marketing: Be helpful in your marketing - 12/02/11 03:18 AM
Be helpful in your marketing
A comment to a recent blog post of mine asked about my "Helpful Information" postcards.
Most of my business in the early days came from postcard farming. Lately it's been from ActiveRain blogging, which is less expensive than postcards.
However, I still use postcards when I want to make inroads into a specific neighborhood or condominium community. They work, perhaps because so few people use the USPS anymore so people notice the postcards.
Get a good postcard design and then use that design, and that design only, for six months. Send them out monthly. People don't … (10 comments)

marketing: Maybe your seller IS "very motivated," but maybe YOU'RE NOT! Does your seller know? - 08/05/11 08:38 AM
Maybe your seller IS "very motivated,"but maybe YOU'RE NOT!
I like to preview properties for my Clients, and I usually find the properties to preview by perusing the MLS each night.
Sometimes I'll have a Client call wanting to know about a property that's on realtor.com, trulia, zillow, or any of the other out-of-touch sites and I just have to tell them that the property is not currently for sale.
Fortunately, in the MLS I can also search on the address the Client gives me to find out if it is now pending, canceled, withdrawn, or sold.
What would I do … (14 comments)

marketing: It doesn't matter how good you are, you still have to tell people - 08/18/10 06:44 AM
It doesn't matter how good you are,you still have to tell people
There was a plumber, Mr. P, who had worked for Mr. A's Plumbing Company for 25 years in a small city of 50,000 people. Mr. P was widely recognized as the best plumber in the city and was very well liked. Mr. A knew it, and had always made a great effort to keep Mr. P happy and working for Mr. A's Plumbing Company, so Mr. A decided to throw Mr. P the city's largest party to recognize Mr. P's 25 years of service.
It was the biggest celebration … (16 comments)

marketing: Door knocking - 08/13/10 03:34 PM
I was always one to go door knocking when I took on a new neighborhood so that I could get to know the houses and the people. It appears in reading through blog posts today that many people are either reverting to door knocking or taking it up for the first time.
Here are a couple of suggestions to make your door knocking experience better in terms of getting business.
Make sure that your ActiveRain blog URL is on your business card and any other marketing materials that you hand out. Of course, make sure you have useful blog posts, too! … (17 comments)

marketing: Power Partners - 08/02/10 12:28 AM
POWER PARTNERS
Power Partners are people whom you would recommend to others, as well as people you would hire if you needed their services. I picked up the concept at Toastmasters in Houston back in 1977, and various business networking groups like Le Tip and BNI use the concept to its fullest advantage.
To create your list of Power Partners, make a list of people who work in or on real estate and find at least two Power Partners for each profession. In fact, you can go one better and, if you have a favorite barber/hair stylist, auto repair shop, etc., … (16 comments)

marketing: You CAN be successful, if you'll be practical! - 07/26/10 12:57 AM
You CAn be successful, if you'll be practical!
Be practical in all that you do.
Wanna be a millionaire overnight? Not practical. Wanna be a millionaire next week? Not practical. Wanna be a millionaire next month? Not practical. Wanna be a millionaire next year? Not practical. Wanna be a millionaire in five years? Now you might be on to something. Practical planning means long-term planning. Where do you want to be at age 65? How old are you now? I'm 50, so I have 15 years to get there. Consequently, I have a 10-year plan, a 5-year plan, a year one plan, a … (14 comments)

marketing: Old-fashioned service - Modern technology - 07/08/10 03:57 PM
Sometimes I'll find a business whose on-street marketing is so good that I want to use them as soon as possible. Today was such a day.
I was taking a shortcut, something that I enjoy doing because I always have my handy dandy Canon 550D camera with me, and there are a lot of interesting things to take pictures of when you slow down by taking a shortcut.
Does that make sense? ☺☻☻☺
Here is what I saw today:


