Real Estate Foreclosure Marketing Secrets

Posts Tagged ‘buy foreclosures’

Ah!  Now we’ve come to a vital concept in your direct-mail postcard campaign.  In order to write the most effective copy for your real estate investing firm, you must know your customer.

Oh, I could tell you in general terms about his desires . . . his needs . . . and even his motivations.  Or you can sit back in your chair, staring at your computer screen and idly construct your typical customer.  But in the long run neither of these helps you much.

Oh, sure with enough trial and error you may end up getting pretty close to targeting him.  But what I’m about to suggest is a little . . . well . . . unconventional.

If you’ve already sent several mailings out and have received some interest, perhaps you’ve already met with some potential customers face to face.  And no doubt discussed business.

But the next time that telephone rings with a potential client on the phone, don’t visit him with the intention of making a sale.  Knock on his door with the intent of learning what he really wants.  That’s right!

Toss the sales script out of the car window on the way over to his home.  Sit down with him one on one and discuss why he wants to sell . . .also discuss why he resists selling. Get to know this one customer as a person.

Yes, perhaps this is a revolutionary approach.  And perhaps you won’t make a sale in this particular instance.  But that doesn’t mean that your time hasn’t been invested wisely. Because as you’re about to discover, it has.

When you return to your office after finding out everything you can from this indivdiual – including how he found himself in this position, what he intends to do after the sale and, if he’s willing to share, how this situation is affecting his life and that of his family – write it all down. (And don’t worry, the odds are great he’ll share this information with you.  Especially if you express a sincere interest in him.  He’s probably been waiting for someone to talk to.)

You see, you’ve just discovered “his problem.”  Your job is to offer him a solution.  And that should be the major focus of your next postcard campaign.  Write your copy to solve this person’s problems.  Don’t worry that your card isn’t going to just him.  Rest assured that his concerns, emotions and intentions are echoed throughout your territory by many others.

Take a good look at the mailing list you’re intending to use for this mailing.  It’s not a list of names.  It’s a list of people.  People whose lives are in transition.  What can your firm offer them that will eventually not only take the burden of the house off their backs, but start them on a new road to success?

If you can write copy that conveys this message, then you’ll have people ringing your phone like crazy.  And isn’t that the bottom line of your postcard campaign after all?

By Mark Bradley

Get $375.95 worth of custom real estate blogs FREE >>Click Here<< before they are gone!

Join My Mailing List

Is there anything more stifling to a good real estate postcard mailing than a blank computer screen?

Consider this scenario (not an uncommon one for many a direct marketer in any area):  Your mailing list has been carefully chosen.  Your printer is waiting for your postcard copy.  And there you sit staring at a blank screen.  You haven’t written a single sentence yet.

Your first instinct is to panic.  (At least that would be mine!)  But don’t. Because you’re about to learn how to turn your competitors ideas and words to inspire you.  And in the process learn the one of the reasons crafting a sales letter is often called “copy” writing.

No doubt you’ve got a stack of postcards that you’ve sent out in the past or from your competitors’ mailings.  Now’s the time to go through them.  Go, ahead.  Gather them in one place and start reading through these.  This, you’re about to learn, is more than an exercise in idle reading.

Pick out the words, phrases, ideas that strike you as particularly good. Use these as your inspiration.  Recreate a headline idea.  Grab a good idea for a lead paragraph.  What you don’t want to do, though, is to plagiarize.  Don’t grab any sentence, paragraph or all the copy from another mailing wholesale and try to pass it off as your own.

But you can – and should – get some really good ideas for your own mailing.  Soon, you’ll discover that blank computer screen you’re staring at is taking shape as a sure-fire direct-mail campaign.

I learned this trick many years ago when I first started working for a direct mail firm.  The owner told me about his very first mailing.  It was several pages long.  He had never written copy before, but he didn’t have the money to hire a professional copywriter.  He wasn’t about to let the lack of funds stop him.

