I would love a dollar for every dollar I have made from direct mail. It is without doubt, my first love and secret weapon.

In the last 6 years I have had the pleasure and joy of sharing my direct mail knowledge and letters with thousands of real estate professionals who In turn, have used them to collectively earn millions of dollars in commission from new business they would not have otherwise had.

Yet the vast majority of agents who choose to use direct mail as part of their marketing continue to make some basic mistakes which costs them dearly in lost opportunities and the revenue that follows.

I’m about to share with you the direct mail secrets I learned almost by accident. It more than doubled my response rate from every mail out.

I believe there are too many real estate agents and not enough marketers, which means there is a huge opportunity for agents who know how to get results from their marketing.

The stunning fact is that it’s really not that hard to be good at marketing. Once you know the rules, you simply apply them and get it out so it can weave it’s magic.

If you’re ready to begin using direct mail as part of your marketing and get extra results every month, I have some great news.

Right now, your target market is being bombarded and spammed with email and Internet ads. This means the ‘connection’ ability of a good direct mail letter is substantially enhanced and I believe it will become even greater in years to come as the use of electronic communication and portable devices continues to grow.

The best way to structure and write your direct mail letter is to use the essential components. These were established by advertisers in the 1920s and are still every bit as powerful today.

If you have my Direct Mail Power program, you will quickly identify the six essential elements of an effective direct mail power letter:

1. An attention grabbing headline
2. What’s the problem issue your target is looking to solve?
3. Enhance and expand the problem
4. Offer the solution
5. Clearly communicate your call to action
6. The PS: Summarise points 1 through 5.

So what’s my secret?  What little gem am I about to impart that will ensure greater success with every mail out?

Well actually there are two key essentials you need to observe. First, do not, under any circumstances, let your letter go out with your company or group logo on the envelope. It will reduce your open rate by 70 to 80% And second, (watch how well this works) address each letter by hand.

So imagine this:  You arrive home from work one evening and empty your mailbox. There are 6 items. 3 bills (boring) 1 flyer from your local pizza joint (yawn) 1 crappy marketing card from an agent offering you a ‘Free Appraisal’ (really? …they’re free?) and a clean white envelope with your name and address neatly hand written on the front.  Which one are you going to open first?  Which one is more appealing?  Which one stands out with a hint of excitement and opportunity?

There’s a whole lot more to direct mail and I will be dedicating some time at our live events this November (2011) to give you some short cuts and critical ‘must haves’ so you can get started straight away and join the thousands of successful agents who use direct response marketing to attract now sellers, build contacts and keep their listing pipeline full 12 months of the year.

Click this link now to book your place today.

No downloads, no patches, no worries.
  
Because LockedOn is cloud-based software, you don’t need to download any clunky software packages to your computer, or install patches and upgrades. All you need is your internet browser. The LockedOn application, as well as any data stored within the program, operates within our advanced data centre, giving you a huge amount of flexibility and allowing you to get up and running in seconds, not hours.

Access your data anywhere in the world, through your internet browser.

Need to jump on to grab a number, send an MMS to a client or check your rankings? You can do it anywhere in the world, on any computer, at any time. All you need to access LockedOn is an internet browser. After you login to your secure account, you can access all of the features LockedOn has to offer.

Works on a Mac or PC.

Since LockedOn works in your browser, you can use Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome – any browser – to use LockedOn.  It doesn’t matter if you are using a PC or Mac – you can jump on any computer at any time and access your account.

256 bit SSL encryption.
All data transmitted to LockedOn is protected by our Secure Socket Layer – a 256 bit encryption method that ensures your data is kept secure from keyboard to cloud. This level of security is also placed on any credit card transactions made to LockedOn.

Setup your office in 60 seconds.

To get started, simply fill in the Sign Up form and within 60 seconds you will have access to your account. No wait times – instant access.

Forget back-ups – It’s all done for you.

The data you enter into LockedOn is automatically stored on our secure servers, so you never have to worry about USB drives or lost data ever again. It’s all stored securely on our servers.

Rock-solid infrastructure and security.

We take infrastructure to a new level. Our data centre is a Tier 3.5+ Rated Data Centre – the highest rated data centre in Australia – with 24/7 onsite security, 24/7 building engineers (to maintain the power and air conditioning), a dedicated Power Grid 33kV substation located on site (with duel fed power no less), a backup generator and – the kicker – 48 hours of fuel on-site for the generator. It doesn’t get any better than this folks.

