Simon Payn's Effective Customer Newsletters

Real Estate Agents: How to Make 4x as Much Commission

Here's another of my little charts. This one applies to real estate agents and mortgage brokers in particular - but the general idea applies to any business.

It makes a compelling economic case for keeping in touch with clients over the long term.

 

The chart shows the difference in commission earned by a real estate agent (or mortgage broker) who keeps clients for life compared to one who just does a single transaction with a client.

The difference results in four times as much earned in commissions.

How is it worked out?

Consider that a real estate career lasts 30 years.

The average time a family spends in one house is said to be 7 years.

So, over that 30 years, the family will move 4 times (4x7=28).

Instead of earning one commission over your career from one client, you earn four commissions.

Let's put some numbers on those bones.

If the median home price in the US is $180,000 and commission is 5%, the commission earned would be $9,000. 

So four times that sum is $36,000 - a difference of $27,000.

Of course, this doesn't account for commissions shared, and portions paid to the broker and your costs...but the result is the same. You earn a lot more money by keeping a client for your career.

Of course, keeping in touch with clients through newsletters is the best way to be top of mind so that they call you when they're ready to move.

So how much will it cost to keep in touch with them?

If you do it by email, the cost is practically zero, as emails cost nothing to send.

If you do it by mail, and you send newsletters every month, you are looking at an approximate lifetime spend of $576 per client. (That's made up of $1 per month to print the newsletter for 360 issues, plus 60 cents per month for postage.)

Of course, that doesn't include membership to a newsletter program, running at around $49 per month - but that program can be used for multiple clients. And - of course - results will vary, postage and printing costs will go up, and not everyone will get every client to come back every time.

But still...the economics are pretty compelling:

Commissions earned over lifetime per client: $36,000

Cost to keep in touch with client over lifetime: $576

Total commissions minus cost: $35,424

versus..

Commission earned with one transaction: $9,000

Cost to keep in touch with client over lifetime: $0

Total commission minus cost: $9,000

Difference: $26,424

Now, multiply that by the number of clients you might have, and the math is truly astonishing.

As I say, not everyone will get the same results - you could not do as well. Or, with rising house prices, you could do better.

But when you look at it, the investment in keeping in touch is so low and the benefits are so high that it's something you must consider.

Find out more about newsletters for real estate agents and mortgage brokers.

ABC - Always Be Collecting (and Double Your Leads)

Always Be Closing - that's the sales mantra made famous by the movie Glengarry Glen Ross.

But I have another ABC. Always Be Collecting.

Always be collecting contact info from your visitors so you can keep in touch.

Because if you're not always collecting, you're seeing potential clients walk out the door.

I've ramped up my own ABC this past month. I've put a sign-up box on pretty much every page of my website. It's doubled the number of leads I get.

There are two things to do:

1) Think of a good reason why a prospect might be willing to give you their contact info. It had better be a good reason - maybe a useful free report, a catalog by mail or a free sample. People are reluctant to give up their contact info without getting something valuable in return.

2) Give prospects as many opportunities to give you their information as possible.

• Put web forms all over your website
• Promote your freebies in your ads
• Put flyers promoting your freebies in your store
• Train your staff to Always Be Collecting

Just make sure you give something valuable - and then keep in touch with your prospects until they're ready to buy.

When Customers are 'Just Looking'

"I'm just looking."

You're probably heard that phrase many times. Indeed, it no doubt rolls off your own tongue when a salesperson approaches and you're not ready for a conversation.

While "I'm just looking" sometimes means "go away and leave me alone", it more often means "I'm not ready to buy yet...but I will be later."

Knowing that fact is critical to your success.

Because sometime in the future they will be ready to buy.

The question then becomes: will you be ready to sell?

Unless you've kept in touch with them in the meantime, there's a good chance your customer will go somewhere else.

This is where newsletters (and other keep-in-touch marketing methods) are so valuable.

Because when you keep in contact with someone - not buy saying "ready to buy yet?" but by informing, educating and entertaining - they'll know where to come when the time is right.

[Picture by Rob!]

Excellent Example of a Customized Real Estate Newsletter

I love it when people make an effort with their marketing. (Because - to be honest - so few people really do all that it takes to break through in their market, particularly in the current economy.)

I love it even more when my members take the product I offer one stage further and make it their own. Doing so makes their newsletters even more powerful.

Here's what Vancouver real estate agent Conrad Litz does with the real estate newsletter I offer. (I help him with the final design touches each month.)

1) He uses most of the original newsletter. After all, it's ready to use without customization, if necessary.

2) He makes changes to match his red and black branding, and adds his own custom masthead at the top of the newsletter. All this ties his marketing together, adding strength to his brand in his local area.

