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

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

Real Estate Postcard Marketing - New Article

There's a new article online about real estate postcard marketing.

Specifically, this article talks about the benefits of an integrated marketing program that combines off-line marketing channels (like postcards) with online marketing channels (like your website).

Read the article here:
Real Estate Postcards + Website = Leads

If postcard marketing is part of your business strategy, and you have your own website, you owe it to yourself to read this article and give some thought to its message.

Enjoy!

-Brandon

Real Estate Postcard Book: 10 Reasons to Download

I just published a new page on the website that lists the top ten reasons to download the real estate postcard book.

I thought I would do a series of blog posts to complement the top-ten list. Each blog post will expand on one of the items from the list. So let's start with the first one:

Reason #1 - Advice from an industry insider.
Having worked for two postcard marketing companies (including one that catered to real estate agents almost exclusively), I've seen my share of real estate postcards. I've also worked with a lot of real estate agents to help them improve their postcard response rates.

When you download the real estate postcard book, you'll have instant access to this experience and insight. You'll be able to learn about the successful postcard strategies I've seen, as well as those that I've seen fail. You'll be able to emulate the good and avoid the bad. In other words, you'll shorten your postcard marketing learning curve by more than half!

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