Building My Marketing Strategy

Yes, I actually do have a marketing strategy. However it is this sort of a subjective idea of things that I should do that is rolling around in my head. I've never really put it on paper to clearly define my strategy or, maybe more importantly, the outcomes I want to accomplish with each strategy. I wrote a little about how most marketing strategies are time vs money based. Most of my strategies will require a fair bit of time at a low monetary cost. Let's hammer this out.

1.) Business Cards: I see a lot of new faces each day working on an ambulance. I would pretty much never market to a patient of mine unless the conversation just magically opened the door for that. It actually has happened a few times, but it very rare. Instead, my focus would be on all the Dr.'s, nurses, and the multitude of other staff that support them in my endeavors. I do pass out cards with generally a gently "If you, or anyone you know is looking to sell their house then give me a call." If it opens dialog as to what I do, great. Otherwise I let my card do the marketing for me. I need to set a goal of actually handing out 5-10 cards a day. I've done a lot better lately at getting more out, but there is room for improvement. I also hand out business cards to servers at restaurants, check out people, and others that I am able to strike up a conversation with. To date, I have only had 1 response from handing out cards which was an upside down house by a major amount. Still, I think it is important to let those you deal with directly know what it is you do and what service you provide. I have my cards put up all over my station which has opened dialogs on occasion.

2.) Free Internet Marketing - I am fairly versed in IM and as such try to use my talents as best I can. I do daily Craigslist Postings and post at least once a week to BackPage. I get calls from this source but the call value is very low. Most are tirekickers, or other investors. Also I get a TON of spam calls from posting on CL. I recently changed my ad to a Picture ad that has gotten me a lot more traffic and a little bit better value from some callers. It has reduced some of the spam I get as well since I don't have my number as text on the picture ad. One weakness that I need to address is that I am driving people from CL to a only "fair" website. I need to create better value landing pages to match the themes of the ad.

3.) Paid Internet Marketing - I use adwords and bing advertising. I really feel these are some methods of getting some high value traffic for lower costs, BUT you really have to work for it. Adwords is a beast that requires a lot of setup, tracking of results, and tweaking of the results. However, if you can master the techniques, and properly track conversions, then you can really focus on the crowd that is getting you paid. I feel this is a vital area of my marketing method. The downfall for me is that I don't have enough capital to consistantly advertise keywords that have a decent potential to convert at least a lead. I limit my monthly budget to $100 - $200 per month and have to really stay on top of my campaigns to get the most out of that amount. Also having an AMAZING landing page (actually I prefer microsite) is pretty much key to converting these leads. I need some work on this as while I have the "how-to" and understand the psychology of the viewers, however my lack of graphical creativity somewhat slows my progress to getting the best conversions. I am working on this though and plan to have a completely updated site that should convert VERY WELL while still being SEO friendly in the near future.

4.) Driving For Dollars - Not only can I use my time when I am off to drive for dollars, but I am able to sometimes get around while on shift in certain areas and look at possible candidates. I note most FSBO and FRBO signs and try to get in touch with them. Most of the time I note as much as I can about a property, look it up on the County Assesor Site, and if they have owned it more than 10 years I mail them a yellow letter. I need to refine this, and systemize it more, but I really think this will likely be one of the best ways that I find lower competition leads. I know my major competator here is mailing a lot, but I know he doesn't (likely) take the time to drive for dollars. Therefore, I think this will give me a slight edge and hopefully pay off.

5.) Bird dogs - This is a system I am planning to implement soon. I have put together a list of ideas of people who could benefiet from a little extra money, people who have an information edge on houses that might have been recently abandoned or vacant, and methods of social media promotion. I am going to create a "backend" on my website that will make it very easy for these people to refer the leads to me while getting their name on the referral. I am going to create seperate business cards JUST for this aspect of the business. They will have key psychological phrases to motivate people who might need a little extra money to ask around or look around on their way home that night. Also I plan to make a nice advertisement that friends and family on facebook can possibly post to give them an opportunity to make a little money too. I am going to post a simple small flyer at work as well. I am hoping that getting others involved and giving them an opportunity to make some money will kickstart some lead generation even more. Once I pay them a referral fee then that will hopefully motivate them even more! This will really need to be systemized.

6.) Probate - I plan to start marketing to this crowd. I have started to put together a system from resources found here on BP. There is a wealth of information on how people market to these individuals. I feel that if you approach it the correct way, that there is definately a motivated crowd there. I have some information edge in that I have a contact that really gets first knowledge of deaths in our area. This will allow me a slight edge on others, but I still feel that it will be competative. I know that a few people in my area market to this niche. Working in EMS also gives me an edge in that people associate death and EMS and tend to really open up to me on things when I converse with them. I just need to formalize this system, and find ways to make it easier. Hopefully within a month I will figure out a way that I can maybe outsource a little of the work, as it takes a lot of time from me.

Well these are my current 6 marketing methods. As you can see there still needs to be a lot of implementation and planning of the processes on things. Having formalized things a little has already given me the desire to write out more specific's for each strategy and the steps I need to make them the most effective. BP has been such an amazing resource in finding great ideas on each of these methods. The search tool here is invaluable. Hopefully seeing my plan and its comming together will motivate you to really focus on what your marketing ideas are and how you will be approaching them.

OHH YEAH! I almost forgot one of my marketing strategies that I want to start incorporating very quick! (I told you these were all just ideas rolling around in my head.)

7.) Video Marketing - I really think having a way for others to see you as an individual, and talking about your business, builds a huge degree of trust. I want to start creating videos for youtube, and my website that are SEO focused and will rank well for keywords that are related to the industry. I have a lot of the knowledge and knowhow, but I don't know how to work the camera aspect of things. I also must admit that I am a little nervous about getting in front of a camera, but I am sure after a few times it would be easy. This is something I KNOW I need to get on ASAP, but I keep putting it off. I think I will go see if I can find someone local with a greensceen and price it. Actually I am going to do that right now!

Cheers