Flyer Power. How To Make a Fortune in Commissions with Rapid Response Flyers

Transcription

1 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS Flyer Power How To Make a Fortune in Commissions with Rapid Response Flyers! 1

2 Presents Flyer Power How To Make a Fortune in Commissions with Rapid Response Flyers Before you say I ve tried flyers and they didn t work (which I hear ALL the time), you have to understand the truth: they DO work, and work consistently! (Direct mail has the highest rate of success in new customer acquisition at 34% compared with other marketing channels). Think about it sending just one batch of flyers a month and you and your team will have motivated sellers CALLING YOU. As many sellers as you can handle. What s a system like that WORTH? I know what it s MADE ME and it can do the same for you too. Let s get started.! 2

3 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS The High School Diploma Flyer! 3

4 I knew that if I wanted to make it big in this business I had to figure out how to get qualified prospects to talk to. The top producers in my office insisted that cold calling and door knocking were the keys to success. But if you remember my story from the video you watched my first experiences with cold calling and door knocking were painful! I can still recall the people on the bus laughing at me. I hated it. I m a proud guy - a competitive guy - and I swore I would never let that happen again. I knew I had to create a system where people would call me; not me calling them. This was the birth of what I refer to now as my Reverse Prospecting system. As I emptied my mailbox one evening I realized that there was a lot of power in the mailbox. I remembered seeing flyers from Realtors in my parent s mailbox as I was growing up and so I thought I would give that a shot. So I started to read some books related to Direct Mail and flyers. I did some market research and realized that people respond to flyers. I knew to be effective I needed to focus on one area of the city. I decided to focus on the area in which I grew up and lived in as I had a bit of a reputation in the community having been active in sports and such. I figured that I d generate the most response sending a flyer in an area I was already known.! 4

5 So then I got busy and created my very first flyer. The flyer below is the very first one I sent out - the one I refer to as the high school diploma flyer. Yes, it looked terrible. It had the wrong headline. It had the wrong compelling reasons. It had the wrong call-to-action.! 5

6 In fact, in the eyes of a professional direct-response copywriter this piece was a total train wreck. But remember, I was just learning. I had little or no experience in marketing at the time. So I went ahead and I mailed out over 50,000 of these flyers and things started to happen. The same day my flyer was delivered to mailboxes in my community, my phone began to ring. I was actually starting to talk to prospects that had an interest in selling or buying a new home. I began lining up appointments AND closing deals. Between the homes I listed and sold I made over $18,000 in my first 30 days in the real estate business. All of that business came as a result of that flyer. As I looked back I realized in that moment that I needed to become an absolute expert on direct mail and flyers. I read every book I could get my hands on about direct and rapidresponse marketing.! 6

7 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS Formula For Effective Flyers and Direct Mail! 7

8 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS After years of studying direct response marketing and testing different pieces, I ve boiled down what works and what components your flyer needs to have in order to be effective. There are 4 main components of an effective flyer: an attentiongrabbing headline, a magnetic call-to-action, a powerful benefit-focused statement, and your branding. Let s take a look at an effective flyer so you can see these components and how they are laid out.!8

9 Attention-Grabbing Headline The headline of your flyer is your most important component. It will make or break your piece. The headline is the first thing the reader will see and based on that they will make a snap decision whether to keep reading or not. In order for a headline to be really effective it has to speak to the reader. You ll notice it says Sell YOUR home not I sell homes. If your flyer is all about you and not about your customer it s heading straight for the trash. Powerful Benefit-Focused Statement The benefit statement is essential. It also needs to speak to the reader and has to tell them exactly what they get. But don t confuse this with features. Features don t mean anything to a reader. It s the benefits they get from the features of your service that resonates with them because it addresses their pain or concerns. Your benefit statement can be a single sentence, a few sentences or even a short list of powerful bullet points. I find bullet points to work well because people have a tendency to skim over things. Bullet points slow the eye down and make them easier to consume. Magnetic Call-to-Action This again is a make or break component of your flyer. You can get the headline right. You can get the benefit statement right.! 9

