The exchange of business cards during a busy brokers tour will definitely find your card either buried in a stack or fanned out on the counter-top for all who enter to view and make mental note of. When I go on broker tour, I ALWAYS..ALWAYS try to sneak a peak at who has come by already. I feel excited when the agent holding the home open has actually placed them all so nice and neatly for easy viewing...it's an invitation in my mind...right?
Now, you know you do the same thing! When you're out with a client showing property, you KNOW you inventory that stack of cards to see who else has been by and how often the home has been shown. Come on, admit it...you KNOW it's true.
It's necessary evil in the game of real estate sales to determine who's in and who's out! Always know who your potential competition is.
So, when you see your own card in that stack or fanned out nicely on the kitchen counter, how do you feel about it? Do you cringe and feel kind of embarrassed or do you feel confident that your business card is professional and speaks to your desired reputation amongst your peers?
Is your business card unique so when seen over and over again, it's recognizable by anyone who glances at it? Not reads it, but has a glance at it? Have you included what is most unique about your business, YOU...your headshot? Do you have a custom logo, color scheme or some other design aspect to your card that makes it stand out? What about the paper quality? How does your business card feel compared to others? What does it say to your professionalism and your commitment to your marketing?
If I'm looking for a Realtor(R), I'm not listing my home with an agent who has free business cards from Vista Print. You're not committed to marketing if all your willing to invest in is FREE business cards...from Vista for your own business.
Not a chance! Your business card may be one of the least expensive marketing pieces used to promote your business, but it's also the most important. You only get one chance to make a first impression and your business card is typically the marketing piece most are exposed to first. Make a great first impression with a great business card by having it created by a professional.
Where am I going with this? Maybe it's time to update your business card, especially if anything on it isn't current (including your senior high school photo as a headshot!! (J/K...but not if you actually have your high school photo on your card). How embarrassing! Its such a small investment to make sure people know who you are, see you often and recognize YOUR card in any stack.
When your business card seems to be everywhere, it shows you're active in the business of real estate. In this day and age of short sales being the norm, no experienced agent wants to work with an inexperienced agent on the other side of a short sale transaction. Your offers may be taken a bit more serious when sitting in a stack of multiple offers when other agents respect you professionally because you're active and recognizable.
PrinterBees has beautiful real estate business card designs that are unique, really professional and are created for you by a graphics designer. It's NOT self serve like other companies and the prices are the same or less. I'm not aware of other printing companies which handle the designing FOR YOU at no additional fee. 1000 business cards is only $69.99 (at the time of this article) out the door, no additional charges. That's the delivered price...no shipping, no set up fee, no tax!
The business cards are printed on thick stock, gloss or matte finish. It's a great deal and the cards are really nice! Checkout the real estate marketing selection here. Don't procrastinate getting your business card updated, it's a way more important marketing piece than many think and it's only $69 bucks to fix it.
Great news for homeowners who are unemployed and having a hard time finding work when it comes to having to make mortgage payments with no source of income. Freddie Mac's loan serving companies are no longer required to get pre-approval from Freddie Mac to approve up to six months of skipping mortgage payments for unemployed borrowers. Freddie Mac loan servicers can now grant forbearances without prior approval from Freddie.
More good news...for those having a problem finding work for longer than six months, those borrowers can apply for an entire year of forbearance, but it requires per-approval from Freddie Mac for the additional six months.
About 10% of Freddie's foreclosures are due to unemployment.
The big question:
How do I find out if Freddie Mac owns my loan? Click here, it is a direct link to Freddie Mac's website where you can fill out your information to see if they hold your loan. If Freddie doesn't have your loan, check with Fannie Mae. Click Here to see if they have your loan.
Both are working with unemployed borrowers to ease the burden of paying a mortgage whiled unemployed. Let's just hope some of the others follow suit!
Sure will help ALOT of people save their homes and be able to eat too!
