Process for Real Estate Lead Generation

Here’s an outline for real estate lead generation using direct mail postcards:

1. Use your own mailing list, or if you don’t have one purchase a targeted list. Location-specific lists are easy to obtain.
2. Create a special landing page on your website for this specific campaign. It should have a “call to action” such as a signup form. Offer something of value so your visitors have a reason to give you their information.
3. Deliver the “freebie” or incentive item as you promised in your postcard
4. Use the contact information to follow up and move prospective clients forward in the sales process.

You can learn a great deal about real estate lead generation on Linkedin.

iStockPhoto.com is my go-to place for professional quality photos and illustrations at reasonable prices. (Click the link for 10 free credits, no credit card needed.) They allow you to purchase a smaller number of credits at a time, which is convenient for small businesses.

When you purchase a photo, click on Size>>Inches. You must use a photo with 300 dpi (see below). A medium size photo may be large enough if you plan to add a caption or call to action to the front of the postcard.

As I mentioned in my post about Cheap Postcard Designs, you can use a Fiverr designer to take your photo and add your message to it. Don’t forget to ask them to change the colors to CMYK.

You can send them a template to ensure they get the postcard set up correctly.

If you don’t like what you get, they will often give you one revision. However, for five bucks a gig you could try out several designers until you find one you like, then send them all your work. Have a postcard back designed too. You only need one of those and you can use it forever.

Here are some specifications you should give them:

• 300 pixels per inch
• Full bleed background
• 0.25 inch margin to allow for cutting with text in safe zone
• Large font size for readability
• For a 4 x 6 card design should be 4.25 x 6.25 inches

• Is it your postcard unique? It should be eye-catching and not look like the same cards everyone else sends
• Does it offer value? Insert a list of sales prices of homes in the area, special event info for the area, or a recipe or holiday idea

You can easily double your postcard responses and encourage prospective clients to visit your website. Here’s how:

Take a screenshot of your web site (on a PC hold down ‘Control’ and click on the ‘Print Screen’ button on the upper right hand side of your keyboard). Paste (‘Control-V’) this photo into a graphics program (even Paint will do), crop it if you want to, and save it.

To make things easy on yourself, just put the screenshot photo on a CD or flash drive and run it over to your local printer. They can quickly resize it properly for you for a nominal fee. While you’re at it ask them to change the color format from RGB to CMYK so your colors will print properly (they’ll know).

Print Your Own Realtor Marketing Postcards

Independent printers like OvernightPrints.com give you the opportunity to print any photo you want on your marketing postcard, along with online programs to design your own. They have a special on right now and you can get up to 55% off postcards.

If you’re handy with a graphics program you can design the back of the card. Here’s a special discount on the graphics program I use and absolutely love: Brand New! Corel PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate. With over $250 in free bonuses.

If you’re not up for that, you can use the service’s online program to do so. Upload your web site screenshot to one of the printing companies for the front of the card, and if offered, add the glossy coating to the front. I prefer to leave the back of the postcard matte – it’s easier to write on it .

By doing this not only will your Realtor marketing postcard look like no one else’s, it will pique interest in visiting your web site.

Real estate marketing postcards make keeping in touch with past clients and home buying prospects easy. Eye-catching, original graphics and strong messages mean postcard mailings are an effective tool for real estate agents.

Postcards can also be an effective and exciting way to bring prospective home buyers and sellers to your web site!

Real Estate Postcards + Web Site = More Sales

1. Postcards have been used for years by real estate agents to introduce and promote themselves in their community.
2. Most real estate agents have their own web sites now, designed to capture the growing online market of consumers.
3. By combining these two marketing channels, you can double your response rates!

Reactions to Your Real Estate Postcards

What are the usual reactions most potential home buyers and sellers have to real estate marketing efforts?

• What call to action does a real estate marketing postcard typically have?

Call today for more information (if you feel like traipsing over to the phone)

Well, that’s pretty boring. How many actually call, especially in today’s still-slow market?

What About Your Website

• What call to action does your web site have?

Fill out this long form (with personal information that you don’t feel comfortable giving me yet)

That can feel pretty threatening even though you’re not that kind of Realtor! Learn how to Double Your Postcard and Web Site Response Rates!

Importance of Repeat Impressions

Because people need, on average, seven impressions of a marketing message before it truly sinks in, postcard marketing is very valuable. With real estate postcards you can, relatively inexpensively, market to the same prospects over and over.

This method obviously takes some time and patience to get business, but the benefits are well worth it.

Because of their colorful nature and the fact that they are a physical object, postcards are usually read by people who receive them in the mail. They have a much higher read rate than sales letters or emails.

Even better, they are often kept, especially if they include a recipe or are an invitation to a neighborhood open house.

Postcards are a Visual Medium

You know the saying – a picture is worth a thousand words. Make sure the photo or illustration on your postcard is colorful and interesting to get the recipient’s attention immediately.

People often read mail while they’re walking back from the mailbox, and your postcard will most likely be the first thing they read. You are almost guaranteed that the majority of people who receive your real estate postcard will read it!

By sending appealing postcards to people in your target area, you are making yourself more “real” to people who prefer feel like they know someone before they do business with them.

Real estate postcards appeal to the home buyers and sellers who like to touch and feel products before purchasing. They are more likely to buy in brick-and-mortar stores than online.

Because they appeal to a different demographic of home sellers and buyers, postcards need to be incorporated into your marketing strategy.

Postcards can be used by Realtors in a number of ways:

• Introduction for new real estate agent
• Homes that have been just listed or just sold
• Seasonal recipe cards
• Postcards celebrating holidays
• Open house announcements

Make a direct mail plan so you send your real estate postcards out on a regular schedule. Vary the focus, using holidays, recent home sales and other events as topics.