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Trick or Treat Real Estate Marketing! Would you try this?

J. Lamar Ferren
3 min read
Trick or Treat Real Estate Marketing! Would you try this?

Ok, there’s something I’ve been thinking about for a very long time that could possibly bring in some good business.

What I’m going to cover here is an offline marketing strategy that has not been tested before.

It’s just something I’ve been thinking about and I want to know how you feel about it.

Before I let you in on that, I would like to lay out some marketing concepts we can take from Halloween and how they can be applied to your business in order to generate more leads and profit.

So let’s get started…

As we all know, on Halloween, kids from all over the neighborhood get dressed up as monsters, angels, witches,  super heroes, etc.. and  they all have one common goal in mind.

They want to get as much candy as possible!

Some teenagers lose their creativity when it comes to costumes as they get older and they just show up at your door with a bag hanging out. It’s all about the candy. lol

So what does this have to do with marketing?

Well, when people are looking to buy a home, just as trick or treaters go around hopping from house to house, buyers are going from website to website, or even block to block looking for a home. The thing is that if you don’t have what they’re looking for then they will simply bypass your website or home and move onto the next.

Now obviously you aren’t going to be able to cater to every single buyer, however there are things you can do to make your site stand apart from the rest. You are guaranteed to get more visitors (that become actual leads) to your website depending on how you are able to attract them to your site.

Graphic Design:

A lot of people say that you don’t need a pretty website to sell your properties or get leads to opt in. While this is true, statistics show that cheesy websites can be a turn off to most (and you can test for yourself with split testing) and that sites that have more appealing graphics are attractive enough for someone to stick around a little longer.

Is this guaranteed? Absolutely not, which is why you must test it out. Too many graphics or even overly cheesy graphics could be a turn off and you have to find that smooth median.

Trick or treaters can easily sense when they’re going to get a house with some good candy. It’s usually the ones that are decorated. I remember one year I didn’t even get trick or treaters to show up to my house and I had a bunch of candy. I had to end up flagging them down. They didn’t think I had candy. lol

Advertising:

Obviously in order for buyers to find your site or your property, you need to advertise. You need to be in the newspapers, on the flyers, on sites like Craigslist and Backpage. You need to be all over the place. Not advertising for your business is like placing a “No Candy” sign on Halloween. You are guaranteed not to get anyone.

Provide Value:

This is huge. As I said earlier, the only reason that trick or treaters come to your home is to get candy! They see it as value and they’ll remember you for the next year. If a buyer comes to your website and you provide them with valuable information about buying homes, your neighborhood, financial options, etc… They’ll see you as someone that definitely needs to be taken seriously and may take a closer look at what you have to offer. This also helps in the buyer’s decision making process when you keep following up with them on valuable information.

Referrals:

It happens all the time. As trick or treators walk from house to house, they pass other trick or treaters and they say, “Hey this house has a lot of candy, or that house doesn’t have any “good candy”etc. Word of mouth advertising is where it all started and if you do good business in your local market, people will start talking about you and your business can grow exponentially. However, you should be warned that if you don’t do good business, then people will talk about that as well.

That’s all I have for now. Have a safe and fun Halloween.

Oh and as for the Offline Marketing trick…

What do you think about tying pieces of candy to a business card or small flyer and handing them out to the trick or treaters? I’ve been debating in my mind about this one. Not sure if it would offend people. I wouldn’t think so, I mean if they don’t need your business, then they don’t need it right?

And if they did, then it would be a true life saver for the kids to come home and when the parents check their candy they also find a business card with the #1 solution to their problem. This would be a hit and miss strategy, as it would be completely untargeted.

But do you think it’s worth a try? Let me know what you think…I still don’t know.

To Your Success,

J. Lamar Ferren

“New Breed” Investor

ps. Happy Halloween!

Photo credits: MS Powerpoint

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