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How to Generate a Winning Marketing Campaign

Sunday, June 15th, 2008

RPZ101

"Nothing happens until somebody sells something."

- Red Motley

Marketing is everything you do to promote your business which results in your customers - buyers and sellers - calling YOU to do business with YOU on a regular basis.

Marketing does not mean advertising.

Advertising is a component of marketing. A strong word-of-mouth campaign is part of marketing. And so is your appearance. Business cards. Stationary. Envelopes. The clothes you wear. And your broker affiliation. No detail is too insignificant to be included, utilized, and exploited.

Marketing is everything you do to promote your business which results in your customers calling YOU to do business with YOU on a regular basis.

A campaign, on the other hand, as defined by the Webster’s Desk Dictionary: is any systematic course of aggressive activities designed for some special purpose.

Combined: A marketing campaign is a systematic course of aggressive activities designed for the express purpose of getting business to come to you on a regular and consistent basis.

Translated: Wallet busting profits. Fat, rich, and famous. A six figure income!! That’s good news.

The bad news is that most business people and salespeople and real estate salespeople in particular do not, I repeat, do not have a marketing mind set. They do not design a marketing campaign from the outset and regard it as the highest of all priorities and, consequently, they don’t reach their full money making potential. They quit. They drop out of the business like rain from the sky.

Tragic, isn’t it? The drop out rate in our industry is incredible. 50% gone within six months. 80% gone at the end of their first year. And thousands of new licensees quit before they’ve even made their first dollar! It’s so very, very unnecessary.

Marketing is the key to unlocking the vault of unlimited opportunity.

Learn to recognize the myriad opportunities available and exploit every single one of them that fits within the framework of your personality, time, and capital restraints.

YOU NEED A PLAN OF ATTACK. A CAMPAIGN.

Before you do anything, though, you need a plan of attack - a marketing campaign. You need to determine up front what you want your marketing to accomplish, what kind of return on investment you desire from your time and your efforts because only you know how many miles you’re willing to run, how many mountains you’re willing to climb, how much you really desire the attainment of your personal goals and how much you’re willing to do to get there.

The importance of planning your marketing campaign is paramount…

SEVEN POINT MARKETING CAMPAIGN

Kenneth Blanchard said: "Don’t just do something. Think about it." That’s good advice, especially when it concerns the design and implementation of a marketing campaign.

R.C. Cunningham, Executive Vice President of AFG Industries says it a different way:

"Every company (salesperson) has the opportunity to minimize head-on competition and to maximize their sales and profit potential by hitting ‘em where they ain’t.

The key to finding where they ain’t is a well defined strategic plan which…evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of your company compared with the competition.

This information…becomes the road map that tells you where you are today, lets you see where you want to go tomorrow and how to get there. It’s really knowing your market, and your competition, that makes the difference in selling…"

It boils down to planning. Dynamic goals are the determined plans for your life. A properly prepared marketing campaign is the determined plan for the acquisition of new clients on a continuous basis. In other words…what, specifically, are we going to do to get from here to there? What specific steps, what marketing strategies, what step-by-step systems will we establish, implement and maintain?

Things get done because a plan is put in place to do something.

The seven points of your marketing campaign are:

1 Determine your objectives

2. Set a timetable for the realization of your objectives

3. Operate from a predetermined budget

4. Determine your audience, that is, your market

5. Decide on your offer, what components

6. Create your offer and components

7. Analyze and measure your results

Determine your marketing objectives

You need to have a reason, a purpose, an objective in mind before you embark upon a full scale marketing campaign. Focus and direction come as a result of setting clear, specific objectives. Having predetermined objective helps you get from where you are to where you want to be.

The broad view, of course, is your objective is to get more clients, more business. That’s the broad view of what you want your marketing campaign to accomplish.

And the broad view simply isn’t good enough here. It is very, very important for you to quantify your objectives at this point in your career. It isn’t good enough to say "I want more business" because "more business" is much, much too vague. "More business" could mean an influx of low income, first time buyers which demand a tremendous amount of time that you simply don’t have available or are willing to make available.

More business could mean more call ins from your signs or more listings or more referral business or transferee referrals. More business is much, much to vague to work with.

Now as much as I’d like to be able to determine a set of marketing objective for you - I can’t. It’s impossible. YOU must set your objectives and determine what you want to achieve. Only you can do this most important task.

Six Steps To Developing Strong Marketing Objectives

1. Be Specific: Every objective must have a SPECIFIC result in mind. The easiest way to be specific is to use numbers, that it, to quantify your objectives.

