Off market canvassing is often about consistency, but equally, delivering value to the homeowner with each touch point.
In this article, we would like to guide you through what we call the 4 Step Campaign. The aim of this collection of letter drops is to keep relevant homeowners informed about your successes in the area. One of the goals in this campaign is to only communicate events (instructions, offers or sales) if they apply to the homeowner. Members of the public are more likely to opt out of marketing if the information they are receiving isn't relevant to their needs or interests. In turn, letters that have been written and targeted with a greater focus on key information, have a higher response rate.
In simple terms, only promote your 3 bed semi-detached sales to the owners of other 3 bed semi-detached properties. Don't include the 3 bed terraced houses in this letter drop as a time will come soon enough in which you have a direct comparable sale to promote.
Unsurprisingly, our 4 Step Campaign, has 4 steps or rather 4 letters to dispatch. This article also assumes that filters on Explorer have already been applied, although we will detail the filters you'll need at each step.
This campaign is also explained via the below video;
Letter 1 - On your road to value
This first letter is all about promoting the ease in which you can offer a valuation. It is an optional step as you might not have the time to dispatch this letter. In effect, once you have a valuation booked in, we want to tell the rest of the street you're going to be on their road at a certain time, you'd love to swing by too if they would like an up-to-date market appraisal.
This type of letter adds to the marketing rule of 7 (more on that later) as well as fishing for others who, while might not be ready to move right away, could be in your sales pipeline in months to come. Early introductions pay off.
Filters for Explorer
- Street postcode for the original valuation.
- Owner Occupier ticked.
If you need help creating this letter, we have a basic template you can download and amend here;
Homesearch on your road to value template.docx
Letter 2 - We've just instructed!
The second letter could be your first if there wasn't enough time to promote your valuation. The aim here is to promote the next success you've had in selling another property, being instructed on the sale in the first place. While the team here at Homesearch and yourself reading this know all the agents in our towns, we have to assume the average homeowner is not as au fait with their local Estate Agents. So promoting your local activity as early on as the instruction will lend itself to the noise you want to create in the market.
By promoting the properties you've been instructed on, you're also telling the local community that you're trustworthy. Another homeowner in town is marketing via yourselves. Social proof is an incredibly effective tool in your marketing arsenal.
Filters for Explorer
- The specific address selected in the Explorer search bar.
- 8th mile radius selected
- Same property type ticked
- Same bedroom number ticked
- Owner Occupier ticked.
- Not sold in at least 2 years (optional).
At this point it is worth saving this search as we'll come back to this selection of filters later. To save a search in Explorer, please refer to this link.
If you need help creating this letter, we have a basic template you can download and amend here;
Homesearch we've just instructed template.docx
Letter 3 - Under offer
Now that we've told local homeowners that a neighboring property is for sale, we want to keep them informed of any updates. The next letter we should plan on sending would be to inform everyone that you've accepted the offer. If we assume the homeowners here haven't heard of your brand before, it's one thing to tell them you've listed a new property, but it's equally, or if not more important to state how you followed through on these promises to sell a property and have found a buyer!
So once that offer is accepted, load up your saved search and dispatch that 3rd letter.
If you need help creating this letter, we have a basic template you can download and amend here;
Homesearch under offer template.docx
Letter 4 - Expect new neighbours
Congratulations, you've completed on another sale! Now it's time to tell the community this. While an obvious focus for the letter would be the recent sale, that should be a footnote to the fact that you have other buyers, who missed out on this sale, still looking for similar homes. This is why we filtered for exact property types and bedrooms throughout this campaign.
It's more effective telling prospective sellers you have someone looking for a 4 bed detached than saying "we have buyers for semi, detached, terraced or bungalows, with 2, 3 or 4 bedrooms"...
It's an age old ploy Estate Agents use, we have buyers for your home. However vendors have cottoned on to this and your letter could result in a few eye-rolls. That's why it's important to keep your letter honest to the buyers you do have. One suggestion, (that requires buyers happy to do this) would be to record your buyers and what they're looking for. Sit them down in your office, in front of your branding and put together short buyer profile videos. They don't need to be long, but when the time comes to promote the fact you have people looking for certain properties, well that QR code in the top corner could direct to a YouTube video. No arguing your "we have buyers for your home" is a ruse then.
Load up your saved search and dispatch that 4th and final letter.
If you need help creating this letter, we have a basic template you can download and amend here;
Homesearch expect new neighbours template.docx
If you plan on using any of the downloadable letters, please be sure to amend all the relevant details, contact points, colours, logos, QR codes images and add any legal disclaimers. You don't want Matt receiving your leads!
The marketing rule of 7
It's often said in marketing that your customers will need to see your branding roughly 7 times before that act on it. This campaign could have delivered 4 of the 7 touch points. Once they drive past a sale board of two, notice a Facebook advert or see a branded car driving about town, your company is now very much at the forefront of their mind.
Whether they themselves are thinking of moving, a friend or family member asks them if they know any Estate Agents or could recommend one, you'll be on that shopping list to call out for a valuation.