Happy card sending!

1) Enter our drawing during the Bash for Cash period (Sept 15 - Dec 15, 2010) for a chance to win a free Send Out Cards gift account.  You’ll be able to send about 10 greeting cards from your computer directly to a mailbox.  You might choose to send postcards, regular cards, or even photo cards.  Register in the form on the right to win!

2)  Differentiate yourself by sending personalized change of address cards for your clients!  Just $9.99 for 10 postcards; $14.99 for 10 personalized greeting cards.

Customized Change of Address Card

3)  Check out our special Ideas for Realtors section!  Turbo charge your business with unique and personal ways to reach your clients and prospects.

Try customized change of address cards for your clients.  You can help your clients share the beauty of their new home, not just their new address.

These beautiful cards can show the new home on the front, along with additional pictures and personal notes (including the new address, of course!) on the back.

Customized Change of Address Postcard

Customized Change of Address Card

Once created, these eye-catching postcards can be mailed to as many friends and relatives as your client desires.  Optionally, they can send regular greeting cards with the same pictures and information, plus a larger personal note, perhaps even a letter telling about their moving process and their new neighborhood.

Earn a free card for yourself (including postage) for every package you refer.

Give the packages as a thank you gift to your client

OR

Sell the packages yourself!

Contact me for more details!

Here’s your solution:  Create a Personal Touch Campaign to go out to your past clients and prospects just letting them know that you’re thinking about them periodically and wish them well.  You can create as many or as few touches as you like.  The great thing is that each touch gets sent out automatically, on schedule, without you having to sit down and think about who you need to reach today.

Here are some suggested touches:

1) New Years Card - Typically, by January, your card will be facing less competition than during the Holidays.  This is the perfect time to wish them well in the new year and hope that they enjoyed a relaxing and restorative holiday season.   Cost:  $1.37 (including postage)

2) Spring Forward Time Change Postcard - Most people remember the time change, but a little reminder doesn’t hurt.  You could include a reminder to change the batteries in their smoke detectors as well.  It’s also a good time to hope their year is going well thus far and let them know that you’re thinking of them. Spring is the busy time of year for real estate, so be sure to get your name out there so they’ll think of you if they have any inkling of selling. Cost:  $0.90 (including postage)

3)  Memorial Day Card - It’s time to wish them well for the summer.  Perhaps they’re looking forward to a mid-summer move or know someone who is going to be moving to town over the summer and needs a house.  Focus on the Memorial Day wishes; they’ll think of the rest. Cost:  $1.37 (including postage)

4)  Labor Day Card - Summer is over and it’s back to school time.  Just let them know that you’re thinking of them during this busy time of year.   Cost:  $1.37 (including postage)

5)  Fall Back Postcard - Another strategically timed touch to keep your name uppermost in their minds.  Not much is going on at this time of year, so hopefully they’ll be less busy and will remember you better than other times.  Your card will be unexpected and stand out more.  A friendly wish for enjoying the upcoming holiday season would be nice, too.  Cost:  $0.90 (including postage)

For each touch, always include a picture and minimal contact info, but DO NOT include a plea for business, referrals, or a commercial for your business.  These cards are meant to be all about your clients/prospects.  You are letting them know that you remember them throughout the year.  In the long run, they will remember you, too.  That’s the objective you’re after.

This solution isn’t the magic cure all - you still need to pick up the phone periodically and maybe send out some e-mail blasts, but a personal card in the mail every once in a while bridges the gap so your call is not totally out of the blue to them.  The best thing about this solution is that, after the initial set up period to get the campaign in place (perhaps 2 hrs), it goes on auto-pilot and you’re free to work with your new and existing clients to give them the service they deserve.

Contact me for more details.

