RANT and LENGTH WARNING:
As many of you know, I have spent the better part of the
last year building a highly specialized motivated seller lead generation service
catering to investors and Realtors looking for killer deals in the Metroplex.
As part of that process, last week I combed through all (and I do mean A-L-L)
the free probate marketing materials available on the Net.
I found 2 guides, 31 letters, and 5 postcard probate
marketing templates available for free download. This got me excited! As soon as
I found one template I would download it and hunt for the next one. When I had
exhausted all the resources available, I went back and began reading the
marketing our competitors are using thinking I was going to learn the secrets of great marketing.
I didn't.
To say those pieces are bad is an understatement. An understatement
kinda like when some wholesaler sends us an eFlyer with a 100% burnout on the
front and assures us “it just needs a little paint and carpet.”
Both guides are thinly veiled marketing fluff from failed
probate “gurus.” One of them even tries to sell recycled manuals AND CASETTE
TAPES from the ‘80’s.
But believe it or not, the letters and postcards are worse.
They were SO BAD I took the best six and gave them to the editor who’s doing
the second editorial pass on my book The Professional’s Guide to Real Estate Marketing.
I was curious to know what she had to say about the quality of the marketing pieces I'd found,
so I paid her to grade the letters as if they were an assignment for one of her
classes (she is a high school English teacher with a Masters in English
Composition).
For my $20 I got back four F’s, a D and a C-. The letters
had so much red ink on them they looked like refugees from a Rambo movie. And
since she is not knowledgeable about real estate investing, all she did was grade them for their grammar and basic writing skills.
I’m telling you this not to slam the authors, but for two other reasons.
First, against my better judgment, last Saturday,
immediately following the DFWREI Club’s regular meeting, I raced across town to
a “motivated seller’s open house.” You know the kind of cattle call I’m talking
about. The kind where you and a dozen other Realtors and investors are all
waiting in the yard for the owner to arrive. When he showed up he got a little
nervous when a couple of us who knew each other started shaking hands. It was
obvious to him we were friends.
While the owner was working his way through the Realtors and
investors, pumping them for all the information and offers he could get, he
asked me to have a seat and wait my turn at his kitchen table. Now most guys
would have been laser-focused on the !!FORTY-THOUSAND DOLLARS WORTH!! of junk
silver he had sitting around on the table in little coffee tins. But being the
marketing geek I am, I couldn’t help but notice the dozen of so marketing
letters the owner had laying open all over the table. Having nothing to do, I
started reading them. (I want to clarify here that I DID NOT touch or open any letters. They were laying open, scattered all over the table.)
I was surprised to see all but two (mine and another investor/Realtor friend of mine
who had just come from my DFW REI Club class) were the same letter, almost
verbatim. I was more surprised when I started thinking about how poorly the
letters were written.
The second reason I’m spewing all this out here is because I
want you to do better.
If you will just take a little time to write really good,
well thought out marketing pieces, and then use them in your real estate
marketing, you will be light years ahead of your competitors. Who, let’s face
it, are lazy and just “copying and pasting” what they find on the Internet.
Don’t
be lazy. Use hard work and creativity to stand out from the crowd and you'll win the deal.
Let me know how what else I can do to help you grow your business.
Best regards,
-Greg
Greg Wilson
The REI Mentor
http://www.reimentor.com
