Clever Marketing Strategies

[John Fortes]

I know the importance of being able to be found on social media platforms and all but what are some other clever marketing strategies you all are implementing to attract passive investors?

Here is something we are exploring with this year. We currently are lined up to place an ad on the golf score cards with a tagline to propel the audience to take action. 

Our current tagline is: "Do you know the tax benefits of passively investing in real estate?"

We are still in the first round of proofs but its for a local golf course in my community. We figure if 1 person invests due to the ad, it will pay for itself. Now there is no way to find out exactly with a conversion rate but we figure it was creative and unique since none of my partners and I golf. We can be on the golf course without being there. Also, taking into consideration how many golfers use their phones to track their scores. With every investment comes a risk. Just trying to think outside of the box. Leap and the net will appear. Looking forward to hearing your ideas.

@Theo Hicks @Brian Burke @Joe Fairless @Gino Barbaro @Alina Trigub @Ben Leybovich @Scott Hollister @Matt Faircloth @Jake Stenziano @Brandon Abbott @Dan Handford

[Brian Burke]

@John Fortes I appreciate the mention in your list of esteemed colleagues but I’m afraid you place too much confidence in my marketing prowess.  Truth told, if there is anything I’m worse at than marketing I’d like to know what it is!  Well, on the other hand, maybe I don’t!

Having said that, figuring out how to get better at it and hopefully how to hire some help to manage the process is one of my goals for 2019.  So I’m going to be more of a consumer of this thread than a contributor.

But since you asked, I really do absolutely no marketing.  I don’t even have good lead capture tools and email systems.  And hardly any social media presence.  Ugh.

But I like to think I’m a very good real estate buyer and operator and investment manager.  My underwriting is good enough that even institutional investors compliment us on the thoughtful approach and robust tools, and our investors also recognize that.  We also produce first-class investor reports that some people have called the gold standard.  Our investments produce results and our track record, experience, and time in the business stands out.

As a result, people talk.  Investors tell their friends.  I can’t put my finger on it but people come to us.  Sometimes even they don’t know how they first heard about us.  We get people into our ecosystem every day and we are doing absolutely no marketing.  This “non-marketing“ strategy has worked for me to the tune of over $100 million.

I guess this all means that performance and track record are the best marketing tools that money can’t buy.  But having said that, there are people out there that are world-class marketers and as a result are raising boatloads of money—and perhaps are terrible real estate operators and investment managers.  Kind of a scary combination if you think about it...