P.S. This is the kind of news that you should be letting past clients know about in an email blast or a newsletter. There are a lot of people out there who are confused and don't know where to turn. Sharing information like this with past clients, helps cement your relationship with you. Make sure to pass it along.
We, at PrinterBees are so thankful for the steady stream of visitors we have from our friends on Active Rain. If you haven't "buzzed by", we hope you will soon. PrinterBees specializes in real estate marketing. As a thanks, we have created a free real estate marketing flyer download to help you educate sellers why wintertime is a great time to sell a home!
I've been reading many articles, opinions, videos and blog posts lately about why it's a great idea to list a home for sale in the winter. My reticular activator must really be active right now, because I feel like I see more homes for sale in my own neighborhood now than I do in the summer and spring months. My neighborhood has really low turn over, because of a high ranking elementary school, it's shocking to see so many for sale, but I am really having a complete paradigm shift about why selling in the winter makes great sense.
In the winter, inventory is lower by an average of 20% and so is competition
In the winter time, people who are searching for a home areserious buyers. How many "tire kickers" do you know who are willing to get out there and search for a home in the cold, rain, wind or snow?
In the summer is when the majority of real estate sales happen, how can a home really stand out amongst all the others…don't they all start to look the same when in the same area.
Homes don't sell for as close to listing price in the summer.
In the winter time, the amount of traffic going through a client's home is much less because there are less people in the market looking. Less inconvenience for families trying to keep the home "perfect" in case of unexpected visitors.
Homes are usually pretty "festive" and feel "warm" during the winter. Good for a warm feeling in the staging.
In the winter, with inventories being lower, there is a slight shift in who's in the drivers seat when it comes to contract negotiations. There will be likely less concessions on the part of the seller in the winter.
This is a snippit from a recent article done by Redfin…it's very interesting and numbers don't lie.
Spring listings sell a bit faster, but winter has 20 percent fewer listings added than the spring. Redfin reports winter listings were more likely to sell (59.2 percent) than summer listings (53.1 percent) and that homes listed in the winter sell closest to their original price with only a 2.7 percent average drop from the final price in winter versus a 5.2 percent drop in the summer. Link to original/complete article
Marketing in December could a waste for many Real Estate Agents. As a small business owner, marketing is no doubt a top priority if you wish to stay in real estate long term. Marketing is like food for any real estate business, the more you feed the marketing machine, the more business you generate. At least that's how it usually works when properly executed. If your like many, you likely have a limited budget for marketing and must make the most of it, they're limited, which is why they're called budgets.
December is a time when Corporate America turns up the heat on marketing and mail boxes across the country get stuffed...I mean stuffed with ad after ad after ad. They all look the same and it is completely overwhelming. It's an advertising overdose and people begin to tune it out. The sea of marketing and the advertising isn't rememberable and is all about the quick sale for the holiday season. Your marketing efforts as a Realtor are likely to be lost in the minutia of marketing, so why even bother?
This is the time of year to take your marketing budget for the month and show clients how much you appreciate them. Doing all you can to make the holidays a special time and show appreciation will bring those who support your business back throughout the years to come.
Send a holiday card, a calendar or some other item of value that “sticks around” for the next twelve months. Promotional items are great for this time of year and more cost effective than you may think. Many promotional items can be purchases for less than the cost of a stamp! Your clients will remember you and are much more likely to refer you to friends and family when your information is handy.
Magnets or other things people "see" daily are really great for marketing. If it's a calendar, it's 12 months of marketing in one shot! It's hard to forget someone you see everyday on your fridge! This sample wine pairing magnet could stay put for years and years. It's a much, much better use of your marketing budget than trying to do your standard monthly “postcard mailing” and having it get lost in the mix.
It's useful, it's relevant and it could easily be printed with your name on it! It's a perfect pairing to a bottle of wine, I know of an agent who did that. When the wine was gone, they still had the magnet as a reminder of the gift. Link to this magnet.
