“Just Sold” postcards for real estate are a popular marketing method among real estate agents.
And should you ponder the idea of starting such a campaign or improving an existing one, you might wonder whether they even work.
As a whole and based on the general statistics of direct mail, which they are part of, they work on average.
This doesn’t mean they work for everyone.
No one marketing method just works. It always needs to be made to work.
In this article, you will learn how I came to this answer.
I will discuss what “Just Sold” postcards are, how and when they work, and also give you some examples, creative ideas, and templates for them.
What Are “Just Sold” Postcards?
“Just Sold” postcards belong to the category of direct mail marketing.
As a real estate agent, you can send them out to potential buyers and sellers right after selling a property in a neighborhood.
Doing this also has some psychological effects on both potential client groups.
To potential sellers, it shows that you can indeed sell a house or several houses in their neighborhood.
It might also motivate their desire to want to sell now.
However, the latter depends on the price of selling the house or houses you mention on the postcards.
The motivation might increase if they see it as a desirable price to sell their property too.
In contrast, if they find that the price at which you sold a similar house to theirs was not optimal, it might not increase their desire to sell, but you are still likely to be kept in mind for future reference.
Sending “Just Sold” postcards to potential buyers doesn’t seem obvious.
But if you think a bit further, a persuasive and psychological effect can be created by doing that.
It is one of the oldest tricks in copywriting and sales (well, copywriting is sales in the written word). It is called scarcity.
Do you remember the old TV sales shows, where you could allegedly see how many items were being sold and a sales guy telling you, “order now before they are gone or before it’s too late”?
The effect is a bit like that with potential buyers, but of course, not that blunt and straight in their faces.
So, potential buyers of the respective neighborhood might start to feel that they should act earlier than planned.
They might get the impression that the inventory is shrinking, that fewer available houses are on the market daily, and that they might get left out.
By the way, the feeling of getting left out is another psychological technique in copywriting that can be exploited.
It’s also called FOMO (fear of missing out). It is kind of the bigger brother to scarcity.
It would help if you created the impression of scarcity to cause the fear of missing out.
Do “Just Sold” Postcards Work?
There are general performance statistics about direct mail and postcards, but unfortunately, not specifically about “just sold” postcards.
So, let’s take a quick look at general real estate marketing performance indicators regarding direct mail and postcards and then look at anecdotal evidence from different real estate professionals that used them.
For direct mail in general, you can bank on a response or lead conversion rate of 6.6%, and 42.2% of the recipients scan or read the piece of direct mail (source).
Many consumers (39%) do business for the first time based on the direct mail they get (source).
Based on the marketing performance indicators and statistics from above, we can at least assume that “just sold” postcards can also work.
They might perform better than postcards in a general past client marketing campaign because of the psychological and persuasive effects they can cause.
Now, let’s also look at the anecdotal evidence from other real estate professionals.
The opinions on different forums about whether “just sold” postcards work, such as this one, were mixed and a bit controversial.
I will cite some so you can get an impression of yourself.
“My first sale was in a smaller townhome community.
I sent postcards there and to the owners of the units that were rentals – a couple kept my postcard since it was the only one they received regarding their rental property market and about 6 months later called me to list their home.”
“They’re useless if you’re ONLY sending the postcards.
They need to be used in combination with other marketing techniques like cold-calling, door-knocking, regular mailers & market updates.”
“Do they have a QR code where they can go to find out more and you can capture who sees it?
If so, it’s worth it. You just need to make sure to follow up in some way with those people.”
“I’ve sent a few, but have gotten no results. You gotta really bombard people with mailings (at least in my area) to get a good return.
I’ve since stopped sending them since I’ve spent several hundred with no return.”
As I already expected, you can’t draw any final conclusion from different opinions.
Why?
Because as is the case with all different marketing channels, the same principle applies.
No one marketing method just works. You need to make it work.
This brings me to the next section of this article.
How to Make “Just Sold” Postcards Work – Wording, Language, and What to Say
This section will hopefully help you improve the above-mentioned marketing performance indicators for “just sold” postcards and make them work for you.
Making them work means increasing the conversion rates or response rates.
And one of the most important elements to influence the conversion rate, be it in offline or online marketing, is copywriting.
Another one is the targeting and the frequency.
Better Copywriting for “Just Sold” Postcards
Let’s first look at the typical “just sold” postcards here.
Can you already see what’s wrong here?
In copywriting, using the word “you” is a big deal because it helps you stay in the mindset of asking yourself what is in it for the potential client.
It’s not about your business.
Yet, most of the “just sold” postcards you find online and in your mail are about the realtor’s business.
You usually see a picture or several pictures of a house on such postcards, and sometimes the picture of the real estate agent and then the message that they just sold the house.
Can you see now what’s wrong?
This is the case with about 90% of the “just sold” postcard templates you can find.
There is a way you can improve the wording and what to say (the copy).
You just need to change the focus on the potential client you want to persuade.
How can you do that?
Instead of using the headline “Just Sold,” you could use the headline:
“Mary and Bill Just Sold Their House.”
This type of headline is more powerful persuasion-wise because it tells a story (another important copywriting element).
And if the potential clients know Mary and Bill from their neighborhood, it makes it easier for them to identify and relate with Mary and Bill.
Because of that, it creates additional trust in the real estate agent and the so-called bandwagon effect.
This effect makes people do something mostly because other people are doing it.
In the body of the postcard, if there is additional space available and it doesn’t break the design layout, you can write something like: “Would you like to do the same? Contact us at XYZ.”
Below I designed another version of the first “just sold” postcard from above so you can see what I mean.
