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Dear ActiveRain: What is more effective than Direct Mail letters?

By
Real Estate Agent with REMAX CREST REALTY WESTSIDE v60121

DIRECT MAIL LETTER?I need the genius of my AR crew!  Should I post-cart of letter direct mail?  Any other alternatives?

What do I mean?  Well, this article is a question for my favorite communities on Active Rain.  This is not a blog or a post of some useful contact but rather a request for it.  I kindly as all of you to share with me how I can improve on the following:

Background: I have been sending out direct-mail letters to my favorite buildings in my area of choice for the lats few months.  I've been getting approximately a 3% response rate which I am definitely not complaining about.  

Format: My letters include a brief letter indicating I offer ridiculous value for the building owners in terms of my being the top agent in the building, possessing all the building information, hosting a website for the building with listing history and rental history, and walkscore information about the neighborhood; 2. and i also includes a team brochure with my team mates contacts (mortgage brokers, renovators, stagers), as well as my testominials from the last 10 clients in the area.  3. I also offer the last three sales in the building to give them a historical background on their building.

Challenge: this is a mail out which requires my brochure, a letter printout, a hand-written addressed envelope (for a higher open rate), and a label or my return address, as well as a postage stamp.

Cost: the cost includes brochure printout, color two side letter, the envelope, the stamp, and of course the TIME required to put all this together which is approximatley 2.5 hours for a mailout of about 100 letters.

My Question: have you come up with a good design of an over-size postcard (perhaps a 5x12) that can include most of this content, abbreviated, but which doesn't have to be opened to be read, and which is cheaper to reproduce and mass mail?

I'm all ears and am looking for your genius suggestions!

 

Posted by


Let's do coffee or lunch!
TeamYVR Real Estate Agents

JARK KRYSINSKI, REALTOR
®, BA.Hon, ABR, IRES, 100% CLUB, IMSD®, LLB
TeamYVR Real Estate Agent, Team Lead, Top Producer, Workaholic 
RE/MAX Crest Realty Westside, 1428 W. 7th Ave, Vancouver, B.C., V6H 1C1
DIRECT: 604.790.9945 | TOLL FREE: 1.855.TEAM.YVR (1.855.832.6987)
Office: 604.602.1111 ext. 116 | Fax: 604.602.9191 ("ATTN Jark, TeamYVR") 
1. www.TEAMYVR.com "JARK KRYSINSKI @ OUR TEAM, 'TEAMYVR' ONLINE!" 
2. BCCondos.net/city-east-vancouver "All Condos in East Van by TeamYVR!"
3. BCCondos.net/city-ladner "All Condos in Ladner by TeamYVR"
4. BCCondos.net/city-tsawwassen "All Condos in Tsawassen by TeamYVR!"
5. www.MEETUP.COM/BridgeMakers "Meet Jark in Vancouver, Group Leader" 
6. www.MEETUP.com/BridgeMakersDowntown "Meet Jark in Downtown, Group Founder"
7. www.MEETUP.com/BridgeMakersRichmond "Meet Jark in Richmond, Group Founder"
8. www.MEETUP.com/BusinessBuilders "Jark Teaching Investing, Group Speaker" 
9. www.BRIDGEMAKERSGROUP.com "Vancouver Business Group" 
10. www.BIGRICHGROUP.com "Meet Jark in his Richmond Group, Group Co-Host" 
11. www.MEETUP.com/3Metro "Jark's Business Group in Burnaby"
12. www.MEETUP.com/MiddlePeople "Jark Teaching Sophisticated Investments"
13. www.TWITTER.com/SOLDbyJARK "Find us on Twitter"
14. www.FACEBOOK.com/JarkTheSaint "Find us on Facebook"
15. http://d553bf1.ACTIVERAIN.com/ "Top 3 Realtor in Vancouver, BC, Canada!"
      "I Work Hard & Stop Being Tired & Feel Awesome Instead!"
 
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: ALL information contained in this message & ALL attached documents is privileged and confidential and is intended ONLY for the use of the individual(s) or entity/entities named above and in the person addressed in the body of my email. Any other use, dissemination, distribution, disclosure or copy of this transmission is strictly UNauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient or if you have otherwise received this message in error, please (1) immediately notify JARK@TEAMYVR.COM by return e-mail so that we may arrange to re-send the message to the intended recipient and (2) delete any copy of this message or attached documents. Please also note that e-mail transmissions cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses; The sender therefore does not accept ANY liability for any errors or omissions in the contents of this message which arise as a result of e-mail transmission.
 
Bob Miller
Keller Williams Cornerstone Realty - Ocala, FL
The Ocala Dream Team

Jark, in our market, it is very hard to get an ROI on direct mail.  Cold expireds, just listed, just sold is the most effective.

Aug 19, 2012 08:16 PM
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM
Gibson Management Group, Ltd. - Charlottesville, VA
LandlordWhisperer

I have built 2 property management businesses FROM SCRATCH with direct mail pieces...I still mail 5 pieces annually of my blogs starting in December......it works

Aug 19, 2012 08:18 PM
Cherry Wings Realty
Cherry Wings Realty - Traverse City, MI
Your Traverse City Michigan Realtor

I agree with Bob, at least those mailers for expireds are to home owners who you know want to sell their home.  Better chance of results.

Aug 19, 2012 08:31 PM
Cherry Wings Realty
Cherry Wings Realty - Traverse City, MI
Your Traverse City Michigan Realtor

Wallace:

I am starting a property management company from scratch (residential) in Northern Michigan.  I would love to chat with you about how you went about gaining clients with direct mail.

Aug 19, 2012 08:32 PM
Wayne Zuhl
Remax First Realty II - Cranford, NJ
The Last Name You'll Ever Need in Real Estate

Great question - Certainly and post card is cheaper and more likely to get read. I do my post card design on Publisher and then use 2KPrinting and bulk mail.

Aug 19, 2012 09:44 PM
Anonymous
Earl

Jark, you have a magnetic personality and have great information to share. Have you considered putting a QR code and a link to an "introduce Jark" video so that they get the chance to get to know you before you even meet? Put a small group together and have an "ask the realtor" questions session. Then turn each question into a content piece for your blog/newsletter because if one person was courageous enough to ask, 10 others were too scared or shy but would still like the info. The purpose of the postcard is simply to get them engaged. You do a great job of offering "ridiculous value" once you meet them in person. :)

Aug 20, 2012 04:17 AM
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