Thank goodness it is five o'clock. This has been one of those mental days. Working on my farming campain for the rest of the year and my mind is a fuzzy shade of gray.
It's interesting. We all do search for the elusive customer, client and leads. Some of us find them quickly..others struggle.
Reading ActiveRain today looking for some ideas just added to the confusion. Postcards? Some say yes, some say no. Direct mail? To some it is pure gold others..not soo much. Websites? Optimize this, content yes, content no, template site, custom site.
One thing I really realized today was that there are literally hundreds of companies out there that will help you spend your money any way you would like. Seems as though it is always...."for just $79.95 we can garuntee you this many leads." Seems as though people try to sell us more ways that they "promise" will generate more business.
I do what I do. I do occasionally look for things that are different and usually research them here on Active Rain to see what others are saying because I value to opinions expressed on here.
After reading about mailing this and mailing that I think I am going to actually going to keep up my current mailings and look at other options. Mailing has produced a listing this year (what a nightmare that has been but that is a different story) so I know mailings work no matter how few and far between.
But honestly....I think I am going to get out and shake some babys and kiss some hands...uh..I mean kiss some babys and shake some hands. Being in the public eye is really what this business is all about. Developing the reason for being there is the problem. Just "Dropping by" doesn't seem to work anymore with most businesses...you need to have a reason and unfortunately that reason usually costs money (ie. restaurants).
November is my usual time for my food drive that benefit the local urban ministry and that time is approaching fast. I guess my next course of action should be to get out there and start that planning quickly. The food drive has never lead me to a client but it is something that I do to "give back" to the community and it makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
So I apologize if I have rambled somewhat. A day spent planning and stratagizing will do that to a person. Thanks for your time.
PS. No babies were shaken or harmed in the writing of this post. What are you crazy? I have a two and a half month old...that was purely comedy!
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Jeffery,
I totally have an idea of where you're coming from. I've started doing mail outs this year. I adopted the strategy of Gary Keller from his book, Millionaire Real Estate Agent.
I don't regret it. But our group realized that the power lies in the extra touch, meaning, like what you are doing with the local ministry. Being involved in their lives but not in a way that's obtrusive. What we did is we call them and just have no selfish agenda, just genuinely ask how they are doing. This is where our mailout campaign began to really give us leads. It wasn't enough that we were sending them good stuff/mailouts. I realized that the mail outs create the presence and respect, and the phone call delivers the personal touch. We all need that.