Updated September 20, 2023

The most successful direct mail campaigns provide genuine value that get you past the trash can and into the home

Even today, when everyone seems glued to a computer screen or a smartphone, direct mail is still an effective way for real estate agents to get their brand and message in front of an audience. Heck, even Google sends direct mail to it’s customers, spending millions to reach their audience not through the inbox but through the mailbox.

However, the key to generating real estate leads with direct mail advertising is to make sure your marketing mailers do more than just tout your listings. Your mail campaigns need to provide genuine value to a carefully targeted audience of prospective buyers and sellers. And you need to mail often enough to ensure your name is easily recalled as the trusted name in real estate.

What follows are five road-tested, proven real estate mailers that will get you the needed attention to drive more leads.

1. The handwritten letter

Let’s imagine for a moment that you’ve received a handwritten letter.

A handwritten letter will let clients know that they are important to you.

The envelope looks unlike any of the others in that morning’s mail, and the address is written in real ink from a pen.

Your anticipation is already building.

You immediately sense this message is something special. You look at it, feel it, turn it over. Perfectly placed in the top right corner is a real stamp.

Someone, somewhere, has separated you from the crowd. They’ve stopped whatever they were doing to take paper and pen in hand and dedicate their limited time and energy exclusively to you. It’s rarity and tangible uniqueness compel you to open it before anything else.

You see your name in the greeting and begin to read . . .

In a world of spam folders filled with impersonal emails, a handwritten letter is considered and often treated like a valuable gift.

A handwritten envelope nearly guarantees your direct mail advertising is opened. Couple it with a handwritten letter, and you’ve made a lasting impression.

It doesn’t even matter that it’s a handwritten marketing letter. As the writer, you’ve achieved the most difficult task facing all direct mail marketers: you got the recipient to open the envelope!

Tips for writing a handwritten direct mail letter

When writing a direct mail letter, remind yourself that you are a real estate agent and not a professional marketer. But don’t let that stop you from starting with something simple. Here are a few universal tips:

• Know your audience and address their needs and values.
• Grab their attention by starting with something that will make them want to keep reading.
• Focus on benefits and elaborate on what they get out of doing business with you.

Two types of letters are especially effective in generating leads and referrals.

The first is a letter of introduction, and your goal is to create awareness of your brand. Be succinct, and include something personal about yourself that humanizes you and connects you to your recipients. Try something like, “I grew up here and would love to show you around.” Don’t forget to let them know how to contact you.

The second is a thank-you letter. At first, a thank-you card or letter may not seem like it belongs in a blog about real estate marketing tools, but they’re a great way to stay top of mind. They’re a perfectly organic touchpoint to use when showing gratitude is expected and appropriate. And a thank you letter is always a win-win—people appreciate being appreciated, and it earns you some goodwill.

Nothing tells a client you appreciate them more than sending them a handwritten thank you note. The little extra effort goes a long way in garnering goodwill.

An effective thank you letter requires some thought. To get you started, How to Write a Thank You Letter to Clients for Their Business is a short but very useful article that accompanies an episode of our podcast, Stay Paid. In it you’ll find helpful advice, including some dos and don’ts, for crafting and using this highly effective marketing tool.

Tips to make handwritten letters a pragmatic option

There’s no denying that a handwritten letter can be effective, but few agents use them because they take time away from “more important” tasks. Writing letters does take time, but it can be efficient if you use the right approach.

Depending on the size of your database, you could:

• Write a couple of letters a week and eventually send one to everyone.
• Select your core clients and write only to them.
• Consider a handwritten letter writing service.

Tips for testing

I highly recommend you test your letters to see what elements work best in helping you achieve your goal. Be sure you test only one element at a time.

You could have a hundred direct mail marketing ideas but without testing, you won’t know what works and what needs to be adjusted.

Size

Experiment with different size envelopes:

• #10 (standard) business envelopes
• A2 envelopes (like a party invitation)
• 6″ x 9″ envelopes (especially effective for people who have never done business with you)

Color

It may seem counter intuitive (since colored envelopes stand out) but in at least one study about nonprofit mailings, anything other than a white envelope decreased open rates. This doesn’t mean, however, that different colored envelopes might not work for you and your target audience.

There are lots of tips available for how to write effective real estate direct mail letters. There are also direct mail letter examples you can find online to imitate. But if you want to outsource your letter writing, there is no shortage of direct mail marketing companies willing to do it for you.

2. Real estate postcards

Postcards are ideal tools for geographic farming.

Farming your market with real estate postcards is an effective and economical way to stay top-of-mind.

First, they are relatively inexpensive.

