I've read hundreds of discussions here at ActiveRain regarding the fact that "print is dead", "flyers are a waste of money", etc. The mantra for 2009 (especially in light of the housing market's downturn) is that the internet is where it's at...and that anything having to do with print advertising is sooooo 2003.

Well...YOU might believe that, but your sellers may not agree.

The seller on a 3.5 million dollar home expects a little more than just an $8.00 vFlyer and a Featured Listing on your website. And his neighbors are watching to see what kind of agent you are in the event they need to sell their home too.

You can do a flyer in Microsoft Publisher and print them out on your inkjet in a pinch, or you can have your internal marketing marketing department create a standard flyer which may or may not appease the seller. On a 3.5 million dollar home at 6%, the seller is going to pay the listing agent's office over $100,000 in commissions, of which the agent is likely to share in the 80-90% range on average.

The agents above chose to spend $129.00 to have us create an elegant, high-end 2-sided flyer layout for the above property, and have the flyers printed on heavy cardstock with an ultra high-gloss UV coating. The seller absolutely loved them. The people who worked for the company that the seller owns absolutely loved them. The surrounding sellers loved them. And the agents realize that prospects on future listing presentations are probably going to love them too.

I guess I can't help but wonder whether the agents whose mantra is "print is dead" are actually losing business as a result??? When I sold real estate, virtually all of the listings I took were because of my marketing. Yes, some were referrals...but most were because of my marketing. I didn't necessarily price the home the highest. I wasn't always the agent who'd been in the business the longest. I rarely (if ever) reduced my commission. Yet I managed to close 8-12 transactions a month.

My mantra was "Have a better gameplan and marketing than your competitors, and you'll likely win."

It seemed to work.

By the way...some of you may be thinking "Yes, on a multi-million dollar property, it makes sense, but on a $299,000 listing, I'm going with the cheap stuff."

Cheap stuff?? LOL!!

If anything, you spend $79.00 on a professionally laid out single-sided flyer instead!! BUT YOU NEVER EVER PROMOTE CHEAP! That's like handing out Post-It Notes instead of actual professional business cards. Don't do it! It'll kill your business and chances of success faster than anything!

Even at $299,000...the seller is paying almost $10,000 in sales commissions...and the professional marketer will win every time in those situations as well. And $79.00 isn't what I'd call expensive anyway!

If it's time to find out whether print really is dead, order a nicely done, professional listing brochure on one of your listings. Watch the seller's reaction. Keep a few on the side for your upcoming listing presentations. Hand deliver 10-15 to the surrounding neighbors.

See which mantra is true (you might be surprised).

Just my Saturday morning thoughts. Thought I'd share. ::: smile :::

Dave

One of our top customers, Dee Messing from First Team Real Estate in Southern California, faxed over an order form the other day. She needs more business cards. Here in California, a new bill was passed requiring that agents put their DRE license number on all of their marketing that is considered a "first point of contact" with the consumer. Business cards, flyers, postcards, etc.

But Dee wanted something different. She wanted to stand out.

She asked if I had any ideas how to make a business card really unique, and during that conversation, the idea of a "bookmark business card" came up. SHE LOVED IT!!

Not only would it be completely different than what her competition was using (and immediately recognizable), but it would also give us extra space to use to show off what she does in terms of marketing a listing. Dee always orders 11x17" full-color brochures for her higher end estate home listings...so we included an example of one on the back of her card.

We also discussed the potential drawbacks. People wouldn't be able to keep these in their standard business card holders. Her response? GOOD!! She doesn't want to be one of 100's in there anyway (I love the way she thinks!)

For the front, we used the same basic layout that was created two years ago for her Realtor.com banner, and below is the result. You kind of have to tilt your head a little to read the back, as it's a different orientation than the front.

She showed everyone in her office the online proof...and now they all want them! YIKES!!

I love it!



What do you guys think??

All comments are welcome and appreciated, as always!

Dave

David Daniels
President/CEO
FlyersToYou, Inc.
Ph: (951) 652-8365
ddaniels@flyerstoyou.com
http://www.FlyersToYou.com/samples
http://www.FlyersToYouExpress.com
http://www.FTYDomains.com
http://www.PrintAtWholesale.com

Hi everyone!

We've had a lot of inquiries lately on personal branding and logo design. What's involved, how much it costs, etc. Apparently, many agents are realizing that if they don't have a unique "look and feel", it may be difficult to distinguish themselves from the rest of the pack.

