Marketing Is A Four-Letter Word!

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:44:00 -0400

MARKETING IS A FOUR LETTER WORD!

How many times have you heard someone, in any industry, say that they know that marketing and advertising are important, but……………..? “Business is down, and I can’t afford to advertise, so I’ll wait ‘til things pick up.” “My real estate business is just not all that good, right now, but I’ll start doing mailings just as soon as it picks up.”

Zebras Don’t Have Stripes

And You Don’t Need Marketing!

Yeah, right. Well most would agree that zebras do have stripes, and without marketing your business will fail. That’s a pretty fair assessment. You can be the best service or offer the best product at the best prices, but if no-one knows it, what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt. Some of you might recognize that phrase.

Now, it’s a fact that you have a lot of competition out there if you simply count every Tom, Dick and Harry with a “We Buy Houses” business card. So, how do you distinguish yourself from the horde? That’s where marketing comes in, and it is not as simple as running an ad or two in the paper. Anything worthwhile will almost certainly require some effort. It’s a hard fact of life. It will require some thought to determine which of your skills and personal qualities should serve you best when advertised to your prospects. Copying someone else’s ad or sign or letter and then running one ad or sending two letters and probably never getting around to putting out the signs will probably get you pretty dismal results.

Effective marketing is as much about consistency and repetition as anything else. Once you’ve settled on your message, then you’ve got to get it out multiple times to each prospect. That means a series of ads over time. It means a scheduled series of letters over time. And, by the way, when you’re doing this, the horde of competitors no longer exists. You have outdistanced them, because they’re still stuck in the rut you were in before. You now appear much different to the person who is facing foreclosure or whatever their motivator is. If you’re not getting the results you expected, then take a hard look at what you’re doing about it.

If A Frog Had Wings

He Wouldn’t Land So Hard!

Failure at anything is tough, but failure at a career effort like investing in real estate can be like a crash landing. In addition to monetary losses, self esteem takes a real beating, but it doesn’t have to be.

There are many educators who specialize in marketing real estate. They may vary slightly in details, but they all agree on the basic principles and that consistency and repetition are key.

Like the frog, you don’t have wings, but you can avoid the hard landing by getting yourself trained in the finer points of marketing. It will mean some work on your part, and some expense. The expense part can be eased a great deal, however, in learning the tips many of the educators can provide on how to maximize exposure while minimizing costs. Many of you probably do not know that the US Postal Service has some terrific and low cost printing and mailing services. That’s just one little tidbit that every investor should know if they want to properly market their business.

So don’t be waiting around for business to pick up before you get your marketing machine cranked up.

Don’t be caught

Sittin’ On The Dock o’ The Bay

Watchin’ The Deals Drift Away!

OK, so this is pretty hokey stuff, I admit it, but the message here is serious. Without an effective marketing program in place, the likelihood of failure is geometrically greater. Most of us would probably rather not have to do mailings, flyers, signs, etc. or deal with lists. Sorry, but we must. If you’d like to know more about how to do it with the least amount of pain and aggravation and learn of the various sources of time saving services, stay tuned for our series of meetings and workshops as we continue to bring you the right programs and trainers for the market we live in.

And, by all means, you MUST get yourself set up with a web site and learn, or hire out a service, to maximize its exposure. We have lots of good help for this, and it becomes more affordable every day, even to having a lot of FREE help. If you don’t do this, you might as well write your contracts on a stone tablet!

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Marketing Is A Four-Letter Word!