direct mail as an agent? REALTOR

[Devin Mann]

does direct mail work well for agents? who should i target?  if i target older people with equity i get about 100k people which is way too many.....  

[Tom T.]

Try a zip code at a time. Would be my suggestion.

[Devin Mann]

whats everyones opinion on every door direct mail? i would like to do both. where do i find a company that provides eddm?

[Claire Trammell]

Direct mail as a Realtor is great! I just heard that a recent study showed that 70% of Americans say mail is more personal than the internet. I also read that 48% of people retain direct mail for future reference. Direct mail is a great way to get your name and contact information out there and readily available for future reference and use.

As for narrowing down the amount of leads to mail to, I agree with @Tom T., target one or two zip codes at a time. One step at a time and slowly expand. 

Although, with 100k leads showing as available is exciting! It may seem overwhelming for a single mailing (totally understandable!) however it is exciting to see the opportunities you may have when you begin sending direct mail more regularly. It will take some time to exhaust 100k leads, therefore it allows you to continue expanding and mail to fresh contacts for a while.

[Jill DeWit]

Direct mail is ABSOLUTELY the best way for realtors! That is the best way to get your phone ringing. Why drive around searching when you can reach thousands in a matter of hours? There are some great resources to help you get the acquire & scrub the data and get in the mail very inexpensively. 

And @Claire Trammellyou are 100% correct about being more personal (and you want to make your mailer very personal for best results). I have had folks hang on to my letters for YEARS before finally being ready to sell and then contacting me.

[Devin Mann]

@Jill DeWit@Claire Trammell

how much  equity should i do for my criteria?

i did 90-100% equity for 600 people is that fine?

[Claire Trammell]

90%-100% is a great start, especially for the age group you are looking to market to.

Although, keep in mind there still tends to be motivation with less equity. Even as low as 30%-40%- 50%. Depending on how many mailing pieces you want to send out at a time, you may want to consider extending out your equity to generate more leads.

[Russell Brazil]

Originally posted by @Devin Mann:

whats everyones opinion on every door direct mail? i would like to do both. where do i find a company that provides eddm?

Every door direct mail is absolutely what you should be doing. Now what mail route to pick? Pick a mail route that has homes priced around the median for your area, or slightly above. Look for a mail route that has a large yearly turnover....at least 5% turnover, preferably 10%. You can get that information by seeing how many houses are in the subdivision, then seeing how many sales there have been in the MLS. You have to be consistent. My colleagues say to hit the mail route every 3 months....I hit it every month. Also make sure you pick mail routes that correlate to subdivisions that are not already dominated by 1 or 2 agents.

Also with EDDM....it will take time to build your presence...so it is something you have to committ to which is hard. That means spending money on it for considerable time before you start to see a return on your investment