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The most common blunders with business card marketing..."business card marketing"? Sounds funny, but your business card is your most important marketing piece and the most cost effective when you consider the cost per business card and how easy it is to distribute them.
The most common business card blunders:
1. Throwing everything on your card, but the kitchen sink! The people you hand your card to don't need every phone number you have, three different email addresses or several different web addresses (unless it's the baby sitter of course!). Simplicity is best, less is more, looks so much better and is so much more professional. Keep your business card simple, with no more than an office phone, a mobile phone and a fax. Adding more information is not only confusing, but it looks desperate.
2. Having a business card that blends in with all the others. If your business card was in a stack of 50 cards, could YOU easily identify it? If you can't, neither will the person you give it to, after all it is your card. Adding color with todays digital printing processes make it limitless and cost effective. It's okay to add color to your business cards, it won't cost you extra.
3. A business card is a mini billboard that should not only include your contact information, but also some indication of what it is you do. Might be part of the logo, maybe it is words, it could be your title, it could be a slogan...whatever it is, make sure it's there and leaves no question to your profession.
4. Thinking people won't notice you printed your business cards on your home inkjet printer with Avery Business Card templates. Trust me, they notice! Many many years ago and long before digital printing, I couldn't afford to have business cards printed. I printed someup at home and I thought they looked pretty good...Until I was "called out on it" during a sales call. I lost a huge opportunity for my small business by not having my cards professionally printed. He didn't take me serious, because I didn't take ME serious enough to have my business cards professionally printed.
5. Not having a website listed on your business card leaves people wondering. It is the year 2011 and I read today that the first web page was launched 20 YEARS ago. It's time to get with the times, show your serious about your business and create some sort of web presence. It's hard to take a business serious in this day and age if there is no website. How committed can your really be if you have no website? 6. No email address? Really?I don't mean to be condescending at all, but "really", in this day and age? I've seen it in our on line printing business, business cards with no email address. It's hard to accept as professional with so many free email applications available like Yahoo! And Google's GMail. It was just within the last couple of years that my Farmers Insurance Agent FINALLY got email! I thought it was soooo very strange and archaic that I couldn't communicate with him via email. It's just not normal in this day and age, it's strange.
I, within the last year was handed a business card for a computer repair person with no email address on it! It's difficult to take that person seriously, especially when you consider the line of work.
7. No Social Media Information on your card. If you are socially networked and use social media as a business channel, it better be on your card! The backside of your card, go back and read number one if you need explanation.
8. QR Code missing from the card. If you aren't familiar with QR Codes, read about QR Codes here. QR Codes are here to stay and will become part of your routine at some point in the near future. My personal preference is to have the QR Code on the back of the business card, so it can be large and easily scanned. QR Codes are totally free, totally flexible and the fastest way into someone's contact list, listed with the information you feel is important they have. See samples of QR Code business cards here, they're really cool! Generate your own QR Code here.
9. Having Vista Print's name printed on YOUR business cards. One word...Tacky. Pretty much anyone who has been on the Internet knows of Vista Print and the cheap on line printing they offer. Vista Print isn't thought of as quality printing, its associated with cheap printing which you have associated yourself with if their name is printed on your card. There aren't many people out there who don't know when the business cards say Vista Print on them, you got 250 business cards that were free, so Vista Print could get some additional marketing on YOUR card. Vista print is good at what Vista Print does, they must be or they wouldn't be so big. It's still super tacky to have their name on your "free business cards". As the owner of a printing company, I have seen many interesting things...trust me on this.
PrinterBees really is the BEST in on-line printing for Real Estate Agents. We "get" Real Estate Marketing and specialize in it.
There isn't a day that goes by when we aren't reading something about social media, how to use it and why it's so important. It's hard to determine which to pay attention to and which are a bunch of bologna! The more difficult part for small business owners is trying to keep up with it all. There are new sites being launched all the time and it sometimes feels like you have to be on all of them to find any success. That isn't necessarily the case. Here's 7 myths that will help you cut through the minutia of social media madness.
