Real Estate Investing and Marketing

As a marketer, you want to know what’s next in marketing. What else can you do to help your business grow? Which strategies offer a strong return on investment and can help you establish yourself in the marketplace? It’s getting more difficult using mediums such as search engine optimization and pay per click advertising because there is a ton of competition and it seems like you need deep pockets to compete.

Just like how banner advertising grew in the early days of the Internet and how search engine marketing exploded starting in 2000, inbound marketing is making great leaps and bounds. More businesses are focusing on inbound marketing because it is creating great results for them and also because it is much more affordable compared to mediums such as pay per click advertising and direct marketing.

Traditional outbound marketing is about pushing your message out to potential customers. This is done through print advertising, TV, radio, direct mail, buying email lists, cold calling, and more. The problem with these marketing strategies is that it’s getting harder every day to make them work because people are starting ignore ads on TV/radio, throw out their junk mail, filter out promotional email, and block cold calls.

This is the reason why inbound marketing has been getting so much attention. The whole focus of inbound marketing is to present something of value to prospects and customers. This can be valuable content in the form of blog posts, audios, videos, articles, special reports, and more. The goal is to attract targeted prospects and have them subscribe to their blog, email, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. Read more…

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Have you ever wondered what the most common marketing mistakes that small and medium businesses make are?  There are 6 critical marketing mistakes that can set your business back and even hurt your profits.  The issue with these mistakes is that many new business owners are unknowingly making them or about to make them because they’re unaware that they’re mistakes.

Let’s take an in-depth look at each one.

Mistake #1 - Following Your Competitors (and information guru’s) without Putting Thought into Your Own Business

The most transparent thing for businesses is to look at what their competitors are doing if they need ideas on how to market themselves, create a brand, or build a business model.  It’s so easy to fall into this trap because you’ll hear about how a competing business is doing well and want to get the same kind of results.

It’s not wrong to learn from your competitors but it can hurt you if you’re trying to do exactly the same thing they’re doing.  The first thing you need to understand is that you’ll never have the internal numbers of the competing business.  You won’t know how their pay-per-click campaigns are doing even if they have a strong presence in PPC.  For all you know, they can be losing money on PPC while making money from other marketing strategies.

It’s also important that you focus on standing out rather than blending in with what your competitors are doing.  You want prospects and customers to identify you through your unique marketing rather than another run off the mill business ( ie template style websites – why I hate SIMS)  in the marketplace.  So focus on learning from other business but identify your own strengths and develop your own identity.

Mistake #2: Having an Unorganized Business Structure

Management is always a big issue especially if you’re a business that offers various services.  You want to make sure that systems are set in place so that everything flows smoothly.  This can be anything from your marketing, your sales  and acquisition team, customer service department, to your closing  process.

Not everything will be perfect so you will have to constantly identify clogs in your business system and fix it so that there are no bumps on the road.  By making sure that everything is systemized and different parts of your business are coordinated with each other, you will have an easier time growing your business.

Mistake #3: Focusing on Only Outbound Marketing Strategies

Strategies such as newspaper advertising, cold calling, telemarketing, and direct marketing can work.  However, it’s important that you also use inbound marketing strategies if you want long term success.  Inbound marketing is when you focus on attracting people to your business.

An example of this is setting up a hub site where you post valuable content relevant to your industry.  By building a following, establishing yourself as an authority, and getting your business out there, it will be easier to make more sales because people are already familiar with you and your credibility.    Read more…

If you are wondering why you should invest in bulk REO, chances are you probably have heard a brand new round of marketing hype that speaks about the tremendous profit opportunity that exists by purchasing packages of bank “real estate owned” foreclosures and default homes in bulk. With the current real estate market,  there are  some reason why invest in bulk REO could be a good idea.   Before you leap into  it, lets try and make sense of the bulk REO market.

Obviously, there are many investors that have taken advantage of  the opportunity of single foreclosure houses and short sale properties. The great thing about bulk REO is that you are purchasing a package of foreclosed properties, which allows you to bypass all the hassles of dealing with homeowners ,  spread the exposure to risk and you are often able to find investors to help you finance the acquisition of bulk REO, limiting your debt exposure, as well.