Your data is kept secure and private at all times.

Storing your data off-site in the cloud is nothing to be concerned about – in fact, storing your data in the cloud is a much safer option. With our kick-ass servers keeping everything under lock & key, we look after security for you. You don’t need to have any servers or other storage solutions at your office, so no one can steal your equipment and get access to your data. Once your data gets to us, we don’t share it with anyone – we take your privacy very seriously and will not under any circumstances (law enforcement aside, if requested) share, sell or give your data to any 3rd party.

Reduce your IT costs – we take care of the servers.

No need to have an expensive file server stored in your office, not to mention the ongoing maintenance and support bills. By moving your software to the cloud all you need is your workstation – we take care of the rest.

By Iain French.  LockedOn Labs Development Team Leader

Hi guys.  I agree that I’m lucky but I also know and realise I create my own luck.   In fact, I recently became so ‘lucky’ I was able to list 29 homes in 36 days and if you don’t count weekends, that’s roughly one a day.  With our live events coming up, I want to GIVE you something you could start using right now and make some extra cash so you can join me at the live events in Gold Coast, Sydney, Wellington and Auckland this November where I’ll be sharing even more cool stuff and helping you make 2012 the best year of your life.

But instead of telling you in an ebook or email, I have done it as a Webinar and I’ll be presenting it a number of times to make sure everyone gets a chance to watch.  Here’s the link to register now and reserve your webinar seat.

I don’t know about you but I stopped making new year’s resolutions ages ago.  I figure, if you want to do something why wait?

However, the new year is a great time to draw a line in the bank statement and start over.  Let’s say you want to double your earnings for 2012.  Then the time to start is now.  As I write these words, I’m thinking what would I do if I was you.  How could I begin to implement a plan of action that not only changes my habits and my income but also my life?  The very first thing I would do is sign in to watch Aaron’s 29 Listings in 36 days Webinar.  I can’t think of too many things that a solid 20 plus listings right now couldn’t solve.  We’re going to be hosting a number of these webinars in the lead up to the events.  Here’s your link to sign up now!

I figure there are two main types of people.  Those that act and do something and those that put stuff off.  Let’s say you want to lose some weight.  Would you make a date when you wanted to lose the weight by or would you just get into it.  Studies show that successful people do not wait.  They do.  They plan and organise but they act.  They are not afraid to act because they know it’s the action that takes them closer to their goal.

Can you see yourself in this picture? Can you see your career and income changing and some of life’s more interesting options opening up before you?  After you’ve signed up for our webinar, make sure you get yourself on the Early Bird list for Aaron Shiner Live.  You can do it at the home page.  It doesn’t guarantee you a place at one of our forthcoming events but it does put you at the front of the line once the ticket window opens.   The ‘Action’ is effortless but the rewards are priceless.  Enjoy.

Ray Wood.
National Coaching Program Director.  Aaron Shiner Live

LockedOn Cloud launch is looming!  Plus Special ‘discount for life’ 500 Club

As the testing intensifies, the development team at LockedOn have told us we can prepare for a September 1 launch.

If you already know about LockedOn and all the cool features, you will only want to know how much.  So I’m going to share this with you now.  If you don’t know about LockedOn I will share that with you too.

LockedOn users will pay a monthly subscription of $147.  There is no contract and no sign up or joining fee.  We want the best cloud based real estate software on the planet to also be the most affordable.

LockedOn 500 Club
However, if you are one of the first 500 to sign up when the advance release is announced, you will enjoy a ‘discount for life’ monthly subscription of only $97.  That’s a whopping discount of 34% or $600 a year.

We will shortly be sending out invites (to our nearest and dearest) so those that want a ‘discount for life’ user membership can register their interest.  If you’re on the 500 Club Special friends list, you’ll get advance notice (before the general public) to secure your $97 a month discount for life user license.

When there are 500 members.  The discount for life ($97 a month) user membership will close.

How is LockedOn Cloud different?
You are probably already using some version of Cloud computing.  If you bank on line, or use Google’s Gmail, it’s on the cloud, so are thousands of other sites consumers use daily.

