The purpose of every marketing piece is to send a message. You may send a real estate postcard where the message is “I’m a neighborhood expert”, or an email newsletter where the message is “I’m a trustworthy and reliable person to do business with”. The specifics of the message will vary depending on the marketing piece you choose and the goal of your campaign, but there is always a message.
Unfortunately, people don’t always send the message they intend to send – or even know what message they’re sending. Here are four ways you may be inadvertently scaring off your prospects with marketing messages you didn’t intend to send:
- “I’m just selling real estate as a hobby.”
One of the fastest ways to scare away real estate prospects is to make them think that you’re not serious about your business. If you send prospects a real estate postcard that was designed in Powerpoint and printed out on cardstock from your office printer, prospects are going to assume that you either didn’t know where to get professional materials, or you didn’t bother to. Either way, not a good look for your business.
How to fix it? Choose professional, well-designed marketing materials. It doesn’t have to break the bank – BestPrintBuy offers real estate postcards for as little as 6¢ per piece.
- “I don’t understand your needs.”
Did you send a block of apartment buildings a prospecting postcard about selling their home? Oops. You can’t anticipate every prospect’s needs, every time, but without doing any market segmentation, you’re likely to be sending a lot of people the wrong message – literally.
How to fix it? Market segmentation and custom mailing lists (either purchased or built yourself) are great ways to help ensure that you’re telling prospects exactly what they need to hear to hire you.
- “I’m too busy to be there when you need help.”
So you sent a great marketing piece to the right prospect, but they just weren’t ready to bite the bullet yet. No problem – except that when they are ready to make a move a couple months down the line, they can’t remember (or find) your information.
How to fix it? Remember that people don’t typically buy until at least the 7th contact they receive from you. A single postcard won’t get the results you want; a sustained campaign will. Make it easy on yourself with postcard mailing services, and get your marketing done while you focus on running your business.
- “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”
If you’ve gotten the right message to the right prospect at the right time, what matters most is what you want to happen next. Don’t let your message peter out without asking the prospect to take the next step. Even interested prospects often need a little extra push to take action.
How to fix it? If you’re asking them to reach out to you – whether that’s giving you a call, visiting your website, or sending you an email – you need to give them a reason. All marketing messages should close with a call to action that gives prospects a compelling reason to make the next move (get a free market analysis, sign up for a free consultation, learn what your home is worth, etc.)