Marketing Stratagies

Are you Marketing Consistently? Updated

**Scroll down for my update**

Hello everyone I hope life is treating you well and you are embracing it for all it’s worth.
I wanted to share the marketing strategy I will be implementing starting this week but before I do, I wanted to bring a few things up that may possibly help some of you newbie’s and perhaps even some of you who like me, have been working to be successful in real estate investing and become discouraged.
I’ve been slacking big-time with my marketing and it’s bugging the heck out of me but I know how to fix it and will. I’ve posted articles on how you must be consistent with your marketing or plan to fail and obviously did not heed my own advice. To the folks new to investing, please know having a website is simply not enough. Networking on Facebook is great but you will rarely, if ever get a motivated seller to contact you that way. You’ve got to implement a direct marketing plan and keep it going. Look at your budget and be realistic about how much you can afford to spend monthly. At first, it’s not so important how many postcards or yellow letters you send out, you’ve got to consistently send them out and make sure you followup.

While I’ve been somewhat successful in making some money with the virtual investing out of my area, that’s been sporadic which is why I’m moving my focus back to my local area of Hampton Roads Virginia at least for the time being.
Here are my resources and the game plan to implement a consistent monthly marketing campaign:
I will be using postcards and split testing with yellow letters and of course doing testing and tweaking to see what works and what doesn’t. I’m a Cris Chico Virtual Wholesaling student and have been tweaking some of his postcard templates he has in his course. I got a new toll-free number (888) 91-SELLHOUSENOW through Grasshopper.com, (Thanks for the resource Shae Bynes). What’s cool with Grasshopper is that I can create unlimited extensions so I can create different messages for motivated sellers, another message for cash buyers, ect…

I am signed up with Usleadlist and receive their list every 3 months. For those of you who don’t know, Usleadlist specializes in targeting estate homeowners with equity.
I’ve been receiving lists from them since Summer of last year. Each list varies in size but the total number of leads I have through them currently is 1418.
400 of the newest leads will go out this Thursday, 22 July with the following batch of 400 going out 5 August, the next 400 will go out 19 Aug, then the remaining 218 on 2 September. By the time September rolls around it will be nearly time for the new fall list to come out and I will also do follow-up mailing with the 400 leads I’d sent out in July.
I’ve also just signed up with Realquest with their Unlimited county data access plan. Under this plan I can download up to 4000 absentee owner records monthly and unlimited access to comps. Hell no it’s not cheap and not to mention being locked into a contract for a year. But considering the fact that I will be getting all those leads monthly, I am determined and confident that I will find more than a few deals.
So add an additional 400 mailings to absentee owners for 22 July along with the Usleadlist mailings which will be 800 direct marketing pieces every 2 weeks.
I’m in the process of teaching my daughters and nephew how to upload lists and create postcards through Click2mail so there are my “Virtual” assistants. They need the money and know that I am not treating this as a hobby and happy to help. I’m also training them to be property locators.
Lastly, I’ll be stepping up my game with making offers on REO’s. I’ve got the awesome resource of my buddy Steph Davis Flip This REO eBook and her expertise in that area, plus a great realtor who is also an investor and understands the mentality of a wholesaler.
I’ll make sure to update ya’ll on the struggles as well as the successes. Of course, with persistence and determination will come success!  Thanks for reading.
To Your Ultimate Success
Bill “Dollar Bill” Lassiter

**7/27 Update**

I received 4 calls so far from the 400 postcards I sent out last Thursday, 7/22. One call was to ask me to remove them from any future contact and I did, the 1 call was not a motivated seller who wanted full market value, (I referred her to a realtor and asked that she call back if anything changes). The remaining 2 may be potential deals and both have lots of equity. I’ve scheduled appointments to take a look at each home and meet with the homeowners. The interesting thing to note is that with each seller I spoke with, I shared the fact that they or someone in their family was retired military.
Here is an excerpt of the postcards I just recently sent out:

“I am a private real estate investor. Retired from the US Air Force with 20 years of service. Local homeowner and member of the Hampton Roads community since 1976.”

