The key word is “new.”

These new home sellers and buyers haven’t heard everything you’ve already said about home buying and selling.  The content they are looking for is likely something you’ve already covered in-depth many a time before.

With that in mind, don’t just cut and paste old content, but update it for today’s real estate market and add your new insights.  These new home buyers and sellers aren’t going to tire of the topics you cover as they’re new to them.  Keep these leads and prospects informed with informative content, but don’t reinvent the wheel every time you need new content.  Some of your tried and true information about buying or selling a home in your area is still relevant and useful to new home buyers and sellers — and effective in bringing in new leads and prospects.

Let us know how you recycle, reuse and repurpose content to find new buyers and sellers.

Things aren’t rosy once again, but we’re moving forward with a new perspective.  The biggest piece of knowledge you might have gained is that one-to-one interactions work the best — just as you knew before the downturn, working directly with one person allows you to see clearly and exactly what their needs and wants are leading you to more closed business because of personal and reactive service.

You’re likely adapting this one-to-one knowledge to your marketing — separating your prospects into niche groups based on what their needs are, what their timelines are like, what their budgets allow.  Following up personally with past clients who are ready to move up (or down) or send referrals your way.  Looking for new leads by providing useful, detailed content about your local market — information these leads cannot find in the national and even regional news.

Most importantly you’ve learned that staying in touch and remaining visible allows leads, prospects and past clients to reach out to you when they are ready to make a move.  Continuing to market during the down times means continued business; cutting out marketing to save money means no business during the down times.

With personalized marketing, you’ve learned what works in any kind of economy.  Share what you’ve learned about marketing during lean times.

One thing to consider is increasing direct mail to your current, hottest leads and past clients. It’s a great way to keep in touch, keep your name out in front of these individuals in a way that email can’t — all while providing solid real estate information.

But, to give your direct mailed pieces some extra punch, be sure to send out an email to this select group before the mail piece hits their mailbox, outlining what is included in it and for recipients to be on the lookout for it.

Dan Richard always suggests another email after the newsletter hits the mailbox too. This “closer” will elicit response from those individuals who are sitting on the fence in regards to selling or buying (those current, hottest leads) or recommending a referral (from past clients). It’s a great way to start the conversation about what you want to talk about most — buying and selling homes!

To jump start your 2011 marketing plan with direct mail, be sure to check out Gooder Group’s February printed newsletter. The deadline to order the February 2011 edition is this Friday, December 3, 2011.  This issue is the special outlook edition and includes:

• ACTION PLAN: Top Tips For Your 2011 Home Sale…Or Purchase! (Special Issue cover story)
• Home Selling Secrets: 4 Savvy, Smart, Sensible Tips To Get Your Home SOLD!
• Home Buying Secrets: 5 Top Tips, Techniques, Keys To Find A home To Purchase
• Less Can Be More: Downsizing Not Just For Retirees
• Bonus Hours: Show Off Your Home During Winter
• Rent Or Buy?: Reviewing Your 2011 Housing Choices
• Saving More: Last Options For Cash
• Buying, Selling or Deciding? (call to action)
• Pay It Forward (asking for referrals)

Make 2011 a fresh new start.  Help your clients with their home buying and selling needs in a fresh new way next year.

Share your plans for 2011 marketing with us.

Guess what?

Don’t just throw something together and email it anyway.  You’ll regret it.  You’re more likely to lose more of those hard-earned subscribers when they see you are sending something incomplete or not relevant to them.  It’s better to take your time and ensure you have done your best to create something that is thoughtful and relevant.  Your subscribers will appreciate it and they’ll stick with you rather than bailing.

You’ve worked hard to earn your subscribers’ trust.  Don’t waste their time.  Don’t make them question why they subscribed to your email list.

How do you handle time constraints for your marketing?  Do you plow ahead or wait until it’s done right?

• The mortgage or rent is always due on the 1st of the month.
• Your cell phone bill (and phone minutes reset) on the 15th.
• You are keenly aware that the credit card billing cycle ends on the 25th, so if you want to make a big purchase and have the longest amount of time to pay for it (without interest) buy it on the 26th.
• We always call Grandma on Sunday afternoon.
• A certain magazine always arrives in Friday’s mail.
• Garbage day is Tuesday.
• You hit the gym each weekday at 6am.

It’s not that we look forward to all of these items, but they are part of our routine whether we get pleasure from them or not.  We simply come to expect them and plan — to some extent — around some of them.  Often these predictable items inspire us to action:

• On or after the 1st you make a point to check your checking account balance to make sure that the mortgage/rent payment has cleared.
• Cell phone minutes reset after the 15th so you “save” a long personal call for after that date when you have a reservoir of talk time.
• After the credit card billing date closes on the 25th, if you want to make a big purchase and have the longest amount of time to pay for it (without interest) buy it on the 26th.
• Gathering everyone around to talk to Grandma on the phone is a Sunday ritual.
• Your weekend downtime is often filled with reading this magazine that arrives on Friday.
• You clean out the fridge on Monday night in anticipation of garbage pickup on Tuesday.
• At the gym, you see the same faces each morning and strike up conversations with new friends.

Consider becoming part of your past clients’ regular routine to work to inspire them to action.  Mail them a direct mail piece at the same time each month — or each quarter.  A newsletter is a perfect way to keep in touch, provide useful information on real estate matters, remind them of your services and ask for referrals.  With a regular mailing schedule, they’ll start looking for your mailing, even expecting it if it’s full of useful information that they use, refer to and then pass along.

