Newsletters anyone?

[BiDAve]

Does anyone send out newsletters to their previous customers? What's a good number for how ofter a newsletter should be sent? Weekly? Bi-weekly? Monthly?

I myself get annoyed when receiving a newsletter from the same people more than once a week.

[Malok]

I try to get a newsletter out to my farm area quarterly, with post card contact monthly.

[BiDAve]

How big is your client base? I'm curious how do the post cards work for you? Actually, I'm curious how effective mail outs really are.

[Homesurfer]

Anything more than monthly becomes a nuisance to most folks.

[JimOlenbush]

Art,

Were you asking about email newsletters or direct mail?

[BiDAve]

Jim,

My initial question was about email newsletters but I've always been curious about direct mail and what kind of effect it has in the real estate industry.

Thanks

[svrpaul]

Once a month for us. Anything more is annoying and has a higher unsubscribe rate. We're playing around with some more options with a new service right now and it looks like we can take the info. straight from the newsletter and post it to a blog so we can kill two birds with one stone.

We've actually been doing this for over 5 years and the key is to provide useful information so the contacts don't hit that unsubscribe option. We have contacts in there from 2002 that are still subscribed so I guess we are doing something right.

[JimOlenbush]

For email I vote once a week for a fresh buyer lead, and once a month for a sphere newsletter. Direct mail once every 4-6 weeks to a farm area, and once every few months to past clients.

[svrpaul]

Once a week for the drip e-mail program for potential new buyers that sign up on our IDX -- it's a built in service and different from our newsletters.

[MarcinSarasota]

I am putting together a high quality newsletter filled with easy to read market stats, high quality photos of homes for sale and homes that have sold. I figure some people will read it because it will show the pretty photos of homes sold and for sale. Others are the type who will read it for the meat and potatoes market data. The rest will just toss it in the trash. I have had the best response from Just Sold cards, then Just Listed cards. Everything else has had very poor results. My goal is to eventually make them think I am the expert for their area. Of course, that takes time.

I have not done this yet but am in the process of designing it. I am thinking of doing the newsletter every 2 months and smaller less expensive post card in the off months to a farm of 750 to 1000 luxury properties.

Give me 8 months I will let you know how it goes.