I have begun to do a small amount of marketing for my investments. The only thing I did so far was put 60 flyers or so on cars at the trainstation on sunday. The flyer basically read, “want to make a quick 500 dollars for the holidays?” it then had a pic of an abandoned house.
The ad’s copy told my target audience that I am looking for fsbo, fsbr, abandoned, run down, doesnt matter!
I listed my cell # and my new email address that I made for my investing purposes.
My question for all of you is what would you recommend is the best way to get started, I am printing my flyers on my laser printer to save cost cause as you can tell I have little funds until I make my first deal. What do you guys think is the most cost effective way to market to get a deal?
How do you guage your success? I see people saying they get 10% on a marketing campaign…I am trying to keep records as well so I know what works and what doesnt
Jp -
It’s a decent start and flyers should be on everyone’s arsenal of marketing tools. However keep in mind, people send 100’s to 1000’s of flyers on a monthly basis. If one did 1000 flyers and was lucky to generate a 10% lead that means you’ll have 100 possible calls. In some instances you’ll do 1-5 properties out of those 100 calls.
Although flyers are one way to get your business out there it is not necessarily the best nor the only means. To me, marketing is being proactive as opposed to reactive. It takes a lot of hard work and requires you to become creative on how to reach your masses. Some people like marketing, most hate it. For me, I absolutely love marketing (and didn’t even major in it). It’s the challenge of coming up with new ways to market that draws me to it. And if my campaigns prove successful, even better. Read the articles to the left as well as marketing threads. You’ll pick up a ton of useful information based on tried and true experiences here. Good luck!
Yea I am a marketing minor…I know a good amount about marketing. The reason I ask opinions on here cause I am looking for that 100-150 dollar solution that will help generate those 100 phone calls and 1-4 deals.
I am not a marketing expert, however I have attended several presentations at seminars regarding direct mail marketing. Unfortunately, I believe that you are off by a factor of 10. On a first mailing (flyers in your case), my understanding is that the response rate is typically 1%. Even with repeated mailings to the same addresses, about the best you can hope for is 6% or so (which is considered excellent). Therefore, to get 100 calls and 1-4 deals, you need to send out about 10,000 pieces.
Mike is right. This is what we have found from our direct mail experience.
Unless you have a really good list, a really good message, and a really good offer, you would be very lucky to get a 10% response rate, for the most part.
We have done better than 10% on only one mailing. Most of the time, I feel like a mailing is good if we get above a 3% response rate, but this varies with the list we are mailing. A more targeted list brings better results.
But does this really matter? As long as you are getting deals from the mailings that generate a profit greater than the costs of the marketing, then you are coming out ahead. If you want more deals, then increase the size of your mailings. Keep mailing to your list until it is no longer profitable. Some people need multiple contacts from you before they will respond.
You are wise to track your results. That way you know what works and what doesn’t work. And always test! Always. We have made a seemingly small change in our headline that doubled our response rate in a controlled test.
Test small; find out what works; then roll it out big.
try the UPS driver, the pizza delivery person, the meter reader the mail mail with out having to drive around. The UPS guy just dropped a list of about 20 FSBO at my house yesterday. In the back of my business card I printed about the $500 for the referral if transaction is closed.
Place and ad in the news paper, penny saver or any local newspaper. I get so many calls I have to assign a lot the contracts
Hey,
Picked out my neighborhood, picked out two streets, went to the tax office website and got names and addresses. Found out of town owners. Went to the USPS website, found suitable post card and added suitable message. Sent out 44 cards, two responses for 3 properties. Sent one contract out yesterday. Other owner e-mailed proposal to seller finance other two with 3 months interest and payment free for repairs. Total cost of mailing - $42.00.
Peace,
Richard
I’ve been hitting several marketing seminars, and a few things keep coming out over and over.
Number one seems to be along the lines off the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. A “media blitz” will pull in more business proportionally than any method used alone. You need car signs (they’re not THAT expensive), newspaper ads, “bandit” signs, phone calls, mailing lists, all of it.
Number two is consistency. You can’t hit it once in a while and expect any results. You have to keep your signs up, and your ads current, and your fliers circulating. People who may not be in the market for a month or two or six or twelve will eventually need your service, and if you’ve done your job thoroughly, you’re name will just automatically come to their mind.
Number three involves targeting. You wouldn’t put up an “Ugly House” sign in a trailer park (unless you had a REALLY good reason). Some realtors don’t want to handle anything but new construction. That wouldn’t help you (unless they knew to refer their “un-wanteds” to you.)
Number four would be what Valgolas just said. Test market and track the results. A very subtle change can have a huge impact on your responses. It’s even ok to ask contacts how they found you, just be gentle! I had the “opportunity” to work with a guy (I didn’t get to pick the team) from Japan last month at a trade show. He was actually offending people with his questionnaire! “Why did you stop at our booth?” Be tactful!
