The industry-wide transition to digital marketing has left real estate agencies in something of a bind. Every year there is a new technology to be implemented or a new approach to be mastered, and if you fail to keep up with the changes, you can expect a sub-standard ROI.
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So, what’s the alternative to always playing catch-up with digital marketing trends?
We would like to propose that print marketing is one of the few remaining traditional marketing approaches that still works remarkably well even in the age of digital media.
In this article, we will cover the various ways in which you can utilize printed materials to promote your properties.
You will learn:
First, we will cover the basics of print marketing for real estate businesses. If you already have some experience in print marketing, you can skip this section, but it still won’t hurt to freshen up your memory.
Here are some of the tactics you can use to get started with print marketing.
One thing that digital and print marketing have in common is that they both rely on textual content for their effectiveness.
And just as you can optimize your digital copy through the inclusion of particular keywords, you can do the same thing for your printed materials.
Using words like:
and many others has been shown to decrease selling time and increase the closing price, so try to include them whenever the properties you’re trying to sell allow for it.
Property photos are essential for creating the initial spark of interest in prospective home buyers.
They are food for the imagination, giving buyers just enough material to start visualizing their new home, and their place within it. Hire a professional photographer to take high-res photos of the property’s exterior and interior, or take them yourself.
Be sure to cover all angles, and take more photos than you think you need – they will come in handy when you start making marketing material.
Branding is an essential part of marketing, whether you’re using print or digital.
Every time you interact with clients is an opportunity to strengthen and define your brand. If you keep at it, you will create a brand that will identify you as an experienced, trusted real estate professional.
In order to define your brand, you will have to:
Your branding efforts should always be complemented with client research. If your target audience consists of middle or lower-class clients, it makes no sense to brand yourself as a seller of luxury real estate.
In order to find your brand-audience fit, you should create buyer personas. A buyer persona is simply an idealized representation of one of your typical clients.
When creating buyer personas, at the minimum you should consider their:
Clarity of message is vital in all forms of marketing, print or otherwise.
Whether you’re creating property flyers, brochures, or info-sheet, you need to ensure that all important information is clearly presented and easy to read.
This includes the:
Stylistically speaking, choose a font size that visually impaired customers can also read, use contrasting colors, and arrange all visual elements into a logical whole.
While print marketing is our main focus here, there is something to be said about combining traditional and digital marketing to create a stronger effect.
This doesn’t mean that you should run two campaigns at once. Rather, you should combine print with digital when it’s appropriate to do so.
Examples of cross-channel marketing that involve printed materials include:
Selling a property for a client requires more than simply putting it on the MLS and waiting for a prospective buyer to arrive.
In the lead up to going live, you need to get your print marketing campaign going to spread the word around your local area.
(Unless you work in an MLS that does not allow Pre-Listing Marketing)
Here are some of the tactics you can use to promote your property with print marketing.
Flyers are a cheap and efficient print marketing strategy.
There are a number of ways you can distribute promotional flyers. You can hand them out yourself (or hire part-timers to do it for you) in your neighborhood, as well is areas where your properties are located.
You can stick them on bulletin boards at local community gathering spots.
Finally, don’t forget to leave a stack back in your office to hand out to clients and acquaintances. You can take this strategy a step further by using flyers to promote special events such as early-bird showings, or private viewings.
Postcards are another print marketing strategy with a long history of use. They are ideal for notifying potential home buyers in your area, as well as people moving into your locale (whose address you got via website form for example).
As we’ve mentioned previously, make sure to include all the necessary information on your postcards. You can also mention promotional deals, or bundle a couple of flyers in the same mail package.
The most important thing however is to only use high-quality photos – your clients can later use them as welcoming party invitations, as well as to notify relatives about their new home.
Door hangers are an underutilized form of print marketing, which is in contrast with their actual usefulness.
They are a novelty item, so your prospects are more likely to inspect one when they come across it. Their quirky design also begs for a funny, lighthearted promotional copy.
Otherwise, the same design principles apply as in the case of flyers and postcards. You can also hang them in other places besides doors, such as mailboxes, on cars, etc.
This is a great tool to circle prospect a listing or open house. The great part is that the listing does not even need to be yours. You can hand our your door hangers inviting the neighbors to the Open House.
Everyone has seen a ‘For Sale’ sign at some point during their life, a fact which you should leverage by creating yard signs of your own.
Thanks to their size, yard signs will attract random passers-by, people in moving vehicles, and if you’re lucky, a Google Maps van might snap a photo of the sign, netting you some extra global promotion.
There are many kinds of yards signs you can use, depending on your brand identity. Some examples include:
Don’t forget to use a large, legible font while designing your signs, and use a color scheme that stands out.
Once you’ve gathered prospective home buyers to your listing, you are ready to start selling. And branded promotional materials will add some extra oomph to your sales pitch.
They are great for keeping prospective home buyers and their companions occupied while you tell them about the property.
Here are some ideas you can use to convert your targeted audience into buying or selling clients.
Greeting each visitor at the door would be ideal, but there are times when you simply can’t manage to address everyone in person.
In order to amend for this, you can create a welcome desk near the property entrance, and stack it with welcome materials.
Some of the things you can include are:
Another kind of printed material you can use is fact sheets. Their role is to provide a concise summary of the property you’re selling.
The more information you include, the better. The way you organize information is also important. Use a bigger printing surface if the information you’re presenting ends up being too cluttered, and remember, you can print on both sides of the sheet.
Your info sheet should include:
If you didn’t manage to close the sale on the spot, you can give your guests the option to provide feedback.
A book of impressions is a nice, non-intrusive means to find out how the guests felt about the property. Don’t just use a generic book either. Create a branded book of impressions instead, and provide name, phone number, and email forms for buyers that are still on the fence.
First impressions count for a lot in the real estate business, and printed promotional materials have a long history of turning leads into buyers.
Give your real estate business an edge by using print marketing strategies we have outlined above.
Michael Deane is one of the editors of Qeedle, a small business magazine. When not blogging (or working), he can usually be spotted on the track, doing his laps, or with his nose deep in the latest John Grisham.
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Thank you Jason
Thank you.