3) He replaces the first article on the front page with local market commentary and advice. Here Conrad does a great job, positioning himself as an expert on the local real estate market. 

 He told me:

I spend 1/2 a day thinking about what is important to my current and future customers.  I then try to write in such a way that I continue a conversation in their mind that they are probably having.  I can crank out an article in about 60 minutes usually late at night with no distractions.  I then let it sit over night like a good pot of stew and touch it up the next day or so.  My challenge is I get a little too technical, so as you have advised I always need to get down to that common element that owners or buyers are thinking about.  Also know how your market is interlinked to the whole market in general.

4) He adds listings to the back page with a link to a website that goes directly to a listings search.

5) He includes a testimonial from a satisfied client. Testimonials are powerful because they provide independent proof.

Does this extra effort work for him? He says:

The biggest results I get is when I prospect, they know who I am.  There are no ifs, ands or buts about it.  So even if I don't get their business, there is immediate acknowledgment and respect right from the get go. This makes prospecting much easier.   I don't think I could ever cold call again.   Yes I do definitely get business from my newsletter and it is growing.

Here are Conrad's 5 tips for real estate agents who use newsletters:

1.  Get someone you can trust to do most of it.  I have other options but I choose ReadyToGoNewsletters because they are plugged into the market that I am going after.

 

2.  Add some of your own creative content to personalize your newsletter.  Absolutely critical!!

 

3.  Look for excellent quality printers at very reasonable prices.  If your newsletter is too expensive you will not stick with it.

 

4.  Keep trying different approaches as far as content is concerned to get both a good direct response as well as a delayed response.

 

5.  As part of the bigger picture, only use a proven model marketing system.  Be very careful with creativity.  Remember the pioneers are the ones with the arrows in their backs.  Find a proven approach and then master it.

Conrad makes one final, but very important point: people call him sometimes several months after they've seen the newsletter. So don't evaluate your newsletter on immediate ROI - it's a long-term project.

How to Lose Friends and Alienate People with Your Email Newsletter

Email newsletters – ezines – can be a powerful way to build a relationship with your clients and prospects by communicating with them right there on their computer.

But if you abuse the easy access, low cost and immediacy of email, you run the risk of losing trust in the marketplace. Here’s a tongue-in-cheek look at how to do it wrong:

1.    Send your newsletter as a 10MB attachment, explaining it’s got beautiful graphics…that’s why it’s so large.

2.    Send your newsletter to people who don’t even know you.

3.    Send your newsletter out every six months so people don’t remember who you are.

4.    Don’t put unsubscribe links in your newsletter. After all, people might actually leave if you do that!

5.    Make people log in to your website (using a username they can’t remember) to unsubscribe from your newsletter.

6.    Fill your newsletter with promotions instead of useful information.

7.    Send your newsletter to a list of names you bought from some website somewhere.

8.    Keep sending newsletters even to people who don’t want them. You’ll make them change their mind, right?

9.    Send your newsletter to people who likely have no interest in knowing you at all.

10.    Send your newsletter with just any old content in it. After all, it doesn’t matter what you send as long as you send something, right?

(With a nod to Toby Young’s very funny book, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People)

(Image courtesy duchesssa)

Real Estate Agents (and Others): The Newspaper Newsletter

I hate it when people have an idea similar to mine and then blog about it first, so that I don't get the chance to claim it.

Anyway, that person is Seth Godin, so I'm not mad.

Real Estate agents (and anyone else with a local business) should read his post, Time to start a newspaper.

Of course, this is what your newsletter can become. Indeed, I have several members who have gone some of the way towards implementing what Seth is suggesting, with what's on guides and ads from other local businesses.

By making your newsletter into a real community resources in (let's face it) a time when many local newspapers are withering and leaving a gap in the market, you will become *the* trusted local expert, the go-to person - and you will own a strong relationship with a section of your community.

Is this the Year of the Customer?

On the same theme as my post yesterday, check out Drew's Marketing Minute Blog and in particular the links from this post to his other articles.

He's right. This will be the year of the customer. It's time to stop throwing money away by ignoring them.

What Links Dell, Your Business, Blogs and Newsletters?

Dell has launched a content-rich website called Digital Nomads. It's aimed at people who, thanks to technology, can work and play wherever they like - people who aren't tied to an office location.

Here's why Dell is being so smart.

Dell is creating a community based upon a common passion. It's serving that community on a daily basis with well-written, interesting and up-to-date content - articles that inform, entertain and engage that community. Digital Nomads will be the go-to publication for people who share that passion.

Of course, it's no coincidence that Dell offers the tools that digital nomads need.

