The Power of Direct Response Marketing

The world today is full of offers that consumers must wade through to find anything helpful. As a result, many consumers are just overwhelmed and stop paying attention. Direct response marketing is a different approach that can help real estate agents cut through the fog.

What Is Direct Response Marketing?

You might be thinking that all marketing is intended to get a response. Otherwise, why bother? The fact is that some marketing improves a brand’s visibility, some generates demand, and some is simply ineffective.

Consider the real estate agent who produces a postcard campaign based on highlighting their experience and skills, ending with an offer similar to: “Contact me when you’re ready to buy or sell.” Typically, the agent expects a response, but they rarely get one. Direct response marketing fixes that problem.

Direct response marketing is focused on motivating the reader to take immediate action. Not only is this approach more likely to produce results, but it also allows you to measure the effectiveness of your marketing efforts.

Tips for Creating Direct Response Marketing Campaigns

There are certain characteristics that transform any marketing into direct response marketing. It doesn’t matter if you are mailing postcards, reaching visitors on your website and social media pages, or using online advertising, you can structure all of it as a direct response campaign. Here’s how.

Always Make an Offer

“Contact me when you’re ready to buy or sell” isn’t an offer. An offer is something you provide that your target market can’t help but want. For real estate, it could be a list of sales prices of homes in the neighborhood. Or it could be an update on market statistics with a narrative that helps the consumer understand what those statistics mean to them.

When crafting an offer, think about things you know that the typical consumer doesn’t, but would like to know. An agent in a resort area might provide a calculator to determine how much rental income they need to offset the cost of the mortgage on a vacation home, for example.

Use Robust Language

Your offer has to be clearly compelling enough to motivate people to take action. That means that you can’t make a low-key offer and expect people to respond. Your language needs to show the passion you have for your business, and the absolute necessity for your target market to accept your offer.

Set a Deadline

You may not really intend to stop creating the eBook you’re offering, but set a deadline to accept your offer. Deadlines create urgency and help people make the commitment to proceed.

Use Your Website

If the only way your prospect can accept your offer is by calling you, your response will suffer. Given human nature, you’ll be much more likely to get a response if people can accept your offer on your website. That approach relieves your prospect of the apprehension they may have of picking up the telephone. It’s also good for you because your prospects can get to know you better.

Test and Track Results

As with any type of marketing, you’ll need to test different offers and approaches to find the ones that work best for you. Don’t stop if your first campaign produces disappointing results — just keep testing.

It’s equally important to track your results. There’s nothing worse than paying for marketing efforts that don’t pay for themselves and more. The only way you’ll know if that’s happening to you is to track results. In addition, results will let you know how your tests are performing.

If you haven’t used direct response marketing before, now is the time to get started. With clear and compelling offers, you’ll reach your prospects in a new way. Further, when you track results, you’ll know that your marketing dollars are working hard for you.