When considering the answers as to why invest in bulk REO,  you decision should be based upon your  ability to  either broker these deals or profiting by quickly cosmetically enhancing these houses.  Bulk REOs are usually offered at half of their normal value is part of the reason to get involved with this strategy. Banks are anxious to get these deteriorating assets off the books and are willing to make concessions to get rid of several of them at once. There are documented cases of bulk REO investors that have made almost a 200,000 dollars on a single bulk REO purchase. Read more…

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We all know about they hype of how social media sites can bring you more business. Sure it’s easy  to go to any site and  set up an account.  In today’s internet world most people have two to three  social media accounts (facebook, twitter, youtube), if not more. I have quite a few myself.  Setting up an account takes a few seconds,.

What takes some time is  ” How do you create an  effective social media profile” .  Most people put a  picture, fill out some of the basic info and start right into the site.  WARNING ….  That’s not the way to go. If you want to be effective and be seen  in social media, then you must have an effective profile that tells people who you are, why you’re here and what benefits they will get from connecting with you. Your profile is, in effect, your business introduction or brochure. First impressions are everything, you want to get yours right

Steps to  Create The ULTIMATE Social Media Profile of Awesomeness:

1. A GREAT Photo of Yourself: Online, your face is your brand. Your face will be recognized around social media before your name will. You want a very good photo!  Get one taken professionally, otherwise, use a high quality camera against a white or solid color background. Don’t forget to smile! Your picture is what will help people like you, trust you, and want to talk to you. You want them to think, “This looks like someone I would like get to know.” Also, because your face is your brand, you want to use the same picture throughout all of your social media sights
2. Write A Strong Profile : You must put some some time into writing your profile. The ‘Goal’ of your profile is to help people to know why and what  you are in business for.   Please dont SELL in your profile.   Focus on what you how you ADD VALUE and what you have to share with the world. Let people know what benefits they will receive from getting to know you and why they would want to refer others to you.   Yes, you can also share something about yourself.  Share what  activities you enjoy, what type of movies and music you like, and make sure to talk about why you started your business. These things will help people relate to you and make a connection.

You have  10-15 seconds to impress your reader. People  see so many profiles online today that they will go past your  if there’s nothing to interest  them.   Review your social media profiles. Re-work them so that they are engaging and a great representation of who you are. The whole object of being involved with  social media is to engage new people. Letting people know who you are and how you make a difference, adding value ,  will let them know why they should spend their time with you. Follow the two steps outlined and you will definitely create and effective social media profile.

Below are some specific guidelines to helping you put together a social profile!

Read more…

Learning how to invest in bulk REO properties can be a lucrative way to make profits in the multiple thousands of dollars, literally overnight. Once you learn how to invest in bulk REO properties, you will understand this is not an opportunity that comes along every day.  In fact, bulk REO, (short for Real-Estate-Owned by banks through foreclosure or default), is almost an unusual occurrence to be as widespread as it is today, but it is one that happens frequently when the housing and job markets are in downward trends.

The fact of the matter is that there are homes in the REO status that many banks just want to unload quickly, before their values deteriorate further. What this means for those that are learning how to invest in bulk REO properties, is that they can pick up properties in bulk at approximately 50% of their normal value. With a little clean-up, fix-up and strategic marketing, you can unload the properties and enjoy profits in a short amount of time.

Your question might be where to start, when learning how to invest in bulk REO properties and that is the question many people have, when they learn about these quick bank sales for pennies on the dollar. The first thing is to know where to look for bulk purchasing of REOs and this means you might have to find bulk REO insiders that are familiar with the bulk REO market. It also means you might need to purchase some properties you aren’t that crazy about, but if you expect to buy bulk REO from a bank, you need to realize they want to get these burdens off their books quickly, which means that along with good deals in the bulk REO package, you might have to buy a few “dogs”, in real estate slang.

The great thing about learning how to invest in bulk REO properties is that you can often find other investors that are willing to jump on board and the financing can be easy to get because you have real properties with value to back it up. If the majority of your bulk REO properties are in good condition, you have minimal risk exposure and you might have financial backers that want a piece of the action through debt financing. Read more…

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