1. If You Build It, The Will Come...
There are no guarantees with social media and getting visitors on Facebook or Followers on Twitter. There has to be some sort of strategy in place to help your social media outlets grow and flourish. What are you doing to drive people to your social media sites? Using print marketing is a good way to drive people, by incenting them to "like" or "follow" with some sort of reward that only you/your business can offer. Every business has something that makes it different from the rest. What's your "one thing" you can boast about to bring people to your social sites? It takes time to build a following/fan base and more important it takes commitment. Making time everyday to put something helpful to your target audience is what helps to build a following. Passing along information your community and target find useful. If every post you make is about a special offer, a coupon or something else where you are "selling" your product, you need to rethink and regroup. People are interested in what matters to THEM. Make sure your posts add value, not just sell product. Set time for social media everyday, the 30 minutes to an hour everyday will yield results, you just need patience and perseverance.
2. You Need To Be On Every Social Media Site
You don't have to be on every social media site to find success. You need to be on the platforms that matter to your business and where people who make up your "perfect customer" hang out. For me, I hang out, post on and visit Active Rain frequently, it's a social media site for real estate agents and it keeps me up to date on real estate marketing and the trends I need to know about to be helpful to my clientele.
As a Realtor, you should be on Active Rain. I have seen so many posts of people getting leads and finding clients due to Active Rain. It is a highly SEO optimized site and a great resource for Realtors, we see a lot of traffic from Active Rain.
Make sure you have a business presence on all of the big sites like, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter along with other community sites that cater to your prospects. Once you've mastered those, move on to others if you feel you have the bandwidth to do so. You don't need to be on every site, only the ones that matter.
3. I Have a Facebook Page, I Don't Need A Website
NO....NO....NO...NO! It never replaces a website, they are like comparing an apple and an orange. It can’t stress enough about how important it is to have a website – separate from your social media accounts. Your social media outlets should drive people to your website when they want to know more. Getting a website launched these days is pretty darned easy when you consider a Word Press site can be put up in a day. It is totally possible to do it yourself and easy to find instructions on how to do so on YouTube. One of my favorite universities! I attend YouTube U...often. What will you do if someone succeeds at taking down Mark Zuckerman and a judge freezes/takes down Facebook for a period or something crazy? What if Twitter deletes your account on accident. It's happened! What if you Facebook gets hacked or taken down fraudulently. You have absolutely NO CONTROL on a site that isn't yours and you are utilizing for free. Their website, their resources, their rules. Having a dedicated website, with a domian name that you own and hosting you control, puts you in the drivers seat. It doesn't matter who goes belly up, you can take a website anywhere you want and are at no one's mercy. You make the rules, you determine content, you have complete flexibility.
The absolute best hosting out there I have ever found is Hostgators. Their support is amazing and is 24/7. They also offer so many great video tutorials for beginners on how to build your own WordPress site. It's a great hosting company and the one we use.Visit Hostgators.com
4. You Can't Find Good Clients in Social Media
Hogwash! If you aren't finding clients with your social media efforts; either you have no way to measure it, you aren't participating properly or you don't currently use social media. Having Google Analytics installed is crucial your business. CRUCIAL. Reading the Analytics...even more crucial! (I will soon do an article on how to read the analytics....it is sooo fascinating!!!! It's definitely a post of it's own)Watching your analytics tells you so much about your visitors, what they like and what they don't. Where they came from and how you were "found". Having information like this helps you to make changes and tweeks to your site. It's all in the numbers, when I was a mortgage broker I learned that numbers DON'T LIE. If you are using and participating in social media, you will see clicks and traffic coming from sites like Facebook or Twitter. Twitter shows up in Analytics as a visit from a ".co" domain. If you aren't participating or convinced that you should, please go back to number one and reread.
