What Postcard Companies Won't Tell You (But Probably Should)

After working for two postcard printing companies (and dealing with many more), I've learned quite a bit about the challenges real estate agents face when using real estate postcards. I've also learned the best practices of real estate postcard marketing, most of which are outlined in the postcard book.

The problem is, many of these challenges and best practices do not get communicated to the individual agent using real estate postcards. It's not that the postcard companies are being deceitful ... it's just not in their best interest to share certain facts with their real estate customers.

So, I would like to step in and fill that role. I'm sharing the following information so you have a realistic picture of postcard marketing today, and so you'll know how to get the best possible return on your real estate postcard investment.

With that said, here are three things postcard companies won't tell you (but probably should):

1. Real Estate Postcard Marketing is Hard

You may be under the impression that postcard marketing is easy. After all, you just fill in the postcard template with your information, have the postcard company print them and blanket the area with your message, and then sit back to watch the leads roll in? Right? Wrong.

If it were that easy, every real estate agent who ever used marketing postcards would be a success story. But clearly that's not the case. Some agents thrive with postcard marketing, while others fail. (That's a reality of marketing in general.) So it's obviously not a simple, one-size-fits-all approach.

Postcard marketing is a numbers game, a game of attrition. The more mistakes you make along the way, the lower your end numbers (responses) will be. If you don't optimize every aspect of your real estate postcard campaign -- from the initial idea to the final offer -- you will probably be disappointed with the results. The problem is, most postcard companies cannot afford to give each customer the individual attention they need to maximize all those postcard factors. With a dozen or so staff and thousands of customers, how could they?

But you can educate yourself about the many aspects of postcard marketing, by downloading a copy of the postcard book (10 more reasons to buy it). You can arm yourself with this knowledge before you even approach a postcard printing company.

2. Bad Mailings Do Not Get Better With Time

"Be patient and persistent. The results will come in time." If I had a nickel for every time I heard or saw a postcard company use this line, I would be able to retire. Well, almost. Some companies will tell you that a failed postcard mailing (one that produces zero responses) will get better with repetition. They will tell you that you're staying "top of mind" with your prospective audience, and that eventually these people will wake up to your message and contact you.

Not likely.

It is extremely rare that a weak postcard mailing gets better simply by repeating it. Usually, it will remain a failure, no matter how many times you repeat it. But here's the good news. If you start off with the kinds of techniques I teach in my book, you will likely enjoy good response rates from the beginning. Best of all, you'll know how to spot a weak mailing based on response numbers, and you'll know what to do about it.

Bottom line ... a postcard mailing that produces zero responses should never be repeated. If you repeat such a mailing, you are wasting time and money. Such a mailing should be modified until it does produce results. Then it can be repeated, and optimized, and tested again, and so on.

3. Templates are Usually Less Effective Than Original Postcards

Sure, postcard templates are easy to use. You just select a template, plug in your name and photo, and you're off to the races. Right? Well, not always. Here's the problem with real estate postcard templates (and you'll realize the logic of this after I explain it). When you use a real estate postcard template, you are making your postcard look like every other real estate postcard. That's what templates are -- a stock layout that many people can use.

Now ask yourself this. If my postcards look a lot like those sent by other real estate agents, how does that affect my ability to stand out? You already know the answer. It kills your ability to stand out!

In his book Purple Cow, marketing expert Seth Godin uses the analogy of brown cows. Brown cows lack uniqueness. They are everywhere. And as a result of their common appearance, people hardly notice brown cows. But what if you passed a purple cow standing in a field. You'd notice wouldn't you? That's because a purple cow is remarkable. It stands out and generates buzz.

Real estate postcard templates will not get you a purple cow. They produce brown cows, the kind of thing that's common to the point of being invisible.

In my book, I teach you how to transform your real estate postcards from "brown cow" commonality to "purple cow" uniqueness -- in order to grab people's attention and earn their response.

