Marketing Principles for Real Estate Renegades

Let's face it, there are a few advertising tricks that almost everybody in the real estate business knows about: business cards, fliers, classifieds, canvassing, cold calling, bandit signs, and internet marketing, to name just a few. A renegade is someone who operates outside of ordinary standards in order to produce greater than ordinary results. Being a renegade means both using such conventional marketing tools in unconventional ways as well as taking advantage of unconventional marketing tools whenever possible.

In this article we will examine some of the unconventional marketing tools that most real estate investors don't even know about, let alone implement.

In many businesses it is possible to team up with businesses that offer related products to advertise to the same market. This is what's known as fusion marketing, or partnership marketing. In real estate the same principle applies. This means that you network and team up with as many title companies, attorneys, inspectors, appraisers, contractors, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, and other real estate professionals as you can to channel referral business. When you team up with a real estate professional who provides a related service to trade referrals, you both win.

Brand marketing is usually not practical for the new investor just starting in business, but once you have a recognizable brand name and an appreciable marketing budget, one way to get your company in people's awareness and on their minds is with free gifts like pens, calendars, mouse pads, or similar novelty items printed with your company's logo and contact information. This won't necessarily generate a flood of calls or website visits right away, but the residual effect of distributing many of these over an extended period of time can add up.

Since it's easier to sell to a previous satisfied client than to a new prospect, most of your marketing efforts should be directed towards your existing client base. Staying in touch with your clients through regular phone, email, and or postal mail by sending thank you notes, updates, or just asking how they're doing can make it so you only have to devote a fraction of your energy to generating new clients. Renegades know that the fortune is in the followup.

Renegades also know that existing satisfied clients can also help you generate business in another way, by providing referrals and testimonials. Make a habit of collecting testimonials from satisfied clients as well as encouraging them to send you referral business by offering different types of rewards and incentives and you will never lose sleep over worrying about where your business is going to come from.

From a marketing perspective, the more people who know you the better. One way to get to know lots of people, and get them to know you, is to get involved in projects and events within your larger community, in addition to your local community of real estate professionals. The more people recognize you the more opportunities there will be for business to come your way.

Community involvement can also be a great way to generate publicity, which can get you a large amount of exposure for practically no cost. For example, if you are in business as a rehabber and you donate a large amount of construction materials to a local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, don't you think this would be a newsworthy event that some local reporter would be eager to do a feature piece on?

Being a renegade means keeping an open mind and an active imagination to identify and exploit the methods that most people fail to see. This list should be merely a starting point for you to develop your own renegade marketing arsenal.