and make better"?

This is not the my first time working as an independant contractor and this is the best advice I can give to anyone.... "You need to spend money to make money".

Well from this new agent, that is my 2 cents.

It depends on where you are from....and how saturated your market is. In regions where there are agents growing on trees, you have to think about how to spend your promotional $$$. Spending a truckload of money when you know that 99% of what you sent out goes straight to the trash bin is idiotic. You got lucky because you live in an area that isn't that saturated.

I ran the numbers from the previous poster and they just didn't make sense to me.

I think that in my area, this is an exercise in futility. I spent $4000 with not so much as an EMAIL response. Right now I would need two closings just to break even. I don't HAVE that funds to throw good money after bad. Second, unless you have a better ROI, there is no point in blowing that kind of cash. I sent out over 5000 cards. So all things being equal, there is something radically different about our markets.


Frankly, from my own personal experience with direct mail, my area is so bombarded that anything other than bills and personal mail goes straight to the trash. Last year I was away for about a week. When I cam back and picked up my mail I practically needed a truck to haul one week's worth of mail away from the PO. Around here, junk mail is so out of control that no one bothers with it. When I think about it, junk mail is 90% of my total paper recylcing. THat's pretty scary.

AFter the miserable response I got, I started thinking....how do I handle my mail - and I asked others how they handled their mail. We all had pretty much the same answer. We didn't care what it was - anything that wasn't a check, a bill, bank statement, personal letter - was classified as junk. Content didn't matter. It was just discarded without a glance.


Yes, you have to spend money, but I've come to the conclusion that snail mailings have outlived their usefulness and its time to move on.

SiberianWinter,

First, there is very little luck in this business.

I am willing to say with almost absolute certainty that the lack of response was due to the marketing piece you sent out.

How about if you post exactly what you sent to those 5,000 people up on the forum as well as exactly what demographic you sent it to and let us take a look?

I am in NJ about 30 mins from NYC and my market is saturated, shoot my office is saturated.

I do agree with you that we tend to throw junk mail away but there was an agent that farmed my community with a market ativity report. I looked forward to that report that she sent once a quarter. I wanted to know what my area was doing, I think most people want to know what their investment was doing, so I used the market activity as my mailer. Why wouldn't they want to know? They call the listing office the second a for sale sign goes up because they want to know the asking price.

Did I get lucky? Who knows but I am sure there will be times it is luck that my mailer lands in their hands just as they have been considering making a move. I am sure many of my mailers were read and tossed out, it just wasn't their time to make a move. So they will get another and another until that mailer hits them at the right time. Maybe they will decide to make a move between mailers but they will know who I am and what office I work out of.

Anyway, you have made up your mind that a mailing is not for you, just trying to give my point of view and why I do it. Oh and by the way, that agent that sent me a market report, when I sold my home back in NY she was the one I called, it took her 3 years to get my business but I never tossed away one of her mailers because I loved seeing the neighborhood values rising.

Last time I checked, the only reason to spend time and money on mailings was to generate a response that resulted in a SALE. Justify it anyway you like. People open their mail over the trash can.

Keep wisecracking and justifying that a 2% response rate yielded "7 figures in commissions."

What would those figures look like, if you had a 40% response rate using other means?

Good idea, Brian.

Look at it from the other angle, SiberianWinter: If direct mail wasn't effective, businesses (and agents) would not be doing it. Believe me, no sane marketing director that wants to keep the job would plunk thousands of dollars into a campaign that doesn't produce income.

I'll give you an example: As you, I get tons of direct mail daily. Normally I don't look at car dealers' promotions and trash them as soon as I get them (unless they have a good idea that can be used in real estate).

But last year I was on the market for a new car. For several weeks I was checking out every single direct mail piece about cars and car buying.

Real estate is the same. Folks that are thinking about moving will pay attention if the good old AIDA is there:
1. Attention
2. Interest
3. Desire
4. Action

Hope this helps.

Siberian are you in the Bronx? Unless you are in Manhattan, I don't know why you are going after coops anyway. There are plenty of single family homes in NYC in every borough outside of Manhattan. Farm there. You need to be able to door knock in support of your farming. If you think you are simply going to mail stuff out and make money, you're nuts. Farming equals mailing, door knocking, companion websites, and pressing the flesh.

There are starting to be some pretty good ideas floating around...thanks for these. I really do believe in hitting some doors. I went out and banged on expires on Saturday.(Now, the fact that it was a beautiful 78 degrees in AZ. helped motivate me). At one of my stops, a college kid told me his Dad was visiting this week and had asked him to find a Realtor as he wanted to buy a retirement home here...perfect. Another woman told me they were not going to move. She went on to say that she has received alot of inquiries over the phone and through the mail about her cancelled listing. but, I was the only person who showed at the door and we engaged in a pretty long conversation.I wonder who she will remember when selling time comes again? Now, I hijacked the thread a bit and I apologize. But, if you do not mix it up, farm, website, some phone and door to door...you ar missing the boat....me thinks anyway.

