Seven Easy Short Sale Marketing Tips

Seven Easy Short Sale Marketing Tips to give your business a good shot in the arm. Building a short sale business in real estate is essential to the success of any real estate agent in "this" market. Homeowners challenged with the falling home prices and financial stress many find themselves in need of help, and unsure of where to turn. Reaching homeowners requires a consistent marketing strategy that unfortunately many agents are missing the mark on. Consider the following when you look at and evaluate your own marketing campaign.

1. Have a clear marketing message
   • Encourage your prospects to contact you by telling them exactly what you want them to do when they read your marketing piece.
   • Let prospects know WHY they should contact you, and that message should be about them, not about you.
   • Make sure your message addresses their situation and how you can help them solve it.
   • Be consistent
2. Include your sphere of influence in your marketing database - If you aren't mailing or contacting your sphere of influence, you are missing your largest source of business and referrals. Your sphere of influence should be a list that is no less than 100 people. Everyone knows at least a 100 people and if you think you don't, you are most likely kidding yourself or you are suffering from fear. Generally speaking, people want to help people they know and like and if you are a likable person of integrity and a strong work ethic, you will most likely find business within your sphere.
3. Make sure you are mailing enough - Agents who are serious about their business and have a marketing strategy are not only mailing monthly/bi-monthly, they are mailing out more than 100 pieces at a time. Most mail marketing campaigns have a response rate of around 1%, if you are looking to TALK to an average of one person per month, mailing out 100 postcards/letters may be enough. If you wish to increase your pipeline with potential buyers and sellers, you will need to consistently mail a minimum of 500 real estate marketing pieces per month. Make sure to keep track of response rates based on a variety of mailings and messages so you know what works best in getting your phone to ring or your website traffic to increase.
4. Mix up your mailings - By mailing both postcards and letters, you increase your chances of reaching more people, some people may respond to postcards while others may respond to letters. The best way to find out is to test it and when you are mailing to a list of 500, the financial risk is minor. Don't forget that door hangers are another great inexpensive marketing medium and it gives you an opportunity to walk your farm.  Dust off those tennis shoes! Once you narrow down what works, you will be able to focus your efforts to that medium.
5. You MUST have a dedicated website or blog - Investing in direct mail campaigns and not having a dedicated website for people to reach you is a mistake. Many people wish to remain anonymous until they have done their homework and are ready to reveal their identity. Having a dedicated website/blog gives prospects a chance to get to know you a little bit before they take their next step. In this day and age, you MUST have some sort of Internet marketing strategy in place. Learn how to build your own website in a day with "Blogging For Buyers", the user guide to easily building your own website/blog in a day.
6. Install Google Analytics on your website - If having an Internet Marketing strategy is something you plan to incorporate (If not, reread #5). Make sure to include Google Analytics as part of your plan. It is important to make sure you understand where your Internet traffic is coming from and if you have any. Monitoring your Internet traffic is an important part of tracking the type of results you are getting with any marketing campaign. Google Analytics is free and handles the job nicely.
7. Follow up on your leads - Contacting a prospect that has shown interest in working with you one-time won't cut the mustard and nor will it bring in the business. If you want people to take you seriously with their real estate transactions, you should be serious about following up with them in a consistent and timely manner. Selling real estate is a "contact sport" and you will find much greater success in your real estate selling career when you realize that contacting people REPEATEDLY is necessary for real success. The best way to make sure you automate your marketing it to have someone else handle it!

This information comes to you compliments of PrinterBees, your on-line real estate marketing resource. PrinterBees handles everything including designing, printing and mailing services. PrinterBees assists real estate agents in creating consistency in their marketing. Contact PrinterBees for more information on how we can automate your marketing and your follow up. Automating and systematizing your marketing will help you see instantaneous results in your marketing efforts. Learn more about why these types of programs are so important by reading Gary Keller's Book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent. Gary does a great job of mapping out EXACTLY what you need to do to find the success you are looking for.