I've started 2 property management firms from scratch using direct mail and I continue to grow my business using quarterly mailings....what you send is almost important as how you send it.
E-mail is quite affordable compared to radio, TV and even direct mail - but can it stand alone?
A lot of small businesses have shifted entirely to e-mails last year in an attempt to save money and found out the hard way that e-mail marketing by itself just doesn't cut it.
Two of these businesses are highlighted in a Wall Street Journal Article. Read the article, Firms Hold Fast to Snail Mail Marketing.
Snail mail may not be instant, but it still brings results.
In an earlier post, The Inbox versus the mailbox, I said that snail mail and e-mail can be used together to experience synergy.
For example, you can send a postcard to a distressed homeowner that recently missed a mortgage payment, and on the post card direct them to a landing page for a free report on the alternatives to foreclosure. In order to receive this report, capture their e-mail address in a contact form.
Any feedback is most welcome.
Wallace S. Gibson, CPM * GIBSON MANAGEMENT GROUP, Ltd.
Central Virginia
LandlordWhisperer
View our available Charlottesville, Albemarle and Lake Monticello rental homes online with photos and floor plans
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Sadly, you can send out millions of fraudulent emails for NOTHING and hope to hit on on or two hard-up, strapped folks that will send you a bank account number. Email and the computer's internet have changed the World and we are only in the beginning stages, surely. Imagine what we will do on our wrist in short order. Wrists will no longer be for watches and bracelets, but for computers and who can imagine what!
Cheers from Jim in Florida
Jim * My experience is that NO ONE direct-mails for property management * NEVER so I started doing it and built up 2 property management firms....absentee-property owner-landlords will KEEP the brochure/mailing I send them and call me when they need me - maybe 6 months, maybe 2 years; however, when their agent leaves the biz and they need to get a tenant, they will call me....
Wallace-- We recently started direct mail. The cost is something that we struggled with few a while. Like you said email is free, and you get what you pay for. As far as the direct mail, the cost up front is not recouped quickly, but I do belive that it will pay for it's self very fast.
THe other marketing we do such as online, and visiting Real Estate offices, and others, is easy to look at cost vs return. Direct Mail will take a while to see the actual return, but I firmly believe, and after reading more and more of you post, know that it will be one of the best investments in marketing, besides our website. Even better than adwords, pay-per-clicks, and Lead generators.
Thanks for all you advise. I learn from your post everyday!
THanks
BJ * repetition is the key. I mail quarterly Feb * May * Aug * Nov with timely information that landlord can use