Second, they are a sure-fire way to get in front of motivated prospects because your message is spelled out and literally staring them in the face. (Why play the odds with an envelope it if don’t have to, right?)

Real estate postcards need to convey sophisticated and confident authority. To ensure your message gets through:

• Start with your call to action. Decide what you want your prospects to do once they receive your card, and then design the other elements to support that action.
• Include your branding. Your postcard design should be consistent with your other branding, so include your logo, your photo, and contact information.
• Use professional images. Clear, beautiful, high-quality images are what will capture your audience’s attention. This is where a professional photographer experienced in real estate photography is a must.
• Use high-quality card stock. Don’t go cheap. A high-quality postcard will infer high-quality service. Select heavy cardstock and the appropriate finish. Matte works well if your card is message centric. Use gloss if it’s more about the images.
• Think about the season. Let your real estate postcards reflect real estate as it appears during different times of the year—snowy rooftops during the winter, beautiful gardens in spring and summer, colorful trees is autumn. Postcards are also great tools for keeping you top-of-mind when you’re in-between other marketing campaigns.

When done right, postcards can be a lot of work with selecting the design, photos, card stock, etc. However, our postcard service simplifies the process. We’ll customize a real estate postcard for you, or you can select from among our assorted themes:

• Holidays and seasonal
• Thank you and events
• Health
• Crafts and recipes
• Calendars and sports schedules

CLICK HERE and you’ll receive an additional 25 FREE postcards with your order.

You can select cards for a few months or join our 12 Direct program, where we automatically send a personally branded card to your exclusive list of addresses once a month.

I just have to tell you guys that I watched this webinar live and took advantage of the postcard offer. I have never farmed and have always worked by referral. Thanks to you, I mailed about 500 postcards and just signed a listing for $450,000 and the seller is also using us to buy for about $350,000. That $800,000 in volume from 1 postcard!! I hope these cards don’t make me have to start working for a living. (LOL) ~Jim Dorsey

I just started the 12 direct mail farming postcards. First postcard went out and I already have a listing appointment for a property that will more than pay for the entire year of postcards. Looking forward to increasing my production through farming my local communities!  ~Jenna W.

3. The direct mail newsletter

With online resources like Canva, PicMonkey, Stencil, FotoJet, and more, you can create a professional looking newsletter with ease using different font types, layouts, colors, and images. However, while creating a professional-looking newsletter has been made easier, the task of writing the content remains a challenge for many. What follows are some tips for writing direct mail newsletters that will read and kept for future reference.

Tip 1: Provide value to your intended audience

The easiest way to ensure you are providing value to your intended audience is to give them information that will help them solve their problems.

Consider your ideal client. Who are they? What do you know about them that goes beyond basic demographics and characteristics?

Find out everything you can about the needs and desires of your target audience, then create your real estate marketing campaigns around them.

Start with what you know or can find out about your ideal client, including:

• what they are already interested in;
• what problems they need to solve;
• what goals they want to reach.

Once you have a picture of your ideal client (visualizing a real person helps), you’ll be able to confidently select the type of content they’ll find useful and valuable.

Tip 2: Create a title based on a problem

Don’t call your newsletter a “newsletter.” Instead, think about the problems you’re solving for your ideal client. Incorporate some version of those problem into the name of your newsletter, and you’ll get attention.

For example, Jane Doe’s Local Real Estate Review for Homeowners and Homebuyers is a title that would catch the eye of a specific type of client. Equally good would be, John Smith’s Guide to Oceanview Properties in the Northwest.

These titles provide your name to keep you top-of-mind, specify a location (make sure the location includes the zip codes to which you are mailing), and define who you are best equipped to help.

Tip 3: Make it visually appealing and easy to read

The easiest way to turn off a reader is to give them something that looks like one large block of text.

People are busy and will scan a document to decide quickly whether it’s worth reading, so make it easy for them:

• Use lots of white space. Insert blank lines between paragraphs and sections.
• Use bullets, especially if you’re writing a list.
• Use headings. Consider using bold, underline, italics, capitalization, and a different or larger font to distinguish them from the text and each sub-level. Just don’t overdo it.
• Use short sentences and paragraphs.

If you include images (and you should), ensure they add to the meaning of the content. Images that don’t add value are either annoying or overlooked.

If you’ve been planning to create a newsletter, then I suggest you read another of my blog articles, “The Best Real Estate Newsletters – What You Need to Know.” You’ll discover what a great newsletter should have plus tips and ideas for writing content. You can also check out our automated and personally branded newsletter filled with curated local and virtual events for all interests and tastes. Click here to see a free, no obligation demo.

4. Keepsakes and gifts

Businesses continue to send clients gifts because they work. And because a gift is tangible, it’s something that clients can keep and will encourage them to remember you—especially if it includes your branding.

