Changing my Marketing Strategy

[Chris Vaught]

I'm not a marketing aficionado and I really like reading posts from the people that are, so I look forward to your tips and advice on this one.  We read all the time that real estate is about relationships, and it's easy to see that the best run businesses, both from the Pros here on BP, from the best RE companies nationwide, and really any business, are the ones with the best networks.

With that in mind, I'm going to stop marketing to look for deals and start marketing to build relationships.  As some have said, real estate is sometimes a lonely world, and having relationships with people in all facets of the business not only help make it sustainable, but also more enjoyable.

So, how to build relationships - that's kind of a tricky question.

-Attend REIA meetings

-Contribute on BP

-Talk to people about RE

-Add value to people's lives

All of these things have been talked about before, but I still see marketing posts geared solely towards finding deals and I'm believing that that's only half the battle.  Deals can build relationships, but relationships will bring you deals.

Despite all the successes I've heard about with direct mail, I've never fully bought into it.  I've read a lot of posts about building relationships with probate leads, but not nearly as much with absentee owners.  Either way, with as much direct mail as some owners get from us these days, it seems important to come across as someone who is trustworthy enough to work with - another relationship.  I think my uneasiness about direct mail is how to prove I can be trusted while blindly yelling I want to buy your house!

I find it fascinating when I read posts from folks on here who don't send any mail and get all or most of their deals by word of mouth.  It's really a goal of mine.

So at the end of this post, I guess this is more of a discussion post than a question post.  There are tons of posts talking about ways to market (ie direct mail, bandit signs, Craigslist, auctions, etc, etc) and I'm not really looking to build on those posts.  I'd love to hear from people smarter than me about any kinks in my logic regarding building a solid network and direct mail, and also about other marketing strategies that encourage correspondence that lasts longer than I want to buy your house.