Dell will sell more computers by creating a long-term, deep relationship with its clients and prospects.

It's setting out its stall as the go-to people for information about being a digital nomad - becoming a trusted adviser rather than simply a vendor of computers. It's building a relationship for the long term through regular contact with content that meets the needs of its community. And it's employing reciprocity by giving a tonne of value before expecting anything in return,increasing its future sales by putting cash (in the form of value) into the relationship with its community.

And you can do the same.

Maybe not on the same scale, but the same principles apply to your newsletter or blog:

1) Focus on a customer niche.

2) Provide value to that niche through content that is focused on that niche's needs.

3) Create a long-term relationship with that niche by keeping in touch on a regular schedule for the weeks, months and years to come.

So when you come to create your newsletter, consider this:

1) What niche am I serving? What makes the people who buy from me different from the people who buy from every other company out there?

2) How can I provide value to that niche? How can I serve that niche better than anyone else out there? What kind of information are they looking for? How can I connect with that niche by creating an engaging personality?

3) How will I encourage people to agree to receive this information, and how will I deliver that information over the long term?

Maybe you're not Dell. But there's a lot you can learn from Dell to market your own business.

Be Gently in their Face

I wasn't going to write today, but I was inspired by Seth Godin's post, "My tooth doesn't hurt." It's about how a marketer can build a solid business, even when they think their target market doesn't need them right now (like a dentist who is badly needed when a person has a toothache, but easily ignored the rest of the time.)

Here's the meat of the article (but click through to read the rest for context):

There are two challenges for toothache marketers (dentists and non-dentists alike).

1. Figure out a cost-effective way to be there. A way to gently be in my face so that when my toothache shows up (in whatever form that takes) you're the obvious choice.

2. Create new products and services that build engagement and possibly revenue among members of the population that aren't in pain. That, of course, is why teeth whitening services are so smart. You can sell to people who didn't know they had a problem until they met you.

And that's where newsletters are so useful.

The purpose of a newsletter is build a long-term relationship with your clients and with your prospects.

You do that by offering them valuable information that will improve their lives, entertaining them and informing them at the same time. You build your relationship over time by offering them this information on a regular basis.

You are gently in their face - you're there, as part of their lives, but you're not advertising to them. You're not overtly selling. Instead, you are building a deeper, more trusted relationship, so that when they need you, you're the one they call.

At the same time, your newsletter is a space where you can offer products and services that will encourage them to engage with you in new ways. If you take the attitude that you are there to make your clients' lives better, and you have a product or service that works - and that people love - then it would be a mistake not to tell your clients about that product your service.

So mention it in your newsletter, providing an attractive offer that will encourage them to contact you to find out more.

Being gently in their face is what it's all about - building a relationship based on trust and service.

"Test Drive" my customer newsletter free for one month. There are several flavors, for real estate agents, mortgage brokers...and every other business out there!

Why Customer Service Beats Low Prices (And How You Can Develop it to Make Clients More Loyal)

If you wanted any more evidence that now – despite the rough economy – is not the time to go cutting price, look at the results of the latest poll published by Marketing Sherpa (see chart at end of this post).

It shows that while vendors believe price is the most important factor in customer loyalty, the customers themselves (the only ones whose opinions actually matter!) put customer service in top spot, with 40% citing poor customer service as the main reason for leaving a vendor.

So instead of cutting price and hoping your customers are so grateful they stick around, invest the money you save on customer service.

As this is a blog about customer newsletters, let’s see how newsletters can help improve customer service – and hence customer loyalty.

1. First, develop a customer service mindset. Remind yourself that without customers you are dead, that you are there to serve customers – and to treat them as you would like to be treated. (Thanks to Michael Port for emphasizing this upgrade to the Golden Rule.)
2. Remember that the first transaction is just the beginning – you want them to come back multiple times.
3. Use your customer newsletter as a tool to encourage them to come back. Sign them up at the first transaction and then use your newsletter to remind them of your existence (people easily forget!) and to make offers to encourage them to visit you again.
4. Your goal is to create a genuine relationship with your clients, not just a series of transactions. Use your newsletter to extend the relationship-building you do in person to circumstances when you are not present.
5. When choosing your newsletter content, consider what kind of articles will best serve your customers (rather than simply serving yourself.)
6. Build the relationship by contacting your clients (in a non-threatening, permission-based) way on a regular basis, always offering something of value.

If you think that investing in customer service (and customer newsletters) is expensive, remember the oft-quoted words of Frederick F. Reichheld in The Loyalty Effect:

“A 5 percent improvement in customer retention rates will yield a 25 to 100 percent increase in profits.”

Chart from Marketing Sherpa