•    Automate Your Marketing

•    Develop a Marketing Plan

•    E-mail Dos and Don'ts

•    Product Guide: Marketing Tools

 

 

Marketing your listings and services to drum up business just got easier. Several solutions can help you develop marketing pieces with just clicking onto a Web site and plugging in a few key details about your listing or company. You can have professional postcards, flyers, e-mail campaigns, and a Web site in a matter of minutes.

 

And sometimes it doesn't even have to cost you a dime. For example, Lowe’s offers a free marketing program for NAR members.

 

With any number of marketing solutions designed specifically for real estate, the real challenge is deciding which pitch, or mix, speaks best for you. Here's how a few real estate pros have streamlined their marketing and gotten results.

 

 

Taking a New Approach to Flyers

 

Danny Gomes, sales associate with Century 21 Masters, Walnut, Calif., knows that the key to selling more homes falls is staying in contact with other real estate professionals. “As soon as I get a listing, I put together an e-mail flyer targeting other real estate professionals in that area,” he says. “It’s been an effective way to get other agents to bring buyers to my properties.”

 

He credits the service E-mailAgentFlyers.com as increasing his showings by 20 percent. He logs onto the Web site, uploads property information and photos to a template, and selects recipients by location from a database loaded with e-mail addresses for real estate professionals. Then, he simply hits send and a color flyer is headed to their inboxes

 

“The whole process takes minutes, and costs $30 or $40 to reach hundreds of agents,” Gomes says. “When the property is priced right and promoted aggressively, it will sell, even in the current market.”

 

Direct Mail Made Easy

 

"Eighteen percent of all our business comes directly from our direct mail campaigns,” says Kristen Cole, CCIM, with the Kristen Cole Team, RE/MAX of Wasilla, Wasilla, Ark. “We have direct mail pieces going out all the time, with specific messages and themes for specific parts of our market and sellers we want to reach.”

 

It’s a fine-tuned strategy developed more than 25 years in the business. The postcards highlight the team’s sales experience and success, but appearance also determines if a piece is read or treated as junk mail.

 

“It’s important it looks like a high end piece, in full color, nicely laminated and printed on recyclable material,” she says. “The jumbo postcard size really makes it stand out so it’s hard to miss.”

 

Managing these ongoing campaigns is streamlined with ExpressCopy.com, one of several Web-based direct mail services. Cole submits her own art, copy and list, but design templates and mailing lists are available from the service as well.

 

“They make it easy,” she says. “We just upload and the finished piece is in the mail within 48 hours.”

        

Casting a Wide Net Online

 

Rich Schiffer focuses his marketing efforts on the Web. “I’ve put together an integrated shotgun approach to direct people who are online to me and my Web site,” says Schiffer, e-Pro, with Weichert REALTORS®, Media, Pa.

 

Components of his Web-based strategy include an e-mail drip marketing campaign run through InterSend.com; a blog hosted on the ActiveRain Real Estate network; self-promotion on social networking sites like Facebook; and involvement with consumer real estate platforms like Trulia.

 

Apart from the Intersend.com service, less than $30 per month, the only cost is the effort Schiffer puts in creating content and responding to queries.

 

“With the Web, I can get myself before 1,000 buyers who are there looking for property,” he says.

 

 

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What's in Your Marketing Plan?

 

A well-defined marketing strategy addresses the image you want to project, your target audience, and the best means for reaching them. It’s a multi-faceted undertaking that can encompass any or all of the following:

 

Direct mail: Effective for getting your name out there, but measure the costs/benefits against other outreach methods. The most compelling pieces catch the attention of people already thinking real estate — FSBOs, expired listings, or prospective sellers — or have a look and message with staying power.

 

Cold calling: This was once a routine form of prospecting but now if you're not careful, you might break the law and be subject to potential fines if calling someone on the Do Not Call Registry. If you want to still call, make sure to check your state or federal registry before dialing.

 

Signs: Signs, in all forms, can have a big impact. Use every opportunity for signs: in the yard, on your car, and, when affordable, in a highly visible location.

 

Newsprint: The value of print advertising for promoting listings has diminished as more people head online in their search for property. Nevertheless, ads in newspapers or magazines can still be an important promotional and brand-building medium.

 

Broadcast media: Radio and TV are expensive, which limits their use to company and corporate branding. But a local cable real estate classified can be an effective tool for promoting distinctive properties.

 

E-mail: This can be a powerful form of communication and marketing tool — provided recipients want to hear from you. A drip mail campaign automates a long-term strategy to keep your name before clients and prospects. E-mail delivery of property flyers is an efficient and economical way to promote listings. (See e-mail dos and donts)

 

Text messaging: This can be an efficient solution for disseminating property information quickly via text message. Like e-mail, use this with only those who submit a request or have expressed an interest in hearing from you.      

 

Your Web site: Everything you put out — business cards to brochures to billboard ads — should refer people to your Web site. Make your best case there of what you have to offer, and why you are best to represent that buyer or seller.

 

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E-mail Dos and Dont's

 

E-mail has become a primary channel for communicating with prospects and clients, especially in the early stages of establishing a business relationship. Here are some guidelines:

 

1.Keep it brief. When people contact you by e-mail, they expect a quick answer. Make your point and include your contact information if they want to know more.

 

2. Soft sell. E-mail allows the sender a buffer of anonymity so respect that with a quick response and direct answer to their questions. Until they are ready to engage, keep your distance. Anything more could undermine your efforts to gain their trust.

 

3. Opt-in and opt out. Only send a newsletter or target an e-mail drip marketing campaign at people who have expressed an interest in hearing from you on an ongoing basis. Always give them the option of easily opting out or unsubscribing.

 

4. Get personal. Customize canned messages and templates and personalize them. It can be as simple as starting the message with a greeting by name, easily imported from your contact database.

 

5. Know your vendors. Before you sign up for any e-mail marketing service pose some questions about policies and procedures. Can they assure you your outgoing messages won’t be treated as spam by mail servers? If you're using their e-mail list, what have they done to verify the addresses? And, if you’re going to be using their products to reach your contacts, will your e-mail contact list remain exclusively your's? Finally, what kind of tracking can they provide to let you know that your outgoing correspondence is reaching your target audience?

 

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