Have you thought about adding direct mail to your marketing strategies? Direct-mail marketing generates high ROI, solid response rates, and entails little competition.
Since most people these days are hyper-focused on digital marketing, direct marketing has turned into the best kept secret. Don’t believe anyone who says it’s dead.
Direct-mail marketing is very much alive and has never come close to dying. In 2018, Spectrum Marketing reported that direct mail response rates increased to the highest level they’ve ever been since Spectrum started issuing their report.
If you’re working in real estate, whether you’re an investor or an agent, here are the top four reasons you should get into direct mail marketing.
1. Direct mail marketing works
We’ve already stated that direct mail response rates are extremely high and continue to climb. In just one year, house response rates rose to 9% in 2018, which is a 3.9% increase from 2017.
Although direct mail has taken a back seat to digital marketing, it’s still in wide use. In fact, businesses that use direct mail have an advantage because the channel hasn’t been saturated. Most marketers focus on digital strategies, so you’re more likely to get someone’s attention through the mail.
Direct mail marketing works in real estate
Direct-mail marketing is a pillar in real estate. One of the most effective ways to use it in the real estate industry is to send branded postcards to neighborhoods where potential clients live.
The Kay-Grant Group explains how this works. When you send postcards to people over the long term, prospective clients grow accustomed to regarding your company as the expert real estate team in the area. When they decide to sell, they’ll think of your firm and call you for help.
Kay-Grant explains their strategy is to send postcards once a month to a neighborhood. They send the cards to homeowners to inform them of new listings and market updates and help them stay informed about what’s happening locally.
Kay-Grant also sends out postcards when a listing is placed under contract and when it has sold. Sending a postcard when a home sells is a great way to get homeowners excited about how much money they might receive for their home.
The main purpose of sending a monthly postcard is to keep your brand fresh in people’s minds. When they decide to sell, they’ll already have a positive association and familiarity with your name.
2. Direct mail has a high ROI
ROI matters. You want to get the most bang for your buck. Out of all the marketing channels you could pursue, you want the ones that bring the highest returns.
If you’re looking for a good return on your investment, direct mail will give you one. You might be surprised to learn that direct mail provides the third-highest ROI, next to email and social media.
According to data published by Neil Patel, the median ROI for direct mail is 29%. ROI from Social media beats direct mail by only one percentage point.
Given that direct mail garners a high ROI and has less competition, it’s in the sweet spot among effective marketing channels.
3. Direct mail marketing is easy to learn
Granted, marketing takes experience to master, but it’s not hard to learn direct mail techniques. If you’re not a professional copywriter, you’ll likely want to hire one to write your sales copy. Once you find the right person, the process will become very smooth.
If you’re not interested in learning or performing your own marketing, go ahead and outsource the task to a local marketing firm. But if you’re up for learning, here are some resources for you to get started:
- Read the book No B.S. Direct Marketing by A-list marketer Dan Kennedy. This book was written specifically for people who have no experience in direct marketing. It won’t make you an expert overnight, but it should help you grasp the basics. Once you understand the process, hire a marketing agency for solid assistance.
- Any materials or videos you can get from Dan Kennedy are worth checking out. He is regarded as the top direct mail marketer in the world.
- If you didn’t get to attend a seminar before he fell ill, read these notes taken by someone who spent time with Kennedy at one of his seminars. These are extremely valuable. For example, the note-taker documented a list of 49 powerful takeaways, including tips for multi-step campaigns, how to find your target market, and some of the essential post office rules.
If you have a passion for learning new marketing skills, you’ll love learning direct-mail marketing. If you’d rather pay for promotional services, talk to a local firm that provides direct mail services.
4. Direct mail is trackable
Tracking responses to each of your marketing campaigns is critical for measuring your success. You don’t want to market to the wrong demographics, but you won’t know whether that could be happening unless you can track your responses.
Being aware of that need, you might feel hesitant to launch a physical mail campaign because you assume it can’t be tracked. But direct mail can be tracked in ways that are similar to digital marketing campaigns – just without the cookies.
If you’ve been running digital marketing strategies, you probably know how to implement tracking for them. It’s the foundation for remarketing.
Tracking a direct mail campaign is slightly different. You need unique identifiers for each response method.
For instance, the phone number and email address you provide should be unique to that campaign. This is crucial if you run multiple direct mail campaigns, as well as when you run digital and direct marketing campaigns at the same time.
In addition to listing a unique phone number and email address, you can include a discount code or referral code, depending on your offer. It’s hard to offer discount codes in real estate, but it depends on what you’re marketing.
Direct marketing is a real estate investor’s secret weapon
If you’re looking for a secret weapon, direct-mail marketing lives up to that term. A secret weapon is a strategy that people generally don’t know about that happens to get phenomenal results.
Business owners certainly know of direct marketing, but many don’t believe it’s still relevant. If you want to develop a positive brand image in your target neighborhoods, and increase your ROI, consider launching a direct mail marketing strategy.
When it’s done right, it can be a powerful way to supplement your successful digital marketing strategy.