As a result, I thought I'd share with you a little bit about the process. It's kind of fun to watch somthing go from a plain white "sheet of paper" (actually my computer monitor)...to a finished product. Well..in ths case, it's not quite finished yet...but hopefully will be by the end of the day, as we have an 11x17" brochure to do on a new multi-million dollar listing of hers.

Sandy is one of our newest customers. She came to us with simply the name of her new real estate company.

Meritage Real Estate.

As the Broker/Owner, Sandy wanted something elegant....a little artsy-fartsy, yet still conservative. She specializes in higher-end properties, and was hoping to create something which would appeal to that prospect base. She had no clear-cut ideas in terms of fonts, or colors, other than she's partial to darker colors. Rich blacks....maybe some gold tossed in for good measure. Possibly burgundys, plums, etc.

Well....first things first. We need to do an "ink-blot" test. LOL!

An "ink-blot" test is simply a way to find out a little more about what our customer is thinking. Everyone has their own idea of what fonts and/or designs reflect "elegance". So it becomes necessary to test our customer's thoughts and ideas in this regard in an attempt to give them exactly what they're looking for.

Step 1 (the corny ink-blot test)



Above you'll see an example of the "ink-blot" test. Phase 1 of creating a high-impact design which can then be used across all marketing platforms.

It doesn't look like much right now, as it's a hodge-podge of fonts, swirls, etc. Nothing at this point is EVER intended to be a final logo (as you'll see). But it definitely helps establish an insight into the minds of our customer, and they easily choose which ones they like...and which ones they HATE right off the bat.

In this case, Sandy liked the 3rd one on the left and the bottom one on the right. Her husband, Jule, however, preferred the 2nd one on the right. They basically didn't like any of the others at all.

PERFECT!!!! It never bothers us when some ideas are not liked at all...as it really makes our job much, much easier!! It tells us in what direction we need to head, and we can begin the process of Phase 2, which starts getting a bit more serious.

Phase 2 (honing the design)

We took Sandy and Jules input...and started playing with those ideas. Adding color, highlighting effects, embossing techniques, and other ideas. Phase 2 is an important one, as we're finally going to start getting close to some sort of finished product.

Here's what Phase 2 looks like:

At this point, it starts becoming easier to get a feel for what your new design might actually look like on various marketing pieces. You begin imagining what they'll look like on business cards, presentation folders, letterhead, trifold brochures, etc.

You can see the variations we came up with to further "test" what Sandy was looking for. We often find that our customers don't know....til they see it. For example, the photo (above the first logo) which was now introduced really appealed to Sandy. Her first comment was that she absolutely loved it because it looks exactly like what her own personal property looks like. OMG! That was lucky! But I'm very familiar with Sandy's market area, and this photo was actually taken in that vicinity. Hmmm, maybe it wasn't so "lucky" afterall??

Nonetheless, it was interesting to see if a photo was what she wanted, or whether she preferred more of a vector piece of clipart...or what?

Just as before, she was drawn to Logo #1. She said the font was exactly what she imagined her company's name looking like...and Jule relented on his idea (logo 2 on the right.) Sometimes seeing things developed a little further helps you decide whether you're on the right track or not.

So we moved on to Phase 3 (getting very close to final stage now)

Phase 3 is where we're almost done. At this point, we take the main idea, experiment with color schemes a bit more, and create examples of actual marketing pieces that would have the logo on them (in this case, presentation folders).

Here's what's currently posted at Sandy's proofsite:



What will happen now is Sandy will take another look, see yet more ideas thrown in, and see a color scheme that she wasn't thinking of at all (the cream version in the lower right). We do that just to make sure.

At this point, we're probably one step away from creating a final version.

Sandy and I haven't spoken yet, as it's only 6:20 am here on the West Coast, and we just finished uploading the example to her proofsite.

Later today...I'll come back and let you know which one she liked....and time permitting, I'll show you what the final version looks like, along with examples of various marketing pieces. She wants everything, from Listing Presentation Binders, to signs, to Follow-Up Notecards, etc. so there should be a lot to show!

SUMMARY

If you've thought about branding (or re-branding) yourself, I hope the process above lets you know how easy it can be. It shouldn't be daunting at all, and it's not nearly as expensive as you might think!

However, it can definitely raise the bar in terms of "look and feel" and if that's an important factor in your real estate business (it is, by the way)....then perhaps we can get you started with YOUR VERY OWN ink-blot test soon!!?? :P

Hope you enjoyed it!

Dave


David Daniels
President/CEO
FlyersToYou, Inc.
Ph: (951) 652-8365
http://www.FlyersToYou.com/samples
http://www.FTYDomains.com
http://www.PrintAtWholesale.com

Hi everyone!

