Last month, Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®) launched its new mailing labels feature, which allows users who want to do a geographic farming campaign to import addresses and set up their entire direct mail campaign within RPR, instead of having to rely on outside sources.
Janine Sieja, RPR’s senior vice president of Product Management, explains that, last summer, the company worked through an exercise with a handful of its MLS partners to understand some of their members’ most pressing needs. In high demand? Mailing labels.
“That farming capability came up repeatedly in conversations,” says Sieja. “In addition, every RPR member can submit an enhancement request on our platform, and historically it’s been one of the most popular requests.”
And while the request made sense to RPR, as the ability to print mailing labels and send direct mail pieces to homeowners is core to what an agent does, it hasn’t been available due to licensing agreements. But all that has changed thanks to a renegotiated agreement with Black Knight, RPR’s public records provider.
“Our public records data license agreement didn’t allow for producing mailing labels. It was made possible by a deepened business relationship between RPR and Black Knight,” says Reggie Nicolay, RPR’s vice president of Marketing. “As RPR’s longtime provider of public records data, Black Knight is a key strategic partner and has worked closely with our RPR team to help us provide REALTORS® access to this popular capability.”
According to Nicolay, what makes the product unique is the fact that it not only delivers on something that’s been the No. 1 requested feature, but does so in a way that’s straightforward and easy to execute.
The new feature fits right in with RPR’s extensive property reporting and analysis functions, and “provides REALTORS® with a simple way to complete their direct mail campaigns,” says Nicolay, who goes on to explain that “RPR can now do more to help agents create new business opportunities.”
But the benefits don’t end there. In fact, according to Sieja, the feature was designed to better support agents on a day-to-day basis.
“RPR is a benefit for members of the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR). Anything we can add that provides an additional benefit and makes RPR a place where agents can do more of their daily business is a win,” she says. “I think RPR Mailing Labels will provide a significant advantage to agents because it’s one more tool in their toolbox, and one more way to get more of their daily business done in the RPR context.”
As any real estate professional can attest, any transaction can be your last if you’re not constantly marketing and generating new business, which is why the concept of geographic farming is so important.
“What’s great about this new feature is that it’s flexible enough to support a number of different direct mail outreach activities,” says Nicolay. “Perhaps an agent has an open house coming up and they want to notify 100 people around the home of a special twilight tour, or maybe the agent has just sold a home and wants to share the news with select neighbors.”
Labels can also come in handy for those who have just sold a home and want to tout their success throughout the neighborhood. More powerful searches can be added, as well.
“For instance, if you want to look at homeowners who have been in their homes for a certain length of time, you can apply that search and create some labels,” says Nicolay. “It puts the power in an agent’s hand. Not only is it flexible, but it’s also going to work with their business structure.”
When first opening the label interface to begin the process, the agent is asked if they’d like to print their labels now. There’s also an option to export the data, which is beneficial for agents working with a printer—or those who want to put everything in a database.
“It’s really just a few questions. Users will pick the type of label they want and how they want to customize the name, if at all, in addition to any tweaks related to the output and number of labels,” says Nicolay. “It’s very easy, even on the first time through.”
Where the skill comes in is more on the big picture of thinking through and understanding one’s target audience.
“It goes back to direct mail principles,” says Nicolay. “It’s one of those things that has proven to be successful when done correctly, and that’s the challenging part—not the interface itself.”
Available for commercial as well as residential properties, the monthly limit is capped at 2,000, which resets on the first of every month.
“When an agent wants more than 2,000 a month, they can go through a portal and get a discount through our partnership with SiteXPro.com, Black Knight’s mailing label product,” says Nicolay.
Never willing to rest on their laurels, RPR is continuing to raise the bar, providing real estate professionals the tools they need to outpace the competition.
For more information, please visit www.narrpr.com.
Keith Loria is a contributing editor to RISMedia.
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