Best "Call To Action" for postcards, ideas??

[Goknights]

looking for input based on experience.. what "call to action" slogans have given you the best return when using direct mail?

looking for some new ideas.. old examples below:

• free consultation
• no obligation
• neighbor sold, call for price
• call for comparables
• free consultation
• free cma

thanks and looking forward to your input.

[GregPDX]

I'm interested in hearing about what's working too. I've done a little of everything, but nothing consistently.

[cyberprofit]

It all depends on what the mailer is supposed to accomplish, the type of recipient that is receiving it, the demographic profile of the lists, and the emotional element you are targeting as the "prime reason" for your ideal prospect to take action.

There are too many unknowns such as the copy that is on the mailer, size, color and so-forth. Are these local leads/prospects that are familiar with you or your company?

Or are they cold prospects that you are targeting for the first time? These all play a significant role in the way you construct an effective direct response marketing piece.

[stewbiff]

I Hope some of my postcard marketing ideas will help you to grow your business, there use is only limited by your imagination.

[Logan UT Real Estate Gal]

Foreclosure lists, short sale information, and free newsletters seem to work well in my area.

[Bones]

I just came from a conference where I watched a nationally known speaker. He is a former real estate agent who averaged 210 closings a year. He recommended doing a mailing a month. The mailings should always have simple messages. In the beginning of the year they should be targeted at getting listings. For instance a mailer that simply says, "Now taking listings." Towards the middle and end of the year they should be targeted at getting buyers. That is what he suggested. I've never tried it.

[Borino]

Just as cyberprofit pointed out, it's a bit more complicated than "Best call to action" line. But for sellers this worked well as an alternative to the boring "Just sold" cards.

Face:
Header: Sorry, This One Is Gone!
Sub: That nice two-story white house on
1234 Maple Lane
in Whittier is GONE.

Sold in 41 days for <underscore> a full market value</>

Art - large full photo: House with a family standing in front of it. Focus - for sale sign with "SOLD" on it. Full color, saturated.

FLIP:
Customer quote plus art (client photo - upper right): “I have been most impressed with Borino’s patience and professionalism in helping to bring the sale of my home to a quick and successful conclusion.”

The Jones Family
Whittier

Tag - emphasis: Would you like to sell your house
for a FULL MARKET VALUE?

Call to action in frame - focus - art - CMA pic:
How much could I get?
Request a FREE
no-obligation
Market Evaluation
mailed to you:
(800) 573-8492

Footer - standard tag line:
Call Borino and start packing (art - mover)

Split - contact info - cell (emphasis), email, web
Art - standard head shot

[Mitch]

We are just getting ready to try a new listing program. Firstly, we haven't done listings the past 4 years as they were a waste of time and didn't sell...hence the huge database of buyers. With that said we have a great message when we send out our mailers. However, as said above, you do need some sort of call to action. The biggest and most difficult aspect of doing direct mail is to get the consumer to read it or at least look at it. We have developed a program, which will take each agent in my office a 2 day commitment to get it started. So far I have 10 Agents who have committed to the process. Here is the idea of what we are doing.

The Message:

Question: What is the most important ingredient to sell your home?
Answer: Buyers - No buyers no sale.

Question: What has more buyers than any other Real Estate office in Brevard County?
Answer: Tropical Realty

With over 33,000 buyers in our database, doesn't it make sense to list with a company that sell more homes to buyers than any other Real Estate office?

To find out how many of our buyers match your home, go to www.TropicalRealtyBuyers.com


Ok, so that's the idea, not really the words. I'm meeting with my staff tomorrow to work on the message to make it stronger. Of course this doesn't solve the problem of getting people to read my message. With that said, as mentioned in the first paragraph, we are going to take pictures of every home in the neighborhoods we are marketing to. We will be databasing the homes and addresses. When we send our mailings, they will be an 8 1/2 high gloss folded sheet with the picture of their home on the front. We will have some message on the bottom, but I'm still working on that. I figured that if all they saw was a picture of their home on the front of an advertisement they would most likely open it. We will be running these every 2 weeks for 3 months and then once a month from there on.

We are adding one other thing to this which we are hoping will help them keep the mailing. We are talking to some of the best restaurants in the area and will be adding a 2 for 1 coupon to the mailing.

I would love your feedback on this to hear what you guys think or if you know anyone who has tried something like this.

[RickDuranddotCom]

Hi Mitch,

You may already be planning something similar, but just in case...

Campaign development assumptions:

1. 5,000 total units/homes/mailers
2. Develop 3 messaging strategies
3. Develop 3 value propositions/incentives
4. Your printer will allow a minimum run of 100 units.

Suggested Action Plan:

First, take only 900 pictures (at the most) of homes included in our preliminary testing phase. You may choose equal portions of homes within differing areas/neighborhoods for a more balanced test. *Area demographics and audience characteristics may play a role in campaign response, so keep that in mind.

Next, break up campaigns into 3 --> 300 mailer campaigns and 1 --> 100 mailer campaign. With 3 different messages & 3 incentives available, you will need a total of 1000 mailers for preliminary test. That is 900 with home pictures & 100 with stock photography.

Combine campaigns as follows:

Group 1 (300 total mailers):

1. Message X + Incentive A + Home Photo = 100
2. Message X + Incentive B + Home Photo = 100
3. Message X + Incentive C + Home Photo = 100

Group 2 (300 total mailers):

1. Message Y + Incentive A + Home Photo = 100
2. Message Y + Incentive B + Home Photo = 100
3. Message Y + Incentive C + Home Photo = 100

Group 3 (300 total mailers):

1. Message Z + Incentive A + Home Photo = 100
2. Message Z + Incentive B + Home Photo = 100
3. Message Z + Incentive C + Home Photo = 100

Run these combinations and drive them to your landing page (TropicalRealtyBuyers).

Brief landing page suggestion: Run A/B tests, perhaps lower the number of required fields to just a name & an email (*Plus added incentive offer). This means just asking for a name and email period, not having an asterisk telling them it is required with all other tables included. In your thank you page, request the remaining information... This approach may provide a higher conversion for this type of campaign. Never know unless you test though ; )

*You may want to test adding an additional incentive (LP only) in order to increase conversions. The same would apply for the thank you page...

After you have analyzed your campaign stats and have selected a winning combination, run one last test against the winner using stock photography this time. You may find that the actual home photo may not have an impact what so ever and that you could have lowered your campaign costs...

Matching a name/address/direct mail piece can get quite expensive as you may have already found out. Especially if you will be sending over 5k-10k mailers.

Once you have obtained the results of your last test run, simply pick the winning combination & run with the remaining portion of your list.

Hope this makes sense...

[Mitch]

Rick - Thanks for the very well thought out plan. I really appreciate it. I've never done a true test on mailers before. I have done a ton of direct mail in the past with a few different companies I have owned with some success...especially my dating service which always received a 2.5%-3% response rate. I'm hoping I can duplicate that response rate.

When I do anything, I try to put myself into the consumers frame of mind and how they will react to what I do. Sometimes I'm right and sometimes I'm wrong.

We started writing our messages this week and I'll have them done next week and am hoping to get this running by mid February at the latest. I'll let you know my results after the test. Thanks again I truly appreciate it!

Everything you said makes total sense to me.