Direct response marketing for real estate agents is a powerful tool when used properly. This marketing approach has been around since about the time marketing was invented, but it’s still an effective approach today. In fact, it will continue to grow in the future. Real estate agents who master it will have a significant competitive advantage.
What is Direct Response Marketing?
Direct response marketing is designed to obtain immediate responses from prospects. One of the reasons why it’s so popular is because it lets you get immediate feedback on how effective your marketing efforts have been.
For real estate agents, that immediate feedback is important. There are lots of real estate agents who spend marketing dollars on campaigns that defy the calculation of a return on investment (ROI). Most real estate agents need to spend the majority of their time running their business, so it’s easy to sign up for a marketing tool that looks good, and then forget about it. Direct response marketing for real estate agents offers a quick way to monitor ROI.
How Does Direct Response Marketing for Real Estate Agents Work?
Doing direct response marketing is easy, but there are some steps you need to follow.
Create an Offer They Can’t Refuse
The first thing you need to do is create an offer that will attract your targeted audience. For example:
- Market statistics: Create a report on your real estate market that would be meaningful for sellers and buyers. You could include a brief analysis and stats from your MLS including DOM, average sale price compared to the previous year or list vs sale prices.
- Sale prices in a specific neighborhood/farm: Both buyers and sellers are typically interested in this information because it’s something they’d need to do a bit of research to find.
- What you need to know about XX: There are always real estate issues related to your market area. Depending on what’s happening in your market, you could create a report about the importance of termite inspections in an area prone to infestation, or local regulations that prohibit short-term rentals, or how easy it is to live in a house with a septic system.
Create a Page on Your Website to Contain the Offer
Your website can be the hub of your direct response marketing efforts. After you have created an offer, create a new page on your website where you want people to go to take advantage of the offer.
- Give the page a very short name that is easy to spell, something like “offer” or “stats” or “discover.”
- Set up the page so that a visitor must register to download a PDF file you created or have the report emailed to them.
Promote the Offer
Next, you need to let people know about the offer. You can use a variety of tools to promote it.
- Postcards: Forget the “I’m a great agent” postcards. Write the postcard to promote your special offer, and note the page on your website they can visit to take advantage of it. That’s why you need a short page name. People are much more likely to go to www.MyWebsite.com/offer than they are to go to www.MyWebsite.com/what-are-homes-selling-for-in-Hidden-Ridge.
- Your Website: Put an attention-catching call to action on the home page, or in the sidebar of your website, directing people to the offer page.
- Social Media: Make a compelling case for visitors viewing your social media profiles to take advantage of your offer, and link it to your website page.
Track the Results
Use the analytics for your website to determine how many people have arrived at your offer page. You can even tell if they came directly to the page, meaning it’s likely from your postcard, or if they come from a social media site or another page on your website. You can determine the number of people who landed on the offer page and accepted the offer because you’ll get new leads in your real estate CRM.
If you’re not getting the response you desire, change the offer and the calls to action to see how the results change. Marketing isn’t a set it and forget it activity.
When you get good at direct response marketing, you’ll end up with so many listings, you’ll need new showing solutions just to keep up with the volume!
Other Good Real Estate Marketing Ideas
Check out this FitSmallBusiness article for other helpful and creative real estate marketing tips.