Have you shunned old-school methods of self-promotion in favor of social media and email?
Do you think that staying in touch with past clients and your sphere of influence can be accomplished 
by posting regularly on Facebook or Pinterest?
Do you think that having a web site with a search function and a “What is my home worth” application is enough to bring new clients to you?
Are you happy to think so because those methods take little time and are virtually free?
And if so – do you have as much business as you want and need to sustain a good living?
OR – are you sticking strictly to the old-school methods?
Are you prospecting by mail and placing ads in the newspaper, real estate magazines, and perhaps the local phone book?
Are you attending meetings of the Chamber of Commerce, joining local service groups, volunteering for local non-profits, mingling in your neighborhoods, and generally networking in person?
Are you staying in touch with past clients and your sphere via the telephone or postal mail?
Are you doing a little less than you could be doing because advertising is expensive, and you only have so many hours in a week to devote to networking?
And if so – do you have as much business as you want and need to sustain a good living?
If you don’t have all the business you want and need, it may be time for “New School” marketing.
“New School” takes the best of both and blends them together in a winning combination with your personal website (or team website) as the cornerstone.
Here you can offer visitors an array of real estate and local information that shows you as the expert in your territory. Here you can offer information about who you are and how you do business via your agent bio. And of course, here you can offer search functions and special reports to bring visitors into your email marketing database.
But something has to bring those visitors to your site. Just being there isn’t enough. Since the giant 
real estate sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, and the major franchise sites have so much more authority than your personal website, you might never be found.
If you love social media marketing and do it well, wonderful! Use it, together with blogging about the community, your listings, etc. to invite people to your website.
But don’t stop there. Take some good advice from our friend Barbara Todaro, and use old school postal prospecting to compliment your digital marketing and draw even more visitors to your website.
Barbara didn’t begin her real estate career with deep pockets and thousands to spend on mailing, so she started slowly – just as you can. She began by using just listed cards, mailed to 20 homes around each of her listings. As the results came in and her bank account grew, she increased the numbers. Today she mails 500 just listed, under contract, and just sold cards to homes in the area surrounding each listing – for a total of 1,500 cards per listing. In addition, she sends periodic mailings to every home in their city – all 7,650 of them!
Yes, old-school methods cost money, but since they work, it’s money well invested. Today, the Todaro Team is "#1 Team in Franklin's #1 Office."
You can use real estate prospecting letters, postcards, or a combination of both – but if you ignore direct mail entirely, you’ll be limiting your reach. Not only will your physical mailings help increase traffic to your website, they will allow you to reach people who will never visit your site.
According to Pew Research, 11% of American adults don’t use the Internet at all – and many of those who do use it, use it sparingly. Also – if your target audience is in the age group 65 and older, 34% don’t use it.
The other benefit of using direct mail
You'll stand out!
Most of your competitors won’t do it. They’re afraid to spend the money. So if you send prospecting letters, just listed cards, and cards announcing “Another one sold,” you’ll have little, if any competition in attracting the attention of those who might be thinking of selling.
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Mailbox Image courtesy of Felixco, Inc. at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Success signpost Image courtesy of niamwhan at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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