Tips on Putting Direct Mail to Work in Small Towns and Suburbs
Who says you need a huge audience to run a successful direct mail campaign? While many people might associate direct mail with mass marketing, direct mail is actually most effective when used in small towns, suburbs, and communities.
Imagine waking up to a list of sellers interested in you marketing their homes every single morning. Imagine being able to get in touch with everyone in your town that’s interested in investing in property.
Small town direct mail is a great way to generate leads and close sales as a realtor or real estate broker. Discover the four ways that you can put direct mail to work to promote your real estate agency in your town.
Focus on one suburb to build trust with your target audience
Do you live in a town of 50,000 people? Targeting 50,000 people as part of a long-term direct mail campaign is time consuming, expensive and – if your business has limited resources – often more than you can handle.
Instead of targeting a broad audience, focus on one suburb or community and build trust and influence. Mailing 4,000 people every month will cost you about the same amount as mailing 50,000 once and produce a far better response rate.
Real estate postcard marketing is all about establishing trust and familiarity. Even in a small town, focusing on one part of your audience – in this case, homeowners – is a great way to establish a powerful connection and earn their trust.
Give recipients a reason to keep your postcard in their home
Unlike telemarketing or TV advertising, which delivers instant results that don’t last after the end of the campaign, direct mail campaigns often keep producing leads and sales weeks, and even months, after they come to an end.
The reason for this is simple – with the right incentive to keep your postcard, many of your recipients will file it in their desk, stick it to their fridge or keep it on hand to use in the future.
Give people a reason to keep your postcard at home and you’ll become their go-to choice when they need to sell their home. A great way to do this is to include a free voucher – for example, for a free consultation – as part of your real estate postcard.
Show prospects your history of success in their community
Focusing on one specific neighborhood not only lets you mail people frequently and build a powerful connection. It also lets you show prospects your history of success as a realtor or real estate broker in their community.
Whenever you mail a neighborhood or suburb, make examples of homes you’ve sold a core component of your postcard. Prospects respond to results, especially if these results come from their own community.
Listing different homes in your first, second, third and other mail campaigns shows prospects that you’re continually achieving success for your local clients, making it more likely that you’ll be the realtor they call when it’s time to list their property.
Target carefully to maximize your campaign’s response rate
Targeting is the key to direct mail success, whether you’re mailing in a big city or a small town. Before you launch your campaign, segment your list into sections based on the prospects you’re targeting so that you can refine your message.
Obviously, you’ll want to target homeowners rather than renters if you’re running a seller lead generation campaign. Beyond this, you’ll want to target absentee owners, probate owners, FSBOs, and other seller types separately with a different message.
The more closely you target, the more relevant your marketing message. While it’s additional work splitting your audience into different segments, doing so lets you maximize your response rate and seriously increase your return on investment.
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