You can set up a schedule with other types of marketing you do too.  Market updates about home prices and other data in your area can be compiled and mailed or emailed at the end or beginning of each month to buyers and sellers.  Buyers will find interest rate updates useful and they can be posted regularly to your blog or website, or even your Facebook page or Twitter account at the beginning or end of each day.  Advertisements can run on certain days in certain publications or online sites where viewers will come to expect them.  Blog posts can be scheduled to be updated and posted each day at the same time.

Your consistency in marketing will gently remind (potential and past) buyers and sellers that you make it a priority to think of them.

How do you create a pattern of contact with your past clients?

Direct mail is meant to be held. To be read, studied, examined, tucked away, posted up. It has lasting power unlike many email messages.

The imagery and layout you choose for direct mail can have impact on the recipient. They are more likely to linger over your message, especially when it’s sitting in their hand.

Direct mail’s unique tactile feature allows it to transcend the sterile barriers of email to reach home buyers and sellers unlike other electronic methods.

Don’t rely solely on electronic messages, ads and interactions to build — and sustain — your business. Sometimes a simple postcard, flyer or letter in the mail can have more impact than you’d ever expect, only because it’s something that can be held.

Let us know what your direct mail/electronic marketing balance is.

• If you’re really interested and feeling like you can get a word in edgewise, you will likely interrupt the person and ask for clarification.
• If you’re tired or not super interested or don’t feel comfortable stopping the conversation, you just let the issue slide and walk away not really getting all the information you could.

The key here is to be very careful when you are talking to buyers or sellers.  And, this includes more than just face-to-face conversations.  When you are blogging, tweeting, writing a mail piece or email newsletter, an online or printed advertisement or any other communication, it’s important — imperative — to be totally clear.

• Very few people outside of real estate professionals know what all the designation abbreviations mean behind your name on your business card.  Clarify them, and if you don’t have room to explain them, reconsider their value in winning over new home buyers or sellers when they aren’t explained.
• Acronyms about buying a home such as FHA, VA, HUD, LTV, REO, BPO, etc. should be defined somewhere for those brand new to the home buying world.
• Often used abbreviations or short hand should also be made clear.  Not all people moving to your area are locals and will automatically know that SHB means Sandy Harbor Beach in an advertisement or property description.  Not everyone — seller or buyer alike — knows what a short sale is; be sure to enumerate what it is for those considering buying one.  Think of other shorthand you use that isn’t clear to a new home seller or buyer.
• Understand what home buyers and sellers in YOUR area use in terms of terminology to refer to an area, a type of home, a process.  If you can use the terminology that they are familiar and comfortable with, they are more likely to tune in to your marketing and conversations.

You are an expert in real estate.  However, those you are working with and for aren’t.  Don’t make them “pick up the lingo” you are using; educate them as to what everything means and discuss the topic completely — asking if the person has questions as you go along.

Let us know how you keep your communication clear and complete.

Due to the higher costs of postage and printing, there is definitely less postal mail going out. With that lowered volume of mail we receive each day, it turns out we take a lot longer look at each piece than we ever used to.

Think about the leads you have postal mailing addresses for. If you were to mail them something — a relevant-to-their-real-estate-interests postcard, newsletter, flyer, etc. — wouldn’t they take notice?

Compare the time you spend on each postal mail piece you receive with how much time you spend on each email that comes in your inbox. Chances are you may not even read the entire subject line on an email before you gloss over it or even delete it!

Print marketing is effective. Give it a test and see if you’re marketing efforts are rewarded!

Let us know how you balance digital and print marketing in today’s market.

• When you do group emailings to your contact list, offer a small section of your email (sidebar, P. S., etc.) to other advertisers who might benefit by getting new business with exposure to your list — all without having to share your email list with these other businesses.
• Postal mail can be expensive in big numbers, but if you divide the costs up among other businesses, it can be affordable while providing the same quality leads for you…and your partnered businesses. Consider newsletters (like Gooder Group’s Rainmaker MyCustom newsletter) that offer a section that can be offered up to local advertisers to help you offset the cost of the marketing.
• Advertising on grocery store carts, billboards, bus stop/bus/taxi placards, etc. can be split between you and a business partner while still achieving the same impact from your marketing dollars.
• Consider asking local businesses to contribute flyers and coupons for you to include in new home buyer thank you gifts that provide even more value for home buyers…and ask for referral business as well.
• If you are thinking of creating a commercial (for use on TV or YouTube or other places), consider segmenting the time into sections where each business partner and you have a time slot and split the costs of production.
• To help offset the costs of maintaining your blog, consider selling relevant ads on your blog while bringing added value to your home buying and selling visitors.
• Look for other businesses in your community who are targeting the same demographic group you are.  Contact them to see if they are currently doing mailings or advertising that you can partner with them on, giving you exposure to a new contact list.

Let us know what types of businesses you partner with and how your marketing has expanded due to these partnerships.

Of the surveyed adults who were employed:

• 68% feel more comfortable when they have something on paper than on screen.
• 64% say reading print on paper is easier than reading on a computer screen.

Digital media is no substitute for the ease of use, comfort and familiarity of print media.  And you probably know this clearly if you ever want to take a paperback book to the pool or beach or read in the bathtub; a Kindle or iPad just isn’t the same!

When you have a piece of paper with you, it’s more “real” than a digital copy read online.   Keep this in mind when you create your marketing.  A mix of printed and digital media will help you find more business no matter what the media preference of your home buying and selling consumers.

What is your print and digital marketing mix looking like these days?