He gathered up all the direct sales material he had been collecting, pulled out his trusty portable typewriter (yes, it was that long ago!) and started assimilating ideas, phrases and other inspirational copy from these various other sources.

It took him several hours to write a couple pages, but finally he had a sales letter that had his distinct imprint.  And original document to call his own.  And he mailed it.

And do you know what?  It produced very good results for him.  And some 30 years later, he’s still enjoying outstanding success in the business.

And just for your information, he still has a hand in writing all his copy.  And he still gets some of his best inspiration from the advertising material that lands in his mail box.

So the next time you’re sitting at the computer screen wishing that a form of direct-marketing inspiration would strike you, gather up all the marketing material you can find.  It’s time to kick start that inspiration into high gear with a little help from your . . . uh, competitors.
By Mark Bradley

Get $375.95 worth of custom real estate blogs FREE >>Click Here<< before they are gone!

Join My Mailing List

Want to power up your next postcard mailing?

Then go one step beyond merely telling your audience what your real investment business has done for others in the past – have your customers tell them.

No you don’t have to enlist your former customers to telephone prospects.  Instead use the powerful direct-marketing tool called the testimonial.  If you’ve been in business long enough, it’s easy enough to ask a satisfied customer to write a couple sentences (it really doesn’t need to be any long than this) about how they benefited from your services.

A true, honest and compelling testimonial from a satisfied customer is much like a picture – it’s worth a thousand words.

You can try to convince  your audience till your pen runs out of ink that your service is well worth their time and energy.  But, face it, you’ve got a vested interested in telling people that – you want to make money.

On the other hand, a person who is volunteering their very positive experience is much more persuasive.  I’ve seen some direct-mail for products that is nothing but two page or more of testimonials.

You can give this testimonial a clever headline. “Let our customers speak for us.”  “Our customers say it much better than we can ever!”

The point is that your message will have a more powerful impact when you add a testimonial that praises your services.

Your next question, no doubt, is just where do you place these testimonials.  You may truly believe that one area of your postcard is simply better than another.  Well, as far as direct marketers can tell right now from research, no single area is really any more effective than another.

If you feel you don’t have space on the message side of your postcard, look to the front.  That’s right the area that’s reserved for the address.  Why not put a short testimonial or two on the front.

When I worked as a copywriter for a nutritional supplement company, we routinely placed to testimonials on the front side of any postcard mailing we’d create.  And I must tell you that our postcards received an absolutely outstanding response rate!
Of course, if you can place them any where on the other side as well it only increases the potency of your marketing campaign.

Testimonials tell your audience that you’ve already done business in a professional manner.  More than that, they show your audience that you’re just not generating hype. Anyone can send a postcard telling you they can buy your house in 48 hours.  But not everyone can actually do that.  If you have a customer – or two or three – you can tell them for you, then you’ve overcome their initial, innate hesitancy.

So, be sure to include one or more testimonials in your next postcard mailing.  If you’ve never used them before, just be prepared for an increased response in your real estate investment campaign.
By Mark Bradley

Get $375.95 worth of custom real estate blogs FREE >>Click Here<< before they are gone!

Join My Mailing List

Every good sales pitch contains several vital ingredients.  And your postcard mailing for your real investing venture is no different.  Every successful marketer uses a very simple – but highly effective — formula for keeping him headed in the proper direction in his copy.

As you progress in your direct-marketing career, you’ll instantly know it by its acronym alone:  AIDS.  It stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. It’s very self explanatory. You need to get the attention of your reader . . . keep his interest . . .build his desire for wanting to sell to you . . . and then actually encourage him to act.

Unfortunately, even the best of us who write for a living sometimes neglect to emphasize the last component of a good sales letter . . . the call to action.  Too often, we simply assume that we know what the consumer will do.  The truth of the matter is that sometimes (most of the time, actually) we have to lead the reader to the final steps of our sales pitch:  the call to action.