Since this is a big military community I wanted to try and establish a thread of commonality with homeowners. Hopefully more leads will call. I’ll keep ya’ll posted in these 2 potential deals.

Bill

People are Looking for your REAL Estate Business Every Day, are they Finding You?

This article was written by my friend and mentor, Real estate Investor, “The Mad Scientist” Charles Blair.
Some of you may already know of this awesome free to tool show you exactly how people are searching in your local area and how you can use it to get them to find your business.

Real Dealers,

The times are changing drastically on how people find things. Phonebooks will soon be a thing of the past as people are turning to the internet to find information on local businesses in their area.

I’d like to share an example with you,

My team has put together this short video…

This short Video will explain =====> Making the Internet Work for your Business

Situation #1: Sally’s Salon, a local business runs an ad in the local paper. Sure, thousands of people could potentially see this ad, but how many of them will be specifically looking for a salon when they pick up the paper? Lexi, someone who has been looking for a new salon to try happens to see the ad, and makes a mental note to check it out when she has time.

Situation #2: Lexi sits down at her computer and decides to use the internet to find a local salon to try. She types “my town salon” into Google, and Sally’s salon comes up 1st. Lexi simply clicks on Sally’s salon and is taken to their website, where she has the ability to learn more about the salon, and makes an appointment for next week!

Do you see what a difference this makes? In situation one, the prospective client was reading a newspaper, and saw an ad for a salon. Even though this was something the consumer was actually interested in, she wasn’t able to find out more about the business immediately. It was on her to remember the business, and follow-up when she had time.

In situation two, the consumer sat down at her computer with the mindset that she was going to find a new salon to try. THIS is the type of consumer your business needs to be focusing on. Think about the value of these potential customers. They are literally sitting down at their computers and saying “I want to find a X in my local area”. If you aren’t taking advantage of this opportunity, you are really missing out!

====> Making the Internet Work for your Business

How to Find Out What People in your Local Area are Searching for Online

Google is currently the top search engine online. When people want to find something online, a majority of them use Google. Did you know that Google actually keeps track of what people search for? This gives us a HUGE advantage. Google is kind enough to give us free access to their database of searches. You don’t need to guess what people are searching for, you can use this tool to find out exactly what people are looking for. It also gives you an idea of the number of people searching for these terms every month too. It is incredibly powerful.

It is important to understand WHAT people are searching for, so you can make sure that your website appears in the search results.

You can access the tool below:

Keyword Search Tool

Most of you have heard me mention this tool at Real Deal meetings in the past.

Finding out what people in your local area are searching for is easy, just type in the name of your town along with a basic keyword for your business. For example, if you own a salon and live in Baltimore, MD, try typing:

Baltimore salon

According to my recent search, “Baltimore salon” was searched for 14, 000 times last month.

That’s a lot of people!

Here’s WHY ===> Making the Internet Work For your Business

This tool is invaluable, because it can show you exactly how people are searching in your local area. You need to have this information so you can take the next step, and get your business appearing for these searches.

Now imagine if use this simple tool for Baltimore real estate, or Maryland Tenant placement, or what about Baltimore wholesale deals.

Can you say CHA CHING $$$…

To Your Extraordinary Success
Charles Blair

PS. For the first 100 people that RSVP for this months meeting by Clicking HERE I will give you s FREE Bonus at the meeting, and all you have to do is click HERE and RSVP TODAY.

Be consistent in Marketing or plan to Fail

I was brainstorming for ideas to write about and just this week I ran into something that inspired me to write about marketing. For those of you who’ve been investing for a while, you know without a doubt that marketing for motivated sellers and cash buyers is a process and NOT a onetime event. The money is in the consistent follow-up.

