Why are estate agents obsessed with the mad men approach to Direct Mail ?

November 11, 2014

After you have finished reading this post, you will learn the best way to double your response from leaflets, flyers and postcards.

Please try to avoid what I call the mad man approach to advertising.

You see…

I have recently started watching Mad Men; it’s a drama about one of New York’s most prestigious ad agencies at the beginning of the 1960s, focusing on one of the firm’s most mysterious but extremely talented ad executives, Donald Draper.

If you’re yet to see the show, you can download the box set on Sky.(compelling viewing)

I couldn’t help but notice in various episodes there were scenes where the team at Sterling Cooper ad agency would have brainstorming sessions . To come up with ideas  for the perfect ad that would make millions of dollars for their portfolio of clients.

Many of the campaigns were abstract at their core, mass brand building awareness type ads which Sterling Cooper clients liked, simply because of the cute slogans, play on words and images.

Scores of estate agents appear to be adopting these abstract advertising methods.

(I’m not sure why).

  The Typical EA’s Mad Man Approach to Advertising

At the end of last year, I polled a number of agents. Asking several questions about lead generation to attract new valuations.

One question was.

Which offline channel would you like to receive more enquires from?

A considerable percentage said direct mail flyers, which not surprising as it is relatively inexpensive to print thousands of leaflets and have them distributed.

Below are a few examples of flyers, Can you identify what the problem is with them ?

 

what do you think the response rate would be?( 0.25%  0.5 % 1%  2%)

The question I often get asked is how can my marketing work better?

My answer comes in the form of a question. What are you trying to achieve?

The objective of the mailing should not be to sell the  prospects the sole purpose is to help qualify the prospects by education based marketing ..hint hint clue clue

Let me explain:

I was speaking to a friend of mine, who is big on direct response mailing, and he confirmed my thoughts in his words that the job of a flyer is to shift and sort those home owners who are looking to sell in the next 90 to 180 days and beyond.

Let’s say you mail 1,000 flyers next week, probably 1%- that’s around 10 homeowners, will be looking  to put their house on the market  in the next  90 days. However, he also said  that  another 10% may also  sell within an 18 month period.

So the skill is in using the direct mail is to reveal the invisible prospect  and move them onto your database and then to the valuation stage.

Imagine this hitting the door mat

Out of the 4 mailings in this post, which do think would get a better response?

Please avoid the Mad Men approach where the spotlight is on the agency and not the client, also remember that the purpose of your direct mail is to sift sort and qualify the home owner who is thinking of selling.

The example above is what we call a naked mailer. One of 11 different styles of direct response campaigns that we have created for estate agent clients for lead generation.

 

Alex Evans

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