I remember thinking about how lucky the old-school advertising guys were.
Claude Hopkins. Albert Lasker. John E. Kennedy.
Back in the early 1900s, they could mail a letter for a penny.
And I distinctly remember thinking:
Man…if I could mail letters for a penny, I’d be rich.
At the time, I was putting together things like the Guide to Halton Hills and Toronto and Beyond.
We’d run print ads inviting people to call a recorded message, fax us an information request, or physically mail in a form.
When someone raised their hand and said, “I’m interested in Halton Hills real estate,” we would send them updates every two weeks with all the new homes that had come on the market.
We were educating and motivating them.
More importantly, we were bonding with people who would eventually become clients.
But every communication required printing, postage, and a trip through the mail.
Now think about what we have today.
We can send a personalized message directly to someone…
Instantly.
For essentially zero dollars.
They can read it wherever they are, click through to see more, and reply directly to us.
We don’t get to mail letters for a penny.
We get to mail them for free.
Infinitely.
Claude Hopkins would have thought email was a miracle.
Yet most businesses treat it like an afterthought.
They collect someone’s email address, send a few automated messages, and then disappear unless they have something to sell.
What if you treated email the way we treated those expensive physical mailings?
What useful update could you send every week or every two weeks that would educate and motivate the people who have already raised their hands?
New listings.
New opportunities.
Market observations.
Answers to the questions they’re already asking themselves.
The goal isn’t to pressure them into doing something before they’re ready.
It’s to remain present, useful, and trusted until they are.
The old-school strategies still work.
The only difference is that the tools we have today make them almost infinitely more valuable.