Meet the Perfect Couple: Real Estate Direct Mail & Email

If marketing tactics were people, and you were a matchmaker, you couldn’t put together a more successful couple than real estate direct mail and email marketing. The two are a perfect match. Stick them on a cake!

Individually, each can be incredibly effective in fueling your real estate marketing results and generating a steady flow of leads and referrals.

Direct mail, for example, is eye-catching and tactile. It lets you reach virtually any prospect or client with your real estate newsletters and updates. Direct mail works even better when it’s strategically designed, personalized, and packed with high-interest content.

Direct mail also has a high trust factor. 56% of your clients and prospects will tend to trust it more than other types of advertising — and nearly half will actually keep a real estate direct mail piece if it contains valuable information. And don’t think for a second that excludes millennials. They may have grown up with smartphones but, according to a USPS report, 57% say they have made purchases — including homes — based on mailings they’ve received.

But as effective as direct mail can be, email marketing for real estate agents is also a powerful tool for generating leads and referrals.

These days, just about everyone has an email account, with many people checking it multiple times of the day. According to SmartInsights.com, emails featuring real estate tips, articles and offers get high open rates compared to other industries, such as retail.

Email can be a potent marketing tool for staying in touch with clients, nurturing hot prospects, and prospecting for new buyer and seller clients.

But what happens when you combine direct mail and email in your marketing mix?

According to a MarketingProfs.com report, using the two tactics together will increase your overall marketing results by as much as 35%.

Think about that for a moment. If you’re investing $500 per month in marketing and currently generating five good quality leads, then using direct mail and real estate email marketing together can boost that to seven leads per month. That’s 24 more leads a year. If you assume those additional leads will turn into five transactions (at least), your income will soar by tens of thousands of dollars.

So how do you use the two tactics? The current best practice for maximizing lead generation and referrals is as follows:

• Direct mail for your best past clients, hot prospects, and your geographic farm.
• Email for your other clients and prospects.

And, of course, you can use both tactics with the same client or prospect when it makes sense to do so.

So, is it time to play matchmaker and get direct mail and email working together for you? If so, get started today.