2. Must Be Measurable: All of your marketing objectives need to be measurable. Otherwise how will you know if you are reaching them? What clue will you have? Include the qualifiers of time and type as well as how many.

3. Must Be Realistic: Not too easy, not too hard. Pretty vague, I agree, but only you know what is realistic for you. Keep in mind you need to consider the resources you have available such as assistants, time, technology, and money.

4. Have a Time Schedule. 42 units/12 months = 3.5 units a month. 70 prospects/12=5.8 mth.

5. Must Be Compatible. Your marketing campaign must be designed in such a way that it is compatible with everything else going on in your life and organization. This is one of the reasons you really must take a good, hard, honest look at what you really want out of life and your career. What sense does it make to reach your financial goal only to lose all of your free time? or your family? Or, on the flip side, what sense does it make to have a lot of free time and be broke?

6. Must Be Written. The major advantage to writing down your marketing objectives is to have a ready reference guide. You can always pull out your guide, compare it with your measurements and see if you are on track or not. If not, of course, some adjustments will have to be made.

Set a timetable for the realization of your objectives

You want to earn commissions of $200,000 by the end of next year. You earn an average of $2,000 per transaction. You need to turn 100 sides. That’s 9 deals a month. 2 deals per week. You’ve determined you need to generate 10 leads to get one good, solid deal. Therefore, you need to generate 20 leads per week. That’s approximately 4 leads per day.

You’ve now created a time table which outlines the most important thing you can do to obtain your marketing objectives… generate 4 good leads a day. This is the most important thing you can do. Period.

Operate from a predetermined budget

It simply won’t do you any good to obtain your marketing objectives if you’ve spent all your profits in the process. You must take the time to plan and budget your marketing campaign. The easiest way to accomplish this is to determine, up-front, a percentage of gross earning which you will dedicate to your marketing budget. For instance, we use a static 15%. 15% of every gross dollar we earn is earmarked for marketing.

Once earmarked… if your marketing results are not producing your required results… don’t spend more money! Figure out what is working, what’s not, and make the appropriate adjustments. The only time you should fudge on your budget is when you have determined your actions will result in even MORE profits.

Determine your audience, that is, your market

The first rule of successful, massive lead generation marketing is to develop a compelling marketing message targeted to a very specific prospect.

Successful lead-generation starts with an exact answer to the question Who? The closer the match between your message and the specific type of prospect you want to work with–the more leads you will get–the more bang for your buck. And unless you have an unlimited supply of dollars you can play with you must, MUST, make the commitment to market smarter by picking better, more specific targets. The more vague about WHO you are marketing to, the more you are sabotaging your marketing success; the more you’re wasting your money.

And don’t give me the ole song-and-dance routine saying "Well, that’s okay for other businesses or professions, but it won’t work for real estate because we sell to everybody so we should market to everybody…"

I thought the same thing and it cost me a tremendous amount of money and grief and wasted marketing efforts. By throwing your message out to everybody and hoping the right people will find it is like dropping a 100,000 copies of a message addressed to your Aunt Mary in Phoenix out of an airplane as you fly over Arizona. Maybe she’ll get it–maybe she won’t.

It would have been A LOT more cost effective to address your message to a very specific address –Aunt Mary’s–and forward it directly to her. Likewise, if you want to work with first-time buyers, your advertising and marketing efforts will be much more effective and cost efficient if you gear the message specifically to them and place your messages specifically where they will see it.

Decide on your offer, what components

Your goal in marketing is to obtain a response. And you must make a clear, distinct offer to garner that response. If you don’t, you simply won’t obtain one.

Decide up-front what your objectives are. Do you want to have potential sellers call you and make a listing appointment? What type of sellers? And what, specifically, are you going to offer them to convince them they should call you over and above all your competition? HOW are you going to present that offer? Over the phone? Live? Write a letter and enclose a coupon? Send a postcard?

Are you going to offer a guaranteed service? A discount? YOU HAVE TO KNOW UP-FRONT AND GEAR YOUR CAMPAIGN AROUND THIS KNOWLEDGE which brings us to…

Create your offer and components

You have an objective: to generate buyer leads. First-time buyers. You want to generate 20 good solid leads within a two week time frame. You’ve allocated $400 to the project. You’re targeting middle income, single or married individuals who have not as invested in their first home. You determine the classified section of your local press as well as up-scale apartment buildings would be a good place to advertise. Perhaps a mailing list can be obtained of recently married couples. You’ve also decided you want to offer and present your knowledge of loans… low acquisition cost loans…. low money down loans. And, within certain guidelines, you will offer a buy a house from me guarantee.