And if you’re new to the writing of marketing materials, you may even feel a bit shy about actually writing a call to action.  It may remind you of those commercials on television. “And if you’re the first 200 callers you’ll also receive at . . . “

But do you know why just about every commercial on TV is written like that?  Because they work.  Direct marketers will stick with a style, a wording, an entire ad campaign as long as it’s pulling in the sales for them.  They take the phrase “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” to a whole new level.

For your postcard mailing to be effective, you must rise above any hesitancy about asking people to call you.  You can do every other portion of your mailing absolutely correctly.  But if you don’t remind people to act it’s doubtful if your mailing will ever be successful.

But more than asking them to act, you need to write your call to action so they feel it’s absolutely necessary that they act today.  In fact, they need to act while they have that postcard in hand.  Far too often with direct mailing the old adage of “out of sight, out of mind” applies.

If you can generate enough interest in your sales pitch to get people excited about the prospect of your service, then you need to capitalize on that while the individual reader has that postcard in hand.  Don’t be afraid to urge him to pick up the phone right now.

Give them a reason – even an obvious reason – to act RIGHT NOW!

Remember, there are reasons why the television commercials continue to urge viewers to call within the next 10 minutes.  They are reasons why incentives are given to those “first 200 callers.”

Create that kind of interest and excitement in your real estate investment service and your postcard mailing will generate you some substantial profits – guaranteed!

By Mark Bradley

Get $375.95 worth of custom real estate blogs FREE >>Click Here<< before they are gone!

Join My Mailing List

On the surface of it, this may sound like a really stupid idea for any direct-marketing plan, especially for one that produced few results in real estate investing initially.  But before you condemn me for obvious stupidity, let me clarify myself.

You’re probably thinking that if your direct-mail postcard campaign didn’t work initially, you may have done a few things wrong.  And that’s all together possible.  Let’s face it, no one performs without flaws the first time around.

But that doesn’t mean you throw everything out.  Direct marketing is a complex business.  And while I wish I could call it a science like chemistry it isn’t even close to that.  If you put two molecules of hydrogen with one of oxygen, you’ll come up with water H20 – every time.  Without fail.

Nope.  Direct marketing just isn’t that precise.  I suppose it’s more of an art, or a craft – or some of the very best marketers work on their hunches.  Which won’t help you at all – especially if you’re in the “start up” phase of your business.

But there is one thing that every marketer knows as sure as he knows his own name: few buyers act on an offer (of anything!) with the first mailing.  Oh, you’ll get a few people who’ll act the first time around, but more often than not they’re waiting.

Waiting for what, you ask.  For any number of things.  A person may receive your postcard and just not be “emotionally” ready to sell yet.  Or he may be in the process of taking another route, so he’s waiting to see how that transaction is turning out.

Quite frankly, if he’s never heard of you or your firm before, he may just be wary of your intentions, your honesty and the risk involved.

The point is:  don’t take a no response as a sign of your customer not being interested.

Of course, there may be other reasons why your mailing didn’t pull as you thought it should.  And these very well may be associated with your headline . . . your message . . . or your list itself.

Now that I’ve totally confused you, you’re wondering exactly what you should be doing. Mail again.  Make one simple change in your mailing – perhaps you’ve discovered you can write a stronger headline.  Then do it.  And mail it out again. Record the response you receive with this particular headline.

And don’t be afraid to mail these out to some of the same people.  Many people may not buy the first time around because they’ve never heard of you.  But if you consistently put your name in their mail box, then they’ll come to know you as that real estate investor.  And then — merely because you have that sticking power – they may call you when all their ducks are lined up in a row and they believe you can help them.

Remember, the direct marketing gives you the chance to present your customers with the ultimate sales presentation.  But you may have to show them – time and again – that your real estate investing is in it for the long haul.  And that may mean mailing postcards – with modified messages if necessary – to them more than once.

By Mark Bradley

Get $375.95 worth of custom real estate blogs FREE >>Click Here<< before they are gone!

Join My Mailing List