We recently had the great pleasure to work with David Serle with REMAX in Boca Raton Florida. He had seen one of my previous Twitter makeover blogs...and felt it was time to perhaps give his a revamp.

So, below are the before and afters (thank you David for letting us show these!).

Hmm...this is almost like home staging for the web!! LOL!


Here's the "Before" page:




And here's the "After" page (branded to match his website):



If your Twitter page, or AR blog header, or AR profile could use a "makeover", (or you have any other design needs, from business cards, to personal brochures, postcards, etc.) call us! We're pretty fun to work with (am I allowed to say that??)...and we should have some cool new stuff ready for you in no time!

And a Twitter Page Makeover will only cost ya $39.00!



Talk to you soon!

Dave

David Daniels
President/CEO
FlyersToYou, Inc.
Ph: (951) 652-8365

http://www.FlyersToYou.com/samples
http://www.FTYDomains.com
http://www.PrintAtWholesale.com

Hi everyone!

Scott Engle from Realty Source, Inc. was kind enough to let us share with all of you the recent makeovers we did on both their Twitter page and their Active Rain Blog Header.

$39.00 each (not bad for a professional look and feel compared to the standard Twitter page, or no blog header at all!)



If it's time you got rid of this...



And you want something nicer, give us a call! We'd love to give you a hand!

Dave

Ph: (951) 652-8365

I recently blogged about Twitter. I'm a newbie over there...and for the first few days of my "Twitter Life", I was using the standard layout which we're all familiar with.

Looks something like this:



(That's not my page by the way.) I'm just using it as an example since I've already customized my own page which can be found here: http://twitter.com/FlyersToYou

In any case...a number of fellow Rainers wanted to see an example of what a Realtor page might look like after customization. So, I thought I'd use Jennifer Rotellini's branding to give you an idea. I kinda threw this together rather quickly this morning as I've got an incredibly busy day today....but I think it came out kinda cool? I'm also showing you her business card so you can see that her Twitter page now matches the rest of her branding completely.



If anyone's interested, I'm thinking we can do this for you for around $39.00 and handle the entire upload to Twitter and everything.

Whaddya think??

All input, feedback and ideas are welcome, as always!

Dave

David Daniels
President/CEO
FlyersToYou, Inc.
Ph: (951) 652-8365
http://www.FlyersToYou.com/samples
http://www.FTYDomains.com
http://www.PrintAtWholesale.com

Okay...I'm a newbie when it comes to Twitter. I guess it took me a while to understand what the whole sensation was all about...and I'm not sure I even understand it now!! LOL!

(It strikes me as a bit frivolous, to be honest.)

I'm not sure I care to know that Steve is making toast, or that Julie is hiring a babysitter, or that I'm being followed by some guy trying to sell me something over and over again. Seems there's more inane pitches being posted all day long versus anything of real substance. I guess that's what you get for 140 characters, huh?

But I'll hang in there....for a while.

In any event, I didn't know you could add design stuff until I started experimenting a little. I saw someone else's page and it had a nice graphic in the top left corner. So I thought....Hmmm, I wonder how far down you can take that graphic...and started playing around with showing examples of our work.

It's a bit busy...and I need to go in and tidy things up, but here's a screenshot of my home page. 

That whole graphics bar on the left could be used for a myriad of things. I haven't created any samples yet, but my head started spinning with ideas for Realtors. Incorporate their branding into that area, maybe even show recent listings there??

Kinda interesting. I'll keep you posted on ideas...but I'd love to hear yours!!

Dave

We have a customer who just opened up her own bookkeeping service. We did her logo and branding..and she recently asked us to do a trifold brochure about her company.

She gave us several examples of brochures that her competitors had done...and said she wanted hers to be better! LOL! All of our customers want that!

Well...below is her new brochure. I'll have a question or two after you take a look.



Here's my question.

I know it's just a matter of opinion...but I believe most people would say that the brochure we created has a higher-end, more professional feeling to it. If you were a large company looking to outsource your bookkeeping, I'm curious as to which one you'd respond to??

If the answer is ours...then I want you to take a look at your own marketing...and ask whether it projects the image you want it to?? I've seen some really GREAT stuff here on ActiveRain. But I've also seen a lot of (hmm...looking for a nice way to say this)...well, not so great graphics and design.

If you were your own customer, and saw your own business card, flyer, postcard, brochure, sign, website, etc....would you list or buy through you? Or would you choose a competitor who simply had a marketing advantage?? They might not be as experienced, or as knowledgable, or as successful as you, but if the image they're projecting is a better one...you might be cheating yourself.

