|
|
|
Concrete Cutting: Shedding Light On Your Basement Remodel
Basements or cellars (depending on which part of the country you are from) are primarily seen as dark and dingy parts of a home. In most cases they are considered a useless area or are used as a "catch all" for family discards that haven't...
Make Big Profits With Fixer-Upper Houses
Many people are enticed by the prospect of making money by repeatedly buying rundown homes, moving into them, fixing them up and reselling them for a profit. The strategy has become even more popular in recent years, thanks to homeowner-friendly...
Realtor Commissions: 5 Powerful Ways To Explode Your Business
As a realtor in today's ultra-competitive real estate market, it takes drive, determination, a positive mental attitude, and a solid business plan in order to become successful. If you want to truly become a major success, it is absolutely vital...
Should You Buy a House or a Condo?
A big debate these days is whether or not to buy a house, or buy a condo. Most of this debate comes from a lack of understanding about condos, and what they are. Hopefully, the following information will prove to be helpful.
When Buying a...
The Best Realtor Knows How To Listen
Realtor Traits That Really Pay Off
Today's home buyer is looking for a lot in a Realtor and rightly so. As the home buying market continually increases and diversifies, the competition between Realtors intensifies. What makes some Realtors...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Real Estate Marketing -- How To Measure Your Direct Mail Success
Eugene Schwartz, author of Breakthrough Advertising, said it best: "There are no answers in direct mail except test answers. You don’t know whether something will work until you test it. And you cannot predict test results based on past experience."
What he means is this. You can take something that has worked for another real estate marketer, apply it to your own audience, and have it flop. Or it could be a huge success. The only way to know for sure is to try it and test it.
Sure, there are "best practices" you can start with, and you can learn a lot from the successes and failures of other marketers. But to get the best possible ROI on your real estate marketing investment, there is no substitute for testing.
Think of it this way. Best practices will put you ahead of 75% of your competition. Testing can help you surpass the other 25%.
And Now for the Good News:
Direct mail makes testing easy. In fact, it’s one of the easiest marketing mediums to track and measure. If you send 500 postcards out and get 25 phone calls about that postcard, you’ve just measured a 5% ROI (if we could all be so lucky!).
Advertise through radio or television, and your results are much harder to quantify.
You don’t have to be an analyst or statistician to start a basic testing and measurement program for your direct mail. Here’s an example of how simple it might be:
Step 1:
Send a farming piece using buyer’s (or seller’s) guide as primary offer. Use this piece for a specific period of time -- let’s say two months.
Step 2:
Track and record all responses that come from that card. When you get an email or phone call from a prospect, ask them how they heard about you. If they say, "We received a postcard mentioning your buyer’s guide," then chalk up a response to that particular card. Stop counting at the two-month mark and write down the total number of responses.
Step 3:
Next, adjust a single element of your mailer -- let’s use the headline for this example.
Step 4:
Send your new mailer and track the response over the same period of time as you measured the first. Example: Out of 200 pieces mailed, postcard one generated seven responses in a two-month period. But postcard two generated 11 responses in the same period of time.
Postcard two is the winner (or the "control"). And because you only changed the
headline, you know specifically what led to the increased response ... a stronger headline!
Toss the weaker headline, keep the stronger one, and repeat the process with a new "challenger."
Now continue this one-element-at-a-time method for other parts of your mailer. Test the layout, the wording, the offer and the list. Pretty soon, you’ll have a combination of best headline, best graphics, best layout ... best everything. Run it until the wheels fall off!
"But how do I know which card somebody is responding to? Maybe they’ve just held on to card number one for a long time and are calling in response to it (instead of the current version)."
Easy. Just place a small code in the corner of each piece to allow for tracking. Example: Code 144 equals postcard one. Code 155 equals postcard two. When a prospect calls in response to your postcard, I can practically guarantee they have the postcard in hand (or nearby).
Then you simply have to ask, "I hope you don’t mind my asking, but I like to track my postcards to see which ones have been delivered properly ... is there a number in the lower left corner of the card?"
This is a basic but reasonably effective approach to testing. I won’t go into the weeds of statistically valid samples, because it’s beyond the scope of this article. Just know that you have dozens of ways to track responses. Where there’s a will to test, there’s a way to test.
Use your imagination. Keep it simple. And above all else, be consistent.
If you want to learn more about testing (and about proven advertising techniques in general), I recommend a book whose name says it all: Tested Advertising Methods, by John Caples. To go the free-information route, just type "how to test direct mail" into any major search engine.
