Congratulations to our Newsletter Marketer of 2011!

Congratulations to David and Ann Kaseman, who have won our Newsletter Marketer of the Year contest for 2011. They win a $500 American Express Gift Card.

Congratulations also to our runners up: Phyllis Adam, Sheri Brown and Tom Larsen. They each win $100 Amazon.com gift certificates.

It was quite hard choosing the winner as we had so many excellent entries. Thank you to everyone who took part.

We will be featuring the runners up entries later, but below is David and Ann’s entry.

They won because:

• Use of the newsletter to attain one of their goals – a strong connection to the community (because after all, most businesses are relationship businesses and it pays to have strong personal connections with your market.)
• Excellent financial results
• Multiple methods of newsletter distribution, including walking it to their neighborhood (sounds like hard work, but many of our clients have reported similar results by hand-delivering their newsletters.)
• Modification of content to include coupons, real estate listings, local information and personal, relationship-building content

Here is their entry:

Describe your business before using newsletters

Tell us about any issues you had about getting clients, making sales or developing your business.

I never felt I was making a very strong connection to the community I was focusing on. I certainly was not connecting regularly and consistently. I was not reaching new people nor did I feel this was possible via internet or email. Direct mail was a possibility and I used this but did not feel any impact.

Describe your business after using newsletters

 

Tell us how your business changed. Did you get more clients? If so, how many? How much extra income did you make? Did they benefit your business in any other way?

David talks about local businesses and non-profits in his newsletter.

 

With newsletters I know I am tending to my farm area which is 700 households. I hear all the time from my neighbors that they appreciate the letters and that they would use me as their Realtor.

I have picked up two listings in 7 months in the farm area and I have made 2 sales. I see much more business on the horizon.

I use the newsletters at open houses as an introduction to who I am.

I pick up buyers almost weekly from open houses. I know the newsletter helps.

I advertise my listings in the newsletter, so sellers can also experience how their house would be marketed.

The biggest benefit is meeting people as you walk the neighborhood distributing the newsletters. One month I left out my daughter’s joke and a man stopped me to offer his friendly “complaint”.

 

 

 

Describe how you used newsletters to get these benefits

Tell us how you distribute your newsletters, how often, and who to. Tell us anything else we need to know about your newsletter program.

Every month, their daughter provides a joke for the newsletter. It’s the most popular part of the newsletter – a client “complained” when one month the joke didn’t appear.

I walk the newsletters to 700 households monthly. I distribute another 100 or so by mail and hand them out at open houses and to for-sale-by-owners. I know I have made impressions on the community when one FSBO listed with me due to seeing my newsletter and me walking them. It was a $465,000 listing.

My broker appreciates what I am doing and she pays for the copies and I use staff in the office to assemble the copy.

It is a family affair. My wife walks 1/2 of the route and my daughter helps. Her joke is what many people wait for.

I have also connected to local business owners by including gift certificates and coupons in the newsletter.

Through the newsletter I am able to become a “brand” for I concentrate on what I am about other than real estate. I constantly talk about supporting local businesses and growing your own food and eating out of your garden. This theme is ever expanding. I even take fresh grown herbs to houses other rather than cookies!