This is our entry into the August contest:
Share Your Out-of-the-Box Seller Follow-up Strategies
In the 4th Quarter of last year, we decided to launch a "print" marketing campaign in the 2nd Quarter of 2016.
The first few months of 2016 were spent designing, redesigning, fine tuning, having others review and critique what we call "The Mailpiece".
In April we launched a beta test of the "final" mailpiece. At that point we were doing all print production and assembly "in house".
In May, after sending out 51 mailpieces, we got our first hit.
The homeowner called the contact number in the mailpiece.
The call was answered "live" by an inbound USA based call center that we contract with.
They obtained the homeowner's contact information and immediately texted and emailed the information to us.
We called them back within five minutes.
"I want you to list my house"!
Fast forward to August.
We now have a printing company print, assemble and ship the mailpieces for us.
All we do is provide an excel spreadsheet to them once a week with the names and addresses.
Once the mailpiece has reached it's destination (tracked via USPS priority mail), we have another team member call the homeowners to confirm delivery of the package, and to set an appointment with the homeowners if they are ready for us to preview their property.
That's working well!
The most recent appointment from that effort was with a homeowner just over a week ago.
So, what's "In the Box"?
We decided that if we were going to print and mail a mailpiece, the mailpiece had to: 
- have a very high "Open Rate"
- be something that the homeowner would be very reluctant to put in the circular file
- convey the information we wanted to convey as though we were having a conversation with them
- be visible in their home (unless hidden away in a closet)
- be something nobody else - that we knew of - was doing in our market area
The mailpiece was fine tuned until all of the resources providing feedback to us - both within the real estate industry - and outside of it - assured us that "it" was firing on all "cylinders"!
While it was great to receive a hit right out of the gate from the initial mailing, conventional wisdom (and we agree) dictates that it's essential to followup numerous times.
Step 1 - Mail initial "mailpiece" to homeowner
Step 2 - Have team member call to confirm delivery and scheduleappointment (if possible)
Step 3 - If homeowner provide email information to us in step 2, then launch email drip campaign
- If no email address - launch 9 letter followup campaign
*** Important shout out for Marte Cliff - whose letter packages provided the basis for our final "localized" versions of our followup letters - hands down the best letter packages we have come across!! ***
Step 4 - Rinse and repeat!
So far, the ROI is better than 10 to 1 overall.
It's early days - and we'll be tracking this effort carefully - but so far - so good!
What's in the mailpiece?
That's a topic for a different post once we have a longer term experience with this program. It's conceivable that we will continue to "fine tune" it based on homeowner feedback. Once it's in "steady state" and continues to perform - we can share!
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