The main problem with real estate marketing is it gets “stopped”. What I mean is, your promotions don’t get results because they can’t get over three common hurdles for every marketing message:

1. Getting opened
2. Getting read
3. Getting acted-upon

Take Just Listed post cards for example.  They may get delivered, but do you think they ever get read?  They should be called “Just Go” cards because they just go in that round file known as the waste basket.

Here’s a better way to use the Just Listed and Just Sold strategy…

How To Use “Unstoppable”
Just Listed and Just Sold Letters
To Sell More Listings and
Get New Clients

HURDLE #1: Getting your message OPENED

You can’t sell your listings if your prospects never see your promotions.  That may not be a shock to you, but what are you proactively doing to get your message in front of the right prospects?

When I list a home, I do the following to sell it quickly:

• Get a list of names and addresses for other homeowners in the community/subdivision/area (hopefully 100-150 contacts).
• Get normal sized envelopes that you’d use to send a letter to a friend (use colored envelopes if near a holiday, like Red for Valentine’s day).
• Handwrite the names and addresses with my sellers FROM address.

IMPORTANT: I do not put my name or brokerage on the envelope!  This will sabotage your results.

You’ll understand what I’m about to do in a minute, but for now… realize that there IS a way to get your mail opened.  You have to make it personal.  Like their relative sent them a birthday card.  Or, in this case… like they just received a nice letter from their neighbor.  They will open it.  Curiosity will get the best of them.  Wouldn’t YOU open a personal letter from a neighbor?

The idea here isn’t that the neighbors will buy the house.  They probably have several friends or coworkers with the ability to buy in their neighborhood.  Getting the entire neighborhood to see your message is the first step toward having them help you find a buyer.

Many agents try to use postcards to get attention.  But the glossy look identifies them as junk mail.  These postcards may get a 2-second glance but you won’t get people to read the details (except maybe price) or call you…

HURDLE #2: Getting your message READ

I’ve overcome the first hurdle of getting my message opened.  Now I have to do something subtle but extremely important to get my message read.

People hold our promotions in front of them looking for something (anything) to tell them to stop reading.  They’re trying to identify the letter as junk mail so they can move on with their day.  Don’t say you don’t do the same thing.

This happens whether it’s other homeowners in the neighborhood of a property you just listed/just sold or even prospects who are visiting your website.  We’re all asking… “Am I going to get something that interests me or fulfills something I desire?  Or, is this just another promotion I can ignore?”

BREAKTHROUGH TIP: I put the letter in my client’s voice.  More specifically, I do the following:

• I have my seller clients approve a just listed letter I wrote for them in THEIR voice.  And after the sale, I send out a just sold letter in their voice.
• I also put the letter on nice stationary that’s personal.

I’m close to the finish line but have one more hurdle to go before I know my promotion will be effective…

HURDLE #3: Getting your message ACTED UPON

The biggest thing missing from Realtor promotions is a motivating reason to respond.  This is especially true of Just Listed/Just Sold cards which most agents treat as blasting a news update to people.

I find it more effective to offer something of value with a method to respond.  Here’s how I do this:

• Offer free information for those wanting to buy or sell (must be specific — see my example letters below).
• Use a “hotline” number that has a Free Recorded Message (so people feel comfortable calling).

Below are the real estate letters I use as examples:

JUST LISTED & JUST SOLD LETTERS

(click the images above to open the letters in a PDF file)

When I send out the Just Listed letter, I now have an additional 150 neighbors trying to sell my listing.  I know they’ve opened and read my message, and they also have a specific way to send me leads!

After the listing is sold, I send the follow-up Just Sold letter.  This is when I start getting the calls from neighbors who want me to sell their house.  They are great clients.  They trust me from the start.  Why?  Because I was referred by their friend and former neighbor!

Go try this strategy with your listings.  You (and the neighbors around your listings) will be glad you did.

And if you’d like a bank of letters proven to boost your production, plus the knowledge you’ll need to make them work, click here.

What do YOU send for Just Listed / Just Sold notices?

Email us to share it with the Agent Inner Circle^® community. Or…

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A great way to start the year out with new clients is to make a meaningful contact with all of the people you worked with in the previous year.   Here is a simple and very effective way to do that.

It’s called the “Tax Helper System” and it goes beyond a simple thank you (which every agent does and your clients already expect).  Agent Steve Sofka uses this system to do something unexpected for his clients — saving them time and getting more referrals in the process.

Here’s how he uses this system and a ready-to-use letter you can mail or send via email (download below)…

STEP 1:

Every time you close an escrow…whether you are representing the buyer OR seller…make 2 copies of the HUD-1 closing statement.

STEP 2:

Put them in an envelope along with a copy of a personal letter. Here’s an example letter of what I send…

You can click the image below to download your ready-to-use template:

STEP 3:

Put the closing statements along with the letter in an envelope, address it to your clients.

Make sure you use their NEW address, and put the appropriate postage on the envelope!

STEP 4:

Take the envelope and put it in a box and collect them all year long…

In January, take your box with all of the addressed and stamped envelopes you’ve accumulated through the year and put them all in the post office.

Side Note: By putting the postage on as you go, it eliminates your having to have one big lump sum for postage – as long as you use the Forever Stamps that work even when postage prices go up.

STEP 5:

Wait 2 or 3 days after you mail the packages and then start calling all of the clients you just mailed to. Your conversation should go something like this:

Introduction: “Hi John, A few days ago, I put a package in the mail to you and I was just following up to see if it arrived yet.”

Reinforce why you sent package: “You got it… that’s great! I heard from so many clients about not being able to find that paperwork… so I like to send it to save you some time and as another way to say ‘thanks’ for working with me.”

