Guerrilla Marketing: Beat your competition to the punch

When it comes to marketing your real estate business, there is one technique that stands out from the rest. This technique is simply the best way available to get motivated sellers to call you before they call anyone else....period. This is a guerrilla marketing technique that has been touched on previously, but not as in depth as it will be here. In case you have not guessed yet, I am referring to street corner signs.



18 x 24 Coroplast signs with stands are by far the best place to begin your marketing campaign. The most critical part of using signs is making sure they deliver your message i.e. WE BUY HOUSES CASH….although I believe you should be a little more creative since every investor in the world has used that phrase to market what they do. I have tried many other forms of marketing with variable results, but no other form compares to the use of signs. Television is the next best form, then radio and then billboards or bus stop benches. The challenge with television is that it is a long term producer and is quite expensive the first year or two (you probably will not turn a profit in your first couple years due to television expense). People expect to run one fifteen second commercial and get immediate results, but that is not the way it works. If you doubt that, try it for yourself. You can expect to spend about five thousand dollars your first month for a few fifteen second spots. Five thousand dollars is pennies compared to what can be made on one deal, but odds are very high that you will not get a deal from this type of advertising the first month. Do not expect significant results for several months to a year.



As for radio, it is a less expensive form of advertising than television and less effective. That is not to say that this form of advertising does not work, because it does. The down side to radio is that it is still expensive and results will be minimal unless you spend a fortune running ads on the most popular stations. You will also have to pay for these ads to run more often than once a day, which can become costly.



Billboards and bus stop benches are next in line, but not very effective. These methods of advertising will require twelve month contracts and possible credit checks. Billboards start at over a thousand dollars per month and bus stop benches are even less that. However, bus stop benches will typically produce less result than billboards.



The main point here is that while the previous three forms of advertising can work, they should NOT be your main form of advertising (especially early on in your real estate career). With coroplast signs you can have a bright mini-billboard on every street corner in town. Believe me, if you put out a couple hundred of these signs, you will immediately get deals. The most exciting part is that while this is the best form of advertising it is also one of the least expensive. As previously mentioned, you should pay around one thousand dollars for five hundred one sided, two color 18x24 in. coroplast signs with stands.



The only drawback I have found with street signs is that some cities have rules against placing them on the right of way. As a general rule, you should make sure your city will allow these type of signs to avoid being hassled or fined. However, there are a couple tricks I can share that will allow you to use street signs without getting your local code enforcement officer to bent out of shape. First, you will usually be alright if you place the signs on the inside of the median or walkway. While putting them on the right away is tempting, you will be better off to put them back farther from the street. The other trick is to put your signs out on Friday evening and pick them back up on Sunday night. Usually code enforcement either does not work on weekends or is more concerned with the sporting event on the radio than picking up signs.



In closing, you should realize there are plenty of other tricks to marketing and they certainly can not all be discussed in one article. However, in my opinion street signs should never be overlooked due to the fact that they produce great results with minimal expense. I did over 30 successful “subject to” transactions my first year with signs being my sole source of advertising. My second and third year improved tremendously from my first, still using signs as my primary source of marketing. Simply put, the numbers do not lie and with numbers like those, I am a believer.



Sean Flanagan

Comments(8)

  • OCSupertones7th October, 2003

    Good article...Share with us your color preference, choice of words, 1800 number, or local number, etc...



    Billboards in my area are less than $1000, but still not very cost effective for the new investor.

    • tradurex7th October, 2003 Reply

      I use



      SELL YOUR HOME IN 7 DAYS

      I PAY YOUR PAYMENTS!!

      AVOID FORECLOSURE

      (555)343-3333

      restrictions apply, call for details in fine print at bottom.



      I have gotten the best results using the most loud, obnoxious flourescent color I can find for a background with red or black writing. I have used both an 800 number and a local number with similar results. A local number is cheaper and in most situations will be fine.



      Best of Luck,

      Sean Flanagan

  • Dural7th October, 2003

    Hmm. In my city, these signs are illegal and I have heard similar reports from other investors. I highly recommend consulting with your city before putting out a sign.



    Of course, many cities do not actively enforce their laws on this issue, so investors do it anyway. At that point, you are getting into a discussion of ethics-somewhere I don't want to go tonight.



    Jon

  • mgabriel7th October, 2003

    My first use of signs came this weekend. I put out 30 signs ("Rent To Own" ) on Sunday morning (before dawn) and could not find even one on Monday morning. A fellow investor in town told me she is having the same problem. Her signs are takken almost as fast as she puts them out. This can become rather expensive. Any suggestions?


  • Dmitry2nd November, 2003

    Ladies and Gentlemen:



    This is your moderator speaking, grin



    Although deep-hearted conversation with Sean Flanagan is certainly very entertaining, I do believe that we all can benefit from using space on this forum for the purpose it was intended: ADVICE and QUESTIONS.



    Let’s preserve our time / emotions for a good use and keep on topic, not on bashing each other. Questions about an article are fine and appropriate, accusing each other and calling names are not!



    John $Cash$ Locke just showed us all a good example by making his point in a single and comprehensive reply.



    Let’s respect each other and be friendly even if you disagree.



    P.S. Sean Flanagan, I have observed comments made by Rajwarrior and $Cash$ for a good while in many topics. They are always respectful and position their opinion on facts. You, on the other hand, jumping to conclusions and calling people beginner investor without knowing this for a fact.



    You need to cool of a bit.



    Respectfully,



    Dmitry.



    Moderator.

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