Real estate marketing flyers. We all get them. All the time. So it’s pretty much a no-brainer that letterbox flyers work as part of a real estate marketing strategy.
But which ones work best? Why? And how can we apply that to our own marketing?
Let’s look at a couple of real life real estate marketing flyers and find out.
These flyers both landed in my letterbox at home, and are both from LJ Hooker. One was part of a national campaign, one was produced locally. While I love the local one as a concept, I can tell it wasn’t put together by an experienced marketer. Please note, I’m not meaning to criticise the rep concerned. Her expertise is in selling houses, not in marketing campaigns. Despite that, she produced something professional and attractive – it just could have been better.
Real Estate Marketing Flyer No 1: Nationwide Competition
Who organised it?
LJ Hooker head office. How can you tell?
- The full terms and conditions are on the ljhooker.com.au corporate site.
- There are competition permit numbers for ACT, NSW and South Australia. It’s clearly not a local effort!
- The flyer design is a bulk print run with a shorter, single colour overprinted area for the local branch details.
What’s the objective?
Clearly this is lead generation. LJ Hooker would like to have more homes to put on the market. So they are doing two things:
- They’re capturing names.
- They’re getting sales people out to meet potential sellers, qualify and start building relationships.
You can also assume that there will be other activity going on behind this flyer:
- At each appraisal, the sales person will capture information about the seller and the house. Some of this will be easily searchable – address, postcode, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and so on. Other data will be more free form – the condition of the property, the likelihood the owner will sell in the next two years, etc.
- Each owner will also be assigned for some kind of follow-up. For those ready to sell right now, that will be further sales activity. For those who might sell in the next couple of years, it could be an email newsletter. Or the salesperson may diarise follow-up calls or emails every 3-6 months. The exact plan probably depends on the local LJ Hooker office and the individual salesperson.
Who’s the target?
Home owners. The letterbox drop will go to everyone in the area, whether they own or rent, but the market appraisal is only relevant for home owners.
What’s the offer?
A chance to win $20K. That’s a pretty attractive offer.
The flyer also has two reasons why the appraisal itself is valuable to you. So even if you don’t win, you get something valuable.
Plus, there’s urgency. A deadline, so you have to do something now. You can’t just put it aside to look at later.
What’s the call to action?
The flyer calls you to contact a named LJ Hooker salesperson. And gives you multiple ways to do it:
- Her mobile phone
- Her office phone
- Her office address
- Her office’s webpage on the main LJ Hooker site
- Her email address
- A separate web address for this competition specifically.
What else is going on besides the flyer?
It’s not immediately obvious, but there’s a whole lot of digital marketing supporting this flyer.
I visited the web address on the flyer and here’s what I found.
Points to note:
- This landing page is not part of the main LJ Hooker site – even though the initial url I entered looked as if it was! That was just to make it easier for me to enter (and to create brand trust).
- No menu, no links. Nothing to distract me from the key goal of giving my details and asking for an appraisal.
- Lots of proof and encouragement as I scroll down the page. Brand messages, awards, testimonials.
- However far you scroll, the ‘Ask for an appraisal’ button is still visible. In red so it stands out. Taking you right back to that form so you complete and give your details.
Real Estate Marketing Flyer No 2:
Local Outreach
Who organised it?
The local LJ Hooker branch. How can you tell?
- Four-colour branch-specific printing across the whole of the reverse side
- Different font from the other flyer
- Not all contact details are there. (Phone numbers, but no email or website address)
What’s the objective?
Once again, this is lead generation. But it serves a couple of other purposes too.
Introduce the local sales person. The photo would make her instantly recognisable, except that I’ve covered it with a cartoon!
Create some warmth and value – good feelings towards LJ Hooker in the area.
Who’s the target?
Home owners. The letterbox drop will go to everyone in the area, whether they own or rent, but the market appraisal is only relevant for home owners.
What’s the offer?
There isn’t one.
What’s the call to action?
Once again, LJ Hooker want you to contact a specific sales person.
But there aren’t as many contact methods.
Noticeably, email is missing. And the ljhooker.com.au address is the home page, not the Beecroft office-specific page. Which makes it hard to track any increase in website visits due to this campaign.
What else is going on besides the flyer?
This is the biggest difference. There is no web campaign to back the flyer up. It has to do all the work on its own. And it doesn’t do a bad job.
But it could do better.
Here are my suggestions:
- Include the rep’s email address.
- Show the local office website rather than the LJ hooker home page url.
- Put some branding on the recipe side of the flyer.
- Put a magnet on the back so homeowners can pin this on the fridge. It’s got useful information – make it more permanent so your brand stays around longer.
- Personalise the recipe. A few lines saying why it’s so great. ‘My favourite way to eat strawberries.’ ‘Easy, quick and mess-free.’ ‘Perfect for busy working mums.’
- Invite participation. Build engagement about a common interest. Ask people to email their favourite recipes in or post them to a website to build a local collection. This is the ideal excuse to collect addresses (email or real) so you can deliver the collection later
- Tie in a ‘chocolate strawberries in the office’ occasion one morning and invite people to come along. It’s another opportunity to meet face-to-face and build some relationships.
***
Do you use local letterbox drop flyers in your marketing? They’re a great technique for local businesses of all kinds, not just real estate. And as you can see there are ways to spice them up and get more interaction. So next time you’re planning a leaflet campaign, think hard about how you can make it better. Or get in touch and we’ll brainstorm some ideas!
