Working from a PLAN developed by a marketing expert will tend to prevent some of the most egregious budget wasting activities.  When I create a Custom Web Plan for a real estate agent or broker the result is a detailed outline of what each page on the Website should be about.  And, every page on the Website is perfectly married to one or more ways of promoting it. In other words, as I review the Custom Web Plan, I also point out exactly how to let people know about it starting from low budget strategies and working up.   For example, an agent who wants to target FSBOs might do well with a generous offer on the Website and contact FSBOs individually by phone or by postcard.  A direct mail campaign to a geographic farm when you are targeting FSBOs would be a misuse of your marketing budget---something akin to using a rifle to kill a fly.

DESPERATE MEASURES

Working from a well developed PLAN cuts down on the use of desperate measures. Desperate Measures are advertising activities that are only marginally related to any form of good marking but are used because the agent doesn’t know what else to do.  An example is the use of Recipe Cards sent out by real estate agents to their geographic farm.  True this is using Direct Mail to keep in touch with a geographic farm but it is not supporting the image of Real Estate Expert that you want to foster.  In many cases, the choice of a template Website is another desperate measure.  True, an agent really should have a Website but most of the template sites have little or nothing to do with the agent’s actual marketing goals.  Desperate Measures are often used to keep costs down but in actuality they raise your marketing costs and rob your budget of the necessary funds to do it right.

A great many agents and brokers would sooner go bungee jumping than use telephone or personal prospecting techniques.  Personal contact strategies often come with a high risk of rejection but there are at least a couple of ways of dealing with this.  One, you can avoid high-risk activities and that’ what most agents and brokers do.  Two, you can take the risk out of the personal contact strategy.  Yes, it is possible to take the risk out of personal contact strategies and when you do, you will lower your marketing costs.  You see, there is a very high dollar cost to avoid personal contact marketing.

RISK AVOIDANCE STRATEGIES

  Direct mail is a popular marketing strategy that has low risk factor for rejection but the costs of printing and postage make it costly for the average marketing budget.   But even though homeowners cannot reject you to your face, so to speak, direct mail pieces can and always are rejected in high numbers.  You might expect a ½ of 1% response rate from a well-planned direct mailing.  In other words, mail out 1000 postcards and you are doing well if 5 people respond to your message.  This does not mean that 5 people will buy or list with you, just that they respond. 

SMART RISK AVOIDANCE

  A better way to reduce your risk of rejection is to embrace personal contact methods for local marketing but develop a strategy that guarantees zero or low risk for rejection.  How do you do this?  Well, there are many ways but they all involve creating a custom Website that supports a phone or in person script that literally no one will reject.  Is this possible?  Of course it is!   I don’t care what type of prospect you want to attract, I can create a Web strategy and a script that working in tandem will produce results and little or no rejection.  I will help any of our clients with an irresistible telephone prospecting script.