Best methods for getting leads

[Henry Montgomery III]

This one is for the wholesalers on bigger pockets. What marketing strategies (postcards, yellow letters, Craigslist, direct phone calls, etc.) result in the most amount of leads for you?

[Kim Tucker]

Ok I am going to go against the grain - DIRECT MAIL SUCKS - I still do it, but it does not generate half the leads my website does.  However in conjunction with a good website, Direct Mail is better.

As an investor I get  a TON of direct mail as I am an absentee owner and I always look on the card or letter for a website so I can learn more about the buyer - no go - most don't have websites.  I look for an email so I can email them as I don't want to talk to anyone yet, I want to get to know them better.  Most direct mail pieces are lacking that.  My only option is to call.

So I call - and the voice mail is full.  (I call a lot of bandit signs to find voice mail full as well)

So here is what I recommend:

At one point I just went for the awesome website, however in the past two to three years all my competition caught up with me - at one point my website was ranking higher the HomeVestors and other big companies, not any longer - we are all jocking for position on Google.

So now I have to work at it!  Here's what I do:

Have an Awesome Website - I at one point built my own, recently I switched to a good online marketing company that provides websites for investors and my conversion rates went through the roof.

Be Personal - be personal and local on your website so it can be different from everyone else and so the sellers can connect with you and see you know what you are doing

Free Info - have information on situations that sellers face, this will build credibility and if you can have a few free reports they can request.

Craigslist Ads - post ads on craigslist daily - there is a special trick to getting them to show up and to get people going to your website - I am still perfecting, but I am sure craigslist will change their rules about the time I figure this out.

Facebook - you need to have a well rounded facebook business page optimized and posted to regularly. Very good tool - if not the best - for me at least in building a buyers list. Second only to face to face networking at the local REIA meetings and Meetups.

Then Direct Mail - here I have several different key  lists of people that I market to and no absentee owner lists is not it - my target is people who have owned their property a long time and usually an owner occupied owner is better, that is downsizing, moving to a nursing home, or recently passed away.  My target is really old people and deceased people and their heirs.

So I have special reports targeting downsizing, selling mom and dads house and dealing with inherited houses.

You need to know that you need to send more than one marketing piece.  That if you are mailing absentee owners, half the time the house you are mailing about was sold last year.  And the motivated seller who needs to sell TODAY is not waiting for you to send them a post card, they are on Google finding your competition.  

Where direct mail really helps is for that elderly person who saves everything and puts your marketing piece away - no one else sent them anything, but you sent them 4 or 5 letters and postcards and they tucked them away for later when they down size.  Then when the time comes, 6 months or 3 years later, they or their heirs call you and you get an awesome deal that no one else knows about.

It also gets people who are receiving your marketing to go to your website and 6 months later, through the magic of cookies, seo and retargeting, those people come back - and this some how helps you with search engine ranking - the relevant traffic to your website from the postcards you mail out.

Google / Facebook Ads - my new website company offers an easy way to be a big company and put cookies on peoples computers every time they visit my site.  These cookies tell google and facebook that these folks have been to my web page and when google or facebook shows them an ad, it just might be mine as they have already been to my website - this is retargeting - and it is how you see that ad for what ever the day after you were browsing that website for what ever.

Now you will have to excuse me - I need to go do may daily Craigslist ads and Interact a bit on Facebook.

BTW - Facebook is awesome at generating investor buyer leads, craigslist and the website generate the seller leads.