The advantages to cloud technology are enormous.  The most obvious being you can access your LockedOn Account from anywhere.   These are exciting times and we want to make sure LockedOn users are at the very fore front of cloud and mobile agent technology.

What does LockedOn do?
The most common feedback we get from LockedOn users who have downloaded the single user version is that it’s like having a personal assistant.  Here’s quick overview of some of the features of LockedOn Cloud that will help you convert your contacts to cash:

• LockedOn lets you store, retain and communicate with your future clients.  You can automate letters, emails, text messages and action reminders.
• You will be able to go to the apple store and download a free LockedOn iPad app to give you fully functioning mobility.  It will be impossible to be better connected than you with these features.
• LockedOn also comes with a substantial suite of proven direct mail letters, generic letters plus email and text scripts already loaded!
• Targets for Results lets you set exciting goals and measures your actual with your target every minute of the day.  It updates automatically.
• Your vendors will be able to log in to their own private account and see a complete history of their campaign including scheduled open times, the number of online visits and offers.
• And what about gorgeous email and report templates that will WOW the pants off your clients?

But perhaps the best feature is that you’ll have a very cool and intuitive user interface experience that will actually get you excited about prospecting.  The more contacts you store and keep in touch with, the better your pipeline of future business.  And isn’t that what it’s all about?

By Ray Wood.  Director of Marketing for LockedOn Interactive.

Everyone is talking about “the cloud.” But what does it mean?

Business applications are moving to the cloud. It’s not just a fad—the shift from traditional software models to the Internet has steadily gained momentum over the last 10 years. Looking ahead, the next decade of cloud computing promises new ways to collaborate everywhere, through mobile devices.

Life before cloud computing
Traditional business applications have always been very complicated and expensive. The amount and variety of hardware and software required to run them are daunting. You need a whole team of experts to install, configure, test, run, secure, and update them.

When you multiply this effort across dozens or hundreds of apps, it’s easy to see why the biggest companies with the best IT departments aren’t getting the apps they need. Small and mid-sized businesses don’t stand a chance.

Cloud computing: a better way
With cloud computing, you eliminate those headaches because you’re not managing hardware and software—that’s the responsibility of an experienced vendor like salesforce.com. The shared infrastructure means it works like a utility: You only pay for what you need, upgrades are automatic, and scaling up or down is easy.

Cloud-based apps can be up and running in days or weeks, and they cost less. With a cloud app, you just open a browser, log in, customize the app, and start using it.

Businesses are running all kinds of apps in the cloud, like customer relationship management (CRM), HR, accounting, and much more. Some of the world’s largest companies moved their applications to the cloud with salesforce.com after rigorously testing the security and reliability of our infrastructure.

As cloud computing grows in popularity, thousands of companies are simply rebranding their non-cloud products and services as “cloud computing.” Always dig deeper when evaluating cloud offerings and keep in mind that if you have to buy and manage hardware and software, what you’re looking at isn’t really cloud computing but a false cloud.

Cloud 2: Mobility and collaboration
The latest innovations in cloud computing are making our business applications even more mobile and collaborative, similar to popular consumer apps like Facebook and Twitter. As consumers, we now expect that the information we care about will be pushed to us in real time, and business applications in the cloud are heading in that direction as well. With Cloud 2, keeping up with your work is as easy as keeping up with your personal life on Facebook.

This article appears courtesy of salesforce.com

I have just seen a video showing me how LockedOn’s super awesome email reporting feature works.

I believe this is the ultimate email reporting solution for real estate professionals.  Here’s what happens.

When you go to your email reporting area of your account you are greeted with a very cool looking pie chart that gives you a complete breakdown of how many people opened your message and who there are!

Let’s say you send an email out from your LockedOn account on Thursday about the coming weekend’s opens.  On Monday you want to know who looked at your message.

You go to your email reporting area and you can see in pie chart layout and numbers how many people opened your message, how many didn’t, how many unsubsribed from your list etcetera.

You deside to follow up those that clicked on the message and send them another message about how your opens went on the weekend.

You select the list of contacts who didn’t open your message and send them an email to see if they are still looking to buy and if their criteria has changed.

This is just one feature of LockedOn   You will soon be invited to Get on the advance notice list to get a discount for life user membership for $97

By Ray Wood.  Director of Marketing  LockedOn Interactive