- Provide an exciting offer or fulfill a need.
It is important to remember that to sell you must provide your potential customers a benefit they think they cannot do without. With this in mind, craft your direct mail piece with buyer benefits in mind. The piece should encourage readers to focus on how their lives will improve if they purchase a home or site in your community.
- Pay special attention to the time of year.
Decide carefully when you’ll drop your piece. If your direct mail piece is promoting on-site tours, plan to have your event during a month that has ideal weather conditions. Keep in mind that potential home buyers have schedules that may be similar to yours. Summer brings family vacations and busy travel schedules (and also inhospitable summer heat for some communities). Winter months are peppered with holidays as well as travel difficulties for those traveling to, or from, places with icy conditions. In addition, holiday mail volume is always extremely heavy — so don’t risk getting lost in the pile.
This leaves spring and fall as optimum on-site touring seasons. And, since spring and fall are also historically considered to be the best times to purchase a home according to the National Association of Realtors®, mailing during these seasons can have a positive effect on your response rate.
- Round out the successful piece with high-quality creative concepts.
Be certain to use the latest creative concepts and attention-getting design for your mailer. High-end design can add reputability to your community and convey the elegant lifestyle buyers will find there. Don’t negate the advantages of your quality mailing list by using a bland, ho-hum mailer.
While calculating response rate is never an exact science, you can easily increase your odds of success and work toward better results by adhering to the above guidelines.
More Tips About Direct Mail Success
Sending prospects mail that is heavy, a strange shape or includes a premium can boost response by 75%.
— The Marketing Report
To better understand your target market, build a buyer profile by taking "inventory" of current owners. The bigger the owner base, the better the buyer profile. Guideline: Try to use 1,000 owners as a minimum base.
— Urban Land Institute
Experts agree that people need to see or hear your message at least seven times before they actually buy.
— Designing Direct Mail That Sells
Once a recipient opens your mail piece, you have approximately 11 seconds before the decision is made to respond or discard.
— Designing Direct Mail That Sells
Amy Tharrington is president of Maximum Design & Advertising, Inc., an award-winning, advertising and design agency that specializes in real estate marketing. Headquartered in Wilmington, NC, Maximum provides successful sales and marketing solutions for projects nationally. Tharrington can be reached at 800-609-0930.
Subscribe to NAHB's Sales & Marketing Ideas Magazine
For additional cutting-edge sales and marketing information, subscribe to NAHB’s Sales & Marketing Ideas magazine. Call 800-368-5242 x8192 to subscribe or order a copy. Visit www.nahb.org, keyword: NSMC to learn about membership benefits of the Nationals Sales and Marketing Council and the Institute of Residential Marketing.
BuilderBooks.com Has Sales and Marketing Publications
BuilderBooks.com offers a variety of sales and marketing publications online. To view or purchase these publications, click here.
University of Housing Offers Sales and Marketing Designations
The NAHB University of Housing offers designation programs specifically for sales and marketing professionals. For more information on these programs, click here, or call 800-368-5242 x8EDU.
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