Do I Need A Full Marketing Package?

Question

Hi Ladies & Gents.I've been reading through the marketing section of this forum as I'm trying to help my old man take his real estate business into the 21st century, but I'm conflicted with all the awesome info.We've had an offer that is similar to the InvestorCarrots Site but without the pre written content that carrots offer.It's quite pricey and I'm wondering If i should just DIY the process.So here's my question - What is the quickest online method for lead generation(I understand if you don't want to share)

Should I do EVERYTHING or focus on something else online?Email Marketing, Opt In Landing Pages, SEO, Multiple Websites under one brand name, Linkedin, Facebook pages, Twitter, Youtube.......*Takes a breath* and everything else or should I just cough up to £1295 a month and let this agency do it all for us and wait for results???Thank you all for any kind of help.

Rick H. · Answer

Welcome to BP.

Such a small question but is really impossible to answer as posted.

Not clear if your Dad's business is real estate investments, lending, rentals or if you are "estate agents" which means something different here.

If you want to help your Dad, bringing his business online is only a small part of the equation.  As previously asked, you need to be more clear about his business model(s) and his target markets. It's also helpful to know something about how he has historically marketed, his strategies and preferred advertising methods.

You could easily do more damage and create a big sink hole of expenses and projects if not careful. I strongly suggest you tell you Dad to keep his money in his pocket for now until he is clear about who he wants to reach and how is best to reach them.

For example, I market through three primary sales funnels, each designed to reach the target prospect. One system is B2B and markets to and through trusted advisory who, in turn, direct their clients to contact us to perform our services. Lead generation is accomplished via offline ads as well as paper and ink mailing. They are directed to go online. The same website is set up to provide lots of content but requires the visitor to self-select as a way of qualifying and educating them before they get to talk to anyone. This is what a sales funnel diagram does for you to see graphically.

Here are some U.S. Based resources to study: Jay Abraham, Rich Scheffren, Dan Kennedy, Perry Marshsll, to name but a few. You'll better serve your Father by looking at his business from a strategic perspective rather than merely adding technology and automation.

Gene Hacker · Answer

That is a ton of money with no real guaranteed results.  If you really want web traffic...for the long term, build (or have someone build) a SEO website.  A website is really a work in progress.  Overtime your rankings will increase with time if you play by Google rules.

For immediate results, learn how to set up your own effective Google Ad Words campaign.  For £1295 you can buy a TON of ads....you could likely make sure you were on top of every local search result page for your target key words for much less than that.  The key is to learn how to focus on your local area either by limiting the geographical area, or adding specific locations to each targeted key word.  It only takes a few hours to learn the basics to really dial in an Adwords account.  The adwords help will try to get you go broad, you will get tons of traffic but it will not be targeted.  Its all about learning how to get on your target...then paying what ever it takes to dominate it.

Nicole Pettis · Answer

@Steve Agile What kind of real estate is he in? Is he an investor or agent?

As for your questions, I am sure there will be others that have had more experience at this than me, however I think you should start out small. What I have learned after listening to the podcasts and reading how others market for properties, they say that yellow letters are the best, followed by consistency, meaning sending those suckers out every few weeks and then a website with a lead generation opt in.

There is a lot of information on this site for yellow letters, as for the site I would suggest Wordpress. It is awesome(there are plugins for SEO and all those other things that those companies offer) and a lot less expensive. Also there is a huge selection of customizable templates that you can use to build a site. I would also include a blog, just to show expertise and experience and it helps with SEO.

As always facebook and twitter are good to have. But overall you really have to hone in on who your target market is. Just make sure your branding stays consistent throughout.

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Nicole

Steve Agile · Answer

Sorry for being Vague and thank you for the great answers so far.He sells overseas investment properties and land lots in Florida etc.Rick H. There's quite a bit that overwhelmed me:Their offer is basically to set up a lead gen site for us, optimized for SEO etc, they've just offered to write blog posts once a week for seo, set up all of our social media profiles and manage them - Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare etc, create white papers for us, set up landing pages for all our ads, organize retargetting ads to "stalk people around the web" in their words, set up mailchimp mailing system with branded email templates and create a autorespondor to educate our buyer over time.....It all seems to be online stuff.What they're offering seems like it would take me a hell of a lot of time and if I outsourced it, probably the same amount of money. If we hired someone to do it inhouse the cost of a salary would most likely exceed the 1295 per month to have it done effectively :/

Jerred Morris · Answer

@Steve Agile SEO is legit and it does work.  Google likes to change the rules because google doesn't make any money off of organic listings.  They make money off of Adwords.

No one can guarantee you results.  The best way to approach this is from a business view.  Look at your market and determine how many distressed sales come available per year.  Then determine what you're average profit is per transaction.  Next up you need to determine what you are willing to spend on the acquisition of your deal.

Keep in mind that you're not in a traditional business.  It's difficult to forecast a linear deal flow because distressed sales happen when a distressed situation occurs.

I use a blend of web leads, direct mail, and signs.

John D. · Answer

"retargeted marketing which includes Facebook news feed advertising?"  It's not free, but it can be really cheap given you are retargeting a really small audience.

"SEO has never seemed legit to me"  SEO is legit.  Produce good content that people want, and google will list it appropriately.  With that said, it takes lots of effort to produce good content, and for google to recognize it's good.  There used to be SEO shortcuts.  These days you need to provide really useful and valuable stuff.  It takes time and effort.

Steve Agile · Answer

ps, you guys are awesome for the advice :) thank you for what you have given so far.

Steve Agile · Answer

@John D.

They say that they include retargeted marketing which includes Facebook news feed advertising?? I assuming they can't do this for free as Facebook would never let you get away with free advertising?@Jerred Morris

Apparently they do work with other overseas RE firms like us, they "started in the email marketing game and branched out based on customer needs"I guess i'm just a bit dubious about the whole thing.SEO has never seemed legit to me as Google are constantly changing the rules right?There is also no mention of Guaranteed results, would you ask for X amount of guaranteed leads per month / quarter for a set price of ongoing work?

Jerred Morris · Answer

@Steve Agile Ask them if they work with any Real Estate companies and get references.  It would be great if they had experience with RE.

If you want instant leads then you'll need some type of paid media.  Make sure you have a narrow keyword list and focus on geo locations.

I didn't see where they were going to do any link building or local citations.  I would ask them about that and get specific activities.

You should see results within 90 days or so.  If they're not able to rank a site in that time for a couple of keywords+ then I'd look for a different company.

Make sure you own everything they do, including the link building.  Make sure you ask about that.

Do I Need A Full Marketing Package?

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