Have questions about the postcard book?
Email me here: brandon@realestatepostcardbook.com

-Brandon

Just Listed Postcards - What Are They?

"Just listed" postcards are some of the most commonly used of all real estate postcards. This type of postcard is exactly what it sounds like -- a postcard that announces a new home that has been listed.

The purpose of "Just listed" postcards is to generate awareness of a new property listing within the immediate area. For instance, if you listed a home on Main Street, you might send listed postcards to all residents in a ten-mile radius of the Main Street address.

This type of postcard is intended for two primary audience -- (1) apartment dwellers looking to buy a home, (2) homeowners with friends or family moving into the area, and (3) nearby homeowners planning to move up to a new home.

In the next few blog posts, we will talk more about the "Just listed" postcard. I'll offer some tips and tactics you can use to get your listed postcards noticed. Stay tuned for more!

~Brandon

Have questions about the postcard book?
Email me here: brandon@realestatepostcardbook.com

Ordering Real Estate Postcards - Be Careful

Real estate postcards have been an effective marketing tool for real estate agents for decades. But if you don't know what you're doing, you could spend a lot of money only to get disappointment back in return.

So you need to use caution when ordering postcards online, and you need to have a plan for your real estate postcard marketing success.

Here's why...

There are quite a few real estate postcard companies these days, with new ones sprouting up all the time. Here's how it usually works. A printing company will learn that there's quite a market for real estate postcards, so they will launch a new website catering to real estate agents and proclaim, "We are experts in real estate postcard marketing!"

Here's the truth of the matter. Most of these companies are experts at the logistics of printing and mailing. And they should be! After all, that's what you're paying them for. But what you need to realize is that most postcard marketing companies are not experts at real estate marketing. There's a big difference between printing expertise and real estate marketing expertise.

So if you're serious about your real estate postcard success, you need to bring the marketing intelligence yourself.

Think about it for a moment. The postcard printing company makes its money from the number of postcards printed and mailed ... not from the number of responses you get. Often, when real estate agents question the fact that they're not getting any responses from their postcards, these companies will tell them to "be patient."

Let me make something perfectly clear. If you mail a thousand postcards and get nothing back in return -- not a single response -- you should not repeat that mailing. You should adjust your approach and apply some of the marketing fundamentals in my real estate postcard book.

(This is The book on real estate postcard marketing, by the way. Don't be fooled by imitators. This book is only available on the website www.RealEstatePostcardBook.com.)

My point is simply this:

There may be a few postcard companies with real estate marketing expertise, but they are few and far between. Personally, I have not found one yet. Nor do I expect a postcard printing company to have expertise in real estate marketing. They are printing experts, and that's what I expect from them. So when you use a real estate postcard company, it's a good idea to handle the marketing side of things yourself.

Good luck, and good marketing!

~Brandon

Have questions about the postcard book?
Email me here: brandon@realestatepostcardbook.com

Real Estate Recipe Postcards - Do They Work?

Are real estate recipe postcards a "delicious dish" for marketing success, or are they a waste of time and money?

This is probably a question that makes postcard marketing companies cringe, because many of them sell the virtues of real estate recipe postcards. But I'm not asking this question of the postcard marketing companies ... I'm asking you, the real estate agent who uses real estate postcards.

To my knowledge, there has never been any study on the effectiveness of real estate recipe postcards (when compared to a different form of real estate postcard). Sure, there are a handful of testimonials here and there, maybe a little "use real estate recipe postcards" promotional copy ... but that's probably it.

So here's my take on it, based on my professional experience in this industry.

Me personally, I wouldn't spend a dime on real estate recipe postcards. And do you want to know why? Because while a real estate recipe postcard might produce one response out of a thousands mailers, there are ways to get better response rates. You know ... those tried-and-true postcard marketing techniques, like making an offer of some kind.

These are the kinds of proven strategies I teach in my real estate postcard book. I take direct mail strategies that have worked for decades, and I show you how to improve upon them with modern techniques. So please don't buy the postcard book expecting tips on which recipe works best on real estate recipe postcards. You won't see any mention of that.

My book will certainly teach you how to create a "super card" that combines multiple marketing channels. It will teach you how to improve on the best practices of direct mail postcards. It will show you how to test your mailings and adjust them for continued improvement over time. But it won't teach you about real estate recipe postcards. Because frankly, I don't think they're worth the papery they're printed on.

Have questions about the postcard book?

Email me here: brandon@realestatepostcardbook.com

Comments are welcome. Use the comment link below.

-Brandon

Real Estate Postcards - Reason #3 to Buy the Book

Continuing our list of top ten reasons to download the real estate postcard book, I'd like to present reason #3.

Reason #3 - Avoid real estate postcard marketing mistakes.

I used to work for a postcard company that (A) catered largely to the real estate industry and (B) was one of the largest companies of its kind in terms of volume. As a result, I saw thousands of real estate postcards churned out daily, for thousands of eager real estate agents.

But what frustrated me were the mistakes I saw on the real estate postcards ... the same mistakes, over and over again. Worst of all, they were mistakes that could have been easily fixed, thus resulting in much better response rates from the real estate postcards.

So without knowing it, these agents were close to real estate postcard success, but they weren't quite reaching it. Now you might say, "Well why didn't you help them?" Oh, we tried. With thousands of customers and 14 customer service reps, there's only so many ways you can reach them all. We did our best to publish articles on the website and offer an educational newsletter, but these things often go unread.

Now, I'm in a position to share these common mistakes with you, and that's exactly what I do in the real estate postcard marketing book. But I do more than just sharing the real estate postcard mistakes I've witnessed over the years -- I show you, in step-by-step fashion, how those mistakes can be remedied.

This is the first step to success with real estate postcard marketing. And to take this first step, all you have to do is download the real estate postcard book.

Read the full list of reasons:
10 Reasons to Get the Real Estate Postcard Book

Have questions about the postcard book? Email me here: brandon@realestatepostcardbook.com

Comments are welcome. Use the comment link below.

-Brandon

Do Real Estate Postcards Still Work?

Once in a while, a real estate agent will ask me this question: "Do real estate postcards still work?" I usually respond with the same remark -- it's somewhat cryptic at first, but makes sense eventually.

I tell them that bad real estate postcards don't work today, and they didn't work ten years ago. But good real estate postcards work today, as much as they have always worked.

This response tends to produce more questions, so I go on to explain the following...

The strategies behind real estate postcard marketing have changed. You can certainly use real estate postcards to help you grow your business, even in this modern age of web communication. But you have to go about things differently than a postcard marketer from ten years ago.

For one thing, you have to boost the incentive on your real estate postcards. "Call for a free consultation" does not cut it anymore. You need to give people a good reason to contact you, or to respond in whatever way you seek. Actually, this is true of all marketing ... not just real estate postcards. In marketing terms, this is known as the offer. And you have to offer something on your real estate postcards in order to generate a response.

Another way that real estate postcard marketing has changed is the use of the Internet. The real estate agents who do best with real estate postcard marketing know how to incorporate their websites and/or blogs into their postcard marketing. They know that modern consumers are inclined to learn more about things online, so they cater to that. They create high-value websites with plenty of useful (and interesting) resources, and they point people to it with their real estate postcards.

And then, if they've built some form of lead capture into their website, they have a steady stream of inquiries that can become clients some day.

So in this regard, yes, real estate postcards work as well as they ever have. You just have to go about it differently than agents did ten years ago. You have to offer something. You have to be unique. And you have to incorporate other marketing channels, like your website.

By the way, I show you how to do all of these things in the real estate postcard book.

~Brandon


Have questions about the postcard book?

Email me here: brandon@realestatepostcardbook.com

Comments are welcome. Use the comment link below.

-Brandon