Take the Lead with Direct Mail.

“73% of consumers prefer mail for receiving new listing announcements or offers from companies as compared to 18% from email.”
-International Communication Research Survey

One time mailings may soon be forgotten. Consistent, timely communication is key to becoming the local real estate expert. Merrill’s personalized postcards are designed to help deliver the right message to the right person quickly and economically.

Features and Benefits of choosing Merrill:

-Choose from over 300 Postcards, designed specifically for Real Estate
-Create geographically targeted mail lists using mLIST – FREE with every mailed order
-USPS Every Door Direct Mail templates
-Instant online proofing
-Orders placed by 7 p.m. central time are mailed the next day

Direct mail marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Build Your Brand on LinkedIn

With over 238 million users, LinkedIn has become a go-to social media platform since the day it launched on May 5^th, 2003. Now with reaching 200 countries and territories; I would say LinkedIn is a GREAT place to build your brand. Out of all the popular social media venues, LinkedIn is perhaps the most business-oriented, which makes it a fantastic tool for lead generation and professional networking. To get noticed on LinkedIn, be sure to do the following…

Create a Professional Profile
Two of the most important information LinkedIn let’s you share are the description that appears next to your photograph and your summary. In your personal description, be short and descriptive, for example, “Real Estate Broker” or “Real Estate Professional”. Set your profile to public so it appears in search engine results and those not connected to you can see your profile. Use your summary to describe why people should choose to work with you, including any specific expertise or specializations you have.

Make Connections
 LinkedIn promotes connecting only with people you know, so start building your contact base by connecting with friends, colleagues, associates, classmates or family. You’ll be surprised by the amount of connections that have a LinkedIn profile and are actively using it daily. After making those connections, make sure to endorce them if you think they excel in a certain skill. They’re over 1 billion endorsements on LinkedIn.

Build a Company Page
LinkedIn also lets you build profiles for your business. There are over 3 million business pages on LinkedIn. Once you’ve built a strong personal profile create a Company Page. These business focused profiles can help draw attention to your real estate business. Utilize the “help” options LinkedIn provides you with. Your success with this platform generates success for them as well.

Become a Groupie
LinkedIn has 1.5 million groups, ranging from high school and college alumni to major league baseball group to non-profit organizations. Participating in groups can help you stay informed on topics of interest to you and make new contacts in your industry or area. They can also educate you on specific topics ideas you may not be aware of. If you find that some members of the groups are interesting, send them an invitation request and/or message them. Starting a group is also a great way to find incite on the topics relevant to your career. For example, launching a group about home buying tips in your area could position you as the local market expert. Networking is essential in today’s society and business.

LinkedIn has been around for over a decade now and more than 3% of the world’s populations is on it. It started out in the living room of its co founder Reid Hoffman. Since then it has gone global by expanding into Asia, Europe, Australia, UAE and many more countries and supports several languages. There is literally a world out their full of connections to network with, you just need to sign up! It’s FREE!

Have you done your 2014 Marketing Plan?

You will want to identify your goals and determine who your target market is.  This will help you know exactly what your target market is looking for when choosing a real estate professional. The key to success is to utilize all marketing tools.  There are many different options for marketing, but here are five ways that will be most effective in 2014.

1. Get social! Social media is essential to your business.   The key to using social media to market to your consumers is to catch their attention and engage them early on in their search.  Consumers want to know what is happening so make sure to not only post pictures of new listings, but post information that is relevant and engaging.  If your target market is impressed with your brand, they are more likely to tell their friends about it which generates referral business for you.

   Using social media can be time consuming, so be willing to invest in resources that can drive your brand.  Hootsuite is a site we mentioned in our last post that can help conserve time and you can schedule your posts ahead of time.   

2. Direct Mail – As online marketing is becoming increasingly popular, do not forget about the effectiveness of direct mail.  Direct mail is delivered to the home of a potential client and will be physically handled.  The benefit of direct mail is that your name will be directly in the eyes of a potential client without having them go search for it themselves.  Direct mail can position you as a neighborhood expert and helps you stand out from the competition. 

   Direct mail should give clients and prospects options to connect with you.  Include your phone number for people who like to make a personal contact.  An email address allows people who prefer everything in writing to contact you.  Try a QR code for those clients that are always on their smart phones. Generate a QR code with Azon Media.
   http://azonmedia.com/qrcode-generator/

   Make sure to include your URL so clients can visit your website without having to use a search engine to find it.

3. Article Marketing is a great way to promote your experience, website or blog. The name says it all: article marketing means marketing yourself with articles and it’s easy to do if you know how.  Effective article marketing is about writing quality articles that are useful or interesting to your market, using some on your own website and getting some published on other related websites.   Internet article marketing is helpful for those agents to promote their expertise in real estate.
4. Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action. Basically, content marketing is communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. Give them a reason to listen to you without feeling pressured.
5. Video marketing is one of the best ways to engage with your clients because it can encompass all of the above marketing tools. Thank you, YouTube!  You may assume that creating a video is expensive and time consuming, but as video marketing becomes more popular, there are many services to help you or with the purchase of some equipment, you can create one yourself. 

These marketing tools will be sure to help you be noticed in 2014.  Create a marketing plan now that includes social media, direct mail, articles, blogs, videos and more. Merrill 4 Marketing offers a template to help you establish a successful marketing plan for 2014. Visit our website at http://www.merrill4marketing.com. As you begin using these marketing tools, take notice to what is most effective and what your clients are really reacting to and keep those priority.