Wondering how you can dominate listings in your local neighborhood? Or maybe a prospective neighborhood where you hope to do business? It's simple.
The USPS offers a service called Every Door Direct Mail that allows you to mail every address in a specific zip code for a bulk fee.
A typical 5x7 postcard mailing costs 35 cents per unit. The cost of EDDM Retail is $0.18 per piece, plus drop shipping costs.
Here’s how to implement your own EDDM mail campaign.
1. Figure out the type of campaign you’d like to send.
There are many types of campaigns that can be used to successfully farm an area.
- Just Listed Postcards - Show off one of your recent listings in the neighborhood and ask if anyone is interested in buying it.
Example Copy:
JUST LISTED!
Check out this beautiful home at ADDRESS.
Contact AGENT at PHONE or EMAIL to find out more!
- Just Sold Postcards - Show off a home you recently sold in the neighborhood or in another location.
Example Copy:
JUST SOLD!
This home just sold for $399,500!
Contact AGENT at PHONE or EMAIL to find out the value of your home!
- Open House Postcards - If you’re hosting an open house in the neighborhood, this is a great way to promote it and get more potential buyer and seller leads through the door.
Example Copy:
OPEN HOUSE!
Where: ADDRESS
When: DATE/TIME
Hosted by AGENT
PHONE
EMAIL
- House Value Postcards - Offer to provide a free CMA. Direct them to call or email you, or you can also set up a submission form on a website and direct people to that link.
Example Copy:
HOW MUCH IS YOUR HOME WORTH?
Contact AGENT to find out!
AGENT
PHONE
EMAIL
2. Include a high-quality photo of yourself.
No matter which campaign you choose, you should make sure your photo is visible and makes a good first impression.
Also include links to any website or social media pages so people can connect with you.
3. Choose where to send your postcards.
There are a few ways to determine if an area is a good one to farm:
- If it has a high or higher than normal turnover rate.
- If the agent isn’t dominated by a single or multiple agent. Too much noise in an area will reduce your chances of converting leads there.
- If prices are higher, you can land a larger commission.
4. Choose a site to create and mail your cards.
Simply search “EDDM real estate postcards,” and compare pricing and designs on different sites until you find one you like.
Most sites will allow you to import a list of leads or select an EDDM zip code to mail an entire area.
Results in Action
Cathy Blight, an agent in Michigan, has been in real estate for over 20 years.
She primarily works in a rural area outside of Detroit and specializes in lakefront properties, most of them high-end homes.
Cathy’s primary marketing strategy is using postcards to farm her area.
“There are about a thousand postcards that I send out, not just to the lakefront homes, but to the neighborhoods behind — the lake access homes, we call them.
“So what I did this time was I refined it a little bit and I went into the records to see what were non-homestead properties. And non-homestead by Michigan tech standards is a home that you do not — that you don't live in. It's not your primary residence. It’s either a rental or a business or a second home, a cottage or a vacant lot. So I specifically wanted to make sure I got to them.
“So by doing that, what I did was when I went into the deed record. Instead of asking them to send it to the address, I asked them to send it to the taxpayer's address. And that way I would get people who didn't actually live in that home. So that worked out pretty well...and I got three responses.”
The three responses Cathy received on her postcards were from different types of clients.
Client #1
“The first one was a woman whose father had died and believe it or not, his house was right down the street from me. And I knew he had passed away, but that was a couple of years ago. So I was kind of surprised when I got this offer. And she said, ‘Well, I'm settling my dad's estate.’ And she told me where the house was. And she said, ‘I went over to the house. We finally cleaned out all of his stuff, but there was still mail coming there. And I went through the mail and I found your postcard.’ So I actually ended up sending it to a deceased person and I didn't have a response. They were no longer with us. And so she wanted me to come right down, and she really liked the idea.”
Client #2
The second client was a landlord who didn’t live in the area herself but whose property fell in the area where she had mailed the cards.
“And she called me and she said, ‘Well, you know, I wasn't interested in selling my rental. As a matter of fact, I want to hang on to it. It's a good rental; it's a good neighborhood. But I want to find a house for myself.’”
Client #3
“The third one was a fellow who lives right down the road from me. And he has a vacant lot that he needed to sell. It belonged to him and his mother, and he needed to sell it now because she's now in assisted living and he needed some cash to help support that.
“So I knew that the lot existed. I didn't realize that he needed to sell it now. So there was three totally different situations that these people were in.”
Future Business
Beyond those three deals from her postcards, Cathy also expects several more transactions to stem from those clients.
“They referred me to other people when I started working with them because they liked what I did.”
Cathy also discovered there were a lot more rentals around her lake area than she previously realized.
“It was easily 10% of the mailing was rentals and was going from an address as far away as Florida. But they were still holding onto the house up here. And then sometimes it isn't necessarily that it was a rental when it's non wholesale. They could be what we refer to here as snowbirds. Right? And live in Florida in the winter and come up during the summer. And that was their summer home.
“I sold one last year. After a while, they sometimes decide they don't want to be snowbirds anymore and they just want to stay in Florida. So it's always wise to send it to the taxpayer. Don't send it to the house.”
