The swing back to paper: Why letterbox drops are back

Much has been said recently to question the effectiveness of the good old letterbox drop.

And people are right to question! Done poorly, they return poorly and merely serve to annoy.

Compared to the flashy digital media, paper does start to look rather mundane — but here is the news that heralds a swing back to flyers:

People don’t read emails anymore.

Many use email as a to-do list for tasks ahead of them in their day, or a storage device for names and contact details of people they really should get back to.

And at home, even that is the last thing they want to think about. It feels too much like work.

So what happens to that email? More often than not, it sinks unopened to page 2 of their inbox.

So how do we get those leads? How do we add to our listings? Our real estate prospects? Our property clients?

This is where a physical object on their breakfast table will capture their interest. It will catch them in a receptive mood and, when they are actually looking for your service — looking to move house for example — having your flyer in physical form in front of them presents the path of least obstacle. No need to look anything up, you are there.

Digital is now an indispensable part of business — websites rule this era, but emails just don’t cut through, and we’re all banner-blind to ads. An object in their hands combined with a good and functional website is a great combination to marketing success.

Add to this a list of exactly who is in your suburb and printed marketing can provide a lot of return for very little cost.

But physical material does need to have something going for it. A monocolour A5 is not likely to create a good impression. You need to get creative and give them something worth putting on their fridge:

1. It needs to be pleasing to the eye. A pleasure to see. Elegant, even. Not loud, stark colours nor text overriding the imagery, but a simple message in pictures of what you are about.
2. It needs to be consistent with your brand. If your office has the reputation of being friendly, then the art, design and wording need to give that impression. If you are portraying quality, choose a high-res image of a spectacular property with an elegant font. To portray one and deliver the other would bump off both markets.
3. It needs to be well-written, but not over-written. The fewer words that convey the minimum possible to get them to give you a call, the better, which leads to:
4. Make a clear call to action. Give them one thing to do and they are more likely to do it than giving them three and letting them choose. Direct them to what you want of them.
5. Include a compelling offer. More often than not, merely to present your service clearly along with why you are different is enough, but you might want to include some special of the season. Perhaps they could redeem the flyer at your agency for something of value. Wouldn’t you be more likely to keep hold of a flyer if it were worth a cookie, or movie tickets, or a small (promotional) umbrella? You can also use this to cross-promote other local businesses and create community links.
6. Keep it simple. Yes, you could load your flyer with every last piece of information about you, and jokes, a fold-up model of a house or whatever, but the less you present, the clearer the message, the more likely the action. Make the image support the words and the offer.

Once you have a good item to drop into letterboxes, you need to know which letterboxes, and how often.

You can find out which places are more likely to provide a better response rate by thorough research, then to use a small target audience — a particular street, a particular list — to test your design for response, then you can hone your material, your target and your timing in response to the results.

The best place to start would be with quality data on your target area, then to be systematic about sending material out, and listening for the response. The more you honestly accept the results and respond, the better you’ll be at knowing your people, and how to reach them.

That is where printed material is at its best — with a list of potential clients you can focus in, know who they are, get an object in their hand, and lead them to gladly make their inquiries and add themselves to your real estate list.

 Printforce is a complete service providing the marketing, printing and distribution of materials exclusively for the real estate industry.

Our service Radius Suburb allows you to gain fresh data on your target geographic area, our service Campaign Manager  allows you to manage your own artwork from your own office, we print your materials in-house from flyers to cards to calendars to magnets, deliver them to your office or arrange a letterbox drop for you.

Call today, email or visit https://online.printforce.com.au/index.html