Letters to Prospects from a Real Estate Agent: Tips for Writing Marketing Letters

Introducing yourself in person is quite easy. You make eye contact, smile, and shake hands. You tell the other person your name, and he tells you his name. Pretty easy, right? But what if he needs to introduce himself and can’t see the other person? One way to tackle this problem is to write a marketing letter.

Whether you’re new to real estate or just new to the area, you’ll want to send out a few letters and let everyone know you’re in the area and ready to sell. You can also use marketing letters to entice people whose listings expire to re-register with you.

You can trick people into opening your letter and not just throwing it straight into the recycle bin by using a keyword. “Free”. As one nightly commercial used to say: “Free is a very good price.” So let everyone know that you have something free inside. It could be a fridge magnet, a set of free energy saving tips, or a pocket calendar.

Now that you have their attention, you need to introduce them to your reader. Tell him who you are and why you are the home expert he should trust. Give some tips or useful information in your letter that will be helpful to your reader. Maybe this could be a fall cleaning checklist or winter weatherization tips. If you’re targeting an up-and-coming area, you may want to provide a list of local merchants for people to start frequenting.

If you get completely stuck and have worst case writer’s block, you can download free templates from the internet. They can be cover letters, prospecting letters, expired listing letters, or new agent letters, just to name a few. These are useful to help you get started and trigger a thought trail. They’re also good if writing isn’t your strong point, but you’re excellent at verbal skills. (Some of these sites also offer templates to help you with your listings.)

Keep the letter simple. Newsletters that are too complicated or technical will only confuse your readers and cause them to throw them away. That also means your name isn’t the one they’ll keep in their dream home folder for when it’s time to buy.

It may seem obvious, but make sure you use a good spell checking program and a grammar checker if you’re not good at either. You only hurt your reputation if you have bugs that these programs can easily fix.

Finally, close with a call to action. You could ask the reader to visit your website for more information or to subscribe to your newsletter or podcast. It can be a link to your Facebook page where you have a coupon for a local merchant. Or you can have some DIY tips on your YouTube channel. Whatever it is, you want it to be a good reason to follow up, something that will be worth your reader’s time. And time these days is more valuable than ever.