My "Press The Flesh" post was a reaction to how I was envisioning many new agents... and to a dynamic I have fallen prey to myself... where you get so caught up in writing letters and getting postcards out that you forget the things you can do that cost nothing and actually get you face-to-face with people. Got a kid or three? Perfect! Coach your kids T-ball team; sponsor their jerseys; run the scoreboard; referee the games... volunteer at the weenie roast the local volunteer fire department holds every year... help out at PTA functions... get out there and let people see what a good person you are. No kid? Take your laptop to the coffee shop and sit a few hours a week looking at listings (don't forget to tip large!) and within a couple months you will be "the RealtorŪ" as far as all the customers are concerned. Go hang out with everyone you've done business with, from your mechanic to your dentist to your favorite lunch spot, and let them know what you are doing. Etc. This costs virtually nothing and you are at the very least, practicing your people skills instead of obsessing over a keyboard to create a postcard that is almost certainly gonna get tossed!

That's not to mention the expense of direct mailings, which is a very significant expense AT BEST for a newer agent. At worst, they may be betting their very career on the success of a mailing or two! I think you more experienced agents, with a fat bank accounts, discount the level of financial desperation that a new agent is facing, on average. They need effective ways to generate leads that don't cost 10, 20 grand a year or they will very quickly become one of the what, 85% or more who wash out of the profession in the first couple years?

One final thought- I will probably be doing mass mailings myself at some point and singing their praises. I see how the trickle is worth it, in context. I'm coming at this from the angle of the original poster- a new agent- and as one myself, I think to roll the dice on blowing the bank on mass mailers with very low success rates is potentially suicide. ESPECIALLY since it's so obvious from this thread that there are many, many ways to screw it up! To be one more postcard in the trash.

-jeff

There is your bottom line...you have to have enough reserves to spend that kind of money. The "message" may or may not work. But at my stage of the game blowing another $4k on something that has a 99% failure rate is a recipe for disaster. Fact is I can't afford marketing schemes that produce nothing. They HAVE to produce something or I'm just digging a deeper hole for myself. I've already taken on debt to keep myself afloat. I'm seeing far more results from open houses and referals from former clients. But I have to be surer financial footing to risk more $$$ on any mailings.

Siberian,

You've made a wise decision to pull the brakes on marketing that don't work. If your dollars are running low you might want to spend more of your time finding the leads. All of the ideas given here will work at some level but you can't afford to continue a 95% failure rate campaign.

Change your message or change your marketing vehicle. I'd probably do both.

Siberian....you miss the point. It is ok if I get a 1% response. A mailing to my farm costs $430, this includes postage, envolopes, printing. If I get a 1% response and list only 50% of the responding owners. I get 6 listings. If just one house sells out of 6, I make $6000.00. A 1% response and 99% "failure" is just fine with me.

Who's a good source to use for a direct mail campaign? I've been all over the web for three days and between design software at sites not working and other issues I am not sure who to use. Anyone have any recommendations?
I'm looking for a source with nice templates that I can modify. Thank you.

www.microsoft.com....free templates you can modify.

Has anyone here used or tried viral marketing?
If so, how did it turn out?

Gee, I don't know - why don't you try it?

We promote our past clients, current clients, have met prospects AND our haven't met prospects.

Our response rate runs an average of 2 contracts per 12 'touches' from our have met database. Our response rate runs an average of 1 contract per 45 'touches' from our haven't met database.

We want XXX number of transactions each and every year. Our 'have met' database gets us XX% way there, we build the rest through our 'haven't met' database.

We consistently put people into our database. The larger our 'have met' portion, the smaller our 'haven't met' portion needs to be. You can add people to your 'have met' portion through any number of means: face-to-fact prospecting, meeting in a line, friends, family, etc.

We stick to a consistent budget and spend 9-10% of our GCI every year on all marketing and advertising. This includes any listing advertising, websites, general marketing, PR, general advertising, direct mail, etc.

We know what we are doing - with extensive experience both in the RE industry and in marketing (both in education and actual experience) we LOVE LOVE LOVE it when people insist that direct mail just doesn't work.

We've used it all over the world for our business. We have yet to find a geographic area in which it doesn't work. And yes, we farm all over the world. Our buyers are from all over the world. Just like most areas, our area is flooded with an overabundance of real estate agents, that doesn't stop us, in fact it's a catalyst to beef up our direct mail and email campaigns. It's working beautifully.

My point is, direct mail is one of the most effective means of 'haven't met' marketing there is. We spend 10% of our GCI to generate 90% of our income. It's a no brainer.

North Idaho...is your BROKERAGE making money or are your AGENTS?? Big difference. If the agent is footing the bill, they may not make a dime and just be covering their costs. It was my contention that this was a way for a brokerage to get "free publicity" at the expense of the agent.

Furthermore - you are in IDAHO - not near NYC. HUGE difference.

Finally, READ MY POSTING OF THE NUMBERS...THEY DON'T WORK. There is NO WAY they are going to work. Further, my finances are such that I am in debt up to my eyeballs. I CAN NOT AFFORD another campagin that loses money. PERIOD.