Can you guess what type of business this was?
No?
Here's what was on the side of the door in … (16 comments)

marketing: There can be only so many people on page one! - 03/19/10 07:11 AM
Many people apparently believe that search engine optimization is the one and only method for getting prospective Clients to your web site, but I'm here to tell you that's not necessarily so.
There can only be one #1 (unless it's major college football), and things change regularly with the search engines coming up with new ways to rank everyone. If you like playing that game, though, then by all means, go for it.
I prefer to play a different game because it gets me out from behind the computer, out of the house, and actually out where my prospective Clients are … (21 comments)

marketing: When you're near San Diego State University, have some effin' fun at Effin's Pub & Grill - 02/11/10 12:57 PM
Some day I'm going to get into a car accident. I just know it.
Whenever I'm out and about, I'm distracted by the signs of various businesses as I drive by them.
I like to see not only the names of businesses but any exterior marketing that they might be doing.
There's an Irish bar over near San Diego State University called Effin's Pub and Grill. I don't know if the owner's name is Effin, but I've always liked innuendos, and if you think hard enough, remembering that you're in college student territory, you can imagine all the effin language in … (13 comments)

marketing: Location, location, location? Nope. List, list, list! - 02/06/10 04:20 AM
My marketing guru has taught me how to make lists, and I find it a very useful thing to do. You can make lists to keep your prospective Clients at your web site or reading your other marketing materials:
Top 5 reasons why YOU need to stage your home Top 10 reasons to use a Realtor Top 5 mistakes in trying to sell your home yourself Top 10 reasons to get a home inspection Top 10 reasons to use ME as your mortgage lender Top 10 mistakes home buyers make Top 10 ways to make your home green Top 10 things … (9 comments)

marketing: Get a better buzz right here! - 12/13/09 02:02 AM
I don't do any Christmas shopping between the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas day because I don't like to fight the crowds for that last latest fad gift, not to mention trying to avoid all the wacko drivers on the streets at this time of year.
However, if I'm in the neighborhood of a good mall during rush hour, I'll park and do some computer work in the car or walk around the parking lot and mall to get some exercise and see what kinds of businesses have taken up temporary residence for the 12 30 days of (commecial) Christmas.
I've … (15 comments)

marketing: Know where your target market hangs out! - 12/06/09 11:57 AM
As with anything that you are going to sell, you have to know who to sell it to.
Several years ago I had a condo listing in what I call a "hotel condo" building, i.e., a huge building with four entrances, and the hallways and condo entrances that look just like a hotel.
I was in the third month of a sixth-month listing and had no offers and poor attendance at my open houses. I went to my marketing guru to ask him for help. He asked me what the average age of the owners was. "Oh, probably about 60."
That's … (12 comments)

marketing: A guide to Balboa Park in downtown San Diego - 10/25/09 01:15 PM
Balboa Park is the largest urban cultural park in America and the second largest in North America behind Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia.
With over 1,200 acres, there's lots to do -- picnicking under the majestic eucalyptus trees, watching volleyball games on weekends, visiting museums, taking in a live performance, visiting the world-famous San Diego Zoo, and much, much more.
If you're going to spend some extra time sightseeing in San Diego, you can't go wrong with Balboa Park. The Park offers a Passport for $39/$21 (adults/children) that gets you into fourteen of the Park's Museums, a savings of over … (4 comments)

marketing: Take a minute for some good marketing entertainment - 09/13/09 12:37 PM
I was over visiting Dan Callahan's blog. Dan is a home inspector in Casper, Wyoming. Unfortunately, Dan is not a Rainmaker, so all of his blog posts are Members Only, which means that they cannot be reblogged, so I have to rewrite what he wrote in order to provide my readers with some great entertainment.
The following web site is for a large department store chain in The Netherlands. Click on the link and then sit back and wait for 5-10 seconds.
I agree with what Dan said:
This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer, who … (3 comments)

marketing: Know where your target audience hangs out - 05/29/09 02:55 PM
Most of the bus stop benches around here have been taken up by Realtors. Either that, or they are blank. Today, though, I saw a bus stop bench advertising "Green Day."

Some readers might think that this is an advertisement for seminar on ecofriendly homes and businesses, but I can assure you that it's not.
Green Day is a rock group consisting of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dint (vocals, bass guitar), and Tré Cool (drums), and was formed in Berkeley, California, in 1987, as part of the punk rock music scene. Their breakout album, "Dookie," was released in … (14 comments)

marketing: May I have an open house at your listing? - 08/17/08 02:46 AM
If I don't have a listing, or my Clients don't want me to have an open house on a certain weekend, I'll call up Realtors in my office to see if I can have an open house at their listings. Inevitably I'll get, "Absolutely! When? How about next Saturday? Sunday? Good! What about the weekend after that? Can you do one then, too? And what about the nineteenth? How about the twenty-sixth?"

I love to have open houses, but judging from the exclamations of surprise on the faces of other Realtors in my office when I tell them that, it's … (7 comments)