Step #2: How To BUILD Your House
List In Both Size AND Quality. . .
Today I’m going to share with you a very valuable resource…a simple letter system that will keep your House List Tracking System™ current, active and sending you clients month-in and month-out.
But it will actually do much more…as you’ll see in a minute.
I’ve written it all for you. You can use it word-for word…or as a “template” to create your own follow-up system. Either way, what you’ll learn today will cut your time and effort in creating and updating your House List by 80% or more.
So let’s get started…
In Article 9, I gave you a very valuable and very complete reference called “The BIG LIST™”. (By the way…I’m also going to share 4 more House List building systems with you in the next few articles.)
But in the process of creating your House List, you may have collected information that’s incomplete – and you need to motivate your House List member to give you more information about themselves.
Or, when meeting people day to day, you won’t always have time to get all the information from them for your database. So you need to follow-up and get that information.
But you need to do it in a way that motivates them to WANT to give you their contact information.
So I’ve put together a simple letter system – ready for you to use. With this system you can…
- Follow-up on refining your House List – to get important information from your members you may not currently have…
- Use as a re-acquaint system (if you already have a House List, but you’ve neglected them in the past)…
- Use it for an “Annual Update System” to REFINE your House List and keep it a lean, mean client-generating machine…
- Actually use it with a Target Farm to “qualify” those who want to receive important information from you (this will save you a mountain of money and multiply your profitability if you decide to farm using Service For Life!®…or any other marketing system).
And even if you don’t have an address to send a letter to get updated information (from creating your “BIG LIST™”), then you can easily use this letter system as a phone script and have an assistant do the follow-up – or you can do it yourself initially.
I promise…in the process of making your calls or connecting with people, you’ll get a bunch of clients (without even talking about real estate!).
Now…before you start searching for your broker’s letterhead and using this letter, I want to share a few “secrets” with you about…
Making ALL Your Mailings Hugely Profitable
Listen up! This is important. Your success in any mail campaign STARTS by knowing the difference between “A-Pile” mail and “B-Pile” mail. What’s the difference?
Think of how the average person sorts their mail over the kitchen table. Their “first pass” is designed to sort the “personal” mail (birthday cards, bills, letters from Grandma, etc.) from the “junk mail” – the useless scrap sent by their neighborhood REALTOR®.
What happens next? The “personal” mail goes into the “A-pile,” The “junk mail” goes into the “B-pile.” And finally…without another thought about it…the “B-pile” mail goes INTO THE TRASH!
Here’s the most important point you’ll ever learn about prospecting using mail: If your mail doesn’t get past the very first hurdle of getting DELIVERED and OPENED it’s NOT gonna get read.
And if it doesn’t even get read, it doesn’t stand a chance of working for you.
Does this make sense? 99.9% of agents out there hamstring themselves up front by plastering their fancy balloon or other “junk mail identifiers” and their direct mail prospecting never gets past the “kitchen table sorting machine.” Any wonder why it doesn’t work?
Well…not for you. Not any longer.
Here are a few tidbits you’ll want to focus on when conducting any direct mail…whether it’s to your house list or a cold farm…
- Start with your envelope. No, don’t use your broker’s envelopes with the big balloon and RE/MAX plastered all over. Why? Because it instantly screams “I’m B-PILE mail…trash me FIRST!”You want your mail to look as personal as a birthday card from your sweet Grandma from Minnesota – not an obvious solicitation. This means use a blank envelope (can be #10 or whatever). Your return address should be your name only (no broker stuff), and your address (some agents even write it in their handwriting and have a printer mass-produce their hand-written return address on envelopes). The address should be (optimally) HAND addressed – and if you can’t hand address, use a courier font. Use NO teaser copy…no “junk mail identifiers.” Finally, use a commemorative postage stamp – NOT your broker’s mail machine. Remember, personal mail gets opened…junk mail goes into the trash!Want to know a little secret? I’ve got agents who are making a killing by sending FSBO and expired mailings by FEDEX. Do you know anyone who won’t open a FEDEX letter? I don’t. Believe it or not, “the numbers” work like gangbusters – but that’s another topic for another day.
