Don’t Stop Marketing when Times are Tough (and the Going Gets Rough)
By Sharon Vornholt
If there is one piece of advice I could give every struggling investor who is trying to stay afloat in today’s challenging market, it would be “don’t stop marketing”.
I know that’s what most people do. But it’s during these times you need to actually step up your marketing. You can’t stay in the game, if you don’t play.
Let’s put it another way.
When you can’t seem to get a deal no matter what, most investors stop marketing to conserve cash. But I can tell you that your business will die a quick and painful death if you do this. You may have to change the way you’re marketing, but whatever you do, don’t stop marketing when times are tough.
So What Can You do If Your Business is starved for Cash?
There are a lot of things you can do but here are some suggestions:
- Networking is free (or almost free). Get out every day and talk to people. Be sure you have business cards. You can get affordable business cards at Vista Print.
- What can you cut out to have money for marketing over the next couple of months for direct mail and other things that have a cost associated with them? Do as much marketing as you possibly can.
- Can you partner with someone? Offer to go look at houses and make offers for someone that has cash for marketing, but maybe has small children and little time.
- What about spending the day in eviction court? You’re sure to find some tired landlords there.
- Get a list and call prospects. You’re already paying for your phone, so why not put it to good use?
- Go driving for dollars. Do some door-knocking to find out who lives in that vacant house.
There are a lot of marketing strategies that cost nothing more than your time.
I can tell you this for sure; it’s these times when “average” investors close up shop. Just keep plugging away. Don’t stop marketing and you will come out way ahead of your competitors over time.
Spend Your Cash Wisely when Money is Tight
This is a time when you need to be smart with your money and your resources.
Here are some more tips for you:
- Make sure your lists are laser focused. Don’t get too broad. You want to make each mail piece count since they are costing you money.
- Don’t forget about follow up. Go back through all your leads in the past 12 months. Look at all those who said no. Maybe they are ready to say yes now at the end of the year.
- Get to work on that stack of direct mail. Do you know someone that has TLO or another similar service that might split the cost for one month to check all of those returned mail pieces?
- Are there additional real estate niches where you look for opportunities? Think tired landlords, pre-foreclosures, houses with code citations, etc.
- Remember time and circumstances change all things. This is certainly true of motivated sellers. Just because a seller told you no before, they might just have meant “not now”.
Don’t Stop Marketing During the Holidays
This is probably the biggest mistake investors make. They stop marketing during the holidays. You can take advantage of that, but doing the opposite of what everyone else is doing. This is a good time to look for opportunities where other investors dropped the ball.
Final Thoughts
It’s great to do a marketing brain dump every now and then. Maybe there is something you used to do that you stopped doing. Do whatever it takes to stay in the game.
Get creative and see what you can come up with.
Sharon Vornholt
Sharon Vornholt is the owner of Innovative Property Solutions, LLC in Louisville, KY.
Sharon owned and operated a successful home inspection company for 17 years. She began investing in real estate in 1998 and became a full time real estate investor in January of 2008.
Sharon specializes in wholesaling, and is also an experienced landlord and rehabber.
In addition, Sharon is an internet marketer and also writes articles for several national real estate sites. Sharon is the author of a popular real estate blog called the “Louisville Gals Real Estate Blog”. For your FREE REPORT “Probates and Absentee Owners: Your Fast Track to Real Estate Riches”, stop by her blog at: http://LouisvilleGalsRealEstateBlog.com.
