Direct Marketing

Market cooling down?

The main headline on the Drudge Report for much of today has been “The Big Cool Down”, regarding the recent trends in the real estate market. According to this article supplied by Reuters, Existing home sales lowest since January 2004“, the sales of existing homes fell 4.1 percent in the month of July, and the supply of unsold homes was the highest it has been in over 13 years. Some say this is a sign that the bubble is bursting. Others remark that this is merely the market transitioning. In the higher-priced markets, some buyers just simply had tired of the overheated prices and decided to wait it out on the sidelines. Once prices adjust accordingly, many speculate, that the buyers will come back.

What steps are you taking to stay ahead of this “cooling” trend? Over the next few weeks, the BVAS Connection will go over ways to help improve your marketing power and keep you from getting caught up in that slow market rut.

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Real Estate Postcard Marketing – How Your Website Relates

Real Estate Postcard Marketing – How Your Website Relates
By Brandon Cornett

Real estate agents have been using postcards to market their services for decades. But as technology evolves (i.e. the Internet), postcard-marketing strategies must also evolve.

Real Estate Postcards + Website Tie-in

To get the most from your postcard marketing program, you should integrate your postcards with your real estate website. Most buyers and sellers use the Internet at some point to conduct real estate research. The Internet helps people shop for homes, learn about mortgages and find real estate agents.

This Internet activity is already happening, so you don’t have to do anything to generate it. All you have to do is capitalize on it. How can postcards help you capitalize on web traffic? Here are some tips:

The Postcard Offer

One way to integrate postcards with your website is to promote an offer that the reader can take advantage of online. This might be a free report, a seminar, or anything else that can be downloaded, subscribed to, requested, or learned about online.

This increases the value of the postcard, which in turn increases the postcard’s chance of generating a response. Just be sure you have some form of lead-capturing mechanism in place on your website, even if it’s something as “low-tech” as having people email you for the item. The point is to make contact, not just to give away freebies.

The Online Resource Center

Why not build an informational resource section of your website and point to it with your postcards? Maybe your resource center includes property listings with virtual tours. Or maybe it’s a collection of home buying downloads, such as a mortgage guide or a buyer’s checklist.

By doing this, you are once more adding value to your postcard. You’re giving the recipient a reason to (A) hang on to the postcard, (B) visit your website, (C) learn more about you, (D) trust you, (E) contact you, or all of the above! This last point — direct contact — comes from having website lead generators in place like we talked about before.

Alternate Response Paths

By tying your postcards into your website, you’re giving people two ways to respond — direct and indirect. A direct path on a postcard would be a phone number. Some interested prospects will choose the direct route and call you straightaway. But those who are less direct would rather learn more about you first. They need to get comfortable before they “raise their hands.”

About the Author

Brandon Cornett is the author of “Real Estate Postcard Marketing,” an insider’s guide to using real estate postcard marketing. Agents, you can increase your postcard I.Q. by visiting http://www.realestatepostcardbook.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brandon_Cornett