There are several different steps that need to be accounted for when investing in real estate. Whether you decide to invest in rental properties, rehabbing properties or wholesaling you will need to have a great Lead Generation Funnel to ensure you have enough leads coming through the door. All successful business owners recognize the importance of developing a marketing plan for their business. The ability to generate leads in your market will separate you from the rest of your competition. No matter how much experience you have with investing in real estate, if you are a great marketer and have the ability to bring several leads through the door, you will have the edge on other investors in your market.
As we all know whoever can bring in the most leads and turn them into sales will be the most successful in this business. Being able to bring in leads is no easy task and the lack of planning is usually what increases your odds of failure. If you skip this step of developing a plan, you will likely have a more difficult time in reaching your goals.
“Marketing takes a day to learn. Unfortunately it takes a lifetime to master.” ~ Phil Kolter
The ability to master marketing for your specific business will allow create a back log of prospects that are waiting to sell you there home for a discount. The more leads we have coming through the door, the better chance we have of turning those leads into sales. So be sure to develop a comprehensive plan that you can follow and fall back on to help ramp up the leads in your business.
What exactly is a plan?
The plan that you develop will is what you will have to do before you do anything else in this business. Without leads there’s no deals, without leads there’s no profits and without deals there’s no fun. So make sure you get some deals!
Before you begin planning it is important to know exactly what you want to accomplish.
buy x number of houses each month
move your business into another county or state
bring in 30 leads a month
buy your first property
Whatever your goals may be, make you understand what you want to do before you begin developing your plan.
Here are some steps to take to put together your marketing plan.
1) Figure out your goals
Know exactly what you want before you begin planning. Do not begin until you are very clear on what you want the end result to be.
2) Identify your Target Market
Do some research on where you want to invest, what the typical houses are selling for in your area and if there is opportunity for you to profit. Whether this is your first time investing or you are looking to expand, it will take some time to identify the area you will invest in.
3) Create a budget for your plan
Marketing costs money so decide how much you want to spend. There are inexpensive ways to market in this business, just like anything else. I suggest you take advantage of these inexpensive marketing tools until you have a deal under your belt. Once you have some extra money you can allocate a certain % of profits of each deal to your marketing efforts.
4) Create a simple website
By creating a website you will have a place on the web to send people to get them signed up. Your website will be one of your main hubs for generating deals. Your website will also give you credibility, allowing you to look like a real business. Don’t get me wrong, by putting up a website you will not just start generating leads immediately. That will come with driving traffic to your website.
5) Take action on your Plan
This is the last piece of the puzzle and the most important. How will you reach your real estate goals? What are the steps I need to take this week, this month to ensure you are making the appropriate progress towards your goals? This is where you want to schedule all of your tasks for the next 1-3 months depending on how far out you want to get and how often you want to reevaluate. With a plan in place, your business will run much smoother.
First you have to decide what marketing strategies you are going to use. Whether you decide to use bandit signs, driving website traffic, direct mail, social media marketing, pay per click ads, craigslist. Whatever marketing vehicles you choose you will have to be descriptive on how you will implement them.
I will order a new mailing list
I will distribute "x" amount of fliers each week
I will drive for dollars "x" amount of hours each week
I will post "x" amount of times on craigslist
I will write "x" amount of blog posts each month to drive traffic to my site
I will pay "x" amount of dollars for ads on the internet
Be sure to be descriptive in your marketing efforts and reevaluate your efforts if you are not reaching your goals.
Get ready for the phone to ring
Set up a quick phone system if you are just starting off such as google voice. This will allow you to use a different phone number then your personal number for your incoming calls. You will be able to create a voicemail to direct your sellers as to what they should do and the information you are looking for. If you are not comfortable with fielding calls and talking to customers, practice a little. Put together a conversation that you will expect to have with a seller. Make sure you touch on the important information that you are looking for and have a piece of paper to document this information so you can better evaluate your leads. As your company expands you will need to put more systems in place to track these leads but if you are just starting out, make sure you have the basics in place.