Proposed Marketing Plan and Budget

[esk456 0]

I have wanted to get this business going for a while now, and am hopefully nearing a point where I can devote the proper time and attention to it. My goal is to create a viable and sustainable marketing plan that I can fund out of existing household income. In my current situation, I think I can swing about $500 a month, as well as making the time necessary for the various elements of the mix. My goal is to make an average net profit of $2000 a month. I am hoping that one CA deal per month should at least bring that in. Obviously, if I could get two deals, or more a month, or more profit per deal, that would be wonderful. My medium-term goal would be to replace my current net salary of around $4000 per month, but that needs to be net, after expenses.

 

Here is my proposed marketing plan and budget. Please tweak or alter as you see fit in your recommendations:

 

 Bandit signs - @25 per week, 100 per month, $200 per month

 “Roop”-style post it notes @500 per week, 2000 per month, $100 per month (amortized)

 Voiceblast - @~30-40 calls to FRBO’s per week, @~.60 to .70 cents per call, ~$25 per week, $100 per month

 PPC ads – Keywords and phrases purchased capped @$25 per week, $100 per month, to drive traffic to website. (I am considering this one ‘experimental’ based on the quality of hits/leads it provides)

 Emails to online ads (Craig’s, Backpage, etc.) - $0

 Networking/referrals/business cards - $0 (business card expenses amortized per month are less than a lunch out, I consider this more of a baseline, fixed cost)

 Car magnetics (2 sets, one-time cost)

 

It should be noted perhaps that this will all be directed towards a specific target area and price range in my city whenever possible, based on market research conducted by running blind L/P ads in paper, as well as anecdotal conversations with associates. To put it another way, we only want to sell houses that people want to buy. To put it another way, it’s not a “deal” if we can’t sell it.

 

Well, that’s it in a nutshell. Will this plan, consistently and faithfully executed, week after week, start meeting my stated goals within 3 months? What do you think? And if not, what would you do different?

[Guest jvmccall]

Esk, just wanted to tell you real quick while I have a second that I think it's awesome that you are planning and budgeting for a marketing campaign. Not too many people do that! I do want to respond more later. Just know that we are not ignoring you!

[MichaelC 160]

esk, my mantra with regards to marketing is that consistency and diversity are key. Assuming you stick with your announced plan, it's an excellent one.

As for your income goals, definitely attainable, even on the conversative side. Where are you located, by the way?

[<Steve> 82]

Don't forget to leave in a little fish'n time.

[esk456 0]

Esk, just wanted to tell you real quick while I have a second that I think it's awesome that you are planning and budgeting for a marketing campaign. Not too many people do that! I do want to respond more later. Just know that we are not ignoring you!

 

Thanks jvmccall, I was hoping you'd respond as your own stated experience results on this and other forums are a large part of my inspiration for this. Especially the post-its. Would certainly be interested in any more feedback you would have on it.

[esk456 0]

esk, my mantra with regards to marketing is that consistency and diversity are key. Assuming you stick with your announced plan, it's an excellent one.

As for your income goals, definitely attainable, even on the conversative side. Where are you located, by the way?

 

Thanks Michael, that is good to hear, especially coming from you. I am in the Knoxville market.

[esk456 0]

Don't forget to leave in a little fish'n time.

 

Well, that's why I'm doing this, so I can *have* more "fish'n time" in the long run!

[Jonathan RexfordFL 8]

Post it notes are great. I have done them on News papers and also door to door. Here is what I did not like about it. THE MANAGEMENT of the door to door. When I looked at call volume I decided to stick with the News Paper until they went all out and decided that they were going to move me from .05 to .25 per paper. So I dropped that campaigned.

 

It is a Geographic blast for sure. You will get calls. Just be prepared for calls that are not nice for the door to door.

[Doug Pretorius (ON) 9]

What do your post-its look like? Are they like an ad or do they look like a hand-written note "Hey I'd like to buy your house" sort of thing?

[esk456 0]

Post it notes are great. I have done them on News papers and also door to door. Here is what I did not like about it. THE MANAGEMENT of the door to door. When I looked at call volume I decided to stick with the News Paper until they went all out and decided that they were going to move me from .05 to .25 per paper. So I dropped that campaigned.