10 But if you drop the ball and have a weak call-to-action your flyer is a dud. Your call-to-action needs to tell people exactly what to do next. Tell them the next step and make it easy for them. If you want them to contact you, give them your phone number. If you want them to visit your website, give them the address. You should never make people have to think or work to take the next step. Your Branding You ll notice in this list that I mention branding last. That s not because it isn t important. It s because your flyer won t be effective if that s the focus of it. Your branding on a flyer is simply an identifier. It s so they know who it s coming from. I think it s important to include a professional photo because it makes your flyer more personal. It lessens that mass market communication feel a flyer can sometimes have. It s also good to include your personal tagline or branding statement that helps set you apart from the competition.! 10

11 The Evolution & Why You Need To Test! 11

12 I ve tried and tested multiple formats over the years and I continue to do so today because flyers STILL work even in the digital age we live in. In fact, flyers when done right are probably more effective than ever before because more and more businesses are migrating to digital marketing. There s not as much competition in the mailbox anymore. Let s take a look at how my flyers have evolved over the years as I continually tested and measured the changes I made. This is another of my early flyers. You can see here that I started to understand how less was more. I declared the area I was farming and even wrote the neighbourhood s in small print around the outside edges. This one brought in much more business than the old high school diploma flyer, but I knew I could do better.! 12

13 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS One thing I noticed that was really helping to get my phone ringing was my call to action. Offering a free market analysis is a great way to get in front of semi-qualified sellers - and that was my goal. The reason the market analysis works so well is because someone who isn t thinking seriously about selling isn t going to want one. The offer acts as a filter so when a request comes in I know they re somewhat qualified to start with. In my next few flyers I refined my message even further. I put more emphasis on the headline and highlighted my call-toaction. I emphasized my benefit statements. These changes brought significant improvements in response rates and this format became the template for my flyers moving forward. 3ELL YOUR HOME &!34%2 AND FOR MORE -/.%9 '.. :163:163 *1/' /13' 8+5* '.. *1/' (13#0&12(13 1..#3 WITH %DMONTON S 2EAL %STATE!GENT 8+5* &/ '#. '#. 45#5' )'05 &/ #5' 92'35!*'0 6#3#05''4!*'0:16 : :163 :163*1/' *1/' 8+5* 8+5* :16 3'%'+7' 5*'4' 6#3#05''4 ).+ ).+)' )' / +-#, / +-#, ).+, ).+, 1 1.(-#&.(-#& #-#- #,#,,)& ).+ ).+)' )' / +-#, / +-#, -)-) '#&&#)(, '#&&#)(, )( )( ).+ ).+)' )' / +-#, / +-#, #(#(.&&.&& )&)+ )&)+ *+#(*+#(-,, ( ( / +1 1 / +1 1.(-#&.(-#& #-#- #,#,,)&,)&.+ ' ')) * # &#,-, * # &#,-, )+ )+ - -, ', ' *+# *+#,, #+#(! #+#(!,#(!&! (-.+ ).+)' )',)&,)& #(#( 1, 1, )+ ) #- #- ).+!13 # # # # # #!#! # # #!#! #

14 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS You can see in the example above how I started testing benefit statements for the reader. I was really zeroing in on my Unique Value Proposition and trying to answer the prospects question of Why you? What makes you different? The next few variations of my flyer saw a more unified look with better use of colours and fonts. I made sure that the overall look and feel of my brand was also communicated across my flyers. By this time business was BOOMING. I had more listings and inquiries than I knew what to do with so I started to expand my team and branch out into the surrounding areas around Edmonton. My next few flyers were meant to introduce my team members and to filter inquiries directly to them as you ll see below.!14