Having a system in place to keep your name top of mind for your clients, customers, and friends is paramount to maintaining a strong business based on referrals. One piece of that system might be a campaign to send out a greeting card celebrating the anniversary of the sale of a new home each year. Here’s an example of several cards you could send:

1) After the sale: A personal card with their beautiful new home on the front, welcoming them to the area. Your personal message of congratulations is inside, along with a small picture (just so they don’t get you mixed up with anyone else). Cost: $1.37 (including the stamp)
2) First Year of Ownership: A nice home-related card with a message congratulating them on their first year of ownership. They should be pretty settled in by now.
3) Second Complete Year: Another nice home-related card with message letting them know that you still appreciate them as clients on this anniversary of their home purchase. Be sure to include your picture in this one, since they’re starting to forget around this time.
4) Third Year Out: A nice card letting them know that you remember them on this day and look forward to meeting any additional real estate needs they may have. Definitely include a picture here.
5) Fourth Year Out: A nice message letting them know that you’re still thinking of them and that you’re available to help them whenever they need it. Another picture and contact information to make it easy for them to phone or e-mail if necessary.

There is a system out there that let’s you send this entire set of five cards ONCE and you never have to think of it again.  All of your home sale clients will be touched with these same cards year in and year out, without your intervention.  The cards will be personal, on time, and relevant.

What a thoughtful real estate agent you are to remember your clients like that!  Contact me to see a sample campaign like this one in person.

I thought this was an interesting concept :  Someone is offering to send a handwritten thank you card for you for $5. Just tell her what you want to write and she does the rest. I find that the “figuring out what to say” part is typically the most time-intensive part of the task anyway.

You can easily send a thank you card in the mail from your computer, with a few of your own pictures if you like, for just $2.99. The price goes down to as low as $1.06 (including postage) if you set up your own account. You can even write it in your own handwriting for that price! That’s quite a deal over the $5. Of course, you DO have to think of what to say, but that’s pretty much unavoidable.

With close family members, although we may be present for each other during the whole difficult ordeal, what happens after the family bereavement gathering disbands and we go our separate ways? This is often when our family members need the most support.

I think a personal memory card would be the perfect solution here. A card created with sincere depth of feeling, expressing your own grief as well a support for other family member. A card full of happy and family-filled pictures, commemorating the life of the loved one, rather than focusing on the sad feelings. You could mention humorous memories or stories, mention what you’ll miss the most about the person, or whatever you feel best commemorates your loved one’s life. A card will stay around over time. They can look at it for that dose of happy times whenever necessary, perhaps several times a day after the family has disbanded.

What a fitting tribute for your passed loved one AND active support for your family!

You can create a personal memory card with your own precious pictures here right now!

• First, I got a copy of our senior class picture.  Although too small to make anyone out, it still works for the purposes of my postcard.
• Next, I got a copy of our school mascot.
• I also managed to find an old picture of our class president, on whose farm the main reunion event will be held.

These pictures, along with some fun and interesting pieces of paper, thumb tacks, and frames, added up to a super cool Reunion Postcard that I can share with organizers as a small thank you for all their hard work!

This entire postcard (with your own fun pictures, of course) can be created entirely online from your own computer with no special software.  It can also be professionally printed and mailed to anyone in the world, also entirely from your own computer.  Try creating your own Reunion Save the Date card right here!

Her conclusion was to “spring for the traditional paper card” because “you just can’t beat the old-fashioned approach.”

Let’s think about how people handle cards.  When you get an e-card for an event, what happens?  You get a chuckle, you’re pleased the person remembered the event, you might get someone else to view the card with you, perhaps you even give them a call back, and then….delete.   You can’t print out an e-card.  Perhaps you could save it in a file on your computer, but when would you go back  and look at it?

When you get a real card, what happens?  Of course, it depends on the event and the person.  Let’s assume we’re talking about Mother’s Day (NEXT WEEK - less than a week, by the way!) and a child sending a card to his/her mother.  What is that mother likely to do with a card from a child?  If the child creates their own card for Mother, I’m guessing that most mothers will save that card in a box or book somewhere.  If the child chooses a card and writes a special note, I’m guessing the same thing - in the box.  If the child chooses a card and adds some family pictures, I’m guessing the same thing.

Looking back through those Mother’s Day cards received over the years provides an incredible trip down memory lane for Mom! How fun to see handwriting evolve over the years, as well as written expression.  Those cards depict the growth of her child.  How could she not save them?  Even for adult children, a special note written each year to your mother is priceless and will be saved.

Yes, definitely, spring for the paper card!

Have you not sent your Mother’s Day card yet?  Send one right now with a special message for Mom!