 

It is a Geographic blast for sure. You will get calls. Just be prepared for calls that are not nice for the door to door.

 

Jonathan, when you say "the management" of the calls, are you meaning the volume was too high? Because if so, that's a problem I dream of having right now.

 

As for the "calls that are not nice", well, I have this button on my phone that has a picture of a red handset, facing a downward motion, that seems to handle that quite well, lol. Especially if I'm getting so many calls that I have to watch my minutes!

[Jonathan RexfordFL 8]

Management of calls is not what I am referring to. I mean the door to door. When you hire people to put 5,000 post it notes it can be a little crazy. I just did not like that part.

 

Doug,

 

I use to use Richard Roops message but then just went for something simple and less threatening.

 

Hi,

My name is Jonathan and was wondering if you know anyone wanting to sell a home in the area? If so please pass my information on to them

htt://www.jonbuyahome.com or call 772-321-2290

[randian 0]

What's the expected call volume from the Post-It Notes and Voice Blasts?

[Jonathan RexfordFL 8]

Out of a 1,000 post it notes with my new message I got about 10-20 calls and a possible deal. Now I remind you these are not qualified leads. Just calls. Voice blast for sellers I gave up on.

 

Maybe a few others will post results on what they are getting.

[Doug Pretorius (ON) 9]

I don't do voice blasts or post-its. For cold calling I still get about 25% of FSBOs who are open to renting.

[Guest jvmccall]

Hey folks... I just did a post-it note campaign. I have a guy in St Louis who will deliver post-its for $0.08/post-it. He delivered 4,000 post-its for about $320. (I use Richard Roop's post-it notes). I got about 10 calls (people who actually left messages with the operator). I was a little disappointed. I used to get 20+ calls when I did this last 1 year ago. I don't know if I have a deal yet. I am still calling sellers (really playing phone tag).

 

I would suggest the following marketing campaigns for sellers, in order of what I have found to be the most effective...

 

1) cold call for rent ads in Craigslist & the local paper (free if you do it, or hire a telemarketer to make these calls for you)

2) voiceblast Craigslist & local paper for rent ads ($0.10/min - my messages are under 60 seconds)

3) postcards to expired listings and absentee owners ($500/mo minimum). I use Click2Mail, simple yellow, personalized postcards - Roop's postcards

4) email for rent ads in Craigslist (free) - give them your phone number - tell them NOT TO REPLY TO YOUR EMAIL & to only call you

5) Subscribe to a national aggregator like House Buyer Network ($100 - $500/mo). I pay $100/mo for my local county and I get about 5-8 leads a month. They are good leads IF AND ONLY IF you call them back right away.

6) Post-Its - maybe I will do these once every 3-4 months. Budget about $500 for printing and delivery of 5,000. This strategy works well if you are trying to be the big fish in a small pond.

7) Small classified ads in your free local papers ($50 - $100/mo). Yes, they still work!

8) Bandit signs. I have always wanted to do them, but never have. The other methods above work well enough for me. I have heard from a lot of people that these work great. It's important that you hire someone to do it for you.

 

If you want lots of leads, and you want to take this business seriously, and you want to make a lot of money, you probably need to budget $1,000 - $2,000 / month in marketing. But still, if you are starting out, you can do really well with under $1,000.

 

Sometimes the best marketing is the cheapest marketing - the old fashioned type of marketing where you just pick up the phone and call sellers who have their house listed for rent. The key to any type of marketing you do is CONSISTENCY. Don't just try something once and say it doesn't work.

 

The other really, REALLY important key is to call sellers back immediately after they call you. Or even better, have all the calls go directly to your cell phone. Not kidding! Do you think HomeVestors has all their calls go to a voice mail?

 

Oh yeah, I get a lot of leads from referrals. Always flap your lips and tell everyone what you do. When talking to sellers, ask them if they have any other properties or if they know of anyone else you might be able to help.

 

Oh yeah again, I get a lot of leads from people seeing the little tag line on the bottom of all my property listings. It says something like, "We also buy houses..." "Learn how to sell your house on a lease option..." I try to put this on the bottom of all my Craigslist ads.