About the Author: Brandon Cornett has worked as a marketing manager for a direct mail company serving the real estate industry since 1986. He now dedicates his time to helping real estate professionals improve their marketing. His "Modern Guide to Real Estate Marketing" and his free newsletter are available at: http://www.ArmingYourFarming.com
Source: www.isnare.com
|
|
|
|
|
| Real Estate, Property, Land and Homes for Sale, lease and rent ... |
| Comprehensive real estate and property listings. Includes information on buying and selling, tips on building, an auction timetable and other helpful ... |
| www.realestate.com.au |
|
| Real Estate | Homes for Sale | Houses for Sale | MLS Listings ... |
| RealEstate.com provides home listings , homes for sale , REALTORS , house listings , apartment locating services. We have Florida real estate , Texas ... |
| www.realestate.com |
|
| REALTOR.com: Real estate listings & homes for sale |
| Search for a new home or find mortgage rates, real estate agents, and relocation services throughout the US, Canada, and Puerto Rico. |
| www.realtor.com |
|
| Real Estate on Yahoo! Real Estate - Homes, Mortgage Rates, School ... |
| Yahoo! Real Estate is the most comprehensive place for real estate, housing market information, school reports, local mortgage rates and more! |
| realestate.yahoo.com |
|
| Find Your Home Value, House Values and Prices on Yahoo! Real Estate |
| Yahoo! Real Estate - Free instant home values and comparable home valuations for millions of houses. Check your home's price or any house value. |
| realestate.yahoo.com |
|
| Real Estate, Houses for Sale, Rentals, Commercial and Businesses ... |
| Real Estate, Houses for Sale, Rentals, Commercial and Businesses for sale at Realestate.co.nz. |
| www.realestate.co.nz |
|
| Real Estate - Buy, Sell or Rent a Home - New York Times |
| Online real estate listings for properties in New York and nationwide. |
| www.nytimes.com |
|
| Century 21 Real Estate Agents and Brokers |
| Agency with franchised offices throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. Find local offices and agents, ... |
| century21.com |
|
| Zillow - Your Edge in Real Estate |
| Zillow provides a free Home Valuation Tool for Real Estate enthusiasts. Whether you're an agent, broker, buyer of investment property or first time ... |
| www.zillow.com |
|
| STLtoday - Homes |
| Real estate agent revels in the boom in downtown St. Louis living ... [more real estate news as seen in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch] ... |
| www.stltoday.com |
|
| Real estate - Boston.com |
| Boston Real Estate - Search the Boston Globe and Boston.com for Massachusetts Real Estate, Boston Condos, Land for sale, Vacation Rentals and more. |
| www.boston.com |
|
| ABCs of Real Estate |
| Real Estate ABCs consumer tips, hints, and resources for home buyers, sellers, and mortgage borrowers. |
| www.realestateabc.com |
|
| washingtonpost.com - Washington DC real estate, Maryland real ... |
| Washington, DC, Virginia and Maryland homes, real estate news and headlines. [Registration required] |
| www.washingtonpost.com |
|
| Coldwell Banker Real Estate Corporation |
| Real Estate from Coldwell Banker ®. Buying a home, selling a home, or finding a real estate agent is easy with Coldwell Banker. Find a home, sales associate ... |
| www.coldwellbanker.com |
|
| Detroit News Online | Real-Estate |
| Sellers around the state have been frustrated with the slow sales patterns of Michigan real estate over the past year or two. But buyers have been enjoying ... |
| www.detnews.com |
|
| Newsday.com - Long Island Real Estate for Nassau County and ... |
| In a real estate market increasingly defined by niches, ... Real Estate Resources. Search by school district for recent home sales in Nassau and Suffolk ... |
| www.newsday.com |
|
| Real Estate for Sale, Rent and Share @ Domain.com.au |
| Real Estate for Sale, Rent and Share @ Domain.com.au. Houses and apartments for sale or rent all over Australia. Thousands of properties in Sydney, ... |
| www.domain.com.au |
|
| Luxury real estate news and features - Forbes.com |
| Luxury real estate news and features at Forbes.com. Core topics include real estate, mansions, condos, co ops, oceanfront realty, second homes, ... |
| www.forbes.com |
|
| Real Estate News - Prices, Mortgages, and Calculators from CNNMoney |
| Latest on mortgages, refinancing, & home tips from CNNMoney.com. Calculators for refinancing, mortgage payments and more. |
| money.cnn.com |
|
| Los Angeles, California, national and world news, jobs, real ... |
| Los Angeles' leading online source for local, state, national, world, entertainment, and sports news. Plus jobs, real estate, cars and shopping information ... |
| www.latimes.com |
|
|