Direct Mail Marketing....It's A Numbers Game That Makes The Phone Ring

After receiving an email from an ActiveRainer mentioning that she's thinking about how to increase the number of listings in her inventory, I decided it was time to revisit direct mail marketing and share my success with this method of making the phone ring with listing calls.  I've been consistently doing direct mail marketing for decades.  I mail over 7,000 postcards once every month.  My cards have a different theme every month, but they offer the same service of "Free Market Analysis."

It's always a very simple card, easy to read with the same layout and the same font but with a different theme.  There's always an action statement, and my phone continually rings with potential listings.  I refer all of the listing calls to my team members.  During the first visit to future listing, quite often they are told by the sellers that they have been receiving my cards for years and now the time has come to take us up on our offer of a Free Market Analysis.  Well, isn't that just what I wanted???   Absolutely!!  That's the result of consistent marketing. 

The longer I consistently mail postcards, the more consistently the telephone rings.  I started many years ago with a data base of 1,000 names, then it increased to 3,000 names.  Now I mail to all of the single family homes in the entire town of Franklin, MA.  The cards are at the post office at the end of the month, and the calls begin coming in a few days later and continue throughout the next month.   There is enough business from my mailings to keep three agents busy all year.  We maintain an inventory of resale listings from 20 to 25 listings at all times.  As they sell, they are continually replaced with new inventory.

It's not free, but if you start with a database of 1,000 names, it's not financially painful.  In my opinion, it's an investment in yourself and your business.  It's more painful to sit idly waiting for business to find you.  It's up to you to make that first move and start marketing yourself to improve your business.  You need to do something to make the phone ring with listing calls and direct mail is a method that has worked successfully for decades for many service related professions.  It's a proven method to finding listings.  There are other methods of prospecting for listings, but they cannot reach the number of homes that direct mail accomplishes.