approach, you can make it more believable and "close to home" by including the questioner's name and neighborhood. For instance: "Bob Smith, Mayfield Ranch." Just be sure you get permission before publishing someone’s name. Most people won’t mind, but you have to ask.

Your informative tips don’t have to tak

Want to know an easy, no-cost way to enhance your real estate marketing program?

Add informative tips to your marketing pieces.

For instance, take a subject you know a lot about (and one that’s relevant to your audience) and divide it into 12 parts. You’ve just created a tip-of-the-month postcard series. Now tie it back to a buyer or seller guide, information kit, or some other free report as a way to prompt that ever-critical first contact from your target base.

The execution of this approach is simple, but you do need to have some kind of follow-up piece that your prospects would actually want -- a free report of some kind. Make sure it’s something with a high perceived value in your prospects’ minds (not something they can just go online and easily find themselves).

The Q&A Version

Here’s another way to add information to your real estate marketing program. Use your mailers to present a commonly asked question about buying or selling, and then answer the question thoroughly and helpfully on the reverse side. Then create an offer to the effect of: "If you found this Q&A helpful, you’ll enjoy my free report, 'The Top 25 Home-Buying Questions, Answered' available online at..."

If you follow the Q&A approach, you can make it more believable and "close to home" by including the questioner's name and neighborhood. For instance: "Bob Smith, Mayfield Ranch." Just be sure you get permission before publishing someone’s name. Most people won’t mind, but you have to ask.

Your informative tips don’t have to take

. Now tie it back to a buyer or seller guide, information kit, or some other free report as a way to prompt that ever-critical first contact from your target base.

The execution of this approach is simple, but you do need to have some kind of follow-up piece that your prospects would actually want -- a free report of some kind. Make sure it’s something with a high perceived value in your prospects’ minds (not something they can just go online and easily find themselves).

The Q&A Version

Here’s another way to add information to your real estate marketing program. Use your mailers to present a commonly asked question about buying or selling, and then answer the question thoroughly and helpfully on the reverse side. Then create an offer to the effect of: "If you found this Q&A helpful, you’ll enjoy my free report, 'The Top 25 Home-Buying Questions, Answered' available online at..."

If you follow the Q&A approach, you can make it more believable and "close to home" by including the questioner's name and neighborhood. For instance: "Bob Smith, Mayfield Ranch." Just be sure you get permission before publishing someone’s name. Most people won’t mind, but you have to ask.

Your informative tips don’t have to tak

report of some kind. Make sure it’s something with a high perceived value in your prospects’ minds (not something they can just go online and easily find themselves).

The Q&A Version

Here’s another way to add information to your real estate marketing program. Use your mailers to present a commonly asked question about buying or selling, and then answer the question thoroughly and helpfully on the reverse side. Then create an offer to the effect of: "If you found this Q&A helpful, you’ll enjoy my free report, 'The Top 25 Home-Buying Questions, Answered' available online at..."

If you follow the Q&A approach, you can make it more believable and "close to home" by including the questioner's name and neighborhood. For instance: "Bob Smith, Mayfield Ranch." Just be sure you get permission before publishing someone’s name. Most people won’t mind, but you have to ask.

Your informative tips don’t have to tak

ly asked question about buying or selling, and then answer the question thoroughly and helpfully on the reverse side. Then create an offer to the effect of: "If you found this Q&A helpful, you’ll enjoy my free report, 'The Top 25 Home-Buying Questions, Answered' available online at..."

If you follow the Q&A approach, you can make it more believable and "close to home" by including the questioner's name and neighborhood. For instance: "Bob Smith, Mayfield Ranch." Just be sure you get permission before publishing someone’s name. Most people won’t mind, but you have to ask.

Your informative tips don’t have to tak

approach, you can make it more believable and "close to home" by including the questioner's name and neighborhood. For instance: "Bob Smith, Mayfield Ranch." Just be sure you get permission before publishing someone’s name. Most people won’t mind, but you have to ask.

Your informative tips don’t have to take the form of Q&A though. As long as they provide helpful information and refer back to a source document.

Best Practices

Make your information unique and hard-to-find, the more so the better. The problem with a free report on plain old "Home Buying Tips" is that anybody can go online and get this information -- without requesting it from you. But if you offered "27 Tips for Buying a Home in the 'Boom Town' of Austin, Texas," you’ve just made your report more exclusive and more current.

Remember -- always tie the information back to your buyer / seller guide (or whatever guide you created for your target audience). Make it easy for them to obtain it, but make sure you have a way to capture their contact information when they do. You can have them call you, email you, or visit your website and sign up for a newsletter ... as long as you capture some form of contact information.

Conclusion

Real estate agents often forget about the most valuable asset they have -- information. But by leveraging that information and building it into your client communications, you can strengthen your real estate marketing program and increase your response rates.

* Copyright 2006, Brandon Cornett. You may republ