Marketing for Real Estate Investors: 4 Marketing Tips to Put Your Real Estate Bu
Many real estate investors simply do not pay enough attention to their marketing. You don’t have to have a huge budget to start a marketing plan. But if you don’t market, it will definitely cost you money.
Here Are My Top 4 Marketing Strategies to Create 6-Figure Income Real Estate Investing Businesses in 6 Months: 1. Direct mail campaign – A mail campaign is one of the best ways to market your real estate investing business. And, it’s very easy and cost effective. Besides the cost of acquiring the names, you will only have to pay for copies, envelopes and stamps.
Here are a few things to remember when starting a mail campaign:
• When starting a mailing campaign, consistency is key. It takes several exposures (at least 3-5) before your prospects start feeling comfortable with the thought of doing business with you. This means that you cannot send out one mailing and expect to get a response. You will need to send out at least seven mailings, spaced seven to fourteen days apart.
• Send both postcards and letters as part of your mailing sequence.
• Envelopes should always be hand-addressed. Those that have pre-printed labels do not get opened as frequently.
• Always start your mailing off with a headline that benefits the customer. Let them know what you can do for them. For example: “End your house worries today.” or “Sell your home for Fast Cash.”
2. Newspaper Ads -- This is a more costly way of marketing, but when done correctly and consistently, you can get you a lot of bang for your buck. Newspaper ads can give you a lot of exposure, whether you are using them to buy or sell. The larger the circulation, the higher the advertising cost; but more people will see your advertisement.
Here are some things to remember when running ads:
• Don’t be too wordy. Typically, you will pay for your ad by the word or by the line. You do not need to write a novel to get your point across. Write succinctly and you will spend less money and get a better response to your ads.
• Don’t over-abbreviate. Some people try too hard to abbreviate the words in their ad that the reader almost needs a translator to read them. You want people to be able to read your ad quickly and understand what they have read.
• Weekends give you the biggest bang for your buck. Most newspapers offer advertising specials encompassing the weekends. And more people have weekend subscriptions than daily subscriptions.
3. Website – Your website is an awesome tool that will create an air of legitimacy and credibility for you right off the bat. Of course, your website should look professional and well-maintained.
Here are some things to remember when marketing your real estate investing business with a website:
• You can use your website whether you are buying or selling. If you are doing both, I suggest having two separate websites.
• Present information clearly. Your site should be easy to read and should not have too much information on one page. This can get confusing. Remember with your website, less is more.
• If you are selling, put pictures of your houses. The more information that you provide for people to look at independently, the more sales you will make.
• Make it easy for your prospects to contact you. If people are visiting your website, they are interested in the services you offer. Because people tend to be impulsive, you want to make sure they have a way to contact you immediately.
4. E-mail Blasts -- This technique is typically used when selling properties. It is very effective, whether you are selling to homeowners, investors or people looking to rent.
Simply put, you gather their e-mail addresses and whenever you have a new property available, you send an e-mail to your list to let them know.
Here are a few things to keep in minding when sending an e-mail blast:
• Don’t send unsolicited e-mails. If the person has not signed up for your e-mail list or asked you to e-mail them, don’t do it. This is called spamming and Internet service providers take it very seriously.
• When sending out a mass e-mail, put all e-mail addresses in the BCC field.
• Before sending a lot of e-mails, look into an e-mailing program. I recommend one that allows you to send both text and HTML e-mails. There are some now that also offer shopping carts and merchant accounts that will allow you to take deposits and earnest money online.
• It is important to include as much specific information about the property in the e-mail as possible. In fact, try to include a picture. This will allow your potential clients to view the house before they speak with you. In fact, by the time you speak to them, they may be ready to move forward.
Of course, there are many more ways to market your real estate business. But, I suggest you start with these four methods first. See what works for you. The more methods you implement, the more successful you will be. Follow these high powered marketing tips and you will create a six-figure income real estate investing business in just six months.
You can get by with a single website for buying and selling. I use one of those website-in-a-box (see RiverLoon-DOT-com) but own a dozen URLs and use them to direct callers to different pages on the same site, depending on the ad and who I'm targeting. Honestly, I'm not sure the effort of a website is worth it, as I seem to get lots of inquiries but not many great leads. Sure get plenty of hits, though..