Our 3 Direct Mail Markets (– including 1 we bet you’re not using)
You’ve probably heard about our legendary direct mail letters we write for our Firewave members. The results we and our members have had are phenomenal, especially recently, when stock is at an all-time low – these sales letters have given us all a much-needed stock boost.
But a big question we get asked all the time is…
“What letters should we send to which properties?”
After all, there’s no point in us giving you a world-class direct mail letter if you don’t know which homes to send it to.
“Sending a great letter to the wrong property is worse than sending a poor letter to the right property.” Sam Ashdown
Here are our top 3 markets to send our direct mail letters to, and the types of letter they each need:
- Not on the market
- Withdrawn from the market
- On the market
1. Not on the market
If you’re going to send a ‘not on market’ letter, its content needs to address the fact that their home is not for sale. Of course, you’re not going to start your letter with ‘the reason we’re sending you this letter is because your home isn’t on the market’, but the content of the letter needs to be interesting and useful enough to be relevant to that occupier, whether or not they are intending to sell.
That’s why we love data and statistics. Not only do they make the letter relevant to any owner-occupier, they give you the gift of credibility, unlike opinion.
Top tip – make your letter’s content laser-focused on that street, area or type of house. For example, we target only high-value homes in certain areas of the Lake District. This means we can use the language that we know will best appeal to those owners. This gets the attention of the owner, as we’re speaking directly to them, and we’re also speaking to their ego and status.
2. Withdrawn from the market
A not-on-the-market letters is of course relevant for a home that was once on the market, but isn’t any longer, BUT, a specially-written ‘withdrawn’ letter is much stronger and will usually have a better response.
The market for withdrawn homes is one that very few agents target. At least, not successfully. Having targeted withdrawn homes since we first opened AshdownJones in 2017, we know what a profitable market it can be.
Even those homes that were last on the market five years ago, or longer, can be ready to move with the right approach.
Maybe they spent a year or more on the market but something didn’t go to plan. Perhaps they found a buyer that later pulled out of the sale, or maybe the relationship they had with their estate agent was damaged for some reason. Or they may have simply had a change in their personal circumstances, and decided to put their house move on hold.
Whatever the reason for their decision to stay put, two things are certain: firstly, they will move house at some point, and secondly, it’s unlikely they will go back to their original agent.
Both of these facts present an opportunity for you.
It’s also a market that isn’t often spoken to directly by agents. They may send a ‘not on market’ letter, but this isn’t anywhere near as relevant or direct as a letter that acknowledges the fact they were once intending to move house. Sending a skilfully-written letter to these specific homes will significantly differentiate you above those agents who blanket mail every property.
The market for withdrawn homes is a ‘warm’ market. Warmer than the homes that are not currently on the market at all, but cooler than the homes on the market.
Top tip: there is currently a significant delay in the registering of sales. This means you can’t assume that because there is no sale registered, the property is not actually sold. This means you’ll have to go back quite some time before you can rely on the data you find. In a strong market like this one, this is even more important. During 2020, many homeowners who had originally planned to sell, put their plans on hold until the market was more certain, which it now is.
3. On the market homes
We send a specially-crafted letter each month to those homes in our area which would fit our requirement as a unique home. We’re very selective with the homes we target and list, so tend only to market those homes in the top 20% or so, in terms of value. In our area, this is around ￡500,000 and upwards, although we do market to some special homes that are less.
Your biggest challenge when targeting on-the-market homes is to write a letter that will stand out above all the other letters your competitors will send.
How do you differentiate on the doormat? How do you make the message different? How do you create rapport with the reader from the headline onwards, so they read to the end?
These challenges and more are ones we all have to overcome. We teach our Firewave members the exact method of sending – envelope, address, stamp, etc – to make sure their letter actually gets opened. In following this formula, and sending out the specially-written letters we give them every month, some members have had responses of 10%+ from on-the-market homes, and 5% from not-on-market properties – an astonishing success rate, particularly as they often find they are the only agent invited out.
Top tip: don’t use triggers to decide when to send your letters. Whilst other agents will be sending their letters when the property first comes to market, then after 4 weeks, 8 weeks and price reductions, to stand out, you need to do the opposite. We don’t use triggers at all. We send our letters according to our schedule, not theirs. After all, we have no way of knowing if the homeowner is dissatisfied with their agent from day one, or happy with their lack of a sale after a year or more. Let your letter find that out, without relying on a trigger.
As you can see here from our methods and results, all three markets can be very lucrative to target, but you have to have the right letter to send. This is where we come in. As a Firewave member, you get a not-on-market letter once a quarter, and an on-the-market letter every single month. We also give you our hugely successful withdrawn letter.
Not only do we give you the tools to attract the very best homes in your area, even if you are a brand-new agent, we also give you the exact methods you need to find and choose the right homes, plus on our now infamous ‘LEGEND’ conversion training so you convert these leads at the best fees.
BUT – we only work with just ONE agent per area, and 79 areas have already been taken. To find out if your area is still free, just click the big red button below and tell us where you are. We’ll let you know straight away if your area is available, and we can have a chat to see if Firewave is a good fit for your business goals.
Don’t do what most other agents will do – read this article and do nothing. Take action now, seize the opportunity, and you too could be listing beautiful homes before you know it.