Transition to question: “It was a pleasure working with you and I find other great clients come from my past clients. Who do you know that who is considering buying a home or selling their home in the next 6 to 12 months?”

You will be amazed by the responses (and referrals) you will get for your thoughtfulness!

The referrals will come either on the first phone call or later if you continue to follow up with a valuable contact each month.

Use this “Tax Helper System” along with the letter and follow-up phone script (very important) in January to start each year strong.

What do YOU do each January to start the year strong?

Email us to share it with the Agent Inner Circle^® community. Or…

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In a previous article, I talked about how “multi-sequence” mailings have a higher ROI than one-shot mailings.

If you want an easy way to triple the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, it’s your lucky day, because today I’m going to share why multi-sequence mailings are the real “secret” to finally make your marketing work.

Now before you dismiss this as hype… I’ve proven this system myself with 4, multi-million dollar companies including a successful real estate development and brokerage company.

So take two minutes to read this profit-multiplying article on how to create a “Multi-Sequence Farming System”…

When you decide to farm, you may send out one of the following farming pieces to a defined area:

• a post card
• a letter
• a flyer
• an email

And in most cases, you send it only once, get little to no response and think it’s money flushed down the drain.

What if you could increase the response by sending follow-up mailing to the same area?

Here are some eye-opening numbers…

If you can improve your conversion rate by just 4% – instead of converting 1 out of 50 prospects you now convert 3 out of 50 – your income could TRIPLE.

With actual numbers… let’s say your average commission is $4,000, and if you mail to 500 prospects, and only convert 2% (a common response for a direct mail piece).  You would get 10 clients from this mailing, and at $4,000 each, you’ll make $40,000.

But what if you could raise your conversion rate from 2% to 6%?  You would now have 30 clients, and at $4,000 each, you’ll make…

$120,000 From The SAME List!

How do you do that?

STEP 1:  get a great mailing list.  When farming, narrow your efforts to a focused area in your community where there is 1) enough turnover in home sales and 2) fewer “dominant” agents.  You can use your computer and MLS data to research this in under an hour.

STEP 2: use “Multi-Sequence” Marketing that I teach in Step 1 of our 3-Steps System and that I explain below.

This type of marketing uses a SERIES of letters, post cards, or emails  sent over a short time period which dramatically increases response.

How To Create A Multi-Sequence Farming System…

Contact/Mailing #1: Should be a promotion sent to a specific prospect with a specific offer (or offers) about something important to them.

Remember to test your farming pieces on a smaller list before ramping up your efforts to a large group.  You want to know if the offer on the marketing pieces works before spending money to farm hundreds or thousands of prospects.

Here’s an example #1 letter for farming a specific area (click image to download):

Contact/Mailing #2: Should be a follow-up (a “SECOND NOTICE”) that is sent about 7 to 10 days after the first contact, referencing that first contact in the introduction, and continuing the offer.

Here’s an example #2 letter for farming a specific area (click image to download):

Contact/Mailing #3: Should be a follow-up (a “FINAL NOTICE”) that is sent about 5 to 7 days after sending the second notice, and making a stronger appeal for your offer.  At this point you should emphasize an expiration date, or motivate action through some type of urgency (such as a limited quantity of free reports if that is your offer).

Here’s an example #3 letter for farming a specific area (click image to download):

You can continue this process as long as it is profitable for you, but years and years of marketing have proven the “Multi-Sequence” marketing strategy to be very, very profitable.

The letters I provided here should give you an idea on how to create your own farming campaign – only this time, you’ll start making money!

[Ed note:  These letters include specific OFFERS for a reader to take action and call you.  You can create your own "Home Audit" template and "Special Report", or get the ones included with the “The Million Dollar Agent Marketing Toolkit”™.  These resources come as bonuses along with a powerful collection of pre-written letters you can use in your practice.  Click here to learn more...]

“Recently I’ve been trying to find ways to enhance the ‘stickiness’ of my real estate business. By this, I mean that I am consistently finding ways to stay top-of-mind with prospects and clients.

One idea I’ve been using is that of giving a free gift with any INITIAL appointment I have with a client. For example: I posted an online ad for a lower priced bungalow. I received a few leads, but one in particular was quite anxious to view this property that evening. After calling and setting up the appointment to view this home and a few others, I began to draft a personalized sales-letter to give to them when we met. In the letter I discussed the recent market changes, the jump in inventory, and more importantly the weather (it was raining for about two days straight).

The overt theme of the letter was ‘IT’S RAINING LISTINGS!’. One of the lines I used was ‘With this much choice for the buyer or investor, it’s easy to drown in the overload of listings!’ Another line was “Don’t get drenched with all the choices out there!” All of this was specifically aimed at tying into and reinforcing that *I* was the Realtor they should use to find their next property.

Along with this letter, I included a small gift card to a coffee shop. But it doesn’t end there… Here’s where the stickiness factor kicks in. Since I aim to make every interaction with my clients a memorable one, I ran out to the corner store and picked up a cheap umbrella for about $10. The kind that fold up and you can fit it in your glove box. I purposely picked the most obscenely bright color (yellow with black polka dots to be exact) and upon meeting the clients at the first location, presented the umbrella and the envelope with my sales letter, along with the highlight sheets for our viewings.

Needless to say they were enthralled and have been telling everyone they know that ‘Their real estate guy is Justin and you NEED to use him, he’s the BEST!’ This was only last week and already they’re looking to purchase two investment properties in the next month. Not bad for $15 of gifts and a few minutes of my time.”