Horrible Marketing Perfected

June 26, 2008

It all started yesterday…I was driving home from the office when I noticed a bandit sign (those signs on the side of the road). It read “FREE Foreclosure Bus Tour.” (I was thinking this was a way to get names for a seminar or maybe an investor looking for buyers.)

So being the student of marketing and processes I am, I called the number. I was greeted by someone rather quickly. Not bad I thought. But then I was transferred where I had to wait for a few minutes.

Sound familiar?

Then, I was greeted by a realtor who forgot my name and started rambling on about how great their company is and it being covered by all the TV stations over the weekend. Finally, she told me to send her an email to get more information.

“Me send you an email? You should be begging for my email address!” I thought.

The one thing she did right was ask for my phone number.

Lot to digest? Let’s review…

1. Bandit signs are one of the best (and least expensive) marketing methods for real estate investors and people selling houses. Now I’m seeing a lot of them for credit repair and debt consolidation, so they must be working for them as well. They don’t work for every business but for most they do.

The only challenge is that they are tedious to put out and the “sign police” and your competition end up taking them down. But don’t be foolish to let that stop you.

2. The people that actually do call are hot leads, so you better capture them. Yesterday, the lady asked me to send her an email. Yeah right, I’m driving around in my car and I’m going to remember to send you an email. Foolish.

If you’re on my list, then you’ve heard from me every day. Reality is, if you stopped by my website and I didn’t entice you with some free stuff, you wouldn’t have given me your name and email. But that’s just the begriming!

It’s my job to follow up with you and build a relationship. Obviously, this lady didn’t read the same books I did. Truth be told, not many people do. It’s the people that do who are most successful!

3. AUTOMATE! With technology being so cheap these days, it’s easy to get your own call center. Lord knows I wouldn’t be taking these calls. I would have driven these calls to a call center to collect their information: name, email, address, phone, how you heard about us.

All this stuff can be emailed to you and plugged into your database.

4. This company has a huge hole in their pocket. Normally, I would say good job just for getting out there and getting started but I’m sure this is some big dumb company. Let’s just take a look at all the costs they just paid…and they still don’t have me as a lead…

- Bandit Sign printing
- Labor to put signs in ground
- Phone Call
- TIME! This is their biggest expense! Deciding on bandit signs, managing the labor, picking up the phone, conversation with me, lost time on a much bigger revenue producing activity!

Wow! Next time you see a bandit sign, call it and see how they’re marketing. Maybe you’ll actually find someone who’s got it figured out!