One Killer Creative Idea for Marketing Just About Anything to Just About Anyone in Real Estate

I think we’ve all heard about Shadow Inventories, the Coming Foreclosure Wave, and the poor health of the real estate market in general lately. If you haven’t, I’d wonder about your status as a member of the human race. For the rest of us as investors, agents, and marketers.. we’re all trying to figure out how to capitalize on others’ misfortunes. Here’s one creative idea for you to Market to possible Short Sales, Foreclosures, or anyone considering selling their home.

Customized Landing Pages… but not.

I’ll go ahead and tell you, I got this idea from Ryan Hartman in Virginia. Once I tell you about it, you’ll start getting all kinds of cool ideas about how to use it in your business. So let’s get to it already.

FYI, you need a website to do this. Take your 404 page (that’s the one that people get when they mistype the page they are trying to visit) and modify it. Here’s my company’s example and the only one I currently know of. Why do that you ask? Because you can create one page that looks like a custom landing page for each individual. Here’s what I mean.

Send out postcards, flyers, notes, whatever to the neighborhood or market you are targeting. What’s the conversion rate on a good postcard? Less than 5%. We can do better. On those postcards write in (or print labels if you feel inclined) each property’s address at the end of your website… ex. http://yourwebsite.com/propertyaddress
Get a reaction. Whoa. Now the homeowners’ are curious. At the least they are asking themselves, “What in the H%** am I going to find if I go to that address?” Now you’ve got an action from your mail-out. What you are going to do with it?
Give them good content to take the next step. They’re on you website at (what they probably think is) their custom designed page for their specific property. What are you going to tell them?

Here are some ideas if you:

Are targeting Short Sales…

Create a video that plays when the page is loaded telling them to contact you to keep from losing their home.
Create a quick slide show explaining the short sale process and how you can help.
just give them a big bold call to action like, “Contact me Today to Keep Your Home!!!” Sometimes simple is best.

Are targeting Properties to List…

Autoplay a video talking about how awesome your marketing plan is… maybe talk about the home you sold in 8 hours or the litter of kittens you pulled out of a burning building.
Create a short listing presentation with a call to action for them to contact you for more information.
Offer something for free when they submit their information; home owner tips, a secret foreclosure list, or a gift card to Starbucks.

Want new RSS subscribers…

Offer an E-book when they sign up by RSS or email
Bribe them… most people love free stuff, gift cards, cash, prizes, a drawing for a tv, whatever.
Have a few of your most popular articles up front and center when they pull up the page.

Are you getting some ideas now? Could you roll with this? You need to make people realize that if you are this creative with getting their attention, think about how well you can Save, Sell, or Market their home.

What other ways can you think to use this idea? I know I haven’t taken it nearly as far as it could go so let’s hear it.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.