For many real estate professionals, marketing includes any activity that supports the goal of selling more homes. But to make the most of your marketing dollar, reach your goals and achieve powerful direct marketing results, it's important to define our terms. Direct marketing:
- Requests a response. The requested response may be a phone call, a click-through to a website, subscribing to a newsletter or making a purchase.
- Is highly measurable. The response that makes direct marketing work also enables you to control spending and evaluate effectiveness. By asking for a specific action that you can measure, real estate direct marketers can evaluate and improve your campaign results.
- Transcends mediums. Direct marketing is more than direct mail. It has crossed from old to new media, and exists in both print and online channels. A postcard, yard sign, email, and pay-per-click may all be forms of direct marketing when they contain a call to action. Direct advertising includes print, interactive and broadcast channels.
- Is targeted. As marketing technology advances, so do opportunities to segment, test and target marketing campaigns. One of the main advantages for real estate professionals who work at direct marketing is the opportunity to identify and reach profitable target audiences and niche markets in their communities.
Why is targeted direct marketing so important? As a real estate professional, prospecting and lead generation are the lifeblood of your business. Direct marketing provides a way to make personal connections with people who want and need your services.
Also, a strategic approach puts you miles ahead of real estate pros still using the "spray and pray" approach to send identical communications to generic mailing lists. It's no exaggeration to say that real estate professionals waste millions of advertising dollars each year with ineffective marketing campaigns, sending the wrong offers to the wrong people.
The good news is that wasting marketing campaigns can easily be avoided with a little planning. Act now. With a little research, strategic planning and tracking, you can create an effective - and cost-effective - pipeline to build your real estate business for years to come.
Article excerpt from the eNeighborhoods eBook, Direct Marketing Success for Real Estate.
