Sample Marketing Letters – Use With Caution

Written by Brandon Cornett | © 2010

On the surface, sample marketing letters sound like a great idea. You just grab the sample, plug in your own contact information and website address, and fire them off. What could be easier? But this kind of thoughtless approach to real estate marketing rarely works well, if ever.

Why don’t sample marketing letters work well? It has to do with repetition and commonality:

Sample = Common

Let’s say you do a Google search for real estate marketing, and you eventually stumble across a website that offers a sample marketing letter for agents. Ask yourself this: How many other agents have found that same letter, and used it verbatim in their marketing campaigns? How many times do you think your target audience has seen that particular letter, or a slight variation of it? What kind of impression does this give people, when you use a cut-and-paste / fill-in-the-blanks approach to your professional correspondence? How effective do you think this is, overall?

Marketing Letters Need Good Ideas

Sample marketing letters have their place, but mainly as idea generators. The more closely you copy them, the less original you will be. If you send a carbon copy of the marketing or introduction letters being sent by your competitors, you will render yourself indistinguishable from the pack. One final question for you: How many prospective clients will notice you, if you look and sound just like every other agent in your city? It’s something to think about, the next time you use a sample marketing letter to “connect” with your audience.

The best marketing strategies have always been built around original ideas. This is true in the real estate industry, as with any other vertical. Commonality and repetition make people blind. Think about those used-car salesmen that use the exact same formula (i.e., shouting) on their commercials. Do you even hear what they’re saying anymore? They’re all the same. The same goes for the real estate business. Sample marketing letters are the lazy agent’s approach to marketing. And if you use this kind of approach, you shouldn’t expect much in the way of results.

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