15 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS!15

16 This was a really big step into expanding my business and growing out my team. It not only allowed me more time to focus working ON my business rather than IN it all the time, but it also allowed me to do even more business than before. I was really happy with the results I was getting from my flyers at that point. But the process of testing and tracking your marketing never ends. Small changes, even a single word can make a massive impact on your results. Increasing your response rate by 0.2% when you re sending out over 50,000 flyers can mean 100 extra inquiries in a month! The whole time I was testing and tracking new variations of my flyers I continued to learn and consume everything I could on direct mail marketing. One of the things I learned about that I was interested in trying was Engagement tactics. That s where you deliver a piece of mail and there s actually something for the reader to DO with it. A great example of this is the old Publishers Clearing House direct mail pieces where you had to peel stickers off and stick them onto the entry forms before you could mail it in. This was an interesting concept because if you can get your reader to engage with your piece they re far more likely to convert on it. The longer it s in their hands and the more they do with it, the more effective it will be overall. Excited to try this technique out I came up with the concept of the VIP tear card.! 16

17 On the right-hand side of my flyers I printed a business card sized VIP card for a free home evaluation. I had the printing house perforate the paper so that the reader could actually tear the card away from the flyer. It seemed like a neat idea but I had no idea how well it would work. In the coming weeks after I started sending these ones out I would have people say to me at home evaluation calls Oh, just one second Terry and they d walk to their refrigerators and pull the VIP card out from behind a magnet and walk back over and hand it to me. If you think about it, the whole idea of it is silly. I mean even if someone didn t have that card handy I d still give them a free evaluation. But people still made a point of tearing it off and handing it to me. I couldn t believe how well it was working! Lots of the time when you re testing different ideas and concepts you have no idea what will work unless you re measuring the results.! 17

18 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS So the next thing I wanted to focus on again was my headline. I started to get really bold with it. I wanted it to make such an impact that the reader couldn t believe what they were reading. Take a look at one of the headlines I tested below. 163 *1/' +0 &#: $6: +5!*'0 : :163 *1/' 8+5* :16 3'%'+7' 5*'4' 6#3#05''4 (-*!(&. *,+!(-*+ 0 -',%, + +(% (-*!(&. *,+,( &%%('+ (' (-*!(&. *,+ ' -%% (%(* )*', +. *0 / $ -',%, + +(% -* & ( ) %+,+ (*,! + & )* +!*' +' % ', (-*!(& +(% ' 0+ (* / -0,! The SOLD in 90 days or I ll buy it headline was a total knockout. My phone lines lit up and we had a massive increase in inquiries. For the average person looking to sell their home, how could you resist an offer like that?! A while later I freshened up my branding. I had new professional business photos taken and changed up our colour scheme a bit.!18

19 FLYER POWER - HOW TO MAKE A FORTUNE IN COMMISSIONS WITH RAPID RESPONSE FLYERS During that process we also updated the flyers again. To try something different to stand out in the mail box I started playing around with die cut flyers, an example of which you see below. As you can see I ve tried many different variations of flyers over the years. I even started playing around with the times of year I would do mail outs. Through testing and tracking I ve figured out the absolute best times to mail in my market. So the takeaway here is that you NEED to test and track your flyers to see how well they re working. Don t be afraid to experiment and try different headlines, benefit statements and calls-to-action to see what your readers respond to. The more you test, the better your results will be. It s about continuous improvement.!19

20 Flyer Distribution! 20

21 How you distribute your flyers is very important. The most important thing to remember is that it s more effective to hit a smaller area more often than it is to hit a larger area once or twice. The reason for that is people need to get used to seeing your branded marketing. The more times you can get your message in front of them, the more you stay front-of-mind with them. This is an essential part of marketing. You need to become the first person they think of when they want to sell a home - the brand of choice in your market. It also helps you with timing. If you only send out 1 or 2 flyers per year, it s harder to get yourself in front of sellers when they re ready to take the next step in listing their home. If you target a smaller area and hit it more often, say every 4-6 weeks, you consistently put your message in front of them and it s more likely your flyer is arriving in the mailbox when they re ready to start the listing process. When you send your flyers is also important. If you ve been in the industry any length of time, you know that we re affected by seasonality. Generally speaking, fewer homes get sold in November, December and January than in May, June and July. Therefore it makes more sense to be sending out flyers when there s more activity. This doesn t mean you should abandon your flyers in the winter months however, it just means that you! 21

22 can anticipate more inquiries in the warmer months when people are more likely to be moving to a new home. I often get questions about how to get your flyer delivered. This will be different for everyone depending on where they live and what services are available. Many printers can take care of getting your flyer distributed too. While it may cost you more to go this route, it makes sense because of the amount of time it will free up having someone else take care of the logistics for you. Just be sure of the area you want to mail in and you can work with them to get it done. Check with your brokerage if they have any relationships set up with printers or mailing houses that offer targeted direct mail delivery programs. Often times they will offer discounts to brokerages. If this isn t an option for you or the service isn t available in your area, you can always take care of the logistics yourself. Canada Post allows you to deliver map-based targeted direct marketing campaigns. You can click here for more details about their program. For my American friends, the United States Postal Service offers a similar program. Get those details here.! 22

23 Closing The Loop: Tracking Your Results! 23

24 This is the most critical piece of marketing. If you don t track it, you don t know what s working. This is probably one of the biggest mistakes that most businesses make, not just Realtors. The reason it s so critical is how do you know if what you re pouring your marketing budget into is actually delivering results? I used to spend over $100,000 per year on newsprint. Today, I spend $0. Over time we found that newsprint was becoming less and less effective - and eventually we dropped it completely. If we hadn t committed to tracking our marketing consistently, we never would have known that. I ve since taken that budget and poured it into some new forms of marketing, including my own digital magazine, that are bringing in far greater results. If you measure it, you can improve it and make it work even better. And if something is not performing you can cut it and allocate that budget elsewhere. Before you go getting worried that this is going to add a lot of extra work and complicate your daily business routines, I assure you it s not. Tracking your marketing doesn t have to be difficult. In fact, the easier it is to do it, the more likely you will be to follow through with it.one of the simplest ways to track your marketing is to just use a simple spreadsheet on your computer where you record your inquiries.! 24

25 When a phone call comes in, take a moment to gather the following information from the caller: Date Lead source (flyer/outdoor advertising/referral/website) Name of caller Address Phone # Assigned team member (skip this if it s just you) Details of the evaluation (why they want to sell, etc) Most of these are straight forward but some people get hung up on the lead source. Simply ask the caller how they heard of you or where they got your phone number and record that. Once a call comes in you ll go through your regular process of qualifying them. If they list with you then record that on your spreadsheet too. Pay close attention to two numbers: what s bringing in new leads and what s bringing in new customers. It s important to differentiate between the two. Just because one form of marketing is bringing in a lot of inquiries, it doesn t mean it s the best one. If the quality of the calls coming in are low, you ll waste time talking to people who aren t serious. You need to focus on your highest quality leads and tracking which marketing converts the most customers will help you identify it. You can easily set up a spreadsheet in Excel or Numbers on your computer to track this info. Or if you prefer the old-school method, you can print the form on the last page of this guide and keep it nearby for when the phone rings.! 25

26 In this guide you learned my formula for creating powerful flyers that will get prospects calling you, rather than you calling them. In order to take your business to the next level, you need to increase your lead flow. It s all a numbers game. The more leads you get, the more closed deals you ll have. You also learned about the importance of testing and improving your rapid response flyers. The smallest increase in response rate can have a large impact on the number of inquiries you get each month. Sometimes it s something as small as a word or sentence, or even a different color that can dramatically increase the performance of your flyer. We also discussed how to close the loop in this system. By tracking your inquiries you re able to identify how well your marketing is performing and what your highest quality source of leads are. These are important metrics that business owners use to make decisions to speed their growth. I hope you enjoyed this guide and I hope that you put it into action in your own business. Having a reverse prospecting system in your business is key to getting you to that next level on your way of becoming a SuperStarAgent. Oh, and by the way. My Rapid Response Flyer Program is only one of my 10 Powerful Systems I employ in my business that make my phone ring off the hook and help me to net more than $3,000,000 a year in my business consistently. I ll be revealing more of these strategies in the next video so keep an eye on your inbox!! 26

27