Did you know that the National Association of Realtors estimates that home prices will only increase by 2.6% in 2024? Now is the perfect time to prepare your real estate marketing materials so that you can make the best of this market.
Real estate marketing consists of a wide range of products and strategies, including excellent printed materials and an active online presence. In short, your marketing establishes you as an expert in the industry.
If creating your marketing strategy sounds overwhelming, there’s no need to worry. In this article, we’ll explain the top items every real estate professional needs on their marketing checklist.
What Marketing Materials Do Realtors Need?
According to the National Association of Realtors, 87% of people who bought homes recently purchased their home through a real estate agent or broker. Prospective homeowners are looking for real estate agents, and your marketing strategy helps them find you.
If you’re just starting your real estate career, now is a great time to think about which marketing materials you want to focus on. If you’ve been in the industry for years, it’s always a good idea to take a look at your existing strategy and see what you can add or update.
While some marketing materials, such as business cards and brochures are evergreen, other strategies evolve quickly. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to take a look at your marketing strategy and materials to make sure that everything is fully up to date.
Print Real Estate Marketing Materials
Printed materials are the rock-solid foundation that supports real estate marketing. As you’re creating a comprehensive marketing plan, be sure to include the following items. We’ve also added some helpful marketing and printing tips so you can create the most effective materials.
Newsletters
Distributing a newsletter is your best opportunity to connect with potential clients and help them become familiar with your services, aims, and expertise. Here are some ideas for topics to cover in your newsletter:
- Helpful information about properties
- Explanations of the neighborhoods you work with
- Informational articles about real estate
- Financial tips for potential first-time homeowners
- Predictions about the housing market in your area
By distributing information about your city or community, you give readers both important knowledge about your properties and a glimpse of what working with you is like.
Real Estate Marketing Tip: In your newsletter, include articles that benefit people in all stages of the home purchasing process, from those who are just starting to look for their first home to long-time homeowners. This can include advice on saving up for a home, home repair ideas, updates on community events, and more.
Real Estate Printing Tip: Real estate newsletters typically take one of two forms: a one-page 8.5×11 brochure or an 8.5×11 booklet. If you’d like to include lots of information and pictures of current houses on the market, a custom booklet gives you space to include all the content you’d like. For a smaller newsletter that is easy to pick up and read, a one-page brochure is a great option.
Yard Signs
Every marketing item is a chance for you to advance your brand, and your yard signs are no exception. Anywhere from hundreds to thousands of people drive past your properties every day, making yard signs your biggest source of exposure in your community. Therefore, it’s important to make them count!
Real Estate Marketing Tip: Your brand is vital to your success. Keep your yard signs consistent with the branding on your other marketing items, including colors, fonts, and your logo. This will make your yard signs instantly recognizable to all who pass by.
Real Estate Printing Tip: By making your yard sign’s design simple and easy to read, you increase its effectiveness. Use large letters in bold type that passersby can easily read.
Pocket Folders
Your clients collect many papers over the course of their house search, so provide them with elegant, customized folders that are both practical for them and useful for you. Giving clients their own pocket folders offers many benefits:
- They can keep track of their many papers.
- They receive a tangible reminder of your company.
- You provide a branded item that clients are likely to keep long after your work together is done.
- Clients understand that you care about their experiences and can give them the excellent materials and service they need.
As you can see, printing customized folders is a win-win!
Brochures
Distributing brochures at your open houses is a surefire way to help recipients remember a house and what they loved about it. Brochures are easy to read and easy to store, and they contain a lot of information in a limited amount of space.
Real Estate Marketing Tip: Make the information on your brochures clear and easy to read. When designing your brochure, do the following:
- Include bold headings that direct readers’ attention.
- Use bullet points that list features and key data about the property.
- Add a couple of photos so that readers remember the property.
Using these strategies will lead to effective brochures that readers understand.
Real Estate Printing Tip: Choose the brochure folding style that works best for your project. Some of the most common brochure folding styles include the following:
- Tri-fold, which creates six equal-sized panels
- Bi-fold, which creates four equal-sized panels
- Gate-fold, which creates two larger panels and four smaller panels
However, you can choose between many folding styles, so be sure to do your research and pick the style that best fits your goals.
Postcards
Sending targeted real estate postcards is a useful and efficient strategy. Postcards are short and to the point, and they’re frequently cheaper to mail than traditionally sized letters or newsletters. Therefore, you can typically send them to more recipients for less money. They’re the perfect tactic to spread the news about your most exciting properties.
Real Estate Marketing Tip: Many printing companies are able to help you target mailings by specific demographics such as age, neighborhood, or average income. If you have questions about how to mail postcards to your target audience, ask your printer. They’ll be happy to take care of the targeted mailing process for you. As well, targeted mail often needs to fit specific qualifications, so make sure to read about the requirements on the USPS website and discuss your plans with your printing company.
Real Estate Printing Tip: Use your postcards as an opportunity to help readers find you online. Include a QR code on your postcards that directs readers to a special landing page on your website that gives them easy access to all of your online services.
Flyers
Real estate flyers are some of the most important marketing materials for realtors. They contain space for lots of information about a property, and they’re highly versatile. Flyers are also easy to distribute. Think about distributing flyers in the following ways:
- Handed out at open house events
- Sent in the mail
- Posted in community businesses such as local restaurants and stores
Let your flyers do the work for you!
Real Estate Marketing Tip: Use on-demand printing services to ensure that you have as many flyers as you need while wasting as few as possible. Talk with your printing company about setting up on-demand printing for your flyers and other printed materials.
Real Estate Printing Tip: Include the right amount of text on your flyers. There’s space to include a few sentences and some bullet points, but make sure that you focus on the visuals. Great flyers get attention and remind readers about a property without overwhelming them with text.
