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In real estate, direct mail works.
You’ve probably seen it in action. A real estate agent might send a postcard, magnet, or other pieces of collateral to your home. A mortgage broker or real estate investor might send a letter outlining a specific offer.
There are many reasons why direct mail is so well suited to the real estate industry, including:
1. A Local Connection With Potential Clients
When it comes to real estate, one of the prime considerations is locality.
Buyers and sellers want to work with people that are local market experts, because people understand that zip codes, towns, even certain streets can have a huge impact on the value of a property.
By using hyper-targeted direct mail, you can demonstrate that you really know what’s going on in a geography, whether you’re a marketer, investor or agent.
Buyers want to work with a real estate agent or firm that knows the market. Knowing the market can help them to hone in on the right neighborhood, find better deals, Familiarity with a specific market is often at the top of the list.
By that same token, homeowners that are looking to sell are looking for a real estate agent that knows the area. They want someone that knows what homes go for and can inch out every bit of value possible from the sale. Others may want to work with someone that can deliver on a tight timeline.
2. Ability to Automate Direct Mail
One of the upsides of modern direct mail marketing campaigns is that they can often be automated. This means that you’ll spend less time and be able to connect with more potential prospects.
Automation means less time spent on building, printing, or mailing the campaigns yourself. It frees your time so that you can focus on growing your business and building closer personal relationships with prospects and clients.
3. Local Social Proof
As a marketer, you know that social proof is a huge motivator for customers and clients in any industry. Being able to see that a company or agent has helped other people in similar situations to achieve a positive outcome is perhaps the most critical motivator that you can deliver to interested parties.
Using direct mail campaigns to show potential clients that you have been able to achieve sales for other clients in the local area at above market value — that is how you catch the eye of someone that wants to sell your home.
On the flip side, being able to show someone that wants to buy a home that you have helped others to identify the perfect home for them at below market value can be persuasive.
All of these traits can be conveyed easily (and often visually) through direct mail campaigns.
4. Timely Offerings
There are certain times of the year that are busier for real estate marketers than others.
Summer is huge. Families don’t want to pack their kids up and move them to a new school in the middle of the year if they can help it.
As you can see, home buying really picks up in March and builds to its height in June. Then, the industry experiences another small spike in August as families look to get settled in before the new school year.
Looking at the graph, you can also see a large spike in November — just before the new year. This is another opportune time for families to move to minimize the impact on kids, who can settle into a new school after winter break. Buyers are also more likely to have a week or two off at the end of the year. There may also be financial or tax-related reasons to make a move at the end of the year as well.
What this means for real estate marketers is that certain times of the year present huge opportunities. Not just when the moves take place, either. You have to make connections with prospects in the months leading up to when the actual move will take place. Someone that moves in June might start their search for a real estate agent or home in January or February.
Finding a way to deliver collateral and messaging consistently to stay top-of-mind with prospective clients is critical for capitalizing on the spike in moves that we see during the Christmas season and summer months.
5. Long-Term Relationship Building
In real estate marketing, the long-term relationships that you build with clients are the most valuable. The average American makes 11 moves in their lifetime. A long-term relationship puts real estate marketers in a position to be the go-to provider whenever their clients look to move.
Direct mail is the perfect medium for building these relationships. It’s personal. It’s tangible. When they’ve used your services once and been satisfied, it’s just a matter of staying of mind until the next time that they move.
