The true facts about the use of Newsletters in Real Estate Agency Marketing

If ever there was a subject that seems to be attracting a great deal of confusion it is the use of newsletters in the marketing of real estate agencies.

As a result of the internet, and the fact that many prominent internet marketers are using newsletters as a marketing tool, newsletters have become increasingly fashionable. The problem is that many people and organisations are approaching them in a half cocked fashion not understanding what their purpose is and what type of content they should be carrying for them to work.

The purpose of this Report is to explain:

•  The pros and cons of electronic and printed newsletters and how they have evolved into having different roles within agency marketing
• What’s required to make a newsletter a worthwhile expenditure
• What should never go into a newsletter yet what so many ‘PR / writing services’ fall into the trap of writing about
•  The type of content that’s absolutely essential if you’re going to make a newsletter work

This Report goes beyond the comparing of two forms of newsletters and explains why in the promotion of a real estate agency you should strive to elevate your position in the marketplace.

If you can increase what we call your ‘credibility ranking’ you can become THE go-to agency in your niche market.

This way you not only get MORE prospective sellers coming to you… but you will also find you’re able to get far
more referrals.

Download the PDF version of this report

The traditional role of a newsletter

The use of newsletters has been in vogue for at least
100 years, initially being linked to catalogues.

They came into far greater prominence in the 1990s with the increased awareness of the Lifetime Value potential of a customer and accordingly, the development of Customer Relationship Management.

This emanated from the realisation that there were actually three different levels of people in relationship to a business:

•  The List of Strangers: People who the business had never met but because of demographics, socio-graphics or some other factor these people could be described as potential prospects for the
  business
•  The List of Prospects: People who had indicated an interest in becoming a customer – possibly by obtaining a quote, making an enquiry, asking for an appraisal.
•  The List of Customers: People who had already bought and might purchase again.

It was realised that the latter group in particular, could become the best customers of all if they were treated a little differently and the business showed a continuing interest in them. Furthermore, they are used as a means of maintaining contact with prospects – maintaining their interest up to the point of purchase.

Research conducted by Saatchi & Saatchi, one the world’s leading advertising and marketing agencies in the 1990s found that in most industry sectors, in the region of 74% of purchasers indicated in surveys they were pleased with the service of a business and would repurchase there again.

Yet, some years later when the opportunity to repurchase arose, just 11% actually do repurchase from the initial supplier. The reason for the low repurchasing was that the customers believed the business had lost interest in them.

After a lot of experimentation, the researchers found that the simplest method of maintaining contact with past customers and maintaining presence of mind was via a newsletter.

A newsletter not only helped to maintain presence but it was found that when created correctly the business could become a client’s trusted advisor.

In the world of motor vehicle dealerships this simple tool was found to:

• increase the amount of service work used by customers;
• increase after sales purchasing;
• increase customer referrals
• increase repeat purchasing
• shorten the distance between the initial purchase and repeat purchase

The reasons for these results would take too long to go into now but the outcome made newsletters immensely popular for a wide range of businesses, particularly those where the purchase
size was sufficient to warrant the cost of publishing.

The initial concept, was that the publications should contain interesting information, tips and advice with just a small amount of sales offerings.

As the medium became increasingly fashionable many became little more than sales brochures and there were many disappointments. Just as there are many examples of advertising failing to perform because it is poorly executed, so many businesses that leapt into the use of newsletters had similar results because they failed to understand the type of content a newsletter has to carry to be effective.

However, the businesses that paid attention to content continued to have great success with them – and do so to this day.

Some long established businesses have been using them for many years and can claim a circulation for their newsletters of tens of thousands.

Download the PDF version of this report

Survey proves interest level

As a matter of interest a survey conducted in 2006 by world renowned market researchers, Standard & Poors found of 4,000 people receiving a printed newsletter written to specifically to target the interests of investors:

• 92% of recipients read at least some issues of the newsletters received;
  83% read most or some articles with
  84% of these finding the information useful;
• A whopping 72% saved articles for future use; 74% visited the provider’s website;
• 60% passed on an article to a friend and 40% called for more information.

As a marketing person you need to think about these figures. Compared to other forms of marketing media they can
achieve huge levels of reader interest!

The only way to get attention and
make yourself stand out is to take
on the role of a trusted advisor

But where do newsletters fit within the realms of a Real Estate agency?

Newsletters were initially used by real estate agents to keep in touch with past customers and property management clients.

A number of franchise companies introduced printed versions, distributed to all homes within an agency’s draw area with the purpose of raising the awareness of the agency.

Unfortunately 90% of them were totally generic publications and very often they were written by a writer employed by the franchisor who had very little or in most cases absolutely no experience in the world of selling real estate. The consequence of this was that in some instances they were ridiculous, in some cases an embarrassment and in most cases simply irrelevant to the homeowner with the result they were simply bin fodder.

In our opinion there’s five prime reasons for having a newsletter and unless they’re produced with some level of strategy in mind, you’re better off saving your time and money by not having one. Producing something not thought out, is in our opinion worse than not having one.

The prime reasons for having a newsletter:

1.  To help improve the listing conversion rate of the sales team
2.  To increase the percentage (market share) of listings the agency achieves within the agency’s draw area by building the agency’s credibility rating to being regarded as the ‘area expert’
3. To educate prospective sellersso there’s fewer problems with unrealistic pricing and less vulnerability to competitor’s overpricing
4. To maintain contact with prospective buyers
5. To maintain contact/ educate property management clients

Your Competition
If you don’t position yourself as an expert,
there are plenty of other people who are
more than willing to.

Continue reading…

Advertisement