Today’s Ask the Expert column features Steve Bunker, president and CEO of RealEstateCalendars.com.
Q: What are your best tips for designing real estate postcards?
A: As any successful real estate professional can tell you, the fact that 95 percent of home shoppers start their journeys online is old news. These same real estate professionals can also tell you just how important it is to complement your online marketing efforts with successful offline marketing tactics.
Part of that involves postcards.
Are You Doing Postcards Right?
If you don’t have an eye for design, it pays to use a real estate postcard template that’s already proven successful. However, if you choose to design your own, make sure you’re including all the right elements.
What Does Every Real Estate Postcard Need?
Master marketer Ed Mayer says the 40/40/20 rule applies when you’re sending out real estate postcards. That is, 40 percent of the postcard’s success depends on getting the right audience; 40 percent depends on your offer; and the remaining 20 percent is all about your design.
That’s why it’s so important to get the design right the first time. At the very least, you need:
- Your company logo
- Your contact information
- An attention-grabbing headline
- Crisp, clear graphics
- The right typography
- Enough white space
- The right colors
- Information that’s beneficial to the recipient
- A great call-to-action
Headlines
The most common headlines you will see on real estate postcards include Just Listed and Just Sold. But you don’t have to limit yourself to these. Get creative and incorporate headlines that match the season or any upcoming holiday. Recipe postcards are another great idea.
Typography
You want a font that’s clear and easy to read while conveying your professionalism (yes, we’re looking at you, Comic Sans). That being said, studies have shown that harder-to-read fonts make things more difficult to learn, but easier to remember. Bodoni MT was one of the subjects of a Princeton University study, and information written in this font was more easily recalled than information written in a font such as Arial.
Information
You still have to offer readers a reason for writing, and that’s where the information comes in. Convey what you need to say in a few short sentences (or less) so that you don’t bore your readers, but instead entice them to pick up the phone and call you or visit your website to learn more.
For more information, please visit www.realestatecalendars.com.
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