How to Boost Your New Real Estate Listings with Some Local Flair

We already know that targeted letter drop campaigns can help your business cut through the digital noise, and stand out from the local competition in a memorable way. But what’s the difference between a successful real estate mailout and a piece of paper that nobody reads?

In this post we’ll take a look at some of the simple creative concepts you can use in your own direct mail campaigns, and how these strategies can help real estate businesses grow their brand and cultivate strong local leads without breaking the bank.

Create Strong Branded Content with Local People and Local Spaces

Let’s say that you and I run a small but competitive real estate company based in the inner western suburbs of Melbourne. We are promoting listings in Footscray, Williamstown and Yarraville, and have decided to go with a direct mail campaign targeting homeowners and investors in these areas.

What do we know about this audience?

Since they have purchased a property before, we know that they have general expectations about real estate and property management. Our ideal lead is looking for someone who will meet and exceed these expectations, and it will take a strong pitch to move them away from their current property managers.

However, we also know that they have lived in the inner west for some time, and have most likely developed a strong sense of the people and businesses near their home.

In fact, there’s a good chance that these potential leads eat at the same restaurants, shop at the same markets, go to the same cinemas and drive on the same streets as we do.

In other words, the people we are targeting aren’t just potential clients – they are quite literally our neighbours!

With this in mind, we begin to frame our real estate mailout in terms that resonate with our audience and create an effective point of difference with some of the larger competitors in our own corner of the Melbourne property market. So we choose to position ourselves as the agent of the Inner West, with a strong connection to the local community, and a unique knowledge of the residents that live there and the properties that they live in.

Get Your New Property Listings on to Someone’s Fridge

We’ve discussed the relative merits of email vs direct mail before. But again, consider the sheer novelty of receiving a letter in the digital age. It almost seems too obvious to say, but unlike an email, a paper mailout is tactile – you can hold it in your hands, you can write on it, you can even put it on your fridge!

Let’s call this the ‘user experience’ of your letter recipient. Keeping this experience in mind can help you craft memorable direct mail content without over-thinking or over-spending on the process.

Our Inner West real estate firm decides to go with a ‘fridge-friendly’ approach to the mailer. We provide listings for all of our best new properties, but include an additional page of useful local content that the recipient can engage with. Some straightforward examples of this could include:

• An events calendar, detailing local festivals, cultural events etc
• A checklist of the best cafes, bars or music venues in the area
• A quiz full of local trivia and/or history of the suburbs
• Information about essential services – nearby schools, hospitals, utilities etc

With this strategy, the point is not that this local information exists – anyone with an interest in cafes or local events could quite easily Google what they need to know. The point, in this example at least, is that our business cares about the local lifestyle. We aren’t just focused on selling property, but on improving our client’s quality of life.

Perhaps most importantly, we have given our mail recipients a reason to hang on to these real estate listings much longer than they otherwise would. This is where the interactive component of your local content matters.

Remember, if a person puts your listings onto their fridge, they have effectively chosen to remarket your services to themselves every time they walk into the kitchen!

Pro Tip: Combine Smart Local Content with Targeted Listing Services

At the end of the day, of course, the goal of your direct mail campaign will be to generate qualified leads for the business, and to convert these leads into sales. Strong locally-targeted content is one way to achieve this goal, especially when supported by your own experience and market research.

Combining these strategies with a thorough residential phone listing service like PrintForce Radius Suburb is also highly recommended. By starting with a high-quality list of local leads, you’ll save time and money by targeting the right people with the right content.

But if your content passes the fridge test, and it connects your brand with a genuine sense of the local lifestyle, then you’re well on your way to a successful batch of new, pre-qualified leads!