If you’re a real estate investor building your portfolio across your community, you may be wondering:
“Should we have different marketing for rural areas vs big cities?”
Well, no, not really…
So, you might want to make the argument that people in rural areas are not as sophisticated and, therefore, a different marketing approach might be more productive.
But, I would not make that assumption.
Many of the people in rural areas moved from densely populated big cities, because it wasn’t for them or they were done and are extremely sophisticated.
So, I wouldn’t draw a dividing line between folks in terms of their geography.
And what’s interesting is that with marketing, there are certainly big differences in the way that we market today than we did 20 years ago… with the onset of digital marketing. Pay-per-click advertising, Google Image advertising, Facebook advertising, and all the digital marketing strategies that get people’s attention who are online.
In that regard, marketing has changed dramatically over the past 20 or so years — but(!) it has also, in large part, stayed the same.
For example, with email marketing being so prevalent, have you noticed how your inbox is stuffed full of junk and your mailbox outside is sitting pretty darn empty?
The difference is everybody decided to go to email and digital marketing because it’s cheaper. And to know for sure, we need to compare apples to apples.
How?
The cost per unit to send: What are you paying per lead or per deal?
Don’t disregard the power of direct mail
One of the things that’s working today — that I think most people wouldn’t expect — is direct mailing a postcard to their mailbox.
It’s incredible how few of those I get!
And I have an inside look because I own property — and I’ve noticed people are crafty, and they figure out how to get to me. I get text messages all the time saying, “Hey, I’m interested in your house on 123 Main St.”
So, I’d say that for every solicitation on the phone or by text, I get from someone wanting to buy one of my houses… for every 100 of those, I get 1 in my mailbox.
That should tell you something!
Important Side Note: Robocalling and robotexting text without permission are getting highly regulated. I know a guy who’s in a class action suit right now (not an investor), who was sending out high-volume text messages without opt in permission, and he ticked off the wrong skunk. Don’t be that guy. Check your state’s laws and regulartions.
I digress…
Digitally, I’d say the best marketing channels are Facebook and Instagram, because statistically, most sellers we’re targeting are on those platforms. But they’re not on TikTok, for example.
Those are channels on which you can get your message out for very little cost.
And then, if you want to start actually having a marketing budget and boosting your ads and creating custom audiences and doing some real Facebook advertising — it’s relatively inexpensive.
But, again, I’m a fan of direct mail.
I’m a BIG fan of direct mail.
It’s not cheap. So, it forces you to be careful and to be sure that who you’re sending to is worth sending to.
Anything worthwhile is not going to be cheap. (One possible exception to that is social media. It’s proven that old adage to be wrong.)
So, should you have different marketing approaches for rural vs metros?
I say nope.
If you have the budget for a direct mail campaign, def go for it! And also hit them with some social media stuff, emails and texting/calling as long as the latter is legal in your state.
Now get to it!