What makes a leaflet 'good'? What's going to make
people stop and read your flyer when it comes through
the door instead of throwing it in the bin along
with all the others that come with it? It may not
be something they're actively looking for at that
time but if it grabs their attention they will at
least read it, and, if it then provokes interest
or looks like a solution to a problem they will
pick up the 'phone and call you. It may not be immediately,
I've had people call me 6-9 months after they received
the leaflet!
The Headline
This
is THE most important part of any marketing information.
Get it wrong and you've lost the prospective customer
immediately. The best headlines appeal to the readers
self-interest, what's in it for them? A lot of inexperienced
marketers make the mistake of using their business
name as the headline; ie;
'John
Smith & Co' , which, unless you are a well known
household brand name like 'Nike' or 'Tesco' is a
complete waste of time as it doesn't mean anything
to anyone!
The
headline is critically important; it must grab your
customers ATTENTION. Make it BOLD and LARGE so that
it stands out. A good tip is to ask a question ie;
‘Do You Want To Sell Your Property Quickly?’
as people are naturally curious and will want to
read on to find out the answer or how you can help
to solve their problem.
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The Essential Skills of a Property Trader
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marketing tactics.
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What
Size Leaflet Should You Use?
The
size or the thickness of the leaflet isn’t
as important as what it says. A5 always works well
(approx 15cm x 21cm) as there is enough room to
get all the necessary information on, they're cheap
to get printed and don't weigh as much as A4 so
they're quicker and easier to deliver too.
How Much Content Should You Add?
Remember
KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid! No one wants to be
bombarded with endless lines of text, no matter
how relevant it may be. It looks and sounds boring.
If you must include a lot of text, break it up into
small paragraphs that are easy to read.
Write
text as if you are personally speaking to a person
and read it back to yourself aloud to see if it
'sounds' right, or ask someone else their opinion.
Benefits
Sell - State the main benefits that the reader will
get if he/she calls your company. Put yourself in
their shoes and think about what they want to hear
if they're looking to sell their property quickly
due to mounting debts.
People
have a tendency to 'scan' a page looking for the
bits of information that are relevant to them (I
bet you're doing that now!) so the best way to present
your case is with the relevant bits shown in bold
bullet points ie;
Use
Images
Images
tell a story far better than words ever
can, people focus on images before text.
Pictures provoke thought so use them to
your advantage :-)
Psychology
plays a big part in marketing, so use pictures
that make people relate to an emotion, like
a house with a 'Sold' sign and a 'happy
couple' (happy because they just sold their
property) people will imagine their own
house being sold.
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You
can even use pictures that promote bad feelings,
like a photo of rows of properties with Estate Agent
boards outside, drawing attention to the thousands
of people trying to sell their property right now
and how difficult it is. If the person reading it
has their property on the market they will be forced
to think about how long their own property may take
to sell with an Estate Agent.
Testimonials
Testimonials
are vital because they promote trust in you and
your company. Testimonials with photographs of ‘happy
looking' people work even better because again it's
a visual image that people will relate to. Ensure
that the people in the photograph are looking directly
into the camera as it's been researched that this
type of photograph seems to be more genuine, and
again, promotes trust.
Call To Action
Your
leaflet MUST contain clear and concise 'Call to
Action' information. It's no good saying 'if interested
call 088000'. That sounds very feeble, like a lot
of people won't be interested!
Make
your call to action BOLD and easy to find. It's
best to put it at the bottom and to the right of
your leaflet as it's been shown that that's where
people expect it to be, and use a female contact
name if possible as it's been researched that people
prefer to speak with a female. Having a picture
of a smiling woman with the contact information
can help.
If
you can use a photo of yourself (or your partner)
then this works well as the person the seller is
contacting is seen to be more 'real'. People are
naturally suspicious of anything that's unfamiliar
to them so this makes you look more 'real' and promotes
trust :)
0800 or Landline?
A
lot of advertisers still use 0800 numbers as it
can be advantageous to state 'FREE from land line'
on your advert, but nowadays almost everyone has
a mobile phone and therefore prefer to call
another
mobile or a local number, as it's costly to dial
an 0800 number from a mobile. State on your leaflet
that you're a 'Local Company', callers prefer it
if you're in the same area, again it promotes security
and trust, it will be familiar to them and they'll
feel you can be easily contacted.
Some
people prefer to email so try to include a contact
email address, and, if you have one, a website address
as this gives you and company credibility.
Use
Scarcity – How many times have you rushed
to buy something when you think there is only a
limited amount available? Ie; Tickets for your favourite
band advertised as 'Buy Now, Few Remaining–
First Come First Served' It can work well on your
flyers too! You could say
*Call
Now For Your FREE report – How To Sell Your
House In 14 Days (limited availability) You could
either write your own short report or find one online
and edit it to make it your own (don't copy it outright
or you could find yourself in trouble!)
|
Want
to know more about 'The
essential skills of a Property Trader'?
Dominate
Your Ground
The Essential Skills of a Property Trader
An excellent grounding in getting leads,
converting deals, trading deals and guerilla
marketing tactics.
|
Leaflet Distribution
How
many leaflets should you deliver and what is the
general response rate?
Generally
people tend to start with either 5000 or 10,000
leaflets. Please bear in mind that as your distribution
is not specifically 'targeted' at people who may
need your services the response rate can be as low
as 1 in 1,000.
So
a distribution of 10,000 leaflets will bring you
around 8 to 12 calls, it's a numbers game, you could
get less, you could get more, this is just the average
response for this type of leaflet. But remember,
even if you only find one motivated seller, it will
certainly make your campaign worthwhile! Of course
this figure can vary according to certain factors
like;
*The
Time of Year: Don't expect a great response around
8 weeks during the summer holidays and a couple
of weeks before Christmas for obvious reasons
*The
Competition: There may be other investors in your
area distributing at the same time – Is your
leaflet better than theirs?
What Are The Best Areas To Cover?
You
should be fairly familiar with the immediate and
surrounding area you live in, so it stands to reason
that you know what types of properties there are
as well as what type of people live there. So this
is a good place to start!
If
you're not familiar with how much properties are
worth in your own area it's a good idea to familiarise
yourself by browsing on property sites regularly
to get a 'feel' for how much properties are actually
selling for. You need to know your area well so
you can spot a 'bargain'! Use these sites: http://www.rightmove.co.uk/
http://www.nethouseprices.com/ http://www.zoopla.co.uk/
Identify Local Authority Areas
Properties
in these areas are generally well sized, have bigger
gardens, they rent well because people who were
bought up in the area and are starting their own
family like to stay near to family and friends.
You can also get them at a very good price so the
yield will be higher than on larger private properties
(with the exception of multi-lets / HMO)
When
delivering to private areas stick to the smaller
properties (2 & 3 beds) in areas that you've
identified with good rental potential. These smaller
properties are more lucrative, and again, have better
yields. You can still get good deals on larger,
more expensive properties but you'll need larger
discounts to make the deal 'stack' and to make a
decent profit.
Investors
are looking for a discount of at least 25% + (unless
they're using a Lease Option) but if you're acting
as a 'Property Finder' remember to factor in your
own fee.
How to Find Reliable Distributors
You
may want to try using regular mailing companies
like 'Royal Mail' but in my own experience they
work out a lot more expensive, and, are not always
reliable. It's better to have your leaflets delivered
on their own rather than inside a local paper or
with 4 or 5 other leaflets as people are more inclined
to throw these away.
It's
cheaper and more reliable to recruit your own distributors,
so write an advert saying something like:
