Marketing for Leads: Direct Mail or SEO?

[Matthew Rembish]

Being a full time Flipper from NJ, I’ve been getting very frustrated with the MLS lately. Even with having some of the best agents in my area, I haven’t even come close to landing a deal in over 2 months, and I’ve come down pretty far on my profit criteria. I feel it’s finally time to bite the bullet and start marketing but after doing tons of research, I feel the paralysis and I am still not 100% set on which direction to go. I was originally thinking direct mail but have heard it’s very saturated right now. I’ve also been looking into creating a website and going the SEO route but I know this takes time to optimize. I am interested in the services of Investor Carrot and would be interested in hearing any experience a local East Coast Investor has with them. Do I start a website and drive leads to it with direct mail, SEO, PPC, or something else? Maybe I should try everything for a trial period and see what works best... Just wanted to throw this out there to see what is working for others and if there is anyone that could push me in the right direction. I’m currently on my 7th flip and would like to increase volume over the next 6 months but the MLS just isn’t going to cut it.

[Michael Quarles]

Originally posted by @McKinley Crowley:

@Matthew Rembish I would try direct mail combined with ringless voicemail. The responses with this combination are on fire right now (and I know for a fact that includes the east coast). If you want to chat more about this message me. Cheers!

Hi Matthew,  I agree with McKinley. Having a service that does both I know first hand works very well however I will caution you to use RVM for follow-up and not solicitation.  And the huge issue with RVM when its the first contact is that the phone list providers are not as accurate as in the old days of landlines so follow-up RVMs insures a much greater drop rate. Not to mention it pisses a lot of folks off to get a VM from a stranger. DM does too but not at the rate of RVMs. 

As @Ehsan Rishat mentioned SEO and PPC work well in unison too. 

Business is all about Lean generation, Lead Capture, Lead Nurturing and Lead Fulfillment. I wouldnt limit my marketing to DM, RVM, SEO, PPC. 

The reality is that youll find a ton of deals in your cell phone and not have to spend a dime on any of the above mentioned marketing ideas if you would just call your friends and family and ask who they know who needs to sell. 

Visit open houses, they want to sell, Visit unlawful detainer hearings... there will be sellers in that room. Call all of the FRBOers on Zillow in your area. 

Of the hundreds upon hundreds of houses I have bought I have only bought one from off the MLS   and I am a Broker in California with access to a few Boards. 

Successful business is all about a paradigm shift. Most of us want to, need to, hope to and wish that we become successful. Change those four words to REQUIRE and *hit will get done.