Real estate is a tricky field, with high highs and low lows. Making the decision to become a real estate broker isn’t easy, and from certain perspectives may seem like more trouble than it’s worth.
Forbes Council member Heidi Burkhart speaking on her own experience as a broker says, “Real estate is strictly commission based, so be prepared to go months without getting paid. When I started in real estate as a new broker, I didn’t receive a real, livable commission check for almost three years.” According to her, the dropout rate for new real estate agents in their first five years can go as high as 60-80%.
Taking that view, a career as a real estate agent might seem pretty daunting. However, if you’ve got the passion and talent for the job, it just takes a little bit of legwork to establish a long career. That’s where marketing comes in.
Marketing for Real Estate
Sustaining a career as a real estate broker takes time and effort, and that may not always pay off. One of the best ways to make sure you’re pulling in the clients and contracts that you need is, of course, through a good marketing strategy.
In our previous article ‘How Much Do REALTORS Spend on Marketing Tools in 2018?, we took a look at what the marketing landscape is like for real estate brokers and agents. A study commissioned by Real Estate Webmasters found that, out of a pool of 300 active agents, team leaders, and brokers, digital marketing tools were among the most popular choices.
70% of the survey participants had their own website, and 38% were actively promoting their services on social media. The next most popular option was local newspaper advertising, followed by 23% who used search engine marketing. The remaining 10% used a variety of techniques such as magazines, online display ads, and door-to-door flyers.
Direct Mail Marketing for Real Estate
If you’ve tried all of the above options or are simply looking for another technique to boost your response rates, direct mail marketing is a solid choice.
The U.S. Small Business Administration encourages businesses to use direct mail for a number of different reasons. Direct mail can often be more effective than digital campaigns, generating purchases of up to five times larger than email marketing. It’s more shareable, with up to 88% of key decisions in retail, financial, and automotive categories discussed at home thanks to direct mail. It also has a longer lifespan, with mail materials staying on customers’ minds far longer than email or digital ads.
In big decision industries like real estate, direct mail marketing can be an indispensable tool. Direct mail materials hold attention longer, generating bigger emotional impact than digital materials and thus exerting more influence on consumer decisions. Real estate professionals can use direct mail to send out catalogs, pamphlets, freebies, or other materials that add value to clients’ lives.
It can also be used in conjunction with other marketing techniques. Marketing company Triadex Service’s CEO Greg Mesaros says of direct mail retargeting that, “Prospects who have recently visited and stayed on your website have already shown an interest in your services. Using cutting-edge retargeting data, Triadex is able to help you turn these valuable leads into long-term customers.”
With greater impact, lower costs per lead, and some of the highest ROI around, direct mail marketing can positively impact any real estate professional’s marketing strategy. In a field where consumer decision-making can span weeks up to months, you need marketing tools that can boost credibility, name recall, and response rates, among others. Direct mail can do all that for you and more.