In the end, it’s again about the real benefits. Mary and Bill needed or wanted to move, and that’s why they wanted to sell the house.
Other sellers could benefit from getting out of a bad mortgage or debt situation.
So, another headline could go like “Jack Just Got Rid of His Bad Mortgage Situation and Sold His House.”
The Right Targeting
The next element influencing the conversion and response rates is the right targeting.
It means knowing who your potential target clients are, where they are, and how you can reach them at the place where they are.
And as always, knowing your target clients (their needs, greed, and pains) is intertwined with good copywriting.
You will be able to communicate better and more persuasively (e.g., the benefits).
The Right Advertising Frequency
The ideal advertising frequency, at least in the digital advertising world, ranges from 5 to 9 exposures, according to this study.
This frequency increased consumer resonance by an average of 51%.
But this also means that less than five and more than nine will have the opposite effect.
By the way, this is also a thing in Facebook Ads.
When a Facebook ad is shown too often to the same people, something called “ad fatigue” sets in, reducing the click-through rates and, of course, increasing your costs per click over time.
While this study was done in the digital world, it is likely also true in the offline world. Some things can be better measured online.
So, this also means that sending those “just sold” postcards only once would be more a waste of money than anything else, which is reflected in some of the above opinions from real estate pros.
It should be part of your ongoing farming efforts done with direct mail.
By the way, I recently wrote an article about finding the cheapest providers for automated real estate postcards that may be helpful in this context.
Just Sold Real Estate Postcard Examples, Creative Ideas, and Templates
At the end of this article, I want to leave you with some examples, templates, quotes, and creative ideas you can use for just-sold postcards.
The examples and creative ideas will be based on the actual seller and buyer benefits.
Remember that you get to the actual benefits by asking the question “why?” often enough and “so what?”.
So, let’s first collect the benefits for both.
7 Typical Benefits for Sellers to Sell a Home
There can be many more benefits than the ones below, but you will get the idea that when asking “why” and “so what,” someone who wants to sell a house rarely does it because they want to sell it.
Here are the benefits:
- To make a profit and reinvest the money in a better investment.
- Get rid of a bad mortgage situation, get out of debt, downsize, and save money.
- To move to another geographical area because of a changed life situation.
- To have the cash to buy a better house.
- To get out of a trust fund situation because of an inheritance, and by doing so, avoid further conflict with the family.
- To get out of a divorce situation.
- Because of a health situation
7 Typical Benefits for Buyers to Buy a Home
- To start a family as newlyweds.
- Enjoy the benefits and amenities of a better neighborhood (e.g., schools, nature, restaurants, community, etc.).
- Being tired of renting all the time.
- To increase social status.
- To earn passive income from rentals for retirement or for a better lifestyle (not having to exchange time for money).
- Having a second home means they no longer need to pay for a hotel and be more flexible (no more reservations, etc.).
- They got new jobs and had to move from their former place.
When we look closer at the benefits for both sellers and buyers, most of them can be found again in the “Life Force 8” that was first mentioned in the book “Cashvertising” by Drew Eric Whitman, which are:
- Survival, enjoyment of life, life extension
- Sexual companionship
- Comfortable living conditions
- To be superior, winning, keeping up with the Joneses
- Care and protection of loved ones
- Social approval
- Enjoyment of food and beverages
- Freedom from fear, pain, and danger
By the way, this book can tremendously improve your copywriting and advertising skills.
3 “Just Sold” Postcard Examples and Creative Ideas for Sellers
I will first give you some copywriting examples for these and then use one and apply the copy to an actual design template from my favorite online design software, Canva.
1) “John just sold his house, and with the cash, he will buy a house in the Colorado mountains.
Also, flirting with another home in another area? Contact us today at XYZ.”
2) “Dorothea can finally have a nice family dinner again.
Why?
Together with her sisters, she finally sold their inherited house. No more family rows.
Looking forward to a harmonious family dinner, too? Contact us today, and we can sell yours, too.”
3) “Matthew will soon live in a tiny house in the middle of nature.
After we sold his house, he could finally downsize and use the leftover cash for a new business venture.
Need to downsize, too? Contact us today, and we will make it happen.”
Of course, I used dummy pictures of people in the design.
The seller’s picture looks quite like a stock photo and doesn’t show the face completely.
I did this on purpose because of potential picture rights.
In your case, you should use an authentic picture showing the respective seller’s or buyer’s happy face facing the camera.
3 “Just Sold” Postcard Examples and Creative Ideas for Buyers
1) “We just sold this one to Sarah & Henry.
They always wanted to have hiking options close by.
Would you like to change your neighborhood, too? Contact us today, and we might have a match for you.”
2) “After we just sold this one to Robert, he now earns money in his sleep.
We have more of these turn-key investment properties. Contact us today.”
3) “Just sold to Julia, who was tired of renting and annoyed by noisy neighbors all the time.
Want to say goodbye to your landlord, too? Contact us today.”
“Just Sold” Postcard Templates
From what you read above, you may now understand that you may not want to blindly use “just sold” postcard templates and use the exact text or so-called “copy” offered.
You want to use your unique copy to focus on the real benefits.
I made the above examples with two of Canva’s “just sold” postcard templates for free.
At the date of this article, they have 81 different just-sold postcard templates available, which you can find here.
If you need a provider that can do the sending part, you can also take a look at this article, where I analyzed different ones in terms of pricing.
Many of them also offer mailing lists that you can buy.
This article has been reviewed by our editorial team. It has been approved for publication in accordance with our editorial policy.
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