Marketing Draft Monthly #002

Hi All,

Welcome to a month dedicated to love, well, at least one day anyway.

I mention this because this is the topic of this month’s letter, not love, but marketing themes.

I’m sure you have noticed that many major brands have some sort of marketing campaign for every holiday or celebrated event.

But why?

Because it works.

People are always looking for a deal, and it’s easy to generate campaign ideas if you take the major event happening that month and tie your sale to it.

Here is the secret: It doesn’t have to be a sales campaign.

But what if the objective was to stay top of mind?

What if you just wanted to touch your customers and potential customers every month, so that when the day comes that they need your product or service, they come to find you?

Quick Story

Let me tell you a story about a brilliant man named Joe Girard.

As a contractor, Joe made a bad business decision which cost him his business and his savings, landing him in a ton of debt.

But as I remember it, after a year of struggling and finally running out of money and food to feed his family, he begged the manager of a car dealership to give him a job.

The manager was reluctant, but Joe said he wouldn’t take any of the walk-in traffic and would drum up all his own business by using the phone book (this was in a time when people used phone books).

The manager gave him the job, and Joe sold his first car that same night.

He would become the Guinness Book record holder for “WORLD’S GREATEST #1 RETAIL SALESMAN”.

Joe never did fleet sales; he sold one car at a time.

How did he do it?

Well, there is no doubt Joe was hungry and driven. And you don’t become the world’s greatest salesman without having some level of skills.

But I believe the biggest secret to his success was his marketing campaign.

Every month Joe would send a physical card in the mail to anyone he ever talked to. Not just those who bought from him but anyone he talked to.

His cards were unique; he worked with an artist to design them every year, and he made sure each month the envelope was a different color, and the card was a different size.

He never wanted someone to think, oh, it’s another card from Joe.

In the card, it would read Happy New Year, Happy Valentine’s Day…or whatever the theme or holiday was for that month.

The months when there was no theme or holiday, he sent a Happy Birthday card.

Along with the message were two business cards.

What was the result?

One thing that would happen is that people would call Joe when they got the birthday card to tell him it wasn’t their birthday.

He would take the time to get their real birthday, add it to his database, and spend a few minutes building his relationship and making an offer.

Another thing that happened is that people would think of Joe any time they needed a vehicle or knew someone who did.

He was in people’s homes every month, reminding them of who he was and what he did.

That is what I call Top of Mind Marketing.

Implementation

How do you implement this type of marketing into your business?

It’s a lot easier today because we have so many different channels, but I also think there is a ton of value in a direct marketing campaign like this.

Do you have to create custom cards? No.

Do you have to put a business card in each card? No.

But you should send a card … every month.

Direct mail is cheap, and with companies like SendOutCards, it’s even more convenient to do this.

Real-world use case

I am a partner in a real estate investing company, and Marketing Draft is responsible for the company’s marketing.

One of the things we do is direct mail letters to drum up leads and interest from property owners who might want to sell. To make these letters less identifiable, we use envelopes of different sizes, i.e., 3×4 or 2.5×4, and fold up an 8.5×11 size piece of paper to fit.

We hand write the addresses and we do not seal the letters, we just fold the flap into the envelope.

These get opened.

The other thing we do for the real estate business is thank you cards that turn into monthly cards.

When we touch someone, a real estate agent/broker, a property manager, a property owner, or whoever it is, we send them a thank you card to thank them for their time after our first interaction.

These are very popular. On average, we receive a phone call or text message from 63% of those who receive these cards to say thank you and to tell us how much they appreciate that we took the time to send them a card, and to tell us, “Nobody does that anymore”.

After that card, a monthly card is sent following the Joe Girard system.

When you’re top of mind for a hundred-plus real estate agents and brokers who are getting on and off-market deals all the time and want to sell those deals fast, who do you think they think of first?

Are there other methods?

Sure, you could send a text or email, and maybe you should do that too, but when you do something unexpected that “nobody does anymore,” it is memorable.

Your next steps

It may be more strategic for you to only send cards to partners and potential partners, those people who help you sell more of your products.

You may have a large customer base that you’re in contact with every month through a membership program or coaching, you can still send them a special video message or some other type of communication that will have an impact.

One loan officer I have worked with sends me a video message every month. On my birthday, it was a happy birthday message; sometimes, it’s a tip on a market change. I have never thought, after watching one of his videos, that was a waste of time.

You should do something…sending cards is really easy, especially when you use the calendar and attach your message to the monthly theme.

That wraps up my message for this month. 

Have a great month! And feel free to reach out to us if you need help with implementation or strategizing ideas for your busienss.