I received a voice mail this past Monday from a woman who said that her elderly mother had received one of my postcards and might be interested in selling her home. She went on to tell me how originally when they received my card; there was no interest or need to sell. Unfortunately, the woman’s father had recently passed away and the upkeep on their large home was posing to be too much for her mother. I had sent her an original marketing postcard over a year ago and had sent her several follow-up postcards since then.

I’ll be taking a look at the house this weekend to evaluate it and hopefully it turns out to be a deal.

The huge point here is that people’s circumstances change, for better and for worse. If I had not sent follow-up marketing to this woman, there is a possibility that she would not have remembered my services and that I buy houses.

You MUST market and have a living marketing plan. Above all, be consistent with your efforts.

Regardless of your marketing budget, never stop marketing unless you plan to fail.

The name of the success game in marketing is consistency. Follow-up.

Copyright © 2009 Bill Lassiter All Rights Reserved

How To Create An Effective Marketing Campaign

Direct mail is one of the best ways to find motivated sellers or rather have them find you but take some time and forethought.
Having an effective marketing plan is a must for real estate investors and is the lifeblood of your real estate business. If you think all it takes is to put up a website and all those motivated sellers will ring your phone off the hook, you’re destined to be disappointed. I’ve been there.
Most new investors get discouraged after getting few, if any motivated sellers responding to their first direct mailing.
What happened? Why didn’t you get more calls from truly motivated sellers?
Here are some tips:

1) Define Your Target Market

You need to know what you’re hunting so to speak. Just an “I Buy Houses” message to your market doesn’t come close to what you need to do in direct mail. There are many, many ways to make money in real estate and finding the truly motivated sellers with direct mail means your message should be reflective of the target market you are seeking.
Are you targeting fixer-uppers? Pre-foreclosures? Absentee Owners? Define your target market because the message you send needs to reflect accordingly.
2) Buy from a quality list source
If you’re focusing on Absentee owners for instance, make sure the source providing the information is reputable. The best way to find out who’s reputable is to ask other investors. Most investors will freely share this information with you and the one’s who won’t you can’t worry about. I would stay away from any source that requires you to sign a monthly contract.

Really do your homework with this step because there are some companies out there who will sell you inaccurate or outdated information.

3) Send follow-up mailings
This step is where a lot of investors don’t follow. Many will get discouraged if their initial mailings don’t turn up leads. Ever hear the term; “The money is in the follow-up?”
It’s true. Many times it may take a little bit more persistency to get the seller persuaded.
One deal I got on the 6th mailing to them before they ever responded. Be smart here. Don’t harass anyone and space your mailings out. You will get some folks who will call you and tell you to take them off your list and don’t contact them and that’s fine. Cross them off the list and continue mailing to the others in your list.

4) Your letter or postcard should prescreen your potential lead.
One of the biggest mistakes new investors make is speaking to unmotivated sellers. You should not be speaking to sellers who want all cash or retail value for their property. The message in your letters/postcards needs to convey the fact that you are an investor and can possibly help them if they fit the criteria of a motivated seller. You want to capture your target prospects attention but also be careful about putting a lot of unnecessary information in your postcard/letter. Just the facts please.

5) Direct Mail Is A Investment, Not An Expense
It took a while for me to understand this when I first started. Starting out, especially when funds are tight or minimal I struggled until I set aside a set amount for my marketing. Even if it’s 50 bucks it’s necessary. Without marketing, you have no leads. Without leads, you’ll get no deals and make no money. Period.

The bottom line
The goal is to find truly profitable deals. How you go about doing this are contingent upon your target market, quality of the mailing contact, multiple messages to same contact, pre-screening ability, and finally your commitment to direct mail and an investment in your real estate business. Plan. Be persistence and focused in your direct mail campaign and it’s just a matter of time before those qualified motivated sellers will be ringing your phone off the hook!
Copyright © 2009 Bill Lassiter All Rights Reserved