How do some top agents generate hundreds of leads through postcards and mailers?
Marketing consistency is the key, and in our latest live episode, special guest Chris Burnley, CEO of Corefact, shared how you can dominate your farm by sending personalized postcards linked to trackable home value sites, combined with a follow up system of calls or door-knocking.
3 Key Takeaways
We started by sharing how top agents approach their direct mail campaigns, starting with their monthly budget, their target market, their message and Call-to-Action to their online components and follow up systems. Your follow up system could be the difference between a massively successful direct mail campaign or a total failure, and top agents have great follow up systems in place before any postcard goes out.
Greg then shared what’s working for his team in the Bay Area, showing examples of their actual current postcards, including the messaging and personalized map that makes their postcards so compelling to homeowners who receive them.
Then Chris shared some of the common misconceptions and mistakes agent make with direct mail, including the “cutesy” marketing and large, one-off campaigns, and weak calls-to-action. Over years of testing, “home value estimate” calls-to-action have proven most effective in generating real, trackable responses. Agents often fail at direct mail because they make the marketing about them, when it should be about the homeowner.
We talked about how to get started with direct mail, minimum number of homes to market to and the budget required, and how to follow up on your direct mail campaigns with door-knocking and follow up calls to create the ultimate listing lead gen system.
We finished by talking about mailers in the context of dominating your farm over the long run, and how to “domino” the success of one listing or one sale into many more. The key is to look at every listing or sale as the part of the marketing process, not an event. This a universal marketing principle, and if you think in these terms, you’ll give yourself a huge advantage over other agents who don’t maximize every listing, every Open House or every sale.
Done well, direct mail can be the foundation of your lead generation efforts and help you establish a solid 15-20% market share in your chosen area for years to come. If you have a long-term outlook, a set amount to invest each month and a solid farm area with good turnover, you can become the dominant agent in your farm in just a few years, maybe even months. So get out there and start dominating!
Show Highlights
3:30 The secret sauce that separates the top producers from those who fail at direct mail marketing- Consistency, commitment, and follow-up
6:00 Elements of successful direct mail- Personalization, Clear message, Clear call to action, and Follow-up
10:30 Sending a homeowner a message that’s important to them- Messaging that works in low inventory environments
15:10 The ultimate listing lead generation system- Combining door-knocking with direct mail and a consistent follow up system.
18:50 Why stick with old school marketing that’s been proven to work rather than chasing everything that’s new- Have a plan and trust that the plan is going to work
20:15 Why 300 homes is a good minimum number for direct mail - minimum effective spend to get started
24:30 Why direct mail is becoming even more effective as social media becomes more popular - the problem with digital campaigns and the impact of a direct mail campaign on your door-knocking efforts
33:50 How to leverage success through Just Listed/Just Sold/Open House direct mail and domino one success into many more and build your brand recognition in your farm
37:30 Why a listing or a sale is not the goal, it’s just part of the overall farming process - the goal is to dominate your market over time
38:40 Subtle ways top agents maximize their marketing potential in their target neighborhood
44:05 The secret is in follow up that has the right cadence for your market- the better your “back end” follow up system is, the more chances you can afford to take on the “front end” - your lead generation systems - People respect diligence
46:25 How to get testimonials and then leverage that content to help close leads