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Damaging Your Business One Recipe Card At A Time

After writing the title I figured I had just about said it all. “But Why?” Some of you may say. Others will get defensive and tell me that they have been sending them for years and their clients love them. In fact they look for them in the mail. I even had one agent who was furious. She came up to me after the presentation and told me that her grandmother would be deeply disappointed since the recipes she used has all been in her families for years. All irrelevant.

I heard someone years ago say it the best. “If you want to be a cook, buy a set of knives, if you want to be a real estate professional hand out market information like it was candy.”

Statiscally speaking we know from a USPS survey (Mail Moment, 2005) that the average person wants value in the marketing that is delivered to them. You may argue that a recipe is of value to them and it may be. But is it the right value in which they are seeking? Probably not. To be real about it, the average homeowner wants information that pertains to their house, their largest investment more than your take on chocolate chip cookies. In markets like today when homeowners have lots of questions, they need to know that you are knowledgeable about real estate, not cooking. You are better off bringing the already made food to a client along with some market reports.

By the way, for Matt’s Strawberry Alfredo recipe, Click Here

MORE RESOURCES:
To be fair, there are many opinions about recipe cards. Here are other blogs about them:

Recipe Cards, Use Them

Restaurant Recipe Mailers (A different kind of recipe card alternative that’s not quite as bad)

The Hottest Agent In Town

Give Them What They Really Want

Matthew S. Gosselin is the author of My Blue Goose, Exploiting The Wow Factor In Real Estate Marketing. The book can be purchased on MyBlueGoose.com or Amazon

Posted by Matthew Gosselin on 10/30/2007 11:32 AM

Comments (11)

recipe card, xpressdocs, my blue goose, matthew gosselin, matt, real estate marketing, postcard, direct mail

11 Comments on Damaging Your Business One Recipe Card At A Time

OCT

2007

Matthew, I agree with you 100%. We have a new agent in our office who thought this was a great idea because she loved the recipe cards that she recieved from an agent in the past. Problem is, she could not remember the agent that sent them.

We need to send something of value that is related to real estate. If we want recipes we can go to our cookbooks and get recipes.

Michael, I'm not an agent, but I still have and recipe cards from an agent that sent them out from years ago. I no longer live in that area, but if I had not already had an established relationship with an agent, I would have contacted this gal for a presentation.

Matt - I think you are right on target. I think that today's buyers and sellers want useful information from us about real estate, our area of expertise. If they want recipes they will go to Martha or Rachel.

Why would you post this? There are many types of marketing and resons for marketing, and home info is only one of them...

What works for you may not work for others.

For Example: Maybe you have sold a couple homes to some clients and you are their choice for a realtor. You know they come to you with all RE questions. So, would you just keep sending them RE info? Or mix in some other more personal communications of value?

Hi Kate: Thanks for posting. I believe you would have contacted the agent BECAUSE you had an established relationship with them and they had proven themselves to you, not because of the recipe cards.

Marina, I'm not a real estate agent but I do research the real estate industry. Bottom line is that there is nothing wrong with gifts and giving people your ideas for recipes, I'm not even doubting that they work some of the time. I believe marketing dollars are best spent elsewhere especially on marketing tools that will position you at the top of the real estate market. Anything you can do to give yourself credibility will help your business.

Troy, you are right that there are many different ways of marketing. If you want to get your message across, you need a consistant, repetitive message. Consistant and repetitive will do the job. Sending real estate related marketing and then using recipe cards is not consistant in my opinion.

Bottom line is, we have to do what works for us.

Hello Matthew!

You are 100% correct! We are professionals and we need to provide professional advice. A Buyer or Seller will work with a professional who knows the market, is honest, and respectable as well leading the Client to meet their goals and objectives.

Marina: I just saw you updated your comment with an example. As I travel around the country I have learned that there are many many agents who use recipe cards as their ONLY form of marketing. In fact, Borrell and Associates tells us that only 16% of agents actually use direct mail in their business--a very low number. That is when using recipe cards becomes a problem. It sounds like you may fall in the 16% and if that is the case then there is no harm with mixing a recipe card once in a while into your marketing plan as long as it doesn't overtake what your real objective is: selling real estate.

I am a real estate agent not Julia Childs and there are already too many chefs in this kitchen as it is.

Good post. Same as blogging for business............relevant content. I'd send out market info way before I sent out recipes.

Good post. I agree but can see that in some places and in some neighborhoods it could work. The key is to know your audience , so to speak. I would much rather be known for my expertise in real estate than in cooking and I love to cook!

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