As a property manager, chances are that you are always looking for better ways to promote your business and earn new leads. The fact is, there is an endless list of ways that you can market your company! Whether it’s online or offline, you have a wide range of marketing strategies to choose from.
But which ones will be worth the time and effort?
One effective method that is often overlooked by business owners is direct mail marketing. While it’s true that digital marketing strategies have taken the business world by storm in recent years, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you should rule out some of the more traditional approaches for your property management company.
While a direct mail campaign may not be the most popular choice for property management companies today, we recommend giving it a second look.
In this article, we will go over everything you need to know about direct mail campaigns and how they can help you grow your property management business. We’ll talk about why they are effective for businesses today, how best to start the campaign, and how to design mail that will not only be eye-catching but memorable to new leads.
What Is a Direct Mail Marketing Campaign?
Direct mail marketing is a promotional strategy that mainly involves using materials such as flyers, postcards, and catalogs. These materials are then sent to prospective clients’ mailboxes, making it one of the most direct ways to get your property management company in front of new leads.
You may be thinking: does this approach still work? With most businesses opting to focus on online marketing, you may not think to choose a direct mail marketing campaign for your next promotional strategy. However, we firmly believe that direct mail works just as well if done correctly. These are a few reasons why:
- Direct mail interacts with your clients: When your new leads receive a piece of mail, they have to actually look at it and read it before deciding whether or not to throw it out. This means that regardless of whether or not the client actually keeps your mail, you are guaranteed to get more eyes on your company.
- With direct mail, you can target specific audiences: The ability to zero in on a target demographic can make or break any marketing campaign. After all, what good are your promotional strategies if you aren’t showing your company to people who will actually need to use your services?
- You can have a larger reach: At the end of the day, you have the ability to send out as much direct mail as you want, meaning you have huge potential to reach a wider pool of people.
- You can get more creative: With a direct mail campaign, you can get a bit more creative with your materials. Since you aren’t limited to a digital space, you can challenge yourself to really think outside the box and even combine your digital and direct mail marketing efforts to maximize your reach and impact.
- You won’t run into as much competition: As we said earlier, more and more businesses these days are turning to digital marketing efforts. Since most property management companies won’t be using direct mail campaigns to reach new clients, you really have an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.
What Does Data-Driven Marketing Mean?
So, you have decided that you want to properly invest in running a direct mail campaign for your property management company. For this to be as successful as possible, you will need to familiarize yourself with your target audience. This is where data-driven marketing can come in handy.
Data-driven marketing is a strategy that essentially relies fully on data analysis to help you make the most effective marketing decisions possible. Using data-driven marketing, your property management company can identify your target audience and really place your efforts into reaching them directly.
For example, let’s say that you want to target property owners in a certain area of the city you work in. You can use data to figure out who owns different rental properties in the area and what their income levels are.
Then, you can adjust your direct mail campaign accordingly and market to landlords who own properties that you could manage. Essentially, this means that having this data allows you to design your direct mail campaign in a way that reaches the prospects who are most likely to actually work with you in the end.
Our Top Tips for Your Property Management Company’s Direct Mail Marketing Campaign
For your direct mail campaign to truly succeed, you will need to keep three things in mind:
1. Be Consistent
The truth is, your direct mail campaign may not produce tangible results for your property management company immediately. In fact, it can take a little while to generate real success from your efforts, so you will need to stick with it and be as consistent as possible with your strategies.
Be consistent with your mailings and remember that it takes time to build those high-quality business relationships that every property manager needs to thrive. Our tip for remaining consistent without overdoing it and driving clients away is to send out your direct mail once a month, no more and no less.
2. Stay Committed
Commitment is absolutely vital for your direct mail campaign to succeed. As we mentioned above, you need to recognize that these relationships take time to build. This means that you have to be truly committed to building them! For this strategy to work the way you want it to, you can’t simply give up if you aren’t seeing immediate results.
You need to track your results over a solid amount of time in order to determine if your efforts are working or not and trust the process. On average, it takes an average of eight interactions before you can truly turn a lead into a client.
This means that remaining committed to your strategy is the key to forming valuable, lasting business relationships. When you embark on any kind of marketing strategy, it is crucial to remain committed the entire time to yield the best results for your property management company.
3. Repetition Is Necessary
When it comes to direct mail campaigns, it can be tricky to know how effective your strategy really is. This is primarily due to the timing of your marketing campaign, as this can be the most difficult thing to predict.
For example, you could send a great flier to a prospective client that has the right message, but if it is simply the wrong time, then your efforts may not be as effective. What’s worse is that the best timing isn’t always something that you can control, nor is it always something you can predict. It varies from person to person.
That’s why we recommend sending out your mailing materials multiple times to the same prospects. This way, you can minimize the risk of having the right words at the wrong time, and maximize the chance of you catching them at the right time.
When it comes to marketing, repetition works. If they keep seeing your brand in their mail, they will be able to remember your property management company later on once they’re actually in need of your services.
What’s the Best Way to Design My Direct Mail Marketing Campaign?
Now that you know what it takes to make a direct mail campaign succeed, let’s talk about the actual design for your materials.
There are many options when it comes to programs that can help you design your direct mail materials. We recommend InDesign, Canva, or Vistaprint. There are other free options online, too. The first two are excellent for higher-quality designs, and Vistaprint is great if you are newer to designing mail for your property management company.
Regardless of the software you choose, here are the critical things that you must include in any direct mail piece you produce:
- Your property management company’s full name.
- A specific call to action that leads your prospect directly to your landing page.
- Your contact information including your company’s email address and phone number.
- A unique offer to get prospective clients interested.
- Eye-catching graphics that are appealing and memorable.
After you include the above, make sure that your direct mail has a font that is easy to read and that all of the colors work well with your company logo. Finally, we recommend using the space wisely and avoiding clutter. Don’t make your postcard or flier too crowded or overwhelming to look at.
Build a Site Designed for High Conversion
Now, in this day and age, you cannot simply rely on direct mail to promote your property management company and convert leads. You will need a high-converting website. When a prospective client receives your postcard in the mail, they should be able to quickly go online and learn more about your property management company.
Your website is most likely the first place that prospects will go if they want to learn more about you, so it is crucial that you invest in a good one. We recommend including these key components to help your property management website make an impression:
- Have a modern design.
- Make it easy to navigate.
- Include engaging and interesting content.
- Feature multiple calls to action.
- Include client testimonials and case studies.
- Clearly describe who you are and what you can do to help your clients should they choose to work with you.
What Can I Do After My Campaign Is Over?
When it comes to your direct mail campaign, the work isn’t over after you have mailed out your postcard. You’ll need to be available to follow up with leads, in addition to being as responsive as you can to any prospect that reaches out to you after receiving your mail.
Taking too long to respond to interest in your company can make or break your marketing campaign, so we recommend investing time and energy into being readily available for your next lead at all times.
Bottom Line
In our professional opinion, we believe that a direct mail campaign can be incredibly effective for your property management company if it is done correctly. If you are looking for help in designing your next marketing campaign, or have any other real estate needs, contact our team at Blanket.
