Episode 5: Direct Mail For Agents and Marketing vs. Advertising

Good afternoon Kyle,

Nice explanation of marketing and advertising.

Make yourself a great day.

I feel every agent should test market a small area (low budget) with direct mail.  It either will or won't work.  I send out quarterly newsletters and in that one area that I "farm" just listed and just sold postcards.  And I have to tell you in that subdivision I'm the queen of listings. 

I'm simply not a fan of discounting any method without a test. I don't run print ads for homes anymore because they stopped making the phone ring. But if something brings me buyers or sellers after a 6 month effort with a good ROI it's worth continuing.  If not, it gets dropped.

Kyle Reyes Marketing Maniac can sure find out 'effective' way of direct mail marketing.....lol!

My question is related to VA and Marketing and Advertising - well, not the VA you mentioned in this video, it's about Virtual Assistant.

What kind of services we should and can use for marketing and advertising from VA - virtual assistants like Silent Partner Marketing - without spending lot of money?

An idea - if you cam pull the profile picture of the member/person from ActiveRain pages who has asked and show along with the question ... (I know I don't look that good, however....). (You see, we all are hungry for free publicity)

Excellent video as usual.  While you bring up some good points, I really don't agree w/ your assessment on DM for agents.  Many very successful agents use DM very successfully and can track the ROI, esp many of the top agents (and many say that this one of their keys to success).

I think the key is to do a pre-analysis on the ROI and then test.  (And, yes, you need to be committed to it).  Interestingly enough, when I run these #'s for agents, given the large commission profit, even w/ 1% return, the return is very positive.  Interestingly enough for my business, as the average job size is lower, the #'s are not as good.  I have tested DM for my biz (on a large scale) years ago and was very disappointed.  Nonetheless, given all the positive things I've heard from agents here (and outside of AR) and doing this w/ my new branded message, and given that my close rate is higher than in years ago, it looks like this should work out for me, even if I only hit half of the # that I think I could.  So, when I have some money saved up, I'll be testing in a few postal routes.  It's all a numbers game...the numerator and demonator...and using EDDM gives me lower cost denominator.

That aside, depends on how much money someone has/is willing to risk...it may be different in the beginning vs. once you are more established.

And, I agree w/ Tammy Lankford 

Sorry such a long comment.

OK Kyle like I said put it in writing.  I had to turn Willie Nelson off to listen to you!  Now you got good video, but come on, turn Willie Nelson off!  :)  I forwarded it to my VA Lender.  

Kyle - I hear you on "not everyone tests/analyzes."  I guess 1) I don't see the ideas as being mutually exclusive...you could do dark posts and other social media + DM and 2) depends on budget/risk tolerance, 3) strategy.

For those w/ no money/very limited budget, there are other options.  I guess like almost everything...it costs you time or money (or both).  If very limited on budget, I'd say, do a "pay as go" approach and build up to more.

Kyle- while I love videos, short and well done, I like being able to see some kind of short print synopsis so that I can read it if I am not in a place to watch the video.  I had to add that you are definitely an asset to this community and love the information you've been sharing with us. 

Good morning, Kyle Reyes I love your video, even though I totally disagree with your thoughts on direct mail marketing.... we search for listings with direct mail marketing; we search for land with direct mail marketing.... we target and we hit...we hit enough to feed three agents and their families and I make a very nice profit... I certainly wish this video could be seen by every agent in my marketplace so my business will inch up a notch...

Thanks, Kyle Reyes .  I, like Barbara Todaro , tend to disagree with your perspective on direct mail.  It's effectiveness depends on what the message is and what your expectations are from it.  There are many trickle down benefits that cannot be tracked accurately with statistics.  I do enjoy your videos, and very much appreciate your succinct messages in a short amount of time.  3-5 minutes is my attention span.  

Kyle - I am loving the series, so keep the videos coming!

Like a couple of the agents that have already responded, I think that direct mail has a place in an agents marketing plan (or was that advertising plan... hmm?) when used consistently and judiciously.  I use it for specific farming areas and can count on listings in those areas year after year... so I agree with you that a carpet bomb campaign isn't the best use of financial resources.