Marketing is the most important part of your business. Although Deal Packaging is your primary chosen strategy, you are not a Deal Packager. You are a marketer. And I believe that that is the same for every property strategy. Without marketing you cannot generate leads, and without leads you will not find any deals. And it doesn’t matter which property strategy you are working in, we all need to generate leads. So which marketing is best?
The truth is that they all work. They have all been proven over time. So you need to work out which strands of marketing are more suited to you, your circumstances, your personality, your area and your budget and the time that you have available. So here are a few, I’ve only got room to talk about a few, marketing methods that I know will work if you do them properly.
Direct mail
Why would you not use direct mail to market for your deals? It works. Now you have to do it properly, but when we have more time I can help you with that. We need a great letter, a great text that has been tried and tested over time. If you are writing to individual home owners then you have to use handwritten letters, written on yellow notepaper, in red pen. There is magic in that process. Do not question it, just stick to it. Make sure that you get your letter checked over by somebody who knows and understands how to do direct mail properly, order yellow paper and envelopes, and get a stock of red pens. I did that. And my training partner at Progressive, the wonderful Katy Wilson, is now an expert in direct mail, and if you work with us going forward she will share all the direct-mail assets with you. To give you an idea, over a period of time Katy has achieved an 11% response rate to her letters. She sends out 200 letters every month. At an 11% response rate that means that she gets around 22 calls every month. Now these are not deals at this point, they are leads, but her conversion rate is such that those 22 calls, over a period of time, regularly produce on average just over one deal per month. That one deal can be worth between £3,000 and £5,000. That is a very profitable return on posting out 200 letters.
But maybe you don’t have to spend around £200 on sending out 200 letters every month. Maybe we can market for deals for free.
Direct To Estate Agents
Overall estate agents and letting agents are very good at helping you to buy as well as rent properties, but there are some tricks that you need to be aware of as estate agents are also geniuses at making sure that they can get the best possible commission out of a deal and squeeze that little bit extra to make sure that they’re not just getting paid, but getting paid quickly.
It’s very important to remember that most estate agents and letting agents are not property investors, their salespeople and their job is to get commissioned as I said already. What they are focused on is getting deals done, because if they don’t, they won’t get paid that commission.
Estate agents are still a major source of deals for Deal Packagers. Estate agents are my favourite form of marketing for deals. Over the years I have sourced well over 90% of properties for my investors from estate agents. Success with estate agents is about building great relationships with the teams in the offices. They are human beings who are doing a job. It is much easier for them if they work with people whom they enjoy working with. So make yourself part of the team, become part of the family. You need to become their friend. How do you do that? Well make sure you visit them on a regular basis. Tell them what you are up to. Tell them what you are looking for. Tell them who you are working with. Go in regularly and see them. Ask them if anything new has come in? I have been known to go into my favourite estate agent twice a day if I am local and ask them what has come in since my earlier visit. It is not a cliche for you to arrive with a tray of doughnuts or cake, or maybe a few cartons of freshly brewed coffee from the local coffee shop. Of course they are going to say “No. No you shouldn’t have”, but they will eat your doughnuts and drink your coffee just the same.
Estate Agents & Letting Hacks
Other marketing strategies that you can do for free are Classified ads. Have a look on Facebook Marketplace, or Gumtree or your local Freeads service. Gather all the telephone numbers from people who are trying to sell their properties, or maybe landlords who have properties to rent. Message them and see if you can set up a meeting. If you send enough texts then you will get enough appointments. If you get enough appointments you will find a deal.
If you market through the strategies above on their own, then you will find property deals. And we’ve not even spoken about leaflets, bandit boards, car adverts, billboards and banners. I have friends who use all of these strategies to really great affect, and as the leads role in then some of those leads are turned into deals.
If you are interested in learning more about this amazing strategy you should join me on the Desktop Deal Packaging course or give our friendly office staff a call to discuss how our courses can help – we are available during normal office hours on; 01733 898 557.
