Marketing For the Rest of Us, Part One:
You Really Don?t Have to Spend a Fortune to Make One!
by Don DeRosa

Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at.
Make it fun to read. ~Leo Burnett

Have you ever tried to learn about marketing on the Internet? I did a search on Google today and found 40 million sites! That?s just too much information to be useful.

But marketing is so important it?s worth cutting through that jungle of information to find the treasures you need. This two-part series will try to do just that: give you some basics you can use beginning today, even if you don?t have a penny in your bank account,

I probably don?t need to tell you why you should market. To put it bluntly, if people don?t know who you are, they can?t buy your house ? or sell you theirs. That?s why even now I spend a lot of time and effort on marketing.

What I don?t do ? and what I?ve never done ? is to spend a lot of money on marketing. I?ve done some TV and radio commercials, but have decided to leave the big-money items for big-money corporations ? unless I can get a really great deal, of course.

Instead, I prefer a grass-roots approach to marketing. I target my market very carefully, and I spend just enough to reach that target effectively.

What is marketing? Let?s back up a bit and define ?marketing.? What is it?

Marketing is anything you do that might be noticed by someone else. It may not be in your marketing plan or in your marketing budget, but it?s marketing all the same. When you give someone a great deal on a house, you?re marketing. When you treat sellers with respect, do what you say you?re going to do, and treat them fairly, you?re marketing. When you don?t return calls or you flake out on a deal or you gyp a widower out of his life savings, you?re marketing, too. It?s just not the kind of marketing you want!

So let?s begin with the most important thing you?ll learn from this article: The best marketing you can do is to treat people as you?d want to be treated. In other words, do good work. That?s a form of advertising that?s absolutely free!

Of course, marketing also includes those things we usually associate with paid advertising: newspaper ads, radio commercials, ads on the back of the phone book, and billboards, for example.

If you?re just starting out, you may not be able to afford those methods. Not to worry, though. There are plenty of inexpensive ? and even free ? places to advertise.

Who is your target? Before you start spending money on marketing ? even if it?s just a little bit of money ? it?s essential to choose a target audience. Sure, you could just send out one or two million postcards to pretty much everyone, but you?d get a very low response rate. Like everything else in this business, you?ll have better luck if you start with some planning.

Let?s say you want to buy some ?pretty? houses ? houses that don?t need a lot of work ? in nice, stable middle-class neighborhoods and rent them out for a few years while they appreciate in value. If you?re keeping the houses for a while, you?re going to have to visit them on a fairly regular basis to do maintenance or collect rent. If this is your plan, choose neighborhoods that are pretty close to your home. Don?t bother with neighborhoods that are fifty miles away just because they look profitable ? unless you want to do a lot of commuting!

Or perhaps you want to buy houses in a transitional neighborhood, renovate them, and then ?flip? them. Since you won?t have an ongoing commitment in those neighborhoods, you can drive a little further.

Or maybe you?re really adventurous and don?t mind spending lots of money and time on the road. You want to contact everybody!

Your scenario, whatever it is, will drive your marketing campaign. If you?re targeting specific neighborhoods, you?ll want marketing methods that are small-scale, very focused, and cheap. If you want to hit a wider audience, or be seen in lots of neighborhoods, you?ll need to choose a method that?s less focused and maybe more expensive. Even then, though, there are free resources available.

Whichever marketing tools you use, you?ll have more luck if you repeat yourself. What do I mean by that? Well, don?t just send one postcard and forget about it. Follow up a couple weeks later with a different postcard. And perhaps a different one two weeks after that. You never know which day someone will hit their critical-overload point and need to take action!

Next month we?ll talk about cheap ways to hit bigger targets. For now, though, here are some good ways to hit smaller targets.

Business cards. Cheap and highly focused, business cards are one of your best marketing tools. Get them early and hand them out often! I have three separate versions: one card to hand to buyers, one card to hand to private lenders, and one version that?s bright, bright pink!

Now, you can get business cards for free on the Internet. I recommend against it, though. The free cards advertise the printing company on the backside and frankly, they?ll make you look cheap. It doesn?t cost all that much to pay for business cards if you order them online, as long as you?re willing to go with a pre-designed template. Think about printing something useful on the backside, like a 12-month calendar ? that way your card becomes valuable and people may even keep it in their wallets!

How do I use the bright pink ones? Well, when I target a neighborhood, I put those cards on the mailbox flag with a rubber band. They?re not pretty, but they?re definitely visible.

I actually have a fourth version, which is just a little more expensive that I hand out much more rarely: magnet business cards. Go to any good office supply store and you?ll find sets of 25 or 50 business card magnets. I attach my business card to the magnets and then; when I look inside a prospective seller?s house I put the magnet on the refrigerator. People love magnets and are likely to keep them. And magnet business cards are getting even cheaper now that you can make them directly from your printer.

Free (or cheap) print advertising. Want to put a for-sale ad in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution? Be ready to dish out some money. It costs over $160 now for a 10-day classified advertisement. Some other categories are cheaper, but classified ads are no longer the deal they used to be.

Luckily, there are alternatives, although you may have to do some digging to find them. Here are some ideas to get you started:

? Church newsletters. Places of worship tend to serve people in the surrounding neighborhood, and they often provide space for advertising in their bulletins or newsletter. So search out the local churches and find out how to place an advertisement. Get an ad that replicates your business card.

? School events. Like churches, schools serve their neighborhoods. If the local high school is having a play or presentation, there?s a good chance they?re selling space in the program. The same goes for local dance and karate schools.

? Local stores. Many stores, coffee shops, and Laundromats allow you to post notices. Find the ones near your targeted neighborhoods. Tack a small stack of your business cards on the bulletin board. Be sure to replenish them every so often.

? Direct mail. It?s easy enough these days to create quarter-page post-cards yourself, or to have them printed at your local copy-service store. You can also have fancier ones printed at the same Internet places that do your business cards. Make two or three versions, so you can do a series of mailings.

If you?ve targeted a specific neighborhood and you don?t want to pay for postage, just deliver the post cards to each house. If you use mail, take advantage of bulk rates if you qualify.

So what can you do today to begin marketing? Here are some suggestions:

? Take out a map and circle neighborhoods that are close to you. Take a drive and look at them.

? Go online and design your business card. Even if you don?t buy them today, you?ll get a feel for what you want to say.

? Find schools, churches, and specialty schools for the area you?re targeting. Locate their websites and check their event calendars. Make some phone calls.

? Make a list of neighborhood stores, Laundromats, and other places that might have bulletin boards you can use.

Remember, success starts with action. And action should begin today!
Next month: Reaching the Crowds on the Cheap

Synopsis. Marketing is an essential component of your success. It can be expensive, but it doesn?t have to be, as we show in the first of two articles on marketing basics. There are plenty of free or cheap ways to get the word out about your services. Before you decide on a plan, though, decide on a target. If you want to target small groups or specific neighborhoods, try business cards, inexpensive printed advertisements, or direct mail.

Don DeRosa is recognized as one of the nation?s top 21 real estate investors in the New York Times bestseller The Millionaire Real Estate Investor. Don, who is a full-time investor, trainer, and mentor, can be contacted at don@askdonderosa.com.