Here’s a great marketing lesson from a not so great situation… but, hey, it works!
So, I’m still working with a top Realtor, and doing direct-response marketing for her. Anywho, one of our listings was expiring, so we get emailing the sellers to see if they wanted to relist (we could only email since they were out of the country).
Well, we kept getting “read receipts” from them, but they never responded to the emails. That obviously means they weren’t interested, right? RIGHT!
So, the listing finally expired and we had to get our stuff props we had out of the house (things like fake flowers, towels, etc. to dress up this house which is vacant). We gave them a few days after the house expired to see if they would respond before getting our props.
Finally, we went on over to the house. I was the first one there and when I got there guess what I heard… a waterfall! No, not a real waterfall, but it sure did sound like a waterfall. Water was pouring out of the wall in the basement from where the water meter was (yes, was) supposed to be. But, someone decided they wanted the water meter and all of the pipes so they took them there and let the water just pour out.
We got everything squared away with the water company, fire department, and police. We also sent an email to the sellers as soon as we found out about this problem. And, you know what happened?
They responded almost INSTANTLY.
So, what does this have to do with marketing?
Well, obviously the sellers didn’t want to relist their house, so every time we would try to contact them they just ignored our emails because it was of zero interest to them.
Once we told them that their house had its own waterfall and lake in the basement, they were now very interested in our emails.
You see, when you send out marketing materials you need to be sure it’s important to that prospect. If it doesn’t interest them then they won’t respond.
The next time you are creating a sales letter, marketing campaign, whatever, be sure to write to them like their house was just stripped of all its copper pipes and water is pouring out from the walls creating a lake in their basement. They will respond!
Now go take action!