As a coach with the top-rated FortuneBuilders Mastery program, I often tell my students that 90% of their business is MARKETING. In fact, I go as far as to tell them that if they’re not marketing, THEY’RE NOT IN BUSINESS. I firmly believe this to be true.
So many new real estate investors worry so much about their website, getting the perfect business card, and making sure they understand everything there is to know about investing in real estate….. before they even begin any kind of marketing campaign.
I understand it — most people want to learn to walk before they run. However, you don’t have to get it perfect — you just need to get it out there. Even a basic real estate investor education will be enough to help many homeowners who need to sell their house or who want to learn more about private lending.
You should be good….but you don’t need to be amazing to the open the doors of your business. After some experience, you’ll naturally come to be the amazingly helpful and successful real estate investor that we all know you’re destined to become.
But you have to put yourself out there to make any of this happen….. you have to embrace MARKETING. And not just marketing your business, but marketing YOURSELF.
Basics of Real Estate Marketing
Now that that’s out of the way, let’s look at a few basic real estate marketing strategies
1. DIRECT MAIL — Many of us have a negative connotation with direct mail. Most of us don’t like coming home to a mailbox full of coupons for businesses we’re not going to visit and it seems like those coupon books and flyers never stop. However, there are two main reasons why direct mail is one of the oldest and successful marketing campaigns out there — it’s inexpensive (when done properly) and it’s targeted.
For real estate, you may decide to only send mail to people in a certain zip code or a certain demographic. That’s targeted. You might send postcards to people who are falling behind in their mortgage and are at risk of foreclosure. When you have a good targeted list (instead of mailing to everyone under the sun), your cost drops significantly.
Also, any successful main campaign is one that mails to people repeatedly. We’re all more prone to act on a message if we hear it more than one time. Same thing with TV commercials. Don’t mail once and judge success or failure – stick with it for the long haul.
2. ONLINE — It’s no secret that the internet is a treasure trove of information and the big connector of the world today. Everyone and their grandchildren is on the latest and greatest social media platform (until tomorrow’s is unveiled). It’s not enough anymore to BE online, you have to be online EFFECTIVELY.
Before I even touch upon that, let’s get this nugget out of the way: If you’re not online, you don’t exist.
I firmly believe that to be true. If you’re serious about real estate, you simply must be online. Now let’s look at the components of an effective online presence for real estate professionals…..
Website – Of course, the no-brainer. Spend the money and have a professional website done, but do NOT make it the same as everyone else’s. Make it PERSONABLE, make it GEOGRAPHICALLY RELEVANT (mention your region), make it EFFECTIVE. I should know exactly what I should do on every page of your site — read this, click here, call this number, etc.
Too many people create a site and throw it up on the internet, expecting magical leads to just pop into their inbox. Having a website is where it STARTS, not the end of that race.
Social Media – You can read all about this elsewhere – no need for me to write a novel on this. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, etc. – they all work if you work them effectively. They key is to figure out 1 or 2 in the beginning and work them well, and only then move on to others. Don’t be a little piece of butter on a big piece of toast and expect success.
Also – remember the first word of social media…. “social“. Don’t be a ME ME ME ME person online. You wouldn’t do it in person (I hope), so don’t do it online. Give before you get. Be real, be authentic, be genuine, be helpful, and do it over and over. It may not make you rich overnight, but long-term thinking is the way to build an honest, profitable real estate business. People first, computers and houses second.
SEO and PPC — SEO (search engine optimization) is the way to achieve high rankings in search engines like Google (like this). This is done with a quality website and consistent engagement. PPC (pay per click) is online advertising – whether it’s worth your dollar or not is up to you, but it’s available.
Want more? Hang tight….. part 2 is coming up later this week……