Question

Topic: E-Marketing

Marketing To Realtors

Posted by Anonymous on 3/27/2009 at 7:04 AM ET 100 Points
My husband has wrote an ebook/system for real estate agents. It teaches real estate agents how to earn consistent cash from their databases/contact lists.

It is a really great system that I am really excited about and I am trying to help him market it. We are trying to find ways to reach Realtors, without spamming and without buying a list, at this time.

Any suggestions? No matter how crazy the idea may seem, we are open to anything...at the very least it will get our brains thinking in a different direction.

Thank you so much!

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RESPONSES

  • Posted by wnelson on 3/27/2009 at 8:34 AM Accepted
    Joanna,

    I have a question for you: Why does this only work for real estate agents? Other professions have deep contact lists: insurance brokers, mortgage brokers, car dealers, etc. Are they potential buyers too? If so, you may want to expand your market and marketing approach to include them. You may consider a slight modification of the book to address the specific language and circumstances of the other professions.

    There are a lot of real estate agent "systems" out there. I visited your system site. Don't take this as knocking your system - it appears to me as if it's something different from the rest I'm familiar with. But, your presentation of the system needs help.

    Your website isn't very "trust-friendly." It appears like an infomercial that teases you with "the secret system anyone can use" but says very little. Lots of testimonials, goes on forever on one page, gives away lots of bonus "gifts, and ends with the price crossed off and a one-time special price, money-back guarantee - what do you have to lose??? I'll spill a 2-liter bottle of soda and this baby will suck it up! Sham Wow! First thing I'd do is redesign that site to something that stands out better and doesn't look like Billy Mays wrote it. If you want to position your system as revolutionary in the real estate marketing system market - make it look different.

    SPAMMING is when you send unwanted emails ads. Unless you have an opt-in permission-based database of emails, any email you send will be SPAM.

    Methods for marketing are fairly well known - telemarketing - you can find real estate agent numbers pretty easily - call them. Direct mail - same here. Agent addresses are easy to get. You can do ads in chamber newsletters. Every chamber has a couple hundred realtors in it. Go to shows - every community has a home and garden show to which realtors flock. Ask to speak at local real estate associations. Give a valuable talk on a topic from your book for 20 minutes and then at the end offer the book. You can offer to go talk to larger real estate offices, too. You can do seminars - drop by real estate offices with a flier announcing your seminar. Charge them $97 dollars and they get the book as part of it. You could do webinars too - same concept. Film a viral video and put it on youtube. Make it funny enough that people will want to pass it around. A SEO and pay-per-click campaigns would probably work. I bet quite a few realtor who are in that trouble zone search for new systems. Do local cable TV ads. It's less expensive than you might think - typically a little more than a newspaper ad per month. Do a blog with valuable real estate agent info and point then to your site for the book. Do a billboard or signs on busses and taxis and bus stops.

    Well, that covers just about every marketing vehicle out there that's not email marketing. Many people look for a "magic pill" marketing technique - free, easy, absolutely effective instantly...There's not so many of those out there. Most marketing is doing the fundamentals well.

    I hope this helps.

    Wayde
  • Posted by Inbox_Interactive on 3/27/2009 at 8:36 AM Member
    Why not just use affiliate marketing for this? Have you looked at places like clickbank.com?
  • Posted by michael on 3/27/2009 at 9:46 AM Accepted
    Joanna,
    Walk into a real estate office and give them a coupon for a discount on your husband's ebook system.

    I'm amazed at the fear of "spamming" people have. They think they're spamming when they are not.

    Take a look at what the law says:

    https://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/business/ecommerce/bus61.shtm

    Michael
  • Posted on 3/27/2009 at 10:11 AM Author
    Ozdesign

    Our budget is limited right now and that is what prompted me to seek advice. From what I have read on this site, there are a lot of creative people here with fantastic advice and given our limited budget, I was looking for new ideas on how to reach Realtors. We realize that without much investment we will see zero return but it can't hurt to try to find inexpensive ways to reach our target market.

    Thank you for taking the time to respond.
    Every response is appreciated!
  • Posted on 3/27/2009 at 10:23 AM Author
    Wnelson,

    Thank you so much for a very informative reply!
    I really appreciate the feedback on the website.

    We could redesign the site to make it different, however when we get people to the site, the views to order ratio has been very good so changing the site is not high priority right now. Perhaps changing it might bring the ratio up but at this time we're taking the "don't fix what ain't broke" approach! :-)

    I agree 100% with your comment that most marketing is doing the fundamentals well. In fact, I am writing an ebook with the target audience being crafters (etsy.com, etc...) and that is a point I make, good marketing is doing the basics, well and consistently.

    I love all your suggestions and appreciate the reply!
    Very motivating!



  • Posted on 3/27/2009 at 10:25 AM Author
    Paul,

    My husband and I were just discussing this option last night. We are going to look into it.

    Thank you for the reply!
  • Posted on 3/27/2009 at 10:39 AM Author
    Michael,

    Thank you so much for the link to the law, my husband has reviewed it before but I personally have never looked it over, very informative!

    I really like your idea of going into agencies with a discount coupon. I think this is a good idea because I think "face time" with realtors, rather than their emails, would be produce some good results.

    I appreciate the reply!
    Joanna
  • Posted on 3/27/2009 at 10:43 AM Author
    Wayde,

    I forgot to mention that I agree with your suggestion that this could be geared toward other industries that also have large client databases. Absolutely!

    That is our next step...my husband plans on rewriting the system and gearing it toward other industries. This idea was born out of the downturn in the market and trying to find a way to make some income, consistently and he did what his system outlines and it was successful for him. So he started with what he knew best and wrote for Realtors. He definitely wants to expand this idea to other industries.

    Thanks again for the reply!
  • Posted on 3/27/2009 at 10:46 AM Author
    Mike,

    Thank you for the links, I will check them out.

    I appreciate the response.
    Joanna
  • Posted by telemoxie on 3/27/2009 at 1:40 PM Member
    I certainly agree with your assessment, you can certainly get quite a few creative and up-to-date ideas here at this forum.

    Since you are looking for a large number of potential ideas, I would like to suggest something somewhat old-fashioned. I would like to suggest that you and your husband spend an afternoon at your local library. Go and find the section on marketing, and you will find book after book after book about marketing, and you can quickly build a list of possibilities...

    ... and the amazing thing is, you can even take some with you at no cost.

    I do not know where you are located or how your libraries are organized, but in Montgomery County Maryland and in Fairfax County Virginia they have lots of branch libraries, but there is one designated library which has a dedicated business section, and which has both an extended set of business publications as well as librarians who specialize in business related books, publications, and helpful websites. Good luck.
  • Posted on 3/28/2009 at 6:22 PM Author
    telemoxie,

    Thank you so much for your reply.

    That is a great idea and one we have used numerous times, except we never even had to visit a public library because we darn near have one at home, filled to the max with marketing, business and real estate business, systems and books because my husband LOVES to learn and devours these books endlessly!! :-)

    But thank you so much for the idea and response, I really appreciate it!

    Joanna
  • Posted on 4/4/2009 at 6:40 AM Author
    Thanks everyone for the responses!

    Joanna
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