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Make Your Direct Mail Campaigns Work Harder

June 29, 2023

One of the most tried-and-true pieces of advice you’ll get as a real estate professional is to make a habit of handwritten communication. You probably started your career by writing notes to your sphere of influence and letting them know you passed your real estate exam. You may regularly send handwritten thank you notes to clients after each closing or to mark the anniversary of their purchase.

What if you could amplify the scale and impact of your handwritten notes and add smart features that make them far more effective? With tracking and targeting capabilities as well as up-to-the-minute technology, it’s possible to combine the personal appeal of handwriting with the effectiveness and efficiency of smart content marketing.

The feel-good benefits of direct mail

There are few feelings as special as getting a piece of handwritten mail. Whether it’s a card on your birthday or a letter from an old friend, the right words at the right time can become a treasured keepsake and a reminder of how much you are loved.

Tapping into that kind of visceral, emotional connection is what great marketing -- and relationship building -- is all about. When you add a thoughtful message to a piece of handwritten correspondence, you amplify the words themselves and the ideas they convey. In short, your message is instantly more important than it would be in an email or text.

In addition, in this era of information overload, handwritten cards cut through the clutter and noise of one-size-fits-all pre-printed greetings and marketing collateral. That means they don’t get dumped in the recycle bin with the other junk mail -- giving your message the chance to go to work growing your real estate business.

The downside of traditional mailing efforts

So if handwritten correspondence is so effective, why don’t more real estate professionals do it on a regular basis? There are a couple of compelling reasons:

Lack of tracking & ROI

When you send out a card or letter to a member of your sphere, you may or may not get a response to it. You may feel funny asking if they received your card and you may not know what kind of effect, if any, it had on the recipient.

Mass mailing efforts

In order to have a significant impact, you would have to spend hours handwriting notes and envelopes, stamping them, then mailing them. To scale up for a larger audience with traditional mailing strategies, you’d lose the personalization that makes handwritten letters so appealing -- trading writing for printing, trading stamping for metering.

How to make direct mail work harder for real estate

What if you could have the best of handwritten direct mail updated and upgraded for a larger sphere or direct mail farm? What would it take to create direct mail that combines the best of a thoughtful note and a contemporary content marketing strategy?

Make it more efficient

Rather than spending hours writing letters and cards yourself, tap into the innovation and efficiency we offer. Our robotic correspondents write your notes with real blue-ink ballpoint pens, creating an authentic and consistent look that is virtually indistinguishable from a note written by hand.

Make it more comprehensive

We’re not just writers. We provide down-deep expertise and specialization in the real estate space. That means that the content we produce is meaningful and written the way you’d write it yourself. In addition, our enhanced technical capabilities upgrade your correspondence, creating physical mail designed for the digital age.

Make it smarter

To effectively manage your operational budget, you need to know what’s working -- and what’s not -- with your marketing and outreach. Trackable analytics with SmartNumbers and QR Codes allow you to see who’s engaging with your direct mail content and even provides a heads-up if they’re calling in to speak with you. That gives you more confidence and the ability to follow up more effectively, for higher conversion rates and a more predictable return on investment.

Make it more meaningful

Thanks in part to that technical tie-in, your correspondence will become more meaningful and targeted over time. As you better understand the audiences that are engaging with your notes, you can take advantage of data targeting and filtering capabilities that make your direct mailing lists more effective. That means that you can also target your message more effectively, directing your enhanced content to the most engaged members of your mailing list.

Keep the personal touch

Every envelope is handwritten and bears a real first-class postage stamp. That keeps your direct mail item from looking like a mass-mailed advertisement, resulting in a higher open rate for your notes and cards. When direct mail feels personal it gets read -- putting your message across more effectively and reliably than other forms of content marketing and advertising.

Experience the Addressable difference

Taking care of your clients and nurturing leads is what you do. Our job is to help forge the connections that build your sphere of influence and keep you top of mind in your target markets. Our proprietary systems and processes make you look like the most thoughtful and professional agent or broker in your area while generating significantly higher ROI than other strategies.

At Addressable, we believe that handwritten correspondence is the best way to make a lasting impression on your sphere of influence, geographic farm, or the area around your latest listing. What’s more, we make it infinitely more effective and efficient by adding smarter features to your beautiful handwritten content, creating communication that gets your message across. Schedule a consultation with an Addressable marketing expert.

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FAQs

Can I test a small number?
We’ve learned through testing that the minimum sweet spot for generating listing leads is 1,000 cards. Less than that won’t deliver the results you want . Our goal is to set you up for success and demonstrate clear value with every dollar you spend on handwritten cards.
How do you differentiate from other handwriting companies?
Addressable provides an end-to-end solution. When we produce a handwritten mail campaign for you, our goal is to generate listing leads for you. We help you stand out—and differentiate yourself—in a competitive market. Our experts craft the message, target the right homeowners, and track your results.
Why are handwritten cards better than post cards?
Most of our agents have the option to use brokerage postcards for free or low cost. Agents choose to use handwritten cards because we get them listing leads. Brokers want their logo going out—it’s a branding play. In reality, they don’t really help your business. Postcards focus on the brokerage. Handwritten cards focus on building rapport with the homeowner and how you can be of service. Postcards often don’t make it in the door. They typically go directly into the homeowner’s recycle bin. Postcards are mailed in bulk. The USPS discards undeliverable postcards. They kind of go into the void. And you don’t get confirmation when they actually drop in the mail. Postcards are visually overwhelming. There’s no clear message why someone should pick up the phone and call you.
Can other agents mail to my area?
Nope! No other agent can market in your tiles.
Do people really think these are real?
Yes! In a 3rd party blind study, participants were presented several cards. Some messages were written by our robots, some by humans. Participants were unable to identify which handwriting was done by a robot.
How does Addressable work?
With our proprietary technology, an actual ballpoint pen is pressed to heavy card stock using a realistic human font. Our end-to-end process is carefully designed so that there are no marketing “tells or tip-offs.” Each homeowner who receives a card will believe you took the time to write it.
Can you tell me all the agents you work with?
Nearly every individual agent or team we work with does $20+ million in production, and they're very private about their marketing programs. They consider Addressable part of their secret sauce. Check out our top clients that have found success with us.