5. Social Media is a Waste of Time
Social media is an investment in mind-share. When someone sees your name, your business name over and over and over and over, they remember you. They may not need your services immediately, that's okay, the trick is to be one of three people they can list in their head with the time does come. There have been many studies done showing that generally speaking, people can only list 1-3 Realtors when asked what Realtors they know of in the area. There has also been studies that many people only interview one agent. If your first on the list because your active in your networking...your pretty much home free!
Well....unless mom, dad, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, anut's cousin, sisters best friends brother is a Realtor or something like crazy like that! A little humor for you...I think many Realtor "hobbyists" aren't so active anymore, only the diehards like yourself could survive in this market.
People in your social media circles are there for a reason, they want to be. Make sure you are always adding value to their lives to keep them there and keep them interested. You will find clients via social networking, if your are executing properly.
6. Lots of Friends and Followers = More Business
Wrong...having a lot of Friends/Likes or Followers means nothing if they aren't the right ones. If you have a petstore and all your Facebook Friends don't have pets, you are wasting your time trying to promote your business or educate people on how to care for their pets. The first question to ask yourself before you even begin is, who is my target audience, what do they want to know? Reaching out to those targetedpeople, following people with pets on Twitter, using Facebook Marketplace, it's all a great way to attract people with pets. Seek out questions on Twitter or Facebook to see if you can offer assistance, get yourself known as the expert "go-to" person. Your fan base will grow and your business will grow with it. On my Twitter account (@REMarketingGuru), I follow people related to Real Estate, it's my target market. Many follow me back because I really do put out good content. You may want to follow me too!!! :-) @REMarketingGuru
7. Aren't I Opening Pandora's Box?
No way, you are opening up communication with social media outlets. Big companies like Dell use Twitter and Facebook to provide immediate support to users. When someone comments on your posts, it is important to respond. If someone complains on FB, that's okay, answer them and solve the problem publicly. You'll gain a lot of respect and people will be witnessing your awesome customer service from the sidelines. There are so many horror stories surrounding social media and saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Make sure you not only answer and communicate with friends and followers, be careful never to post something that can come back and bite you! If you wouldn't say it to yours or someones else's 90 year old grandmother, leave it off your posts! It's a great test of checks and balances for so many things!
Conclusion
Participate in social media and make it part of your everyday life. The world is headed that direction and resisting it will only leave you behind. It's no longer a choice for businesses, it's a necessity.
My perception is that there are two main reasons small business owners don't INVEST more effort/energy/money into marketing. (Please correct me if I'm wrong) Small business owners don't have the time/resources and they don't have the budget. For many, a marketing budget doesn't exist due to all of the other expenses that come along with building a business, and is often an afterthought. Will I make payroll, all the overhead expenses and be able to pay myself too?
Can't market a business that's out of business because expenses aren't paid, right? There are people counting on me, but something's gotta give. But...can't stay in business if you don't budget for marketing and no one knows your product exists, it's a pickle we all run into.
I think we can agree that marketing is important. Super important! Not having a marketing plan is like not feeding your business. A matter of fact, its like starving your business! This economy calls for getting more out of your marketing than ever before. Here are five easy ways to market your business for little or no money.
Utilize social media outlets that are free like FaceBook, Twitter, Four Square and Linked In. Don't forget about Google+. I've read many reports saying that using Google+ does help your search engine results.
Make sure you have a blog and that you utilize it and keep the content fresh. Many people use the excuses; I don't have time and I don't know what to write about. Remember, what is obvious about your business to YOU, isn't at all the case with the general public. Put a list together a list frequently asked questions in your business and blog about the answers to those questions. If you have a customer service department, spending time listening in on those calls is not only very eye opening, it's helpful for creating a list of FAQ's to blog about.
Cut way down on mailing costs by using a mail house or getting a bulk permit. I recommend staying out of the mail business unless you know what your doing. It's much easier and better to utilize the services of a company that can it print and mail for you. If you are paying first class postage rates on any of your mailings, your NEED to contact a mail house and get a quote.