You’ve determined the best place to broadcast your offer is through the classifieds, but the problem lies in being able to tell your whole story in such a small place. So… logically… you need another component. And you opt for a local voice mail broadcasting service. You also intent to create a mailing package which includes a brief letter, brochure, and response card.

Now, and only now, can you get down to the business of creating your campaign. You now have all the tools, the objectives to accomplish it.

So you write your classified ad. You record your voice mail script. You write your letter and design a wonderful brochure. And all the components add up to a dynamic, money-making package. See how it works? You plan to the nth degree, then simply work your plan!

Analyze and measure your results

Most real estate agents and brokers seldom track the response of their advertisements and marketing campaigns and, as a result, they repeat their failures and have no idea of what works and what doesn’t. A similar mistake is to assume you know what will work best, what will generate the most responses. You should test to find out.

Test headlines. Test running ads which tout monthly payments versus selling price. Test offering guarantees. Test using a voice mail system, Free Recorded Message versus answering live. Test different scripts and approaches during your presentations. Test, test, and test some more. It can and WILL pay huge dividends.

For example, let’s say you budget $200 a month for a classified advertising campaign. You pull 6 good leads. Your ad read: Beautiful country home. 3bd/2bth. Must see. Won’t last at $169,500. Call 555-1212. Not a bad response.

But then you test. You run a different ad for the same house which reads: Country living for only $2500 down! $717 per month. 3bd/2bth. You gotta see it to believe it. Call 555-1212. You generate 12 calls. Well… gee… which style ad makes more sense? Now, using this second ad as your control you continue to test against it. You next ad might read: You gotta see it to believe it. Country living for only $2500 down! $717 per month. 3bd/2bth. Call 555-1212. If it pulls better, you have a new control. If not, you trash it… and continue testing against your control until you beat your previous results.

If you can’t measure your results… you can’t know if you are on track to making your objectives a reality or not. You must quantify your results. You must!

*****

Now instead of getting up every morning, checking the floor-time schedule, sitting in the office, shuffling papers and hoping someone will show up, you have created a Marketing Campaign, a systematic course of aggressive activities designed for the purpose of getting business to come to you on a continuous basis. Will it work as planned? That’s the purpose of measurement. If it’s NOT…revise the PLAN until you discover what IS working.

You have designed your future. Simple. Easy. Powerful.

THE SIMPLEST, MOST POWERFUL WAY TO ENHANCE YOUR INCOME IS TO PLAN AND THEN WORK YOUR PLAN.

Here are a few more guidelines for designing the marketing campaign that brings you the most for least - that turns you into a Mad Moneymaking Marketer.

1. There are dozens upon dozens of marketing strategies. Choose only those that you look forward to trying out. Contrary to popular opinion, you are not superman or super woman. Don’t attempt too much (or too little), and don’t plan on doing something that you know you won’t do. Remember and acknowledge your pain threshold. If you are absolutely, positively, afraid to speak in front of groups - well, don’t plan on public speaking. You won’t do it - you’ll have sabotaged your success. Don’t be a martyr. There are plenty of workable methods in here which will suit your personality and talents. I guarantee it.

2. Never rely on only one strategy at a time. In other words - don’t be lazy. Besides - circumstances, situations, economics, etc., etc., all have a way of changing. What works great today may not necessarily work tomorrow. Think about it. If you put all of your eggs in one basket, what happens if you drop the basket?

3. Decide which is more valuable to you: Time or Money. Generally speaking, the more of your time a marketing activity requires, the less money (out of pocket expense) it costs you, and vice versa.

4. Use complementary strategies whenever possible. This will create a synergy that can propel your results to astronomical heights.

5. Model the methods the top producers are using in and around your area. Why reinvent the wheel? If it works for them and is compatible with your personality and talents - it will work for you. Also, in researching the methods of the top producers, you will find great big gaping holes which YOU can fill.

Keep in mind, however, that most of the top producers, unless they are using a number of the secret strategies we teach here, are top producers because they have been in the business forever and have built up a rather large following over time. Most of their business is referral business. That’s great - but not immediately available to the beginner or the relatively new agent. Keep that in mind - most of your immediate business will have to be generated business.

6. Design your marketing campaign in small bites. Weekly. Monthly. Review your results. Keep what’s working and abandon the rest - keep in mind, however, some strategies take longer to see results than others. Still, keep abreast of what’s happening. Don’t just assume anything.

7. If you are relatively new to the industry, the ideal combination for you is to choose a couple of short-term result-oriented strategies and a couple long-term strategies and implement them simultaneously. This will help decrease the possibility of running out of money and/or patience before you before to reap the rewards and causing burn out.

