Realtor Marketing System That Provides a Free Flow of Referrals from Respected Professionals

Whenever you hear the term "referral letter marketing", as a Realtor, what immediately comes to mind? Wish to bet $50 that you believe I'm talking about getting letters of testimonials from your former clients?

That's a great marketing suggestion for Realtors too. Although, what I'm getting at is collecting a stream of client referrals from other professionals such as mortgage brokers, landscapers, atto
eys and contractors. And all it'll take is just a personal letter scripted by you, the world's most amazing Realtor.

What referral letter marketing really boils down to for Realtors is this: obtain a list of professionals with clients likely to purchase or sell a residence. Then, sending it by regular mail, compose a personal letter to your list of respected professionals.

Try to be creative in terms of the mailing package or envelope you use as well as including a special marketing piece with your letter. If possible, phone each professional that receives your letter, as a follow up chore.

There are a ton of "top producing" Realtors who apply this single tactic to create the majority of their closings. There's nothing dishonest with following the leader.

Let's begin with a sample list of these professionals that have the clients you're looking for...

• CPA's

• Home Loan Consultants (I'm positive you know this one)

• Financial Planners (certified)

• Lawyers

• General Contractors

• Home Stagers

• Appraisers

• Title and Escrow Officers

• Electricians

• Plumbing Contractors

• Landscapers

• Roofing Contractors

• Tree Service Companies

• Residential Handymen

• Get the concept?...

So how can you get a thorough list of all the professionals you'll wish to work with? Wonderful question. There are a duo of choices for you but they depend on how much cash is in your marketing budget.

You can sift through the on-line yellow pages, which is an economical option. As a Realtor, you already have a "farm area" you operate in so you'll want to keep within those borders. The manual labor is the time consuming aspect about this option.

You have to move through each individual listed and find their name, phone number and mailing address. It might take you a while but if you have more time than marketing dollars, this is the route to go.

A different option for compiling your list of respected professionals is to simply purchase a list. Just like you're probably on a Realtor list for sale to people, just about every other profession has their own list for sale as well.

These types of lists aren't dishonest at all (sorry to say for a few of us). These kinds of compiled, professional lists are regularly for sale since professionals (like us real estate agents) voluntarily sign up for random subscriptions, associations, events, etc.

It's an eye opener, isn't ir? See why all that Realtor junk mail and email somehow gets sent to you?

When it comes to buying this list of professionals, you have a crowd of list companies to select from. Rather than going to one list company for a list of atto
eys and another company for financial planners, you ought choose a company that provides all the professions you demand in one place. It'll cost you a few bucks to obtain this sort of list but it'll salvage you a pant load of time!

So once you get this marketing list of professionals (however you choose to acquire it), it's time to pen your very personalized "referral letter". Sorry to say, copywriting is a topic of its own and we just can't get into it right now, or else you'll be studying a novel today. Learning to compose sales copy is a lengthy matter by itself.

Simply realize for now that you don't want your referral letter to be a "sales letter".

When one of the professionals on your list gets your letter, you want them to feel as if they're the sole individual who received it, even if you might copy it and mail it to the remainder of your list.

Imagine about how you'd talk to these professionals face-to-face and create your letter in that way, that's the big idea here. Do not be like your local bank and write some kind of "this is so boring I could vomit" referral marketing letter. Grab the reader's interest, write to them like a genuine person and not like an institution.

As a side remark, personalizing your marketing goes for all your Realtor marketing material, like postcards, emails, articles, ads, etc.

The "jist" of this referral marketing letter needs to convey that you're interested in building a "reciprocally advantageous" relationship where you can both refer business to each another. You want to be their "go to" Realtor or agent for the rest of their career. You need to emphasize how they'll gain from this relationship without doing any selling, got it?

If you know something personal about their company or the area they work in, throw it in the letter. If you know of a client who's worked with them, drop that in there also. There's no way you can actually screw up this "personal" touch unless you begin talking trash about their mom, but you won't do that, right?

I would kindly suggest you to create this letter yourself, in your own words. But if you just detest writing this type of marketing material, you can hire an inexpensive self-employed writer to do it for you.

Doing a search on Google will pull up a number of choices of self-employed writers and companies for you to pick from. With a few of the sites you'll see, you can choose freelance writers from all over the world, which is pretty handy. It's great since you can sometimes see their reviews, pricing and even forward them a question to "interview them". You could go as far as posting the project you want accomplished and waiting for writers to apply. It's pretty terrific.

O.K., so now that you have your marketing list and referral letter scripted, it's time to mail it out. Just please don't simply mail it in a simple white envelope similar to everyone else... pretty please!

Alte
atively, look for a unique envelope or box that will stand out from all the mail these professionals will be receiving. Your intention is to stick out like a sore thumb, in a great way, from all the mail your list will be receiving. I would also hand-pen the address and return address, as it'll look more personalized to the recipient.

Stop and think about which pieces of mail you open 1st. Exactly, letters that have hand-written addresses always get priority!

The next thing you want to do is include a unique marketing piece, apart from your referral letter. This can be a video you create using Animoto that showcases who you are and why they have to pay attention.

One of my friends, a life insurance salesman, sent out a similar mailing and included poker chips with his contact information on them. This friend of mine printed "Do not gamble with your life" on all the poker chips.

Isn't that brilliant? That's the type of creative idea you need in order to stick out from your competition, or at least you want to understand where to get the ideas!

With this referral letter, make certain you specify for these professionals to not only call your phone, if they want, but also to check out your blog or site. Make sure you offer them both options. You can never tell who hates talking on the telephone and who hates looking at websites.

Our final step possibly could be more essential than all the others. The mother of all keys to marketing is "repetition". Statistics from the marketing industry establish that a potential client needs to be exposed to your message at least 7 times, on average, before they are comfy enough to answer back.

So the apparent "take-away" is that you must continue to market to these professionals on your list, more than once. I'd say shoot for once per month, either by phone or another letter, after you make the first follow up telephone call after your 1st mailing. If you have it, using a professional's e-mail address would be a fine follow up too.

Just please be careful about not smothering them, however you decide to follow-up. Be courteous and give them space but at the same time, don't let them stop thinking about which Realtor or agent they should be sending clients to.

A little time saving tip: if there's money in your marketing budget, try hiring a college student or high school teenager to stuff your mailers for you. compose the letters yourself but have your hired-help stuff the envelopes with your letters and marketing pieces.

It's cheap labor, just like US companies do when they hire overseas workers for their customer servicing call centers (did I just throw in a cheap shot?).

In all sincerity, when it comes to Realtor marketing tips, referral letter marketing will set you up as a top real estate agent for years and years to follow. Ultimately, this marketing method can give you a free flow of leads and prospects that can make you into a top producing Realtor or agent, as long as you stick with it and form these referral relationships correctly.