Outsource easy tasks like folding fliers and labeling postcards/envelopes to a company with a machine that accomplishes the same tasks. It likely cost much less than paying an employee by the hour to do what a machine can do in minutes.
Connect with a printing company that offers design services. It cost much less than having an employee on staff. It costs more per hour, but the saving are huge when you consider the payroll expenses of a full or part time person. Your renting an employee you don't need all the time from someone else. It's a HUGE savings. Professional designers usually cost about $75/hr. and the finished product is always so much nicer.
This is only five of many easy things you can do to make your 2012 more successful with less financial burden. I'm pretty sure that means more profit!
There are more tips to come, be on the look out, this is part of a series of articles.OR Make sure you see you see the complete series of blog posts on how to lower marketing costs by registering HERE There are always lots of helpful marketing tips and tricks...good information. It's so much easier than having to visit the blog, the blog comes to you when you register below. NO spam...not ever. If you feel like it isn't valuable, there is an "unsubscribe link" at the bottom of every email we send. It's super easy to "opt out" if you change your mind.
As a Realtor trying to flourish in this market, your likely continually mulling ideas over in your mind on how to increase business/revenue and in this economy, how to do it for as little as possible! Right? There are the obvious outlets like Facebook and Twitter to promote your business that are free , BUT how do you get people to those outlets? Prospects and past clients must like or follow you for those outlets to be effective. That's where some consistent print marketing can make a huge difference in your social marketing results.
If you were to do a simple marketing campaign with 250 postcards each month and you mailed them to a very specific group of people for a year, what kind of results do you think you might get? Is it any accident that the businesses you see thriving around you are the ones who are marketed consistently? I see it as a perfect example of effective marketing when I receive print marketing materials from a Realtor consistently AND see a business thriving in my neighborhood. It's pretty rare to see a Realtor flailing or leaving the business an abruptly when you see consistent stream of marketing materials from them in your mailbox.
Please Respond: What are your thoughts on that?
If your a Realtor, 250 postcards to a neighborhood you farm would yield results, if it was consistently executed. Don't you agree? It's pretty affordable to farm, when you mail at a bulk rate. The minimum for bulk rate mailings is 250, and the postage gets down in to the .24 per piece in certain cases. It's definitely worth looking into for real estate marketing. Postcard marketing works, that's why so many successful Realtors do it.
Consider this: What if your farming postcards included incentives to "Like" your Facebook page for "Follow" your twitter feed? Both in the form of a QR Code so that they can easily be scanned and "liked" or scanned and "followed". You'd be driving the people your marketing to, to the media outlets that are free allowing you to increase your marketing reach while keeping costs down. As you grow your fan/follow base you can reduce print marketing accordingly. Maybe move to a bi-monthly instead of monthly. Use the savings to invest in expanding your farm or adding another.
Quick Tip:The easier you make it for people to do what you want them to do, the more likely they will be to do it. QR Codes make it so simple to direct people where you want them to go with your marketing. I'm a huge fan!
Any marketing campaign executed consistently will yield results when marketed to the right audience. The cost to execute a marketing campaign like this is very affordable and having a company like PrinterBees handle it, takes the burden off of you to execute. If you've read the book E-Myth (which I HIGHLY recommend), you understand that some things are best handled by someone else. Marketing is often times one of those things. While I still get to enjoy blogging, researching and doing what I do, I had to leave the marketing to someone else in my business. It's a better use of time and frankly, they are much better at it! :-)
Anyway...what got me started on this rant was my noticing that many of our frequent visitors haven't yet entered the Marketing Give Away where you win 250 free marketing postcards every month. It's worth over $1000 in postcard marketing and it's an amazing opportunity for a Realtor to make some great traction in a targeted farm. I'd love to see more of you entered to win. It's a great opportunity to make a serious difference in your business. Don't you think?
