Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 3 Scheduled Mailings

This article is part 4 of our mini series, “Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business“. You can visit the other parts of this series by clicking the links below:

• Building A Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 1 Asking for a Referral
• Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 2 Written Communication
• Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 3 Scheduled Mailings
• Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 4 Follow Up

As a Real Estate Agent you are more than likely familiar with mailings, most are used mainly to find new clientele, or to notify a specific demographic of a new property on the market, to farm an area of town, etc.  Many on this type of mailings are scheduled.  You regularly send out a newsletter to your farm area, or post cards.  Others follow no schedule and happen as the necessity arises, such as sending out property flyers for a unique listing, or one that’s been on the market for a long time.

The scheduled mailings for the purpose of this article are for client retention and referrals.  They should be made at the very least quarterly.  The mailings can range from newsletters, to recipe postcards.  They can relate to the season, holiday, birthday or anniversary, time change or anything else you can think of.  The list is limited only by your imagination and your time.  These mail pieces can be purchase from several printing sources or can be made by you.  A few things that each piece must have are; a statement of appreciation and a request for a referral, your contact information.  Other than that the sky is the limit.

Keep in mind that these mailings are in addition to your hand written correspondence not in place of it.  If you receive a referral from a client you still want to send a thank you even if your mailing just went out.

With scheduled mailings, consistency is important, if you send out a card every January 2nd, to welcome in the new year – your clients begin looking for your card about the 3rd or 4th of January and expect to see it.  So as you plan out your scheduled mailings you may want to keep consistency in mind and do similar mailings at the same time every year.  Here are some ideas for scheduled mailing;

• New year card
• Calendar
• Spring ahead (time change for daylight savings time)
• Fall back (time change)
• Thanks giving card.
• News letter
• Seasonal home improvement tips
• Recipe cards
• Home purchase anniversary card
• Birthday cards
• Wedding Anniversary cards
• Sports schedules for local teams
• Local Activity guide
• New Restaurant review
• Theater guides

As you can see this is just the beginning the list can be quite extensive.  Go with something the suits your personality don’t try to match your client(s) you would drive your self crazy.  If you love to cook, send out some of your favorite recipes.  If your into sports you could also do a favorites list like favorite hiking or biking trails, little league or Pop Warner schedules, review of sporting goods stores etc.  If you are a gardener at heart, yard tips and planting hints are a great way to stay in touch with your clients.  It doesn’t have to be rocket science, but if you want it to be, make it fun, make it interesting and send it out.

A word about Birthday, and Anniversary cards.  If you are interested in doing these for your clients, you may want to consider it as an addition to your quarterly project instead of part of it.  For example if you send out really great fall/winter weatherproofing tips to everyone expect Bill Smith who happens to be having a birthday, and Bill’s friend Alan (who Bill referred to you) starts going on about all the great winterizing ideas you sent him, Bill may begin to wonder why he was left out…. ‘Nuf said.

Help build your referral based Real Estate business, retain clients and stay connected with scheduled mailings.

Related posts:

1. Building a Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 2 Written Communication
2. Building A Referral Based Real Estate Business – Part 1 Asking for a Referral
3. Are Your Newsletters & Mailings Drumming Up Business?
4. Real Estate Agent – Client Appreciation Time is Upon You
5. Real Estate Licensee – Where is Your Client Database? Top 3 Choices for Client Databases.