If that's the case, maybe we should talk?? It doesn't cost nearly as much as you might think it does...and it's wonnnnnderful when you experience the results first-hand!! DON'T lose another listing or sale simply because you've been out-marketed by one of your competitors!

Dave

Follow Up Notecards


Perfect for all kinds of follow up! Just met someone at the grocery store? Send a "It was nice meeting you" notecard. A past client's anniversary coming up? Send a notecard. Received an inquiry from your website or blog? Follow up notecard.

There are only a million or so reasons to send one!

To prove how effective they can be, we're offering 1,000 full-color, extremely high gloss finish on front (matte finish on writing side) 4"x6" notecards for only $99.00! This doesn't include tax and shipping, but it DOES include a professional layout FREE!!

Month of June only!

I figure each month we can come up with some sort of special deal for ActiveRainers. This month it'll be follow up notecards. Next month?? Hmmm....dunno yet. To make sure you don't miss any specials, please subscribe to my blog. It'll be easier to keep track that way.

I'll be posting an order form at our site soon (the special AR version of the order form). Be sure to check back as I'll comment when it's up and provide a link to it, ok??

Happy following up!!

Dave


http://www.flyerstoyou.com/samples
http://www.FTYDomains.com
http://wwwPrintAtWholesale.com

Our wholesale print site is now up and running!

www.PrintAtWholesale.com

Just wanted to take a moment to let all of you know that we're making our ridiculously low wholesale print prices available to all ActiveRainers effective immediately! Woohoo!!

We were initially only going to make it available to trade and industry professionals, such as graphic designers, marketing agencies, etc. A place where they could go, order high-quality color printing, and resell it at a nice profit. It then occured to us that many in the real estate industry have pulled way back on their marketing due to costs...and I thought maybe we could help!

So, how about 1,000 full-color business cards on ultra-thick cardstock with extreme gloss UV coating for only $21.10?
Or 1,000 4x6 full-color postcards (front and back) with high-gloss UV coating for only $67.50?

Here's an example of our pricing compared to, let's say, VistaPrint. By the way...we're an authorized Reseller for VistaPrint so we're actually big fans of theirs. They do quality work and offer decent prices. Some of you may even have done business with them.

But...take a look:

Business Cards

VistaPrint 500 1-sided on 80# gloss paper:      $48.98    Our price: $19.65 (thicker paper & UV coating)
VistaPrint 1,000 1-sided on 80# gloss paper:    $62.98    Our price: $21.10 (thicker paper & UV coating)

Postcards

VistaPrint: 500 2-sided 4x6 postcards:   $130.98   Our price: $55.09 (thicker paper & UV coating)
VistaPrint: 1,000 2-sided 4x6 postcards:   $158.98   Our price: $67.50 (thicker paper & UV coating)

8.5 x 11" Flyers

VistaPrint: 500 on gloss text:   $274.99  Our price: $137.75 (with aqueous coating)
VistaPrint: 1,000 on gloss text:   unavailable   Our price: $143.44 (with aqueous coating)

Here's the catch!

The site is completely and entirely self-service.

While that makes it perfect for those who like to tinker and create their own designs...it is NOT for the faint of heart. There are terms used on the site like "full bleed" and "CMYK" and "350 dpi", all of which can be daunting to those who are unfamiliar with printing and/or layout terminology. And due to the prices we are offering, we will be unable to devote the manpower to answer questions with regard to designs, monitor calibrations, unexpected color shifts from RGB to CMYK, etc. We will not be able to make any exceptions to that policy.

If you prefer not to design your own pieces, there are many templates available which are easy for anyone to complete and they're definitely worth checking out! But it's a site designed for the trade and those who are either adventurous or well-versed in print technologies.

My Ron Popeil Pitch (Yes, tell a friend!)

This is going to sound cheesy, but if you've ever watched Ron Popeil's infomercials when he talks about "If you promise to tell at least 10 people about our products, then you can buy them today for only....", well here's my similar pitch :::groan:::

We're obviously counting on volume to make the site work. We're hoping that 100's of users turn into 1,000's of users. It's the only way we can offer the prices we're offering. Everybody can win, but we really do need your help in telling fellow agents, friends, family, etc...about the site. The more users we have, the easier it will be to keep the prices down!

Pretty easy to remember: www.PrintAtWholesale.com

Have fun...and happy printing!

David Daniels
President/CEO
FlyersToYou, Inc.
Ph: (951) 652-8365
http://www.FlyersToYou.com/samples
http://www.FTYDomains.com