Hobbs/Herder Digital Print Services

Which Mailing Plan is Right For You?

Choosing your mail plan is a business decision that can only be made by you. We'll help you choose the right plan for you and provide tips on how to merge several proven mail plans.

An integral part of any personal marketing campaign is direct mail. However, it can also be one of the more complicated aspects of personal marketing.
Throughout the years, we've created several mailing plans that are designed to introduce you to your farm and generate name recognition quickly and effectively. However, because we've created several plans, we often receive questions about which plan is best for each agent's individual needs. And that's why we're writing this article, in the aim of clearing the confusion and helping you make the best decision for your situation.

Hobbs/Herder brochure clients have several choices when it comes to following one of the mailing plans we've developed. For starters, let's review the two plans found in our PowerKard Primer – the "Standard" plan and the "Impact" mailing plan.

The "Standard" Plan, Examined
As the name suggests, the "Standard" plan is the minimum you should be doing, and is designed for those on a limited budget or for those just getting their feet wet in direct mail. It incorporates the usage of your PowerKard and the occasional personal letter, and calls for consistent delivery of these materials. Ultimately, however, the "Standard" plan will become stale due to its lack of complexity. It's a great way to get started, but we wouldn't advise that you rely on it for more than one year.

Making an "Impact"
The "Impact" plan takes the "Standard" plan and elevates it by introducing image-building AdKards [link to feature] to the mix and increasing the number of items mailed, making for a more diverse, well-rounded and dynamic campaign. The "Impact" plan makes your presense felt quickly and effectively by calling for one mailing per week for the first eight weeks of your direct mail campaign.

A Third Choice: The Performance Guarantee
In addition to the two direct mail plans we've discussed above, Hobbs/Herder has also developed a plan designed exclusively for the personal brochure. This plan is titled, "Hobbs/Herder's 90-Day Personal Brochure Prospecting Game Plan" and can be found starting on page 14 of our special report, "How to Generate 10 Transactions in 90 Days With Your Personal Prospecting Brochure." (For this article, we'll call this the "90 Day" plan.)

The "90 Day" plan can be run independent of the "Standard" and "Impact" plans and can serve as a good precursor to those plans. We developed this brochure-only plan for several reasons. First of all, it is a proven method of introducing yourself to a new market via your personal brochure. Secondly, we've developed this as a plan where we guarantee its performance for those who may be tentative about personal marketing.

The "90 Day" plan is designed to be a one-time program, not something that is repeated time and time again. Your marketing will be most effective when it unfolds into either the "Standard" plan or the "Impact" plan. What we don't want to see is agents doing the "90 Day" plan and then stopping. This is a recipe for failure. Marketing requires time to make an impact, and the more patience you have, the better off you'll be. If you possess that patience and are willing to let your business grow over time, we recommend utilizing the Standard or Impact plans from the PowerKard Primer. As stated above, these plans deliver an entire marketing mix and are designed to deliver your name and image to your farm area consistently without getting stale.

Which Plan is Best?
Now, the question you've all been waiting for – which plan is best? Well, that's not an easy question to answer, because there really is no "best" approach for all situations and agents. Everything depends on your goals, your marketplace, and your circumstances. That being said, the best, most effective plan for most real estate agents is the "Impact" plan. It provides the most well-rounded and comprehensive approach to direct mail, and therefore will not become stale to homeowners receiving your materials.

If you are on the Hobbs/Herder "Performance Guarantee" system, we recommend starting with the "90 Day" plan and then transitioning to either the "Standard" or "Impact" plans after completing the "90 Day" plan.

Oftentimes, your choice of which plan is best for you will be based on your budget. Consistent, ongoing mailings are a monthly business expense which you must commit to and let grow over time. Make sure you understand the expenses involved with each plan before you begin.

Why Don't You Just Have One Plan?
Agents often ask us why we have more than one plan to begin with. The answer? Some agents are skeptical.

We developed the "90-Day" mail plan as a plan that we believe, if followed to a T, will create enough business to recoup the costs invested on the creative work and printing of a personal brochure. The "90-Day" plan is more intently focused on the brochure and designed as a crash course in personal marketing.

However, if we were to send an agent out who believes in personal marketing and realizes it's the only way to do business successfully without getting burned out, we would recommend that they employ a more balanced and dynamic approach to their direct mail.

What's Most Important?
The ideal direct mail plan is one that reaches your target market three times monthly via a nice blend of materials such as a personal brochure, PowerKard, personal letters and HolidayKards.

Ultimately, the decision is yours. You must evaluate what tools you have at your disposal, your commitment level to personal marketing and your ability and self-discipline required to effectively manage a personal marketing campaign. If you are truly committed to the concept of personal marketing and have the discipline (and/or the systems) to execute your campaign consistently, you're already ahead of the pack. Choose the mail plan that sounds best to you and dedicate yourself to it as if it is the most important aspect of your career – because it is.

Additional Digital Printing Articles

Digital Printing and Variable Data: New Technologies That Are Simply "Liberating"

The Future of Direct Mail

Which Mailing Plan is Right For You?

Intensifying Your Focus

A Whole Lot More Than Just a Direct Mail Piece

Back to Basics: The Power of a Personal Letter

Energizing Your Personal Marketing with Direct Response

Breathing New Life into Your Direct Mail Campaign