Postcard Marketing Success - Put the Product Before the Marketing

After working in the direct mail postcard industry for a while, I've noticed some trends. I've seen which real estate postcard strategies work the best, and which ones should be avoided. And I'd like to share one of the most effective "secrets" of postcard marketing with you right now.

A Great Product or Service Markets Itself

A bad idea with glitzy marketing material wrapped around it is still a bad idea. All the "candy coating" in the world won't change that. Likewise, a mediocre product or service with heavy marketing is still just mediocre.

So before you start with your the design or message of your real estate postcard, start with the big idea behind the postcard. Start with the product or service you are trying to promote. How is it different and better from the competition? How will it change the lives your intended audience? If you can't answer these questions, you are not ready to market the item.

Here's an example taken from the "door hanger" marketing materials I get all the time. My home office is in the front of my house, and I live in a fairly new neighborhood with plenty of door-to-door marketers. So about once a day, I see somebody coming up the walk with a door-hanger or flyer destined for my front door.

Many of these marketing materials are from landscaping companies. But they all go straight into the trash because there is nothing unique about them. They all clamor about "quality service" ... a phrase that is entirely meaningless these days.

Here's an idea. How about creating a website with a scheduling tool so homeowners can request lawn service? How about showing me a "case study" with the smiling photo of one of my neighbors? How about doing something -- anything -- besides talking about your "quality service."

It's just laziness if you ask me, and I see the same thing in real estate postcard marketing all the time. In a rush, a real estate company will "announce" their real estate services to a market area without thinking their message through ... or without developing their service in a way that makes it unique. Then they'll try to compensate for their developmental shortcomings with a "kick-butt" marketing campaign.

Guess what? It doesn't work. Putting your postcard marketing before your product is a recipe for failure 99% of the time. Yet, it's still one of the most common marketing failures of all, within real estate postcard marketing and other media as well.

If you start with a great idea and turn it into an actual product or service, you have built the marketing right into the product!