Attention all of you who are addicted to paper marketing. It looks like snail mail is on it's way to the Smithsonian, right next to the abacus. I know that in saying we need to get off our addiction to paper, at Active Rain I am preaching to the choir as we say in Oklahoma, and the amen corner is very loud this Sunday. It is not a shock that stamps are going up constantly and usage decreases, and that the Post Office is beginning to downsize. I still have checks from six years ago because of online banking. If you still are only going to give up paper marketing when the pry your cold dead hands off it, consider a few other recent events.
The Boston Globe barely made it. Without significant union concessions and others, they would be toast. Seattle now has an online newspaper only. The Rocky Mountain News is no more. Have you heard of a Kindle? That and it's competitors are changing the face of publishing. I'm finally ready for it. It was hard to lose my addiction to books. Now I know how addicts feel during withdrawal. Real Estate sections started disappearing from newspapers over a year ago.
Now lets look at a survey from the Piper Jeffrey Company about the cost of leads in our business. Per lead here is the breakdown: Search .45c, email .55c, Yellow Pages $1.18, Banner Ads $2.00, and the No 1 and biggest loser is Direct Mail $9.94. Surprised? I was about direct mail. Now besides books I have another addiction to get over.
Finally, let's talk ecology. Virgin Forest are fast disappearing. Real Estate needs to get ahead of the curve on the greening of America and the world. Besides the obvious cost savings detailed in the last paragraph we should show our stewardship of our planet and we can lead the way. This includes making sure your state will accept digital signatures, that we use the electronic forms now available for contracts and addendums and not paper, and even to start using talking sign technology rather than brochure boxes. Besides how many boxes have you seen without flyers?
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We are a team that specializes in residential & commercial investments, short sales, new homes, buyer relocation. I'm in my 20th year of RE, and have a CRS, EcoBroker, e-Pro, ABR, CDPE, and CCIM soon.
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Hello Joe,
I was just thinking to myself today that I hardly use stamps anymore. I found a book of stamps in my wallet that I purchased during the Christmas.
I guess for me there's no real need to use stamps since I do almost everything online, such as; pay bills, send ecards etc... For me, the post office is mainly for sending packages, and handwritten notes of course.
I think this will be a gradual shift, because just as some people still prefer to do direct mail marketing, some people just don't cuddle up to the internet yet. This generational shift is not quite over, so I still think there is value to selective mass mail marketing. And by "mass" I'm speaking about postcards sent to the target market, keeping that refined to a finite physical area surrounding the target property. In addition I endorse the idea of a bi-monthly newsletter advising a specific group of leads about market trends and activities currently happening in the target area, especially when they are coming from miles away.
It's hard judge the dollar and cents value of mass mail marketing. Some people are far more gifted in the composition of their piece, and are therefore receiving a better outcome than the one you stated. Some people produce items destined for the trash before they hit the mailbox.
I do agree that eventually we will all go to electronic marketing, but during this turbulent market, we need to use every opportunity and use each of them wisely.
I still love the farming marketing mailers! I also still send bi-monthly letters to my A clients too giving suggestions on their home, finances, etc. I have cut back tremendously but I don't think that it's dead yet! Soon, but not yet.
Yesterday I made a real verbal blunder, I told a rental client not to mail anything to the other agent because it would take too long to get there. She replies, I know, I work for the Post Office! I said, oh I'm so sorry for you! We had a good laugh.
Adell, I have been a stamp collector since my youth. I love the look of the older stamps especially. I used to go to the post office to get software that was signature required but even that is going the was of the download.
Jana, I do agree with you. I was on a low cost marketing panel with Pat Zaby at CRS Sell-a=Bration this year, and we talked about that. Converting direct mail people to email and to your blogs is one transition. Pat has done some great ecards in his Marketing Library for that purpose. They look like direct mail but they come as a full color email and not an attachment. Check them out at www.patzaby.com.
Lyn, I am not saying it is dead yet so I do go along with your thought. That experience had me laughing, but also remembering blunders of my own. Look before you leap?
I think that the fewer agents who mail things the more effective mailers will be. I'm sticking with books, newspapers, magazines and the delight of getting something in the mail. Online is fine but people who spend a lot of time online inevitably get a distorted view of the general public's usage and preferences. *Plenty* of people - i.e. potential customers - are not spending huge amounts of time online.
Liz
Elizabeth it's a free country but 87% of all real estate starts on the web. Plus if I download onto Kindle, and if I use recycled toilet paper, the more virgin forest are saved and more oxygen is produced. I remember when real estate books came out every two weeks. I don't want to go back.
Wow -- 3200 locations -- that is a lot -- well off to the Goin' Postal !
They have 34,000 locations so this is just the start. I hope going postal is just a metaphor.
2 friends of mine work for the Post Office. They certainly have cut back. Their office was actually bought out by a private investor and is no longer run by the government. They never know when things will change and who will have a job. Routes change every other month to cut costs. Its quite interesting to hear about the changes. If they do close 3200 locations, that puts quite a few people out of work.
john, that is a point I should have at least mentioned so thanks for bringing it up. I can only see more closings and more job losses coming. One thing about being a self-employed Realtor is that you can adapt your job to where people are active. Two years ago I was up to my ears in investors, now I am up to my ears in short sales.
Very true. Your focus can always change. Its not see easy to do when you are a mail carrier. Then again, you can now work for UPS or FedEx. Not sure if thats the same thing, but these employees should have some skills that could be used in other companies.
John, When GM closed down in Oklahoma City five years ago, the State instituted a retraining program that was free for those workers that wanted to stay in the state. I would hope, but not expect, that the Federal Government should do the same.
There is talk here of no USPS Saturday delivery. (That means no bills on Saturday either) Most of 99% of the r.e. direct marketing I find in my mailbox is generic. Why bother, unless it's a well thought out, targeted campaign?