Marketers measure response rate of their advertising: the percentage of the total prospects which respond to the advertisement.
For instance, let’s say that you send out 1,000 direct mail pieces and receive 20 calls. You have a 2% response rate.
The higher the response rate the more effective the marketing which translates to either lower costs or higher revenue.
Here are 3 tips to increase your response rates.
The first is an obvious one, yet missed by most marketers in our industry: Brand Your Company. Develop a brand name and use it in all your marketing to separate yourself from the competition.
In every other industry that I can think of, companies brand themselves. For instance: Visa; John Deere; Marriott; Mercedes Benz; Armani, etc. Even gangs have brand names and colors to distinguish themselves.
For some reason, the real estate investor community decided to advertise under the “We Buy Houses” umbrella making it impossible for motivated sellers to separate from investor from another.
Here’s an interesting fact about marketing in any industry: In the absence of any other criteria, a consumer will use brand familiarity as their sole basis for selection.
In other words, if they don’t know how else to evaluate a company or product, they’ll select the one they have heard of previously.
Doesn’t it make sense to give yourself the extra advantage of building brand familiarity and distinguish yourself from the competition?
The second tip is to dial into WIIFM. What’s In It For Me?
The question that all of your marketing should answer for the prospect is the question that is foremost in their mind.
Understand that as they review your ads their mind is quickly processing the information and they are thinking “So what? Who cares? What’s in it for me?
If you don’t answer that question, they will never respond.
Here is an example of a WIIFM statement:
You’ll never pay fees or commissions when I buy your house. You receive the full benefit of the sale price. We can close in as little as 14 days or we can wait until you have found your new home. It’s your choice.
The third and final tip has to with the fact that people like to do business with people. When you add a picture of yourself to the marketing piece, you become real to your prospects. They are no longer dealing with a company, they are dealing with YOU.
And when you show up in person or talk to your prospect on the phone, they feel like they already know you. It helps break own the barriers. I’m willing to bet most of your competition isn’t putting their face on their marketing!
Implement these tips and watch your response rates soar.
Expect abundance,
Lou Castillo
P.S. Did you know that you can see the archive of all my articles by selecting the “Home” tab above or by going to www.InvestorRiches.com
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