Spring has sprung and it is a great opportunity to reach out and get in touch with your sphere of influence and prospects. So are you in need of some unique “out of the box” direct marketing items or client gifts to send this spring? Here are a few great “out of the box”  ideas to give your direct mail marketing a kick this spring.

The theme here for spring is items that your client can plant, and will be quite memorable.

• Mail a Tree Seedling- Brought to you by Green World Project… Impress your clients and prospects by mailing them a tree seedling for them to plant.  This company has many options to send different kind of tree seedlings options in different kind of packaging. My favorites are the birdfeeder trees! Prices range from $2.50 a piece to $20 a piece depending on which tree package you want to send.  Green World Project will even manage the mailing part for you for an additional fee.

• Plantable Shapes- These cool plantable shapes look like little ornaments, and have seeds embedded in them so people can just plan them as is. The best ones for real estate is the one shaped as a house, but you can go with any shape you would like.

• Flower Stakes  w/ Seeds – The cool thing about these unique flower stakes is, you can put your inprint on these stakes and they already have the seeds attached to them.

• Folded Notecard with Plantable Paper-  How cool is this? It’s a notecard you can have printed with your logo/message and has a paper attached with seeds embedded for planting. Or try Bookmarks with the same concept.

• Mailable Seed packets – Then of course there are mailable seed packets that you can put your imprint on, put on the postage, and mail as is.  Here are several vendors that provide great ones:
• http://www.sanzospecialties.com/index.cfm?action=cat.catalog&categoryID=105
• http://www.reamark.com/catalog/mailable_seed_packets.htm
• https://www.sparrowandjacobs.com/index.php?pageId=4

So this spring, plant those marketing seeds with your past clients, present clients, and sphere of influence.

Sick and tired of searching high and low for the perfect closing gift for your clients? Tired of giving the same old gift basket? Don’t want to give something that’s too impersonal? Now there’s a way to let your clients select their own perfect closing gift.

One of the vendors that had generated a lot of buzz among us VAs at the NAR conference was this company, Ribbon: The Gift of Choice. To give your clients the gift of choice you choose to send one of Ribbon’s gift albums to give your recipient and that consist of page after page of quality brand name gifts where your client can pick the perfect gift for them. They can choose from the latest technology, apparel, sporting goods, kitchen items, jewelry and more.

There are several different gift collections that can fit every budget with prices ranging from general “Variety” at $25  and all the way up to the “Luxe Royale” collection at $750.

How does it work? 1st you select the gift collection you would like to give your recipient. Then you choose the “All Pieces” ensemble that includes the catalog, a gift card and an envelope that make a lovely package to give to your client. The packet will then be mailed to you to give to your client. Your client then goes to www.ordermygift.com to make their gift selection that will then be shipped to them within 10 business days.

It is as simple as that! And your client will have no idea what price range you chose for them, just that you gave them a great selection of gifts to choose from.

Happy giving!!

Ribbon can be used for any occasion including birthdays, weddings, baby showers, housewarming and holiday gifts. I will even be considering using this myself this Christmas season.

Megan Barber is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, owner of Barber Virtual Assisting Solutions, and publisher of The REAL Advantage E-Zine. Megan has spent 9+ years doing the “behind-the-scenes” work in the real estate industry assisting agents with their real estate marketing and transaction needs.