Would you like to know what you should put on a real estate business card for higher conversion rates?

Respecting and taking into consideration the copywriting formula AIDA, your business card should include the following :

  • Attention-grabbing elements
  • Your name and photo
  • Your USP (unique selling proposition)
  • A QR code
  • A call to action
  • A testimonial
  • Relevant accreditation or trade association memberships
  • Content on both sides of the card
  • Space on the card. It shouldn’t get stuffed. The information you store with the QR code helps with that. 

Do you have a business card?” “No, but I can throw some out of my window for you when I am back at my office.”

I first heard this reply from my favorite mentor and real estate sales trainer, Claude Diamond.

There is a lot of truth to it, and by hearing that, you might think it doesn’t make sense to carry business cards that you throw at people you meet.

Another cliché or mental image is the guy with oily hair at a “free” networking event.

It’s the guy only talking about himself and throwing his business card around stuffed with outdated stock photos and a fat company logo.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

Today you will learn how to make your business card the best you’ve ever had and never lose any “offline” opportunities again.

This “offline” situation is also about conversion and part of the “power triangle” I mentioned in my first article.

 

What’s the Function of a Real Estate Business Card?

Let’s apply the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) copywriting formula to a business card. 

So, you want to get the attention of your new contact. 

You want to get this contact interested to read further and create the desire to use the information provided on the business card to contact you, ideally for new business.

You sometimes get to talk to new people in a meeting, at a conference, or at any other encounter in different places. 

These new people could be potential clients for your real estate business

In these moments, you would ideally have some hassle-free information to give out so you don’t lose a potentially good opportunity.

You might want to use a business card or a smartphone with an easy-to-scan QR code.

 

Real Estate Business Cards from a Conversion Perspective

One element of conversion is making it as easy and desirable as possible for the prospect or lead to take action.

Did you know that according to a statistic from Adobe, 88 percent of business cards handed out get thrown away within a week?

So there is some truth in the funny reply from my teacher.

But this means that, on the other hand, 12 percent of business cards handed out don’t get thrown away and may get used to contacting you for new business.

I don’t have other statistics about the remaining 12 percent.

But many optimists and business card fans say 12 percent will contact you for new business and become clients.

Comparing this to online marketing would be the conversion from website visitor to email subscriber

But not all email subscribers become clients. 

Depending on your offer (the area of economics in Perry Marshall’s power triangle) and how much this offer meets the potential client’s needs, another conversion rate must be considered. 

It’s the step from email subscriber to client or business card recipient to client.

According to this articlethe average open rate of emails is roughly 18 percent

This number seems relatively low to me, and it is likely higher for business cards since you established a personal connection when handing them out. 

So, let’s estimate a more favorable rate of, let’s say, 36 percent.

When we apply this 36% to the 12% of the business card “retaining rate,” we get a likely realistic “business card to customer conversion rate” of 12% x 36% = 4.3%.

Of course, all these numbers are relative since it all depends on how well your business cards convert and, ultimately, how good your sales skills are.

 

 

what should i put on my real estate business card

How You Can Influence the Conversion Rate of a Real Estate Business Card

What action do we want the person to take when receiving a business card?

The first is to not throw it away, and second, to contact us for potential business, so you can sell them something. 

Usually, when you give out a business card, the person receiving it stores it somewhere. 

If you are lucky, the card doesn’t get washed when doing the laundry because they forgot to take it out of the pants pocket. 

Afterward, it gets stored in a tray on a table in the office or another room.

Suppose you have an attention-grabbing copy on the business card that meets their needs.

The person might make a mental note not to store the information where it could get lost.

The next step for this interested person would be to use an app to store the information. 

This app could be some sort of contact database or CRM (customer relationship management software). 

The traditional way would be to type the contact information in a physical address book.

So, ideally, we have the steps that your new contact needs to take:

    1. Receiving the business card
    2. Storing it temporally in a pocket, handbag, or wallet
    3. Taking it out of the temporal storage and passing the contact information over to a sort of contact database (e.g., Google Contacts, MS Office, etc.)

So,to increase the conversion rate, you need to make those steps as easy and smooth as possible.

Regarding Step 1: Here, it’s not only the business card that counts but how the interaction between you and the potential client goes. 

So, the handing over of the business card must be in the right frame, so it is remembered. 

The guy who only talks and throws his business cards around won’t be remembered very well.

Regarding Step 2: You can’t influence this step very much, which is tricky. 

Maybe you could encourage the new contact to store it where he doesn’t store the other business cards he received. 

If you have a QR code printed on it, you could get him to scan the code before storing it in his pocket.

This might make him remember you better. (e.g., “Ah, the guy who made me scan his QR code on the card at once.”)

Regarding Step 3: I already mentioned using a QR code on the business card. By using it, you could get rid of this additional step altogether. 

You drastically reduce the steps required to pass the contact information manually into a contact database and make it less of a hassle and obstacle for your new contact to access your contact information.

To have an attention-grabbing real estate business card, you can do is:

  • Put your name and photo on it.
  • Putting Your USP on it (unique selling proposition)
  • Use a QR code
  • Put a call to action on it.
  • Put a testimonial on it.
  • Add relevant accreditation or trade association memberships.
  • Use both sides of the card.
  • Don’t be afraid of space on the card. It shouldn’t get stuffed. The information you store with the QR code helps with that.

Here are some examples of the best and worst real estate business cards of 2019. I like number 16 best, although none have a QR code.

And here, numbers 1 and 3 are my favorites (QR code is present).

If you want to store important contact information with a QR code, I recommend two websites. The first one is not free, but the second one is.

If you want to store important contact information with a QR code, I recommend two websites. The first one is not free, but the second one is.

There is a sort of debate going on between the two factions. 

One wants to stay with the traditional business cards, and the other wants to go completely digital. 

Yes, you could do it only with QR codes, save one as a picture on your smartphone, and then let the new contact just scan the image with the code.

I can’t back it up with A/B tests and statistics, but I feel that a flexible hybrid solution will be the most effective.

So, you still use your well-designed physical business card but with your QR code on it. 

By doing that, you can still have a picture of your QR code on your smartphone (you generate it for your business card anyways).

You can use one of the two according to the social situation and your target group of potential clients (e.g., a young real estate buyer working in the tech industry in Silicon Valley vs. a real estate buyer in her sixties from the Midwest).


This article has been reviewed by our editorial team. It has been approved for publication in accordance with our editorial policy.


Tobias Schnellbacher