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POST CARD ADVERTISING - IS IT STILL EFFECTIVE?

By Rosalinda Morgan

Real Estate Agent

February 20, 2008 01:38 AM

When I went into real estate business eight years ago, I was told by my broker to do farming and send postcards. I did them for two years and never got a lead. Then I changed office. I did it again on a new farm and three months later I got a good lead - $1,500,000 listing fell on my lap. The homeowner kept my postcard for three months. It was a unique postcard with roses on them because in my area I was called the Rose Lady for growing roses and giving advice on growing roses. I still send postcards on occasion for JUST LISTED/JUST SOLD and also to invite the neighbors to my open house. JUST LISTED/JUST SOLD postcards did not get any lead at all and Invitation to Open House resulted in only 2 visitors. I've been doing these postcard mailings for three years running.

I also have newsletters which go out to my farm and my sphere of influence. When I send my newsletter for the first time, I preceded them with a postcard so that at least my name is in front of the homeowner, hoping they will recognize my name when my newsletter arrives.

There are so many postcards in the market now. There are Season Change postcards which if you do not send them on time are of no use to anybody. Small size postcards do not make an impact. They look cheap. If I have to send postcards, I opt for the jumbo size. The small size usually gets lost in the pile of mails that everybody gets these days. At home, I also get postcards from other agents. This is an insane practice. It's a waste of money because obviously I am not going to use another agent if I have to sell my house. Agents should make an effort to check their database. I check my database for the name of agents and also for listed properties already. The postcards from other agents that I received end up in the round file. What are my chances that the homeowners who I send my postcards do the same thing? Maybe the recipe cards are the best way to go in term of postcard advertising. If the picture is beautiful and the recipe looks delicious, at least the homemaker might keep them for future reference.

How effective is the postcard in your area? Am I just wasting my time and money doing it?

I welcome your comments before I invest more money into it.

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Matt Crow

Huntley Realty - Huntley, IL

www.mattcrow.com 630-728-6051

I am a frim believer in postcards. In my market I dominate the postcard advertising...it gets me recognized, it shows people that I am successful, it proves the market isn't as bad as the national media would lead you to believe. I use powerful messages, great pictures, and always oversized, laminated cards. I get leads from completely unexpected places because of the power of these cards!

Be of service! The rewards will come!

Feb 20, 2008 01:51 AM

Tamara Heyward

Self-Help - Durham, NC

I have gotten away from it, but when I did it in the past, it worked well for me and I got several listings from it. I still send Just Listed/Just Sold cards, but I have slacked off on sending general farming cards. Many of the agents in my area that send out postcards send out cheap, flimsy ones, that sometimes have typos and bad grammar. You are right - some people will hold onto a high quality, unique card for months. My database has gotten pretty big, and I will be narrowing it to really focus on my sphere of influence before I resume farm mailings. My goal is to do postcard/newsletter mailings with useful information, but only to people that will refer me business and be worth the investment.

Feb 20, 2008 02:37 AM

Rosalinda Morgan

Brookville, NY

"The Rose Lady"

Matt - Thanks for an encouraging comments. I just finished up my last order of postcards and am contemplating on getting more.

Feb 20, 2008 04:02 AM

Tamara - Thanks for your input. I just might order some JUST SOLD postcards for my listing that's closing next week.

Feb 20, 2008 04:05 AM

Travis Batting

My Easy Mail Maker Inc - Saskatoon, SK

I think it's great to hear the positive influence that postcards have on your business. I encourage everyone to follow our free 10 part course on Realtor Postcard Marketing

Now I'm really interested to see what type of tracking plan people have in place. If you're not tracking it's hard to measure ROI as you may get a call 6 months after someone received the postcard. It's a gradual thing. I'd love to hear more comments as www.easymailmaker.com is dedicated to postcard marketing. Feel free to ask any questions as we love to help answer any questions you might have. travis@postcardmarketinggroup.com

Travis

Mar 04, 2008 10:47 AM

Anonymous

Trunk Johnson - www.345condoms.com

I market primarily to college students and the unique postcards created work wonders. Now mind you they take a month or two for a response but people hold on to them longer than junk mail. I recommend it to everyone as you can target your customers at a low cost for startups. 345Condoms.com has done 4 times as many business I did with other advertising.

Mar 04, 2008 12:36 PM

Travis - Thanks for your comment. I still do postcard mailing but now mostly on JUST LISTED/JUST SOLD for the simple reason that I send newsletters every month. I have a schedule on EXCEL where I track all my mailings and what mailings go to whom and what kind.

Mar 05, 2008 02:24 AM

Hi Trunk,

Thanks for your input. Postcard mailings work but you really have to be consistent. Some agents expect result on first mailing. From my experience, it takes several mailings to get it to work.

Mar 05, 2008 02:27 AM

Matt Chu

Right on Rosalinda, I agree, it all about being consistent when mailing postcards. I use Realasponse for my mailing on real estate postcards

Mar 13, 2008 01:57 AM

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your comments. Being consistent is always the key.

Mar 13, 2008 01:38 PM

How do you find the Just Sold/ Just Listed postcards work for you? We have found that a lot of realtors send the cards out without a real methond to capture their leads. We have helped many realtors capture those leads through a soft touch with a landing page. For example, our landing page is used in combination with our direct mail campaigns to help educate those clients on the product we are advertising in the postcard mail out and help them get the information they want. The great thing about a landing page is your can not only capture the data from your clients you can monitor the results and help organize your results. Take a look at an example of a chart that you would use to track the leads. The landing page allows the user to get a taste of the product and gain information and move forward closer to the sale.

Mar 15, 2008 01:10 PM

Travis - Thanks for the comment. For the last four years, I've been tracking my mailings. I have a spreadsheet that I maintained every time I mailed out anything. I know exactly what I sent, to whom, what came back and my leads. I was an accountant for 32 years before I went into real estate so these sorts of thing are as natural to me as breathing. I keep paper trail of everything.

Mar 15, 2008 01:26 PM

POST CARD ADVERTISING - IS IT STILL EFFECTIVE?

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