Altering the campaign at this point is far too risky financially. Also I don't buy that people make seven figures with direct mail. As one poster said before "most people open their mail over a trash can." I know that I do too.

There probably is more leisure time where you are. Not so cut-throat. Maybe people have TIME to through their junk mail. Around here, if people aren't working, they are sleeping. There is no time for junk mail. Most people around here resent all the mail and pitch it all in the trash unread. There is actually a "do not mail" movement around here. People want the junk mail to end - including publicity from realtors.

This is how I look at my mailing compaigns. I do one mailing campaign of 300 homes. If I get one buyer or one seller, then that campaign was a 100% success rate. If I did 4 mailing campaigns and got a total of 3 buyers or sellers from those 4 campaigns than I am at a 75% sucess rate.

If you keep looking at it as sending a 1000 pieces of mail divided by how many buyers or sellers and coming up with a very low percentage rate then you will never be happy. I will always be happy with spending my $75 to $300 for just 1 commission check.

So Siberian, what are you going to do for marketing? Or are you going to just wait by the computer until you find a sure bet?

I'm already getting referals from previous clients....That, some internet publicity (no ppc) floor duty and open houses are all I can afford right now.

Don't be so smug....people who don't have the $$$ would be fools to spend their hard-earned money on something that gives such a miserabel ROI...

That's fine if that's what you GET. I got NOTHING. $4000 and 14 mailings later and not so much as an email. If that's what you are getting, its time to hang it up.

I would pay just to see your mailings!

I've had it with the bunch of you. Throwing insults is really pathetic. You want to toss money out the window or burn it with a match -be my guest. You guys are so full of yourselves its ridiculous. As I EXPLAINED IN PREVIOUS POSTS...pretty much EVERYONE in my immediate geographic area got the SAME RESPONSE. NOTHING!!! No email, no phone calls, no sales NOTHING. Different campaigns, different offices, SAME RESULT. I've only asked about 50 agents in my area what their response rate was. The only people who got anything were people who were known names. Their campaigns are not that different from anyone elses, not more imaginative etc. The difference is they have been around for 20 years and have name recognition. They also have deeper pockets and can outdo the rest of us by sheer volume. Even those who get a response admit that its pretty pathetic. Nothing like what they got " back in the day" when they were new agents. Today, even the biggest names around her indicate that if they get one RESPONSE (not sale - response) for 300 cards, they are doing well.

Let's do the MATH...ONE MORE TIME....

300 cards ($.75-1.00 per card ~ $0.875/card)

300 (.875)= $262/response - usually 1 in 10 of these optomistically brings you an actual SALE...

$2620 spend for one sale! And most weren't even getting that. You would have to be doing very high-end stuff to make that work...

I think that understanding who you are targeting is important...People around here are all about making enough money to stay alive. It's very expensive to live here. When I was working in my former field I was in the lab by 9 AM and I often didn't leave until after 11 PM. (It's the same now, except I'm not in the same geographic place all the time.) That's the lifestyle of NY/Westchester...work, work, work! If you don't, your outta here because you can't afford it. So people are very pragmatic about mail, they don't have the luxury of thumbing through catalogs, looking at nice stuff and reading little post cards, there's no time. They grab the mail, curse at all the junk, grab a garbage can and toss EVERYTHING that isn't a bill a letter or a check right into the trash. The volume of JUNK MAIL (and that's exactly what our mailings are to the general public) is simply too much for people to even look at any more.

Its a simple concept...you flood the system with too many messages and it dilutes your message even further. Trying to shout louder then the other guy becomes your only chance...but its very, very costly. YOu reach a point where the cost outweighs the gain. When that happens you STOP. DUH!

Why pay a company to do postcards for you? Use Publisher, buy your own card stock, and design your own. I get 250 sheets for $10 (.04 per sheet) and use the office printer/copier. $10 for 3000 labels (.0033). Add .24 for postage & the total is .2833 cents per postcard. VERY affordable. Go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/results.aspx?qu=real+estate&av=TPL000 for templates which you can modify.

By the way, someone described earlier how they took pictures of empty info sheet boxes from their area & put them on their farm postcard with the saying "I Keep Mine Full." THANKS! I did the same thing & have had two listing appointments off them.

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.

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.

[url=http://www.innovativedirectmail.com/]direct mail advertising[/url]

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.

http://www.innovativedirectmail.com/

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

free home evaluation..

free area home sales market reports

try..

ATTENTION YOUR AREA HOMEOWNERS!!
Find out what you Home Is Worth in Todays Market
Free Over The Phone Or Net Home Evalauation..
No Cost Or Obligation..Your Home Might Be worth more than you think
18000
www,yourareahomeworth.

Or Fear Of Loss

PUBLIC NOTICE TO YOUR AREA HOMEOWNERS
Homes Was Just Recently Sold In Your Area'
Find Out How This Affects Your Homes Value
Find out what your neighbors SOld for
Free..No Coist Or Obligation
1800-
www.areahomesales.com

do not go with image brand building

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