Changing Marketing Strategy

I've written recently about changing thoughts about marketing properties. But I'm also rethinking how I market myself and my services. Obviously, if you've read that previous blog you know I'm not marketing myself in local print advertising! But I'm also rethinking the mailings I send out.

For years I've sent out post cards as well as other assorted mailings on a regular basis. I track where my business comes from each year and a very, very small percentage is directly trackable to mailings. Now I do get a lot of referral business from people who I mail things to. But these people also hear from me by telephone, in person and by e-mail. It's hard to believe that the most anonymous of these methods of communication, the generic postcard or letter, was responsible for the referral.

So, effectiveness is one reason to question whether to continue with physical mailings. Another is the ecological cost. I am an environmentalist and believe each of us personally is responsible for taking care of our world. I know that 99.9% of everything I mail is immediately thrown in the trash. And that's even if you really, really like me! (I don't include personal, hand-written notes in this!) The way that direct mail marketing is supposed to work is that even as you throw that card in the trash can each month, somewhere in the back of your mind you've registered that, "Yup! Julie is still a real estate agent!" Is that a good enough reason to fill up landfills? More and more, the physical mailings seem inconsistent with what I believe to be the right thing to do.

There's also a case to be made that in a market that's tough for my sellers, investing that money in marketing their properties and drawing in more buyers is better for them and thus, ultimately better for me since most of my business comes from referrals.

And, in this digital age, there are plenty of other ways to market myself. This blog is one of them. Hopefully it both markets who I am and my expertise, but also provides valuable information for the consumer. There's also my web site, drip e-mail campaigns with useful real estate information e-mailed on a monthly basis and new possibilities such as pod casts,etc.

So, give me your input on this. If you've been on my mailing list over the years, would you miss it if there were no more postcards? Would you remember me when the time came to refer a friend or neighbor even without the monthly reminders?

If you're an agent, have you wrestled with this problem? Do you worry about the spam issue? What answers have you arrived at?

I look forward to hearing your responses!

re: Changing Marketing Strategy

This is very interesting to me Julie, because, I often wrestle with the same thing.  I've also been fully trained to send mailers.  I've been taught that it doesn't really matter what you send, it is the frequency & regularity that matters.  So each month, I send about 750 post cards to my community.  I do try to include on occasion, a promotion for some of the local events put on by local clubs....to give the cards some value to the recipient.  And to help my local club promote their events; as they simply can't afford this avenue of advertising.  

HOWEVER, each day as I plow through the towering piles of endless catalogues (& the small stack of post cards I recieve from other real estate agents) I feel terrible.  It's a predictable process I go through:

1.  I stare at the pile I received in the mail box.

2.  I think of the trees & forests that were sacrificed for WHAT? so I actually feel obligated to look at them.  So I spend 30 minutes and browse through several.

3.  Hey, I mght want to BUY something out of the attractive catalogues.

4.  I dont need anything.  I decide I should throw them out.  But I feel guilty and decide I should take them to the other end of the county for recycling.  So I let them collect on the breakfast counter (they should just call this the "direct mail counter"), irritated that they are clogging up my mental energy, messing with my chi.

4.  I organize them neatly on shelves underneath the counter...mine in one pile...my fiance's in another.    For a day or so, I can see the counter.  Until the next pile arrives.

5.  A couple months later, the stacks are too tall, so I take an hour or so and sort through the ones I should get rid of.   I am ANNOYED that, despite the fact that I have added myself to a "do not mail" list somewhere,  I have been obligated to this additional task by something I didn't ask for.  Of course, I KNOW I should at least take them to recycling.   I simply don't have the time, and in an irritable rush, I dump them in the trash.

6.  I stand over the trash bin feeling very guilty, and wonder if the 750 post cards I send out monthly, are just wreaking the same havoc on someone else's personal life.

SO, I think you are right.  We owe it to our planet & our neighbors to stop the madness!  There are more personal & effective ways to sell real estate.   I am very interested to hear from the recipients of these cards.

By the way, there is an agent in our area, that faithfully mails very polished & professional postcards each and every month to our house.  My fiance calls her the "Home Infiltrator" .  Yipes.

re: Changing Marketing Strategy

Robin,

Great comments and I have some great mental pictures of you and your stack of catalogues now! Mike has recycling duty at our house so they do, at least, get recycled. But like you, I don't think I want to be the source of more junk mail any more!

Thanks for your input! It will be interesting to see what others have to say!

Julie

re: Changing Marketing Strategy

What a refreshing person you are! Great Blogging! This is a even better reason to stop the paper whirlwind. We know how to do a better job if the communities will just participate and share e-mail addresses. I don't even mind it if they send it to the junk mail bin in their e-mail client, at least it's not killing off the families future enjoyment of beautiful parks and scenery. I go back through my junk mail before I dump it, just because there might be something good in there and maybe everyone else does so too, there is still a chance our notes will be seen.

I have to share a personal story. When my husband and I got married I moved to his house...then I learned that he files horizontally! Anyone else have that problem??? Well it took me probably close to a year to convince him that everything and anything he ever wanted to know or learn today is on the internet so we stopped all of the industry magazines that were clogging every nook and cranny in the house. Now when he wants something it goes into a 3 ring binder and someday, I'll have to move and buy a house that is all library with a few beds thrown in! He is so much better I can't comment much becasue the glossys are all gone and now he weighs what he prints, it costs more you see.  I literally had to rent storage space to be able to find the floor in the living room! Now we toss it in the recycle bin before it comes in the house!  Yay! It can be done!

Doris Barnett Certified e-PRO Trainer in Plano, TX

re: Changing Marketing Strategy

Doris,

I know all about the horizontal filing system! And as both Mike and I are huge readers we joke about needing to add on an addition just for the books! Who has room for all the junk mail too!

Yes, the key seems to be getting our clients to be willing to share e-mail addresses. I've run contests to try and encourage this, but had limited success. I wonder if any one else has suggestions on how they've done this?

Thanks for participating!

Julie

re: Changing Marketing Strategy

Yes, I do worry about Spam.  I have sooo much already.  It takes about 15 minutes to get rid of it each day.  Also, lots of folks do not want to give up their E-mail address.  They, too, are worried about getting spammed!  But, someday, I would love to see communications work without paper!

Barbara Lindsay, Broker

Keller Williams Realty

615-758-8886

re: Changing Marketing Strategy

Barbara,

I guess the answer here is to make what you want to send via e-mail so compelling that not only will no one want to miss it, but they'll want to send it on to all their friends!

Thanks for your comments!

Julie

re: Changing Marketing Strategy

Stop and think about what YOU want to receive in the mail box!?  We all would rather receive a short personal note than a glossy or B/W card that we never look at.  Would we not be better off to send say one personal note to contacts and ask for their e-mail address in order to give them updated info on the RE market around them.

We all miss the personal one on one contact. So do our customers and future clients.  They may even respond to the personal note. 

re: Changing Marketing Strategy

Judy,

You're so right about those personal notes!  I'm a big believer in their power.

One question would be, however, how scalable they are. If you're a wildly successful agent with hundreds of clients, is the handwritten note a viable alternative to other forms of contact?

Thanks for your participation!

Julie