Oh Boy here we Go!...

 MARKETING

Ok, so I wrote a few days ago about our plan to move to Colorado, leave the corporate flying job (my husband) behind and pursue a fulltime fix and flip investing business.  We've got 10 months to do it in (living expenses saved up) and whole bunch of money to flip the houses once we can.actually.find.one!!!  I'd like to be flipping upwards of 5-10 houses at a time (my construction management experience helps with this and my belief that if you have a big goal you are much more likely to come close to that than if you think you can only handle 1 house at a time)  In this post I'm going to detail our marketing plan.

We learned on bigger pockets that if you plan to do marketing, you should do approximately 5 different marketing techniques, do them well and do them often.  Our budget is $1000/month.  Here are the 5 and where we are at in the process.

But 1st, here's several things we are going to do separate from our larger 5-part marketing strategies.

CAR ADVERTISING: so embarrassing, but sooo necessary, don't you think??  Think, giant offensive whole side and entire back of 2 cars covered in stupid brief ads ala bandit sign messaging.  I'm all in, guys, all in...

CRAIGSLIST POSTING:  several ads, reposted consistently

WEBSITE: 1 page initially, develop in the future as needed

BUSINESS CARDS: leave. them. everywhere.

5 MARKETING STRATEGIES

DIRECT MAIL: 1st Priority.  Objective: mail to 600 out of state absentee owners 6 consecutive times, 1 month between mailers.  300 mailers typed, 300 "handwritten" to do a test run.  Both campaigns will be letter, letter, postcard, letter, letter, postcard. 

Envelope Specifications:  Our letter mailer will be tiny, on purpose, and not yellow on purpose.  We intend to stand out from every other mailer in people's mailboxes.  Think about this, if you opened your mailbox and there were 5 business sized envelopes, some handwritten, some not and there was one small envelope that was handwritten and looked like a letter from grandma.  Which one would you open??  I put my bets on the small letter, but I'll let you know how it goes!  

Letter Specifications:  Typed letter: Large font/personalized, focused on them message/some personality to the mailer/letterhead on top/free gift offered if they call soon (to cause urgency)/website link provided (which we don't have yet, btw).  "Handwritten" letter: very brief/not static, will have some personality/focus on them, not me.  Still on letterhead, I think.  

Pricing:  Priced out having a mailing house do all the work: roughly $2500 for the entire campaign (all 6 months of mailings)  to the 600 addresses including printing and mailing (not including postage), $1000 if they just print the letters and we stuff, etc. (not including postcards)   Elance: got bids on just the printing work for the letters and address printing on the envelopes $225   Letterhead only: purchase of letterhead only, in-house printing $150.  If we could be sure Elance would do a good job, we'd go that route.  Think we plan to get a proof.

WHOLESALER NETWORKING: 2nd Priority locate via google search, bigger pockets, REIA once in CO.

BANDIT SIGNS: 3rd Priority haven't started this yet but here's the plan:  detail the route, locate sign places.  Drive the routes once out there.  Order premade signs, Sign Stapler (a long stapler, learned about it from Than Merrill), and go to town.  50 signs out at a time, replace ones taken down, locate signs high up with sign stapler so not easily taken down.  Do not plan to be evasive with "sign police", will just take them down when requested.

REFERRAL PROGRAM $2000-$3000 finder's fee to anyone who refers a house to us, someone they know or driving by a distressed vacant property.

INTERNET MARKETING No details on this yet, will need to self-educate a ton, put money into this once we've flipped a couple deals.

Prepare 1 strategy at a time, get really organized and get it figured out really well, then move on to the next until all 5 are going.  After 1st deal closed, outsource more, mail to more addresses.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions???