Using Endorsed Letters for More Effective Real Estate Marketing

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Do you know the best type of direct mail you can ever send out? Something that I can guarantee 99% of your competition never does. And the reason that when I go into a house to close a deal I see a stack of direct mail from my competitors… yet I’m the one walking out with a signed contract?

Two words…

Endorsed mailing. Let me explain…. A few years back I did a subject-to deal with an elderly woman and she wrote me one of the best testimonials I’ve ever received. She was about to lose her house and was so thankful that I saved her from financial ruin. She also mentioned that she would be happy to refer others to me and that people could call her if I ever needed a referral.

Well, soon after this I was reading a marketing book and it was talking about how companies use endorsed mailings to get high response rates from their direct mail. For example, I’m sure you’ve gotten a letter from a cancer patient or cancer family that says “XYZ Hospital saved my life, please contribute $100 dollars to them.” It doesn’t go exactly like that but you get the point.

So what did I do with this knowledge?

I did an endorsed mailing, with a twist (more like a testimonial mailing): I went to the woman I just closed a deal with and asked her if I could include her testimonial letter with my direct mail piece that I send out. She said yes, so the first thing I did was to have my assistant type up the handwritten testimonial into a word document. Next, I wrote a brand new direct mail piece. The letter explained how I was looking for more houses in Fredericksburg, VA and that I had recently helped Jane Doe who lives in their area and here’s the letter that Jane Doe sent me. And if they wanted to speak to Jane Doe I would give them her phone number.

I did not include her phone number on the letter because she did not want that and I didn’t want her to be bombarded with calls. Even though, only a few people have ever asked to call her. Here’s how to exactly put this letter together: You will have your direct mail letter, where you refer to the testimonial. Then behind it you will have the testimonial letter on a yellow piece of paper (your letter will be on white paper.)

If you do this, you will get an incredible response rate.

But make sure the testimonial you use is good. Do not use a boring testimonial that says “John Doe is a nice guy who helped me out.” Instead the testimonial should gush about how you’re a lifesaver and you work miracles.

If you don’t have any testimonials yet, simply ask for them. If you give people good customer service in this business then most of them will be more than happy to write you a testimonial.

This is probably one of the easiest ways to quickly get a deal, because what others say about you is 1,000 times more powerful than what you say about yourself.

Photo: pareeerica

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.