Blog

Real Estate Agents: Turn Your Letterbox Drops Into Client Magnets

Real Estate Agents - Getting More LeadsMany real estate agents still use old-fashioned letterbox drops to promote their services. Why? Because they work! But are they working as well as they could? If your letterbox drop just announces that you’ve sold another house, it just looks like everybody else’s. What’s worse, it’s not really useful to the resident – unless they just happen to be thinking about selling their own house. But what are the odds of that?

What if you could stack the odds in your favour by creating letterbox drops that people want to keep – even if they aren’t in the market for selling their home? That would make you stand out from everybody else, and make people more likely to call you when they are ready to sell. In other words, you turn your flyer from a boring advertisement (that most people would bin as junk mail) into a client magnet that will attract them to you.

The secret: Focus on them, not on you.

To do this, give them something useful – not just an advertisement for your services. Put yourself in a typical homeowner’s shoes and ask yourself what you know that could be useful for them to know. This has nothing to do with selling their property (because remember, at any time, most people are not in the market to sell) and everything to do with making their lives better.

For example, you know some quick tips for vendors to make their home more attractive for a Home Open. Those same tips could be useful for anybody making their home more attractive to host a dinner party.

As another example, your property managers know what tenants and landlords should be doing to prepare their property for winter (clearing gutters, for example). That same advice applies to all residents – whether or not you manage their property.

So how does this apply to letterbox drops?

Simple. Instead of creating a flyer advertising your services, create a flyer with some useful tips for the occupant.

That’s it! Just create tip sheets with relevant suggestions, so they are valuable for the reader. Of course, you will include your name, photograph, logo and contact information as well. But that’s secondary – the main purpose is to provide practical, valuable advice.

Here’s how to get started …

If you’re not sure how to get started, take a leaf out of trashy magazines! Go to your local newsagent and pick up the latest issue of Cosmopolitan, Men’s Health, or Dolly. Then browse the headlines on the cover, look for headlines with numbers in them, and use them as inspiration for titles for your tip sheets.

For example, here are some headlines from recent issues of Cosmo:

  • 5 Hot Tips for Hot Lips, Hair, Skin and Nails
  • 176 Shoes and Bags You’ll Love
  • Bye-Bye Belly! 3 Easy Ways to Lose It
  • Better Abs in 5 Easy Moves
  • 15 Secrets Slim Women Know
  • 75 Crazy-Hot First Date Moves

Now just change the numbers (aim for 5 to 12 tips, not 75 or 176!) and a few of the words to create titles for your tip sheets.

Want some examples? OK, here goes – based on the six examples above:

  • 5 Hot Tips for Hot Summer Days (tips on how to keep your home cool in summer)
  • 6 Local Restaurants You’ll Love (this is even better if you negotiate special deals with these places for people who bring in your flyer)
  • Bye-Bye Clutter! 7 Easy Ways to Lose It (tips on how to tidy up quickly)
  • Better Home Security in 5 Easy Moves (tips on how to quickly and affordably make a home more secure)
  • 6 Secret Picnic Spots North Shore Locals Know (this shows you’re a real expert in the local area)
  • 8 Crazy-Hot Smartphone Apps (interesting and useful lifestyle apps – not real estate listing apps)

If you plan your topics around dates or coming events, they can be even more powerful – for example:

  • Bye-Bye Crowds! 5 of the Best Local Spots for Watching the New Year’s Eve Fireworks
  • 6 Local Shops for Creative Mother’s Day Gifts
  • 8 Secret Romantic Spots North Shore Locals Know (for Valentine’s Day)

These are just a few of the ideas you could generate from those headlines. It doesn’t take much to come up with even more, especially if you ask everybody in the office to play around with them for a few minutes. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Then create the tip sheets.

Of course, the process above only gives you the headline for your tip sheet, not the tips! But it should now be easy for you to write up the tips, because they are based on your knowledge and expertise.

Again, you can tap into the knowledge and expertise of everybody else in your office. Just send around an e-mail with your proposed headline and ask for ideas. You’ll probably get more ideas than you need, which means you can pick those that you think are the most useful.

Each tip only needs to be a sentence or two, so you don’t have to be an expert writer to create the tip sheet.

If it’s not easy and you’re struggling to get started, try another topic.

Can you use this to make YOUR next letterbox drop stand out?

This is an easy idea to put into practice – and costs nothing more than what you’re paying already. And yet, most agents won’t do it! So if you do, you’ll stand out from everybody else – and will create something memorable in the minds of your future clients. Isn’t that worth giving it a try?

What Next?

Scroll to Top