Happy Selling!

Brandon Patrick

Dean of Students

Real Estate Toolbox University

Posted in General Shop Talk, Random Tips | 1 Comment »

Capture the Names and Addresses from EVERY Visitor to Your Website!

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

People do not read ads for pleasure. People read ads because they are looking to either solve a problem or gain a result.

Think about it. Think back to the last time you picked up a newspaper and flipped to the classifieds. Did you have a specific purpose in mind or did you pick them up to enjoy a few moments of light reading?

Chances are you had a very specific purpose in mind.

Perhaps you had a car you were looking to sell and you wanted to check out what others in a similar condition were going for so you could establish a fair price. Or perhaps you wanted to check out what type of property ads your competitors were running. Or perhaps you turned to the classifieds to make sure your ads were actually placed and everything was spelled right.

In any event, like most people, you perused the ads with a very specific purpose in mind. And browsing the Internet for realty is just another form of perusing ads. Which means the majority of visitors to your website actually land there for a very specific reason:

They are looking for properties.
They are comparing prices in preparation to sell their own home.
They want to determine if they can afford to buy.
They are weighing the pros and cons of using realty.
They heard about exclusive buyer representation and are checking it out.
They read your URL off a brochure they picked up and want to see if you have more. information or inside photos of the home they drove by last weekend available.
They want to check current interest rates.
They are due to be transferred and are anxious about the area, desiring to rate the local schools, parks, and recreation facilities.
They want to see how you are presenting their Aunt Mary’s property.
They are following up on a referral.

You get the idea. And unless you have the very expensive benefit of having your real estate website address posted boldly on the front page of large portal sites like Google, Yahoo, MSN or AOL — most of the visitors to your site have worked to get there–meaning they are hot, viable, prime prospects! Sooo…

Capture their names! And follow up!!

Happy Selling!

Brandon Patrick

Dean of Students

Real Estate Toolbox University

Posted in General Shop Talk, Internet Marketing, Random Tips, Real Estate Technology | No Comments »

Real Estate Marketing Coach Brandon Patrick Discusses How to Make A FORTUNE Giving Away FREE Reports!

Saturday, May 24th, 2008

Writing and publishing is a powerful way of helping people discover you, your services and how you can solve their pressing problems.

Writing, publishing and offering valuable information via a FREE REPORT can be an incredibly powerful lead generation tool. Why? Because Free Reports make a valuable offer — a component of utmost importance to any and every marketing campaign. Especially a lead generation campaign.

A good, solid offer has two components:

1. What the prospects gets.

2. What is required of the prospect to get it.

There are both hard offers and soft offers. A hard offer is when you are presenting the prospect with the opportunity to part with their hard earned money in exchange for your product or service. Or, perhaps, you are asking them to make the hard commitment of making an appointment to speak with a representative.

A hard offer in the real estate industry might be an appeal to have a potential seller call and request a free market analysis. Or for a buyer: an offer to make an appointment for a free income qualification. Why is it considered a hard offer, after all it’s a free offer? Think about it. Consumers really aren’t as naive as we believe. The astute consumer knows your "free offer" is nothing more than a gimmick to gain an appointment. And asking for an appointment, a face-to-face meeting where a decision is expected to be made, is a hard offer.

A soft offer often works better. A soft offer is one which the prospect is asked to request some type of material that is mailed or shipped to him or her and makes this request by writing, phoning, faxing or some other mechanism that does not require a face-to-face meeting (that is, a confrontation and worse… the need to make a decision).

The power of a properly presented soft offer lies in the fact that it is the most painless, risk-free way for prospects to raise their hands, get in touch with you, and say "Yes, you’re talking to me. I might be interested. Tell me more"… without having to subject themselves to a sales pitch of any kind whatsoever.

A soft offer is painless. Keep this in mind because it has been proven that people are motivated to take action by either a desire to gain pleasure (benefits) or a desire to avoid pain. Pain avoidance is often the more powerful motivator of the two.

Real life example. Recently I referred a close friend and associate of mine to an exclusive buyer broker, educating him on the benefits of using this particular broker. I easily elicited his income, debt ratios, amount of money needed available for a down payment, etc. I easily got the okay to give the agent his name, phone number and best time to be contacted.

She contacted him, built rapport, and reaffirmed the same information. Then she asked him to agree to an appointment with a lender to gain pre-approval and wow! The change was incredible. His entire demeanor changed from carefree to uneasy. His voice went from confident to waiving. His previous gung-ho attitude was replaced with a birage of excuses which seemed to immobilize him.

