New to Real Estate · Calgary AB, Canada · Member since 2020 · 15 posts · 1 vote
Hi all BP members,
I'm looking to start marketing campaigns in my area, most likely direct mail marketing. I've been creating a website to have some infrastructure before I start the campaign. My personal perspective on the "We Buy Houses" branding is that it can have negative connotations to the homeowner.
I'd like to know if "<company name> Home Sales" or "<company name> Home Buyers" is a better option? I like the idea of "sale" rather than "buyer" because the message is that we help themsell their home (to us or other investors). But I feel that "buyer" is more common for this type of marketing. Any suggestions?
I'm also contemplating on adding my area (Calgary) to my company name, although this makes it quite lengthy and could be hard to search up for a potential seller. Thoughts?
Flipper/Rehabber · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 101 posts · 73 votes
6y
@Brenner Murray
For seo you have to ask @jerrylnoorden
Who cares if your competitors have something you want? If you want Calgary in your name and think it will help people realize you are local, use it.
FWIW I hate my domain name but I love that I rank in the top 3 for just about any search term a motivated seller might search.
Also regarding we buy houses... or doesn’t have a negative connotation with YOUR potential sellers (assuming you are looking to buy wholesales or flips)
It only has a negative connotation to homeowners who were never going to sell their house at a discount to you anyways. Trust me on this. Truly motivated sellers don’t care. They need you to meet their immediate needs and that is all.
Investor · San Diego, CA · Member since 2016 · 351 posts · 141 votes
6y
@Brenner Murray I wish I knew the exact answer to this too, we struggled on deciding our company name for a hot minute when we started.
At the end of the day, home sales vs home buyers doesn't matter too much as long as the content on your site and the content in your market still clearly conveys that you DO buy houses, so that it's clear and there's no confusion. There's also the thought of SEO, and having home buyers in your name and domain could help slightly if you go down that rabbit hole! All in All, I've seen huge success from companies named 'we buy houses <city>', and also from companies with totally random names. Whichever you go with, make sure to stick with it!
I was worried about that idea of misrepresenting myself. I've been thinking a lot about SEO and I was just thinking that people searching online are probably going to search for "how to Sell my house fast in Calgary"or something like that. Thoughts? Also there already is a company called Sellmycalgaryhousefast.com, so would it be a good idea to not have Calgary in my name to set me apart?
Flipper/Rehabber · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2017 · 101 posts · 73 votes
6y
@Brenner Murray
For seo you have to ask @jerrylnoorden
Who cares if your competitors have something you want? If you want Calgary in your name and think it will help people realize you are local, use it.
FWIW I hate my domain name but I love that I rank in the top 3 for just about any search term a motivated seller might search.
Also regarding we buy houses... or doesn’t have a negative connotation with YOUR potential sellers (assuming you are looking to buy wholesales or flips)
It only has a negative connotation to homeowners who were never going to sell their house at a discount to you anyways. Trust me on this. Truly motivated sellers don’t care. They need you to meet their immediate needs and that is all.
Flipper/Rehabber · Wilton, CT · Member since 2015 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
6y
Do you know what a horrible keyword is to rank for believe it or not?
"sell my house" or "Sell my house fast".
Those keywords are bad! I HATE it when I see all the big guys in SEO and lead generation act the Guru when they have NO FRIGGIN CLUE what they are talking about!
You need to rank for "We Buy Houses". PERIOD.
Keyword volume means NOTHING in the space of SEO (an other thing all these clowns got wrong).
What matters is search intent. Not keywords.
So Colby is absolutely right.
You do NOT want to even remotely sound like you will list their house.
So none of that "home sale" stuff.
Don't use the word "investor" either. Use the words "Cash Buyer".
Investor is a seriously bad word to use as well. If you care to know why, just ask me.
Lastly I would absolutely NOT use DMM to market. It is up to you what you do, but before you do anything you need to answer this for your own sake.
Why am I choosing DMM and not Facebook ads?
Why DMM and not PPC?
If you can not answer these questions legitimately, you need to not spend any money yet on marketing.
And when you DO answer that question before you spend money on any marketing, answer me this question next.
WHY did are you spending $X on marketing, and why not $2X?
If you can not answer that question again you need to not spend money yet.
See, what you need to do is figure out the cost/deal for any and all marketing venue you are considering. If you don't figure this out you are obviously winging it and I promise you, you shall fail!
Do this right or you will become a BiggerPockets statistic!
@Brenner Murray I wish I knew the exact answer to this too, we struggled on deciding our company name for a hot minute when we started.
At the end of the day, home sales vs home buyers doesn't matter too much as long as the content on your site and the content in your market still clearly conveys that you DO buy houses, so that it's clear and there's no confusion. There's also the thought of SEO, and having home buyers in your name and domain could help slightly if you go down that rabbit hole! All in All, I've seen huge success from companies named 'we buy houses <city>', and also from companies with totally random names. Whichever you go with, make sure to stick with it!
Home sales and home buyers make a HUGE difference. Google will see "home sales" very differently than "Home Buyers". The reason for this is because google goes by search intent. Not keyword.
The intention behind someone typing home sales, is very different from the goal/ intention of typing in home buyer.
Then furthermore, yes you are correct. He should indeed look into SEO! That is the best thing you could possibly do...
You ONLY do paid marketing after you have your website finetuned for conversions. This means you need to be credible!