Postcard Marketing With Website Assist

Do you use real estate postcards as part of your marketing program? Do you also have a real estate website? (Sure you do, right?) In that case, you should be using your real estate postcards and your website to mutually reinforce one another.

These days, one of the best ways to use postcard marketing is in conjunction with a website landing page. When you use farming postcards that direct people to a specific section of your website for a specific (and beneficial reason), you have a golden opportunity to increase your postcard response rates.

But like anything else in real estate marketing, there's a right and a wrong way to go about this. I've posted a new article over at PostcardSmart.com to help you learn the right way:

Postcard Marketing: How to Incorporate Your Website

If you'd like more advice on using postcards and websites together, be sure to download your copy of the book.

-Brandon

New Article on Postcard Printing

I've been on an article-writing kick lately, and the topic has been postcard printing companies. In a new article over at PostcardSmart.com, I've outlined some important considerations when choosing a postcard printing company, mainly from a convenience perspective.

Convenience is important when it comes to postcard marketing. There are a lot of steps involved in the design, printing and mailing of a real estate postcard, so the convenience factor will make a big difference in your overall success and satisfaction.

In this new article I've listed some specific, convenience-related criteria you should look for in a postcard printing company:

Postcard Printers - Measuring the Convenience Factor

Hope you find it helpful.

-Brandon

A Guide to Direct Mail Fulfillment

So you are entering the exciting world of real estate direct mail, and you have some questions about the different levels of direct mail fulfillment. Have I got just the thing for you.

Typically, the information presented on this website and blog have to do with real estate postcard marketing. After all, I've written a book about real estate postcard strategies, so the site should naturally cater to that.

But I also know that a lot of real estate folks move into other areas of direct mail, such as letter kits, brochures and the like. If this describes you, you'll want to check out my new guide to direct mail fulfillment, posted over at PostcardSmart.com:

A Guide to Direct Mail Fulfillment

Hope you find it helpful!

~Brandon

Realtor Postcard Marketing - 3 Fundamental Flaws to Avoid

In my experience with Realtor postcard marketing, I would categorize the most common postcard problems into three categories:

1. Over-reliance on technology
2. Over-reliance on vendors
3. Over-reliance on weak offers

Here are some tips to avoiding these Realtor postcard marketing flaws altogether -- and to create the kind of Realtor postcards that generate a response:

Postcard Marketing Flaw #1 - Over-Reliance on Technology

Technology, by itself, cannot deliver success in Realtor postcard marketing. If that were the case, most Realtors would enjoy record-breaking responses from their postcard marketing programs. And that's obviously not the case.

Believe it or not, technology is the most straightforward part of the real estate postcard equation. A postcard marketing service can handle all of the technology for you. But there's the rub. Technology can help you deliver a powerful message, but it cannot create that message in the first place. That's your job. Your real estate postcard message, and everything that brings it to life, must begin with you.

Don't rely on technology to produce a powerful, response-generating Realtor postcard. Rely on yourself, what you know about your audience, and what you know about postcard marketing ... the latter of which you'll find in my Realtor postcard book.

Postcard Marketing Flaw #2 - Over-Reliance on Vendors

Postcard printing services can certainly make your postcard marketing program easier to manage. I know this for a fact, because I've worked for a couple of printing / direct mail companies. But you shouldn't outsource the strategy of your postcard program to a printing service -- you should only outsource the logistics.

Here's why...

Postcard companies are experts at the logistics of printing and mailing. At least they should be. But it's unlikely they are Realtor marketing experts as well. Trust postcard companies with the logistics -- develop the strategy yourself. And if you download my book on Realtor postcard marketing, you'll have all the strategy you need, right at your fingertips.

Postcard Marketing Flaw #3 - Over-Reliance on Weak Offers

When it comes to Realtor postcards, strong offers generate a strong response. And weak offers generate ... you guessed it, a weak response.

A lot of Realtors use the same formula when creating their Realtor postcards. First, you have the Realtor's photo. Then you have the carbon-copy message that homeowners have seen hundreds of times. Lastly, you have the phrase, "Call today for a no-obligation consultation."

Do your Realtor postcards follow this pattern. If so, your Realtor postcards match what 85% of your competitors are doing. How could you possibly hope to stand out by being one of the masses? Answer -- you can't.

A "no-obligation consultation" is not an offer. It is expected. Homeowners know they're going to get a consultation visit from a Realtor, same as they would get one from a pool builder, a carpet cleaner, a landscaper ... you get the idea.

To succeed with Realtor postcards, you have to knock people's socks off. You heard me correctly. You have to be different, better and smarter than all the other Realtors using postcards. You have to offer something so unique ... or valuable ... or buzz-worthy, that it makes the recipient sit up and take notice.

You want people to respond to your Realtor postcards. You want people to call you, email you, visit your website and subscribe for information, or something that allows you to follow up with them.

And if you need ideas in how to do that, you'll find them in the book!

~Brandon

Download the Postcard Book!
If you like the kind of honest, nuts-and-bolts advice contained in this article, you'll love the author's book on real estate marketing with postcards.