Why the change? Pain. Or more accurately, his perception and anticipation of pain. For whatever reason, conscious or unconscious, this otherwise sharp, capable, success-oriented individual related pain to meeting face-to-face with a lender. And his innate motivation to avoid pain at all costs was so strong it prevented him from going forward. (We got past this hurdle pretty easily, however. We ended up having a telephone conference appointment with the lender and submitted all the required paperwork and banking records by Federal Express. Was it a hassle? Yes. Was it worth it? Of course. Not only did this fellow end up purchasing a lovely home in the high $500,000 range… he has since referred at least four people to this particular broker!)

Beyond pain and pleasure, Dr. Abraham Maslow developed a theory of human motivation that is directly applicable to marketing. Maslow insists people are motivated by their needs, and he classified these needs into 5 distinct levels of importance.

Level One includes our physiological needs. The need for food, water, air, rest and housing.

Level Two includes our need to feel safe and secure.

Level Three addresses our social needs. The need to belong, feel accepted, being loved.

Level Four is ego related. Our need to feel self-confident, self-reliant, gain achievement, recognition.

Level Five is our need to grow, our self-fulfillment needs. It addresses our vision.

But if you really take a good, hard, honest look at all of Maslow’s motivations… you’ll discover it all really boils down to pain and pleasure. It’s pleasurable to feel noticed, accepted, and to be "in the know." It’s extraordinarily painful to feel estranged, outcast, a geek, or ignorant. It’s pleasurable to feel "in control." It’s painful to feel manipulated.

It’s painful to have to reach outside of my comfort zone and speak with a professional about something they know more about than I do (which makes me vulnerable) and who (I perceive) will attempt to take advantage of me (and make me look bad in front of my friend, family and co-workers).

So use a soft offer. It works, and works well. Strive to make your first contact as painless as possible.

Of course you’re thinking a soft offer appeals to prospects who are not ready to make a commitment, who have no intention of doing anything more than gaining free information or free services simply because they’re bored, greedy, or just looking. True. It happens and it will happen. Lots. The soft offer generates an incredibly high level of response because there is no sales pressure or risk of being at the receiving end of a prepared pitch by a high-pressure, fast talking salesperson who’s only intention is to earn a commission. It promises benefits that prospects can obtain risk-free and which they can review and enjoy at their leisure. So… of course… people will take advantage of it. That is the purpose of the free offer, the soft offer. You want huge numbers of people taking advantage.

Think of it this way. Would you rather spend three hours a day cold calling people who have not heard of you, have not indicated a desire to do business with you now or in the future, and who are not in a very good mood because your phone call or door knock interrupted their dinner… or would you rather spend three hours a day following up, qualifying, and working with people who have raised their hands and said, "Tell me more. I may just be interested…"?

Many marketers mistakenly believe that all people who respond to soft offers really aren’t serious. They are simply collecting free stuff without any intention, need or desire to conduct business. In other words, they are not real prospects. And while their are some people of which this is a true observation… for the most part it simply is not true.

Soft offers generate soft leads. Soft leads can be extremely profitable. Soft leads can make your fortune. Guaranteed! In short, there is no reason NOT to use FREE REPORTS. I can not imagine not using a FREE REPORT of one kind or another. People love to receive something FREE and what better way to open and initiate a relationship than to provide your prospects with something they love? Your goal to give them something free, something of value, something infinitely more interesting than just another FREE Market Analysis of their home - everyone gives that away AND everyone knows it is just a disguised trick to get you in the door. So let’s get started creating our fortune, shall we?

One of my mentors, a direct marketing genius in his own right (he’s not in the real estate industry) uses this type marketing–the soft offer, free report–campaign as his primary lead source and profit center. Powerful? You call it… In less than two years he has generated a 3.5 million dollar business of which he nets 40%! He calls it his triple-hoop program.

The first hoop, of course, is your ad or your mailing piece. It is designed to get noticed and, hopefully, it does. Then your prospects are lead to take some type of action… to expend some calories, pick up the phone and request your free information product, your free audio tape, to listen to your free recorded message of valuable information.

Hoop two: they listen to your brief message.

Hoop three: they stay on the line and request a copy of your free report.

Triple qualifying hoop. By the time these folks have jumped through all these hoops, you can rest assured that they have, at least in their own minds, a viable reason or need for your report.

These people have now become self-qualifying leads. Self-qualifying leads that have called you, predisposed to doing business with you because they initiated the relationship.

Now, let me ask you something. Would you rather go about chasing business or have the business jump through hoops chasing you?

