How to Create a Marketing Plan for Buying PreForeclosures

              Now that you know where you can get a list of PreForeclosure properties, how are you going to market to them?  Everyone always asks me “what marketing methods work best for you?”  I love answering this question, because the answer is simple: a little bit of everything.

              If there’s one thing that I’ve learned about marketing to PreForeclosures, it’s that there’s no magic silver bullet that is going to guarantee you success.  You really have to test, tinker, try and most importantly implement multiple different strategies to market to PreForeclosure properties.

              Different people respond to different types of marketing, so you need to have a nice balance of all different mediums so that homeowners know that you offer a service to help them stop foreclosure.

              For starters, I like to use direct mail, both letters and postcards.  I can contact a lot of people using direct mail, and mail to them repeatedly.  As many people in the direct mail business will tell you, it’s all about repetition and numbers.  In other words, even the biggest Fortune 500 companies in America are ecstatic when their direct mail campaigns generate a response rate of greater than 3%!  You have to be patient and stick to your plan in direct mail.  Don’t give up if you mail to 100 homeowners and don’t get a great response.

              Repetition is also a huge factor when implementing a direct mail campaign.  Don’t just mail to the homeowner once (in fact if that is your current plan, I would tell you to save your time and money and not even bother).  Multiple mailings are best, in other words, mail to the same homeowner four, five, six, even seven times!  Make sure you space out these mailings and test your different mailers to see which pieces have the best pull.

              I also like print advertising as a way to mix up my mediums.  I do not, however, recommend your city’s largest daily newspaper.  It’s expensive, and our testing has found that these ads don’t pull well.  Instead, we prefer to use smaller, local community newspapers, along with papers such as the “Penny Saver” and the “Thrifty Nickel.”

              Bandit signs can be a fantastic, inexpensive method to get your phone ringing as well.  Signs placed at strategic intersections are sure to be seen by many people.  Before hanging any signs, however, you want to make sure that you’re in compliance with your local government ordinances. 

              In today’s Internet age, you’ve also got to have a website to better market your business and reach your prospects.  Ask yourself this question: how do you feel about a company when you ask them for their website address and they don’t have one?  Our online strategies are detailed in further articles, but suffice it to say, you need a website for your business.

              There is no one magic way to market to PreForeclosure prospects that works the best: different people respond to different types of marketing.  Some go online, some are offline, but if you have a nice combination of both you can quickly brand yourself in your local market.