News

Main article content

Flashy digital tools are all well and good, but even in 2016 there’s no substitute for good-old-fashioned mail.

More and more companies are forcing their customers into accepting communications via email – and it’s not going down well. Banks and utilities companies are the major culprits here. Many of them have switched over to digital bills and marketing messages, while those who do provide paper statements often charge a fee to the customers who opt for them.Email communication brings plenty of benefits and convenience, but any company who thinks it’s a simple replacement for a piece of paper is kidding themselves. Some recent findings from Keep Me Posted should be food for thought for any real estate agent considering the most effective channel for reaching out to their farm area.

• Mistrust. Plenty of consumers are sceptical of digital mailouts. Identity theft is rampant and serious privacy concerns are on the rise. People are increasingly privacy conscious and reluctant to give away too much personal information online.
• Knowledge gap. There’s still a large number of potential customers who aren’t especially tech savvy. This group is often older – in some cases they might not have home internet at all.
• Environmental concerns. Although many companies tout their green credentials when switching from paper to online, there’s a growing awareness of the serious environmental consequences – not only of all the power required to run our many devices but also the difficulty of disposing of old devices, some of which become toxic if not properly recycled.

Print is the preferred method of communication for more of your customers than you might think. 

As well as all of this, consumers just respond better to physical mail. More from Keep Me Posted:

“People are better able to understand information, make better choices and are far more likely to take action when transactional mail is received by post rather than electronically.”

If you needs numbers, here are some interesting ones from Keep Me Posted

• Just 51% of Australians over 65 are internet users
• 1 in 5 Australians have had their personal information misused – 10% in the last 12 months alone, often as a result of using online services like internet banking
• 87% of people view companies switching to online communications as a cost-cutting measure that benefits the company, and not them directly.
• 84% of consumers do not like it when a company takes away their right to choose how they are communicated with

Trust is all-important for agents. You’re asking people to give you access to what is probably their most significant financial asset – so when it comes to building trust, you really can’t go past letterbox drops and mailouts.

What are some of the successes you have had with letterbox marketing?