Now here’s the rub. The key to making this type marketing campaign work is to be willing to give your prospects ALL of the information they need to make an informed decision… whether they do business with you or not. When you make that kind of commitment, go in with that mind set and provide that type of unconditional service… in that moment… when you provide an honest, valuable, educational service without expectation return… you have laid the foundation of trust–an essential building block to erecting your real estate career to be everything it can be.

If you can do that, if you can actually deliver your free reports and other educational materials without expectation of return, without an expectation of conducting business, you will have immediately set yourself apart from the crowded streets traveled by most "sales professionals" and will have positioned yourself in the role of a professional real estate counselor or consultant. Very, very different positioning, indeed.

The difference that makes the difference?

Salespeople and their solicitations are considered by most to be unwelcome pests. People meet salespeople with anxiety, with automatic psychological barriers of resistance. Consultants, on the other hand, are considered welcomed guests. Friends looking out for their best interests.

Use Free Reports, but use them wisely. Freely. Unconditionally. And, I guarantee you-your phone will begin ringing off the hook with self-qualified leads, people predisposed to doing business with you over and above all of your competition. Now, honestly, wouldn’t that just break your heart?

Here’s another important aspect of using free reports. YOU are responsible to follow up. Not the prospect. In fact, if your goal is simply to advertise the availability of your free information, sit back and mail upon request and then hope your phone will ring off the hook with prospects anxious to do business with you… GET REAL! Provide the free information and then institute a thorough and comprehensive follow up system. You must follow up on your leads. Because out of 50 people who respond to your marketing efforts… you’ll be lucky if any of them call you direct on their own accord. However, if YOU FOLLOW UP, out of those same 50 people… chances are good you’ll do immediate businesses with 5% of them, business within 3 months with another 15%, and business with a full 50% or more within the course of a year! So do your job! Be the professional you know yourself to be. Follow-up.

In fact, the true definition of a free report is a "bait piece." The term bait piece refers to the free information offer you provide in your advertising to generate a high number of leads, a high number of inquires. The term "bait piece" is used because the FREE REPORT or FREE BOOKLET or FREE AUDIO TAPE or FREE SEMINAR is not offered simply for the purpose of giving away valuable information or to educate the public… but rather to "hook" the prospect into giving you their name, address and phone number for the express purpose of making it possible for you to follow up by telephone or personal visit.

How To Create Successful Free Information Offers

Step #1: Pick an interesting topic for your free report, tape or voice mail message. The topic should be something that will interest your prospects while at the same time helps educate them on the value of using your services.

Keep the pain/pleasure theory in mind as well as Maslov’s motivational theory as you choose your topic. Do you want to address your prospect’s need for pleasure? Then you might pick a topic such as: How To Buy A Home For Zero Down. Want to help eliminate pain: How To Stop Paying Rent And Get Wealthy In The Process.

The topic you select should serve two purposes. One, it should not only explain a certain way to do a particular thing, it should also help predispose your prospects to accepting your methods and information as the most logical, acceptable, and desirable way to do things. Second, your topic should position you and your affiliates as being the local experts on the topic (the folks who "wrote the book", if you will).

Your topic should also be interesting and relevant. You must strive to appeal to your prospect’s self interests while promoting your own. It’s a delicate balance, but once achieved… well worth the effect.

Step #2: After selecting your topic, you need a catchy, benefit-rich title. A title is similar to a headline… it’s purpose is to gain attention and create enough interest to carry them into the piece.

Effective titles promise a benefit, arouse curiosity, answer a perplexing question, or ask a perplexing question. Making and offer of "inside information" is a good technique. Using number titles… 7 Ways To, 6 Important Questions You…, etc., are also powerful. Here’s some ideas:

9 Critical Questions To Ask A Realtor Before You Sign Anything

17 Home Selling Mistakes Which May Cost You A Fortune

How To Decorate Your Home For Pennies

3 Most Common Pitfalls To Buying Your First Home

Special Report: How To Buy A Home $3,000 to $10,000 Below Market Value

Inside Secrets Of The Pros: How To Make Your Home More Valuable

7 Steps To Selling Your Home Fast, For Top Dollar

How To Sell Your Home In California

Real estate’s Dirty Little Secret… Are You Being Taken For A Ride?

Money Secrets Bankers don’t Want You To Know

Your title is important because it will determine, like a headline, whether you can get prospects interested enough to request it. Pick your titles with care. And be specific. Target your intended prospect.