Floor Plans
Floor plans are the ultimate real estate marketing materials. What better way to help clients remember a real estate listing than by providing detailed images of the property’s layout?
Be sure to give your clients a floor plan of each property they visit so that they can remember which property is which. Make sure to distribute your floor plans in branded pocket folders so that clients can keep track of it all! You can even bundle this with a custom-printed pen so that clients can take notes as they visit properties.
Real Estate Marketing Tip: When designing your floor plan documents, be sure to leave space for clients to take notes in the margins. Also, include key information such as the property’s address and square footage so that clients can keep track of which floor plan belongs with which property.
Business Cards
Connections are vital in the real estate industry. You’re constantly making business connections and acquaintances, so you therefore need excellent business cards. By distributing your business card to new contacts, you let them know that you’re always available to support them.
Make sure to print your business cards with a reliable printing company that will create the high-quality cards you need. Professionally printed cards will make a great impression on your new connections.
Real Estate Marketing Tip: Add a design element to your business card that relates to real estate. This could mean a tasteful image of a house, a minimalistic cityscape of your city, or an icon of a roof. Be sure to include your typical branding on your business card as well so that it matches the rest of your print materials.
Custom Stationery
In every interaction with your clients, you try to go above and beyond. One way to demonstrate your dedication is by sending clients handwritten letters on custom stationery. To make sure that all of your stationery goes together, print matching letterhead and envelopes.
It’s a great idea to handwrite prospective buyers a welcome letter when you begin your working relationship, and a thank you letter at the end, and writing on custom stationery gives your letters a high level of class. Your clients will notice and appreciate these personal touches.
Door Hangers
Door hangers are frequently the most underutilized tools in the realtor’s toolbox, but they’re effective ways to spread your reach in your community, so give them a second thought. Recipients are guaranteed to see a door hanger on their front door, which makes them great print marketing materials.
In short, if you see a house you’d like to sell, or if you’d like to spread the word about one of your properties, let the owner know with a well-designed door hanger.
Real Estate Marketing Tip: Door hangers are versatile. They can feature a specific property on the market, state that a house in the neighborhood was just sold, or advertise your real estate business. If you’re looking for help designing a door hanger that fits your needs, consult your printing company.
Branded Specialty Items
It’s always a good idea to distribute branded specialty items to customers. There is an almost infinite range of items, from beer koozies to custom pens, to apparel. Consider which items your clients might appreciate, and ask your printing company if they can print them. Chances are, they can!
Posters
While posters might not be the first item that comes to mind when you think of real estate marketing, remember that they’re versatile resources that grab the attention you’re looking for.
Real estate posters can advertise new houses on the market, display beautiful pictures of new properties, and advertise upcoming open houses. They’re great products that alert community members about upcoming events, so make sure to distribute your posters around town so that as many people as possible know to attend.
Banners
When you’re holding an open house or another event, grab attention with custom-printed banners. Many people only learn about open houses when they walk past, so by hanging a banner outside your property listing, you let more people know about your open house and increase the number of people who will walk in the door.
Digital Real Estate Marketing Materials
While print marketing is paramount, be sure to complement it with effective digital marketing. Here are some of the most important tactics.
Build an SEO-Focused Website
Help potential clients find you by creating an intuitive website that uses search engine optimization (SEO) to boost your presence on Google. After all, people can only choose to use your services if they can find you!
Real Estate Marketing Tip: Write a blog on your website and update it regularly with informative articles that use common real estate keywords. The better Google understands that your website is a helpful resource, the higher it will rank your website in search results.
Cultivate an Active Social Media Presence
Let clients know that you’re a responsive community member by maintaining an active social media presence. This includes posting on Facebook, Twitter, Zillow, and neighborhood networks such as Nextdoor. Be sure to engage with your followers to demonstrate that you’re eager to help.
Instagram and Facebook
Instagram and Facebook are two of the most common social media platforms, which makes them essential parts of any marketing plan. They’re effective ways to reach potential buyers throughout your community.
Make social media posts regularly and include visual content such as photos and video tours of properties. As well, respond to all of the comments and questions you get on your Facebook and Instagram so that readers know you’re reliable and want to help.
TikTok
TikTok is one of the biggest emerging social media platforms. It’s a perfect platform for posting house tours, answering questions, and offering general advice about the process of saving for and buying property.
Create Video House Tours
Filming detailed video house tours is a great way to let as many people as possible see your properties. By posting the videos online and sending them to interested clients, you provide all the information and exposure of an in-person tour, and clients can enjoy them from the comfort of their own homes.
Real Estate Marketing Tip: Be sure that these videos uphold your value of providing high-quality materials. If filming and editing isn’t your specialty, consider employing a local production company or freelancer to create the video for you. That way, you can focus on giving a stellar house tour for the camera and let the production company take care of the rest.
Use Email Marketing
Email marketing is a useful complement to your print marketing. When recipients see regular, useful emails from you in their inbox, they’ll be more likely to remember you the next time they’re looking for a realtor.
Email Marketing Best Practices
Launching an effective email marketing campaign can take some planning. Here are some of the biggest tips to keep in mind for your email marketing:
- Personalize your greeting.
- Include your branding.
- Include a call to action above the fold.
- Optimize your email preview text.
By using these tips and tricks, you’ll increase readership and engagement.
Partner With a Trusted Real Estate Printing Company
When you’re looking for a real estate printing company, The Print Authority is excited to help! With over three decades of expertise designing, printing, and distributing all types of real estate marketing materials, we are passionate about helping our customers succeed.
Contact us today to experience the benefits of The Print Authority’s real estate marketing printing services.
