One way to get real estate deals is to go out and hit the streets looking for them.
I know it can be a tough, frustrating approach. But there’s no doubt you can get deals if you go out and consistently look for them.
Many investors (present company included) prefer to attract deals by using a variety of marketing techniques to get your “We Buy Houses” message in front of the right set of motivated eyeballs.
Admittedly, some marketing works very well, and some not so well.
There’s something to be said for really understanding your audience before you go out and spend marketing dollars on them…
So, while I was thinking about this, it reminded me of a two of interesting and innovative real estate marketing tactics definitely worth sharing — and both involve the use of a postcard.
Killer Idea #1: The Mini Bandit Sign
I was going through a stack of stuff that’s been sitting around my desk for a while now (yes, I’m a “stacker”) and stumbled upon a really cool marketing piece I saved.
You see, I’m a total geek for good marketing. So when I come across something that really stands out, I keep it as part of my “swipe file” of good ideas. Even if I won’t use it at the time, if it’s a really great idea, it might just come in handy at some point later on.
(Btw…you can just imagine how much my wife looooooves that I collect junk mail 😆)
So, what I ran across was a 4×6 postcard originally sent to me by the Georgia REIA (not sure why since I live in TN, but anyway)…
What really stood out to me was that instead of card stock, the postcard was made of coroplast. In other words, it was made of bandit sign material.
Check it out…
Pretty nifty, huh? Yeah, I thought so too. A really creative idea, that definitely got my attention.
Now keep in mind, this thing had regular postage for a postcard. Then it hit me: What a GREAT way to advertise “We Buy Houses!”.
And, it can’t be that expensive! In fact, I remember when I first got the postcard, I called up a bandit sign company to ask them about making something similar, and they said it would be no problem — and I remember thinking the price seemed remarkably affordable (although I don’t remember what it was anymore).
While I haven’t given this a try yet — it’s a cool enough idea that I felt it was worth sharing with you.
Killer Idea #2: The 55-Second Postcard
I originally ran across this next idea from a colleague, Scott Patterson, years ago.
He explained, what I believe, may be the easiest, cheapest and most effective way to include postcard marketing in your ongoing endeavors to attract motivated sellers.
First, he talked about his frustration with his computer and trying to get the prettiest postcard going. Sound familiar?
So, Scott said: scrap that… and do it the old-fashioned way.
All you need is a simple Sharpie marker and a piece of paper. Fold the paper — twice lengthwise and widthwise — to create 4 postcards. Easy so far…
Then, take one of those quads and hand write — “I want to buy your house. Thanks, Scott.” — or whatever other messages you want. Then take it to Office Depot and have them make it on yellow cardstock, cutting your 4 postcards too.
Why do this?
The advantage is that it sticks out. People are going to notice it, look at it, read it. And, if you make the message nice and simple, it gets the message across, which is all you’re trying to do with the postcard.
Remember: A confused mind says no.
And as you can see, this 55-second postcard makes life easy. 🙂
Using real handwriting on your direct mail pieces has been proven, time and time again, to be a powerful attention-getter, with amazingly higher response rates in split tests against similar marketing pieces without handwriting.
Boom!
So there you go. Two highly original ways to consider for your investor postcard marketing.
—JP out.
PS: Thoughts on this? Or, maybe got another clever marketing idea you’ve seen or used before?