Step #3: You’ve picked a topic and chosen a title. Now ‘ time to determine what type of information product you are going to make available. Will it be a one-page brochure? A 60-minute audio tape? A 5 minute free recorded message, or a small booklet… a free report?

Step #4: Now it’s time to create the product. You’ll need to determine the contents, make an outline, and write or record your material.

The most important thing to keep in mind as you work through this process is that the contents must make good on the promise conveyed by the headline, provide useful information, and be accurate.

The contents do not have to be revolutionary, new or improved. In many cases, your information may be the first exposure your prospect has had to the information in any sense so… in a very real sense… it will be new. But it is imperative you make good on your promised benefits–even though you are offering something for free.

So that’s it. 1) Pick a topic. 2) Write a provocative title. 3) Determine your format. 4) Create it.

Then advertise. Make it as easy as possible for your prospects to obtain your information product. Use a voice mail system if possible. Simply reiterate the benefits of your product and give your prospects a chance to leave their name, address and phone number so you can send it out. If you are cost conscious (and who isn’t?) you might want to call the prospect first (under guise of getting their delivery information correct) to qualify them. Then mail. Then follow up and get them happily involved with your services.

It really is that easy. And it really is profitable.

Here’s a Sample Report

7 Steps to Selling Your Home Fast

and For Top Dollar

You are planning a move. Maybe it’s voluntary; maybe not. Nevertheless, you are planning to a move and you need to sell your present home.

You want a fair profit. Your goal is to get as much money out of the sale of your home as you can, to recoup some of the time and investment you’ve put into it over the years. But you also realize you don’t have a lot of time. You need a quick sale.

That’s the dilemma.

How do you decide how much to ask for your house in order to secure a fair profit and generate a quick sale at the same time - with the least amount of headache and hassle?

Take heart. It’s possible.

Regardless of the market - be it hot or cold; regardless of the season - be it summer or winter; and regardless of the fact the house down the street has been sitting on the market forever without any takers - you can accomplish the goal of selling your home fast and at a fair price if you follow a few simple principles.

1. Think of the building you are preparing to sell as a house - not your home. You must detach yourself emotionally from the sale of your property and view it as just another commodity for sale on the open market. It is no more and no less a residential property for sale to a buyer who is ready, willing, and able to purchase it.

2. Realize what you think your house is worth has absolutely no merit. Being a commodity on the open market, a house is only worth what other people are willing to pay for that particular style of house, in that particular area, and at this particular time.

3. Determine prices of comparable houses. A lender always hires a professional appraiser to evaluate the value of a house before underwriting a loan. The most important factor an appraiser uses in determining the value of a house is the reliable data gathered from comparing the selling price of similar properties in style, size, location, and relative time frame - usually 30 to 60 days.

4. Hire an appraiser to give you a documented opinion as to your house’s value. Realize, however, the appraisal you receive is only the appraiser’s professional opinion based on reliable market data - but it is only an opinion. Only a buyer willing to put money in your pocket can tell you what your house is actually worth. And be aware that appraisals are often too high - appraisers are more likely to overstate the value of a house rather than understate it.

5. Ask a broker for help. Another way to help determine what your house is fairly worth is to ask a real estate agent. Many agents offer a free comparative market analysis in the hope you will list your house with them. Get the broker’s opinions in writing and obtain at least three appraisals from different brokers. This will protect you from a common but tragic practice of telling you what you want to hear. In the trade it is called "buying the listing" and it happens with appalling frequency.

6. Learn the asking prices of similar houses for sale. While actual sales prices of recently sold houses are the best source of information, knowing the asking prices of houses still on the market will give an idea of the top range of market values in your area.

7. Gain an overall view of the local housing market. Is the market hot or cold? Is it a buyer’s market or seller’s market? It is also helpful to know the total inventory of homes currently on the market in relation to the number of homes currently pending sale. For instance, if 356 houses are for sale and 42 houses are pending sale, the ratio is 1:8. This means there is one buyer per eight houses for sale. Called a Total Market Analysis, this data can be the most powerful information you can gather to best position your house for a fast, profitable sale.

8. Price your own home. Given all the above data you should now be in a position to determine an asking price for your house which will ensure a fair profit and a fast sale. The trick is to price your home a little below current asking prices and a little higher than actual selling prices. The actual price you chose would best be determined by a total market analysis and would ensure a lot of buyer activity as well as providing you a fair, over market profit. It’s like having your cake and eating it too!

With the right information, you can price your house to sell for the most money, in the shortest amount of time, and with the least amount of hassle. Simply follow the seven basic principles and you are well on your way to a fast, profitable sale.

