The Best Way to Generate Seller Leads from Direct Mail

Let's face it. Real estate agents really just want seller leads...am i right :). This tutorial will go over the steps to build a lead generating direct respond letter campaign.

If you're not getting a response it's because your carrot S%Ck$.

The whole reason this campaign works is because you are giving the residents of your selected neighborhood something of value (aka the carrot). That something is a custom CMA built around the recent homes sold in their neighborhood & mostly closely matching the type of home (which is usually very similar) that is built in it. Not only do you have to give them a good carrot but you only want to give them a piece of the carrot & make them fill out a form or show intent to get the rest of it. Don't worry, we will show you step by step how to pull it off.

• First we will design the letterhead & provide Canva source files that you can steal/use.
• Then we will show you how to build the lead form & cloud CMA (but will work with any CMA system).
• After we will show you how to attach the lead form to the letter and write the perfect message to get a response.
• Last we will show you how to upload your list or use thanks to generate one.

Design the Letterhead

The first step is designing the letterhead that will go behind your message. Thanks.io has a direct integration with Canva, which makes its very easy to have your designs look legit but more importantly get your point across & convert.

1. Click here to open the Canva Template file
2. Edit it as you see fit, remember the handwriting portion gets overlaid in thanks.io so you don't need to add that in Canva.
3. Goto the image templates section of thanks.io.
4. Click "Design Letter" (in the bottom right)
5. This will open up Canva, from here click More > Folders > All your designs & pick the template you just designed, then hit save in the top right to save it back to thanks as a giftcard template.

Build the Long & Short Form CMA

The second step is going into the CMA builder of your choice and build the best CMA you can that showcases the recently sold properties in the selected neighborhood.

1. You will need to export this CMA in PDF format. Don't worry about length just make it as good as you can.
2. Once you have it on your computer you will need to pick out the pages you want to include as the 'carrot", just write down the page numbers make sure you pick less than 10 as thanks.io only allows up to 10 pages to be attached to the cover letter and stuffed in the envelope.
3. Goto https://smallpdf.com/split-pdf this website will easily allow you to select just the pages from your PDF that you want to stuff in the envelope. Upload the original PDF, select the pages to extract and than download the new PDF & save it to your computer.
4. Now you have the URL of the long form CMA & the short form CMA file located on your computer.

Examples:

Short Form CMA         Long Form CMA

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Build the Message Template

The last step is building your message template and hooking all the pieces we did above together.

• Goto the message templates section of your thanks.io dashboard.
•  Click "Add a Message" in the top right, choose "Letter" & give it a name. Below is a simple but affective message template we recommend using. (Obviously change the stuff that isn't relevant to you).

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Hi John,

Here is your spring home value report for Whispering Hills Estates. As you can tell inventory is still quite low & values keep creeping higher.  In this super hot market homes are still selling within days of listing.

If you have any interest in me stopping by or even jumping on a Zoom meeting to see how you home would price compared to your neighbors please give me a ring.

Make sure you scan the QR code to pull up the full 30 page report, I only attached the first couple pages in this letter.

Sincerely,
Justin Tracy
The Cree Team
343-454-4554

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• Now you want to put the full CMA url in the QR code field. This will automatically build the QR and allow the recipient to scan the QR code and open up the full CMA.
• Last you want to upload the short form CMA to the additional pages field, this will stuff the short form CMA into the envelope right behind the cover letter your just designed.

Build Your Mailing List

This last step will show you how to upload your list or buy one in the thanks.io platform.

1. Goto the mailing lists section of your thanks.io dashboard.
2. Once there click the "Add List" button in the top right.
3. If you already have the list select Upload from CSV & follow the steps to map your file into thanks.io
4. If you DO NOT have a mailing list we recommend selecting the "Buy Leads" option and than selecting Individual around a very small radius of the center point of the neighborhood. You also can further limit by many other criteria, we recommend single family, living in house for 3+ years & a homeowner.

That's it your done. How just use the quick send or card builder to send your letter. Remember when you do another blast all you have to do is update the PDF attachment & QR link & update the message template to reflect the new season. For best affect we recommend a quarterly send to the same recipients.

Also don't forget you get email notifications when anyone scans the QR code, so we recommend using our reverse lookup tool to call or door knock on anyone that scans the code. Immediate follow up is key to success.

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