The results of a study on corporate gift giving suggests that a gift can strengthen relationships with key customers, create goodwill, foster new relationships, and promote business. In fact, “A properly timed and appropriate gift is one of the best ways of conveying the important message that a relationship matters.”

Among the tried and true direct mail marketing ideas is to send a gift to your clients.

And the good news is your gift doesn’t need to be expensive to be appreciated. A study by Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business reports it really is the thought that matters.

There are tons of affordable gifts that can be given to clients at events, but not all gifts are appropriate for direct mail. Some items may be too fragile while others may be too heavy to mail in a cost-effective way.

5. Magazines

According to Statista, in 2021, there were 222.2 million magazine readers in the US, an increase of 300K readers over the previous year. Real estate agents can take profitable advantage of this growing interest in magazines by mailing them to their sphere. Some of the most popular magazines, whether print or digital, include articles about lifestyle, gardening, health, travel, and recipes.

If you do send a magazine, it’s got to be one that your audience wants to receive and will find valuable. It needs to present you in a professional light, build trust, and keep you top of mind for repeat and referred business. And it should be easy to administer and affordable.

Our 100,000 clients have selected to send our personally branded magazines because they meet these criteria better than any other available. They use them to connect frequently, deliver impact, and build trust with their sphere. And there is little wonder why—a recent third-party survey reports 69% of recipients have referred the professional sending them a magazine one or more times in the past 12 months!*

The list of features and benefits enjoyed by our clients is long. Among them:

• We brand every issue with your photo and contact information in six prominent locations. Your branding remains visible and within easy reach for up to 10 weeks as recipients display your magazine on their coffee and kitchen tables.*
• We automatically send an issue six times a year to your exclusive list of recipients, meaning no one else can mail to your list of addressed. That’s six touchpoints you don’t need to worry about (and there’s no additional charge for mailing).
• At no additional cost, you can use the Front Inside Cover and truly personalize your recipients’ experiences with a letter customized to individual recipients. Plus you can select a different magazine for each recipient, ensuring everyone receives a publication that appeals to their specific interests.
• At no additional cost, we’ll use sophisticated AI to identify who on your list is most likely to move in the next 12 months so that you can maximize your  efficiency and prioritize following up with those most in need of your services.
• There are options to customize the Back Inside and Outside Covers as well as the two Tear Out cards included with every issue.

Click here and get a free sample sent directly to your inbox. We guarantee you’ll be blown away by the quality and won’t believe that each issue costs less than a typical greeting card.

 I have been a long-time subscriber to this wonderful magazine at least 15 years and love the quality and content of this publication. I have gotten nothing but positive feedback from my clients that have been very pleased with American Lifestyle. I’ve even had one say how they look forward to the recipes in every issue. Also customer service has been outstanding . . . Reminder Media is awesome! ~Leo R.

Want to stand out from the competition? Send a personally branded magazine to your exclusive list of recipients as part of your real estate marketing campaigns.

I’ve been a customer for at least 10 years & it’s a fantastic value. It’s a quality product that is easy for me to manage & just helped me to close a lead from 9 years ago. When they were ready to list & buy, they called me because I was on their coffee table! People feel special when they receive the magazine & those emotions lead to action! ~Ivette Rodriguez Anderson, Keller Williams Success Realty

Our magazines are an automated direct mail marketing idea that deliver consistent value to keep you top-of-mind while leaving you free to run your business.

The 2nd issue of your magazine just landed me a $1.325 sale for a new buyer. This would not have happened without your suggestion of different ideas of reaching out and broadening your sphere. Thank you!! Ric Kennedy-Rudinski, Prominent Properties, Sotheby’s International Realty

The key to a great direct mail campaign is to send something your clients and prospects actually want. Our publications, branded to you, are perceived as gifts.

Start using direct mail today

Adding any one of these five direct mail real estate marketing ideas to your existing marketing plan will help you to keep in contact with your sphere. As a real estate agent, you want to stay top-of-mind with your clients so that they’ll provide you with referrals.

Direct mail marketing, like all marketing, only works if it’s consistent.

However, for any type of marketing to work, it’s your commitment to consistency that will keep you top of mind.

• You need to consistently nurture clients so that when they are ready to buy or sell, they call you.
• You need to follow up.
• You need to offer steady, reliable value.

And because consistency is so important, an automated solution may be best if you are too busy or if you prefer a “set it and forget it” approach.

Whatever you decide to do, direct mail can be profitable. Be patient, track what works, pivot when appropriate, and above all—be consistent.

*2023 GfK MRI-Simmons reader survey