If you would like in depth information on how to best price your home for a quick, profitable sale as well as receive a free, complimentary Total Market Analysis - contact Roger Realtor at 555-555-5555 or, if you prefer to receive more information by mail, call 555-5555 ext. 3365, 24 hours for a free recorded message.

Happy Selling!

Brandon Patrick

Dean of Students

Real Estate Toolbox University

Posted in General Shop Talk, Random Tips | No Comments »

Real Estate Marketing Coach Brandon Patrick Discusses Stories, Metaphors and the Power of Editorial Advertising for Cost Effective Lead Generation

Tuesday, May 6th, 2008

Brian Rodgers, Craig Proctor and a host of other million-dollar earners regularly use large editorial-style ads to drive new leads into their businesses.

Why? Because they work!

The power behind this style of advertising lies in the fact that most people will "pass over" anything they deem to be a paid advertisement, yet they will voraciously consume every written word of "news".

The idea, then, is to design your advertisements to appear as if they are simply another news article - an unbiased story of interest.

The secret to optimizing any advertising campaign is to get more people to read the ad.

The secret to making an editorial-style ad work is to make the ad perfectly "blend in" with the editorial copy of the publication - to make the ad appear as news.

Here are 4 rules to optimize your editorial-style ads:

1. Get your ads placed on a right page, top right hand corner if at all possible. This works because the eyes naturally land here to help guide our hands into position to turn the page (amazing, but true!). If you can’t get top right, go for bottom right.

2. Try to avoid any labeling. You really, really don’t want the publisher to post a conspicuous "Paid Advertisement" notice above your ad. The KEY, remember is to cleverly disguise your ad to appear as normal news. The closer you get to matching the exact copy layout, style, font, size, column width and more… the greater your response. If the publisher insists on posting a notice, consider not running the ad.

3. Don’t highlight your name or company affiliation unless you have to. Again, the KEY is subtle disguise. News stories do not normally feature the contact information of the author of the story. Bury your contact information in the body of the "article" if at all possible.

4. Avoid any and all borders unless the publication uses borders to separate and highlight their news.

Happy Selling!

Brandon Patrick

Dean of Students

Real Estate Toolbox University

Posted in General Shop Talk, Internet Marketing, Random Tips | No Comments »

Real Estate Blog Tips Series - Real Estate Marketing Coach Brandon Patrick Reveals How to Write Classified Ads for Sellers!

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

Z101

Writing classified ads to secure seller leads is somewhat tougher than writing to secure buyer leads. But that’s not to say it can’t be done. It has been done, continues to be done… and, especially on the Internet (where your costs of minimal), it is most certainly worth your time.

The key to writing for sellers is to understand that people are persuaded to act either to avoid pain (be it emotional, physical, or spiritual) or to gain pleasure (be it real or anticipatory). So, with that in mind, we’ll want to design our ads to appeal to the sellers on this innate, emotional level. That is, we’ll want to push some emotional hot buttons. For example, this ad promises to move the potential buyer away from loss (a pain):

7 Big Homeseller Mistakes Which Cost You a Fortune
Which of these costly homeseller mistakes will you make

when you sell your home? You don’t have to make any! Call 555-1212

Here’s an example of moving towards pleasure (it addresses greed):

How to Sell Your Home for $3,000 to $7,000

More Than Your Neighbor! Free report reveal all.

See http://www.yourname.com

-or-

For Sale By Owners: Don’t even think about setting the price

for your home by looking in here. That’s the SECOND

biggest mistake you can make. Want to know the FIRST?

Call for your free homeseller report. 555-1212

XYZ Realty

If you’re looking for specific sellers in a specific area, simply add "qualifiers" to your ad like this:

South Carson — Sellers! New free online

report gives 10 Tips to Pocketing $5,447 or more

when you sell your home! Visit http://www.yourname.com/freerpt.htm

You get the idea. Now analyze each of these ads. Have we attracted the attention of potential sellers, have we grabbed their attention? What about the ads keep your interest? Have we stimulated a desire in you to want to know more about the information being advertised? And finally, what action must you take if you really want to know more?

Notice how all four elements are present in the ads. Recognize and understand the basic formula. Practice, and keep at it, over and over, every day until the formula, the idea, and the feel of this kind of ad writing becomes second nature to you. This is the ONLY WAY to gain expertise in writing good classified ads. And a GUARANTEED way to generate a number of highly responsive leads fast… both online and off!

Happy Selling!

Brandon Patrick

Dean of Students

Real Estate Toolbox University

Posted in General Shop Talk, Internet Marketing, Random Tips, Relevant Sites and Friends | 2 Comments »

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