I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again . . . direct mail is not dead. Realtor mailers are a huge piece of advertising for real estate agents. These postcards can help you obtain more clients. Just listed postcards can attract buyers who are looking for a new home. Just sold cards can attract people ready to sell their home who don’t yet have a realtor. Even if people aren’t ready to buy or sell, they might know someone who is and relay your information to them, or they might keep you in mind for when they are ready to buy a new home or sell their own. Even though real estate postcards can do all of these great things for you, they won’t have any effect if they are ‘bleh’ postcards.
Bleh postcards are the opposite of effective real estate postcards. A bleh postcard doesn’t really do anything for the reader. It doesn’t catch their attention, it doesn’t make them want to take action to use your services as a realtor, and it usually just ends up in the nearest trash can. But how can you ensure that your postcards stay out of the trash? Well, there’s no promise that people aren’t going to toss your postcard unless it’s made out of solid gold, but a good place to start is to have an eye-catching design. You want to grab the attention of the reader, so they at least catch a glimpse of who you are and what you do before they throw your postcard away.
I know, making an attention grabbing postcard is easier said than done, and you might not know how to execute the perfect mailer. Don’t fret, I am here to give you some advice on how you can spruce up your realtor mailers and make them more effective for your business.
First, you need to ensure you are creating a headline that is easy to see and easy to read. Your headline should be the thing that briefly describes who you are and what you do. It needs to get your point across effectively and efficiently. So, if the headline is the only thing your prospect reads, at least they know what you have to offer them. How can you make your headline attention-grabbing? There are a few ways to do this – like using a fun font. You don’t want to use a font that is hard to read because that is both discracting and frustrating, but you also don’t want to use a font that makes your postcard look like a boring newspaper article. The position of your headline also matters. If, for some reason, your headline is on the bottom of your postcard, your reader probably won’t get the message. If it’s front and center, and bigger than the other text, you’re going to be read loud and clear.
Next, make sure that you’re using some interesting photos. This can be limiting especially if you’re creating and sending just sold cards and just listed postcards, but it isn’t only about the photo you choose to display on your postcard. You can make the imagery of your mailer interesting by adding effects or changing the format and/or position of your photo. Your goal here is to make your postcard visually appealing and different from every other realtor’s mailers.
Colors can also be a way that will help you stand out from your competition. Black and white text isn’t all that memorable. It can be, with help from the font you choose, but it isn’t always the most eye catching design. Utilize help from your elementary school friend, the color wheel when determining which colors you should be using on your postcards. If you didn’t pay too much attention in art class, let me remind you that complimentary colors are what you want to work with – it’s a good start, at least. Complimentary colors are opposites, but for some reason, they work really well together. One of the most famous instances of complimentary colors working together is red and green around Christmas time. Opposite from each other on the color wheel, but when used together, big seller. Another idea with colors could be your brand colors as long as they aren’t boring or the same color as your photo.
Make sure you have a crisp, clean, and organized design. While loads of information jam-packed into one small area can gain attention, it’s for the wrong reason. Bullet points, shapes, and bolded information is a great way to display what you want your audience to see without your mailer being too much. A great postcard will allow the reader to take in all of your information without straining their eyes because there is too much information. Use your images and your text as a map for your reader. Take them on a trip – first stop, headline. Next stop, additional information regarding the house that sold or just got listed. Finally, lead them to their next step (the call to action).
If you weren’t ready to create the perfect postcard before reading this, I hope you are now! There are services that will take you through the entire process of creating effective real estate postcards – they will even send them for you! One of these online platforms is Map Your Sales. Map Your Sales offers templates for real estate mailers, so if you don’t want to create a postcard from scratch, you can start with a template and change some stuff around to your liking.
In addition to creating your postcard on Map Your Sales, you also have the ability to determine where you want it to go! If you’re sending a just sold mailer, you can target the neighborhood in which the house just sold – telling that crowd that you are a successful realtor who can help sell their house if they’re looking to do so. Once you create your beautiful postcard and determine who you want it to send to, Map Your Sales does that for you too. You really don’t even need to leave the house for this process at all.
To get started creating and sending your postcards sign up for the $1 trial today!