- If you want people to respond to your mailing, make it EASY. Enclose a small reply envelope. You can either get a BRM account from your post office, or just put a stamp on the reply envelope – believe it or not, putting a live stamp on the reply envelope actually increases response (I suppose people feel guilty about trashing a real stamp!). You can also use a fax number inside the letter – you’ll see in the sample letter below.
- Your letter should look exactly like the sample I’m about to give you. Yes, it starts with a HEADLINE. No kidding. Want to know why? Because you have 25 nano-seconds to capture the attention of your reader – and if you don’t have a solid headline (identifying the important benefits of reading your mail – what’s in it for the reader!), you’ll never capture their attention. And you go into the trash.
- Your letter needs to be PERSONAL. Yes, this means you need to use your mail merge function with your word processor and have their name, address, city, state, etc. Why? Which do you prefer: a personal letter written just for you or some form-letter? You get the point.
- Use a personal signature. Sign it yourself if you can – and use a reflex BLUE ink. Why? You got it…it’s more personal.
Is this all making sense to you? I hope so. Getting your mail delivered, opened and read is the very first step in your success. Mess-up here and you can kiss your commission check goodbye.
Now here’s the letter I want you to use. You can modify it to fit your situation, but don’t change the important elements that motivate people to respond to you (click on the letter to open it larger)…
Now…did you notice there’s something that’s missing? It’s your survey form that goes along as a second sheet.
I’ve done the hard part for you – you can handle putting together a simple survey form. All you need to do is list out the information you want on a sheet of paper, and space for your reader to fill in the blanks.
One important tip: when asking for birthday information (such as dates), do NOT ask for the year of birthday. People can get sensitive about giving away their age!
One more point: About 5 days after you send this letter, I want you to send out a “SECOND NOTICE” to anyone who doesn’t respond to you from the first mailing. You can even send out a “Final Notice” if you want 5 or 7 days after your “second notice.”
Believe it or not, response rates can triple by sending out a second and/or third notice.
Here’s how to do it: Near the TOP of the letter, type fairly large, “SECOND NOTICE.” Then, make your letter exactly the same as the one above, EXCEPT for an additional first sentence…
Dear [[ Firstname]],
“A few days ago I sent a letter just like this one to you, but never heard back. So I assumed you either didn’t receive it or it slipped your mind. In either case, I’m sending it again because I know you’d be interested in this important information…”
Then…just continue with the rest of the letter.
Now…I’ve given you the very first House List Building System™ (from my previous Article 9). I’ve given you the tools to get your House List (or farm) updated and accurate.
And I’m about to give you 4 more brilliant strategies for building your House List. The question is…
Will You Take The Initiative To Simply USE IT?
If so, GREAT! You’re on your way to building a steady, ever-growing real estate business – one that will grow and grow year after year with Mathematical Certainty!
Believe it or not, if you simply START this process, you’ll see it’s EASIER and FASTER then you ever thought possible. And the rewards will astonish you!
But if you’re still waiting…still ‘thinking about it,’ you need to know something.
Most people never make the decision to simply START…to take actions that lead to their success. So they sit there…stuck in neutral in life…never to enjoy the riches and abundance that’s right at their fingertips.
I want you to succeed like never before – so much so that I’m not charging you a nickel to receive this course.
All that’s needed is a simple decision from you to 1) BELIEVE in the marketing…2) BELIEVE in yourself and the potential of your success…and 3) START taking action.
Promise me you’ll start…OK?
Today’s Action Plan:
Today’s plan is simple. Take your Big List™ from the last article (or even your current database) and start getting your list active and current by using this simple survey system.
You’ll also use this system with the 4 more ways I’ll show you to build your House List.
It’s fast and easy. And you’ll see WHO is going to welcome your contact, and who won’t respond at all. This way you won’t waste your time or money contacting people who don’t want to hear from you or won’t welcome and respond to your contact.
This is a good thing, don’t you think? I do.
So go ahead and put your letter and simple survey together. Follow the directions I just gave you. Follow-up with a quick phone call if needed.
As the Nike ads say… “JUST DO IT!”
Coming Up Next…
In this article I wanted to give you a simple follow-up system to use with your House List™. We’re going to continue with 4 more amazingly-simple ways to grow your house list size and quality.
So keep an eye out for Article 11…coming in just a day or two.
Then we’ll continue with our 4 additional House List Building Systems™.