There is such a split on which way is best and I have been asked many times throughout the years about listing fliers. I think if I were to ask 100 Real Estate Agents which is the better approach, I would likely see a 50/50 split on which is best. I myself have an opinion on the matter, and agree with what Ben Kinney has to say.
I have stumbled upon a great blog/video post from Ben Kinney of Keller Williams in Washington. I enjoyed is post so much, I called him directly to learn more. Our quick conversation helped me to know...He really "getsit" with regards to real estate marketing and lucky for YOU...he has tested which way works best, and is willing to share!
According to his post, you should include the listing price ONLY if you DON'T wish to talk to potential buyers. If you wish to actually speak with people who ARE IN THE MARKET to buy real estate, you should leave the listing price off.
Ben says in his recording when he had listing prices on his listing flyers, he had no phone calls because everything the prospect needed was the on the listing flyer. He also explains that no longer includes the listing price on his flyers in the listing box. One thing changed...He now gets many calls/leads from buyers (who may not have an agent) wanting to know listing price. He does include the listing price on the ones in the home.
If it isn't broken, don't fix it. Ben has tested it, it works, he is getting calls and you should likely follow suit. I also like to mention that when you include listing prices on your listing flyers and the price changes, you have to reprint your flyers and it wastes paper, money, time and it isn't good for the environment.
I'm with Ben on this one...leave the listing price off and let people call you to get it. It's the best way to find leads with your Just Listed Signs.
I kept the postcard (printed at Vista Print...their marketing was on his postcard???) and stumbled upon it recently. Still can't remember the guy's name, and I took a moment to read it again! I'm coming up empty.
I'm still waiting...waiting...waiting to see if he will attempt a second postcard drop. I'm predicting, he won't and has now wasted his investment of time and his "free real estate marketing" from Vista Print which will result in nothing because he didn't and likely won't attempt to market again. He likely feels defeated. I'll let you know if I see his for sale sign in the neighborhood! Sorry for the sarcasm...I can't help it.
When you start a real estate marketing plan, stick with it...it won't work if you only attempt it once. People don't remember what they don't see over and over and over and over. Just Listed, Now Pending and Just Sold Postcards should especially be part of any marketing plan where you have listings. It not only makes the home owner feel like you have a solid marketing plan, it gets you leads!!!! It helps people see your name over and over and over and over when you combine it with the For Sale Sign in their front yard.
Really...I'm trying to help you here. Don't waste your time or money on mailing to a database or a farm, just once. IT WILL NOT YIELD RESULTS. Ask anyone who's not marketing...they will tell you that they tried it ONCE and didn't get any results, so they quit. Well...duh...Effective Marketing is repetitive and consistent. It only works if you do it over and over and over. I think you get the point.
K...getting off my soap box now. Make sure you stop by PrinterBees to enter the Free Real Estate Marketing Give Away. Exclusive to Realtors(R) and it covers your print marketing for a year! It's the real deal...no catch...totally free. Don't make the mistake Mr. Random Realtor for Keller Williams did. Make a plan and stick to it...no matter what (except for monitoring results and making "tweeks")! Your business depends on it. Oh...if you win the free year of marketing, not to worry...PrinterBees will not be printed on your marketing materials, like some other companies that shall remain nameless! Starts with a V...ends with Print! :-)
P.S. All of the links on this page will take you to the Real Estate Marketing Give Away Page...make sure you scroll to the bottom to see all the great real estate marketing products we offer. PrinterBees really is the BEST at Real Estate Marketing.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
k! The people you hand your card to don't need every phone number you have, three different email addresses or several different web addresses (unless it's the baby sitter of course!). Simplicity is best, less is more, looks so much better and is so much more professional. Keep your business card simple, with no more than an office phone, a mobile phone and a fax. Adding more information is not only confusing, but it looks desperate.
(which I HIGHLY recommend), you understand that some things are best handled by someone else. 
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