Real Estate Foreclosure Marketing Secrets

Posts Tagged ‘Copywriter’

Want to power up your next postcard mailing?

Then go one step beyond merely telling your audience what your real investment business has done for others in the past – have your customers tell them.

No you don’t have to enlist your former customers to telephone prospects.  Instead use the powerful direct-marketing tool called the testimonial.  If you’ve been in business long enough, it’s easy enough to ask a satisfied customer to write a couple sentences (it really doesn’t need to be any long than this) about how they benefited from your services.

A true, honest and compelling testimonial from a satisfied customer is much like a picture – it’s worth a thousand words.

You can try to convince  your audience till your pen runs out of ink that your service is well worth their time and energy.  But, face it, you’ve got a vested interested in telling people that – you want to make money.

On the other hand, a person who is volunteering their very positive experience is much more persuasive.  I’ve seen some direct-mail for products that is nothing but two page or more of testimonials.

You can give this testimonial a clever headline. “Let our customers speak for us.”  “Our customers say it much better than we can ever!”

The point is that your message will have a more powerful impact when you add a testimonial that praises your services.

Your next question, no doubt, is just where do you place these testimonials.  You may truly believe that one area of your postcard is simply better than another.  Well, as far as direct marketers can tell right now from research, no single area is really any more effective than another.

If you feel you don’t have space on the message side of your postcard, look to the front.  That’s right the area that’s reserved for the address.  Why not put a short testimonial or two on the front.

When I worked as a copywriter for a nutritional supplement company, we routinely placed to testimonials on the front side of any postcard mailing we’d create.  And I must tell you that our postcards received an absolutely outstanding response rate!
Of course, if you can place them any where on the other side as well it only increases the potency of your marketing campaign.

Testimonials tell your audience that you’ve already done business in a professional manner.  More than that, they show your audience that you’re just not generating hype. Anyone can send a postcard telling you they can buy your house in 48 hours.  But not everyone can actually do that.  If you have a customer – or two or three – you can tell them for you, then you’ve overcome their initial, innate hesitancy.

So, be sure to include one or more testimonials in your next postcard mailing.  If you’ve never used them before, just be prepared for an increased response in your real estate investment campaign.
By Mark Bradley

Get $375.95 worth of custom real estate blogs FREE >>Click Here<< before they are gone!

Join My Mailing List

On the surface of it, this may sound like a really stupid idea for any direct-marketing plan, especially for one that produced few results in real estate investing initially.  But before you condemn me for obvious stupidity, let me clarify myself.

You’re probably thinking that if your direct-mail postcard campaign didn’t work initially, you may have done a few things wrong.  And that’s all together possible.  Let’s face it, no one performs without flaws the first time around.

But that doesn’t mean you throw everything out.  Direct marketing is a complex business.  And while I wish I could call it a science like chemistry it isn’t even close to that.  If you put two molecules of hydrogen with one of oxygen, you’ll come up with water H20 – every time.  Without fail.

Nope.  Direct marketing just isn’t that precise.  I suppose it’s more of an art, or a craft – or some of the very best marketers work on their hunches.  Which won’t help you at all – especially if you’re in the “start up” phase of your business.

But there is one thing that every marketer knows as sure as he knows his own name: few buyers act on an offer (of anything!) with the first mailing.  Oh, you’ll get a few people who’ll act the first time around, but more often than not they’re waiting.

Waiting for what, you ask.  For any number of things.  A person may receive your postcard and just not be “emotionally” ready to sell yet.  Or he may be in the process of taking another route, so he’s waiting to see how that transaction is turning out.

Quite frankly, if he’s never heard of you or your firm before, he may just be wary of your intentions, your honesty and the risk involved.

The point is:  don’t take a no response as a sign of your customer not being interested.

Of course, there may be other reasons why your mailing didn’t pull as you thought it should.  And these very well may be associated with your headline . . . your message . . . or your list itself.

Now that I’ve totally confused you, you’re wondering exactly what you should be doing. Mail again.  Make one simple change in your mailing – perhaps you’ve discovered you can write a stronger headline.  Then do it.  And mail it out again. Record the response you receive with this particular headline.

And don’t be afraid to mail these out to some of the same people.  Many people may not buy the first time around because they’ve never heard of you.  But if you consistently put your name in their mail box, then they’ll come to know you as that real estate investor.  And then — merely because you have that sticking power – they may call you when all their ducks are lined up in a row and they believe you can help them.

Remember, the direct marketing gives you the chance to present your customers with the ultimate sales presentation.  But you may have to show them – time and again – that your real estate investing is in it for the long haul.  And that may mean mailing postcards – with modified messages if necessary – to them more than once.

By Mark Bradley

Get $375.95 worth of custom real estate blogs FREE >>Click Here<< before they are gone!

Join My Mailing List

Real Estate Investor Insider Secret #2:

TurboCharge Your Postcard Campaign:

Tune Into WIIFM

Are you tuned into WIIFM?  No, it’s not the latest radio station in your area.  It’s shorthand for a fundamental direct-mail principle   – a principle every real estate investor should keep uppermost in his mind.

WIIFM.  An acronym for What’s In It For Me?  When your recipient receives your postcard in the mail, you have a scant 30 second or less to grab their attention.  That means you need to answer that question for them.

If you’re offering something to them, that “something” must be beneficial to them in some way.  You may have heard this phrase in another way.  Perhaps some staid, academic copywriter once told you to emphasize benefits, not features.

And you probably nodded and went on your way, only later wondering what the real difference was between a benefit and a feature.  That’s exactly where WIIFM comes in loud and clear.

A benefit answers the question:  What’s In It For Me?  When you tell the potential seller what he can gain from this arrangement, then you have him thinking about selling.  Far too many real estate investors spend far too much time telling the seller about his business.

Yes, it is reassuring to know if you’ve been in business for so many years . . . and that you’ve sold so many houses . . . and you’ve generated so much extra cash for your customers.  Those, however, are all features – very important features of course.

You need to turn these features around to make them attractive to your seller.  Then and only then you turn your feature into a benefit.

Remember, when push comes to shove, an individual potential customer sitting at his kitchen table reading your post card will eventually stand up and wonder:  What’s In It For Me?

Answer that question for him and you’re succeeding in your marketing campaign. It’s not a simple question to answer – not when it comes to real estate investing.  You must consider exactly what your customer wants.

If he’s facing foreclosure, he wants out of this nightmare.  But more than that he probably wants to keep his house.  You may be tempted to go with “I’ll give you fast cash for your house.”  And for some individuals this certainly may work.

But maybe – just maybe – in addition to wanting the money, he may want to be reassured that whoever buys the house will treat it well . . . will love it the way he and his family has.  After all, to him, the house is more than just a structure . . . it’s a home where his children played and slept, where family meals were eaten . . . where family stories were shared.

Keep these things in mind when you attempt to answer the question – from the seller’s perspective – What’s In It For Me?

Fast Cash?  Sure.  But perhaps just a little bit more as well. If you can deliver – through your postcard campaign — an angle that includes care for the home and even peace of mind for the homeowner, then you’ll well on your way to closing that sale. And you’re becoming the successful real estate investor you always knew you could be.

Get $375.95 worth of custom real estate blogs FREE >>Click Here<< before they are gone!