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If you have an established property preservation business, you may still be looking to get more clients or projects. Like any business, this lucrative and reliable business still requires marketing, especially in the first few years. Let’s take a look at the basics of property preservation business marketing, both in the beginning and on an ongoing basis to get you the clients and business you need to stay out of the red and into the green. (Don’t worry, marketing isn’t hard — it just takes a little effort on your part.) Get ready to take notes!
Marketing, in case you don’t know, is how you promote, or sell your property preservation business services and get more work from clients, banks, government agencies, or lenders that have REO properties and need your services. To market your services, you will want to do some market research online and in your service area in your city and state to make sure you start your basic marketing plan with the right information. You want to market to clients in your community, so you need to know what those clients are looking for in a business like yours. Marketing a business today usually means the following:
While marketing may not be your strong point, know that every business owner everywhere needs to know how to do it. Read on to learn the best and easiest ways to market your property preservation business, and get more business.
Here’s a great definition of marketing: Teaching clients why they should choose your services over your competitors’ services.
Starting with the short checklist in the “What is Marketing” section above, make sure you have the tools you need for a successful business. First, research.
How Should I Research My Business Market?
A good place to start is a Google search. A good one may be “How Many Foreclosed Homes” in your city, state, or service area. Again, Entrepreneurs have some great advice here. Ask yourself:
The answers to these questions should go something like this:
Once you have a website, keep it tidy and easy to get around on. No one likes a website that isn’t nice to look at or is hard to find information on. Using a free, predesigned website template from a business like Wix or Squarespace is the best place to start if you can’t afford an expensive website designer or company. These templates are pretty simple to use, even for newbies. Once your website is up and running, create social media accounts for your business on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Wix makes it easy to link your accounts to your new website.
If you can afford it right off the bat, you can advertise cheaply on Facebook through its marketing programs, and you can take out ads in real estate magazines or on websites in your area. Post on your social media accounts at least once a week to keep interest and search engine results high. You can also advertise in person, which means calling real estate organizations in your area, banks, and lenders, and preparing brochures to drop off at banks and lenders you want to work with. Last, always be friendly, helpful, and positive when you are out in your community, and make sure your property preservation business does the best work and goes the extra mile. Word will get around quickly and business will start rolling in.
The key to good marketing is not to stop just because you have enough business. You need to keep publishing on social media accounts, and adding new information to your websites. Images of completed jobs you’ve done, or even before and after pictures are a great place to start. Clients want to know about your past work before they hire you, so write up a few descriptions of difficult projects you’ve worked on and the stellar results you had.
Word-of-mouth is important in small and large communities, and every business interaction you have should be positive, with every client receiving great work from your business. Even when you’re having a bad day, try not to let it show. Clients want to know that your business is reliable and efficient, so show them that on your website and through your work. You can always up your advertising budget, go to a few foreclosure auctions, or talk to the banks and lenders in your area if you need more business. Most of all, keep trying! Successful businesses are built over years, not days or weeks — the longer your business is around, the more clients you’ll have and the more you’ll learn.
The best, and the cheapest, place to find clients is online. You can do this initial marketing from home or when you are out and about using libraries or internet cafes. Your focus needs to be realtors, specifically those who specialize in bulk foreclosure listings.
One website showing HUD (Housing and Urban Development) realtors is HUD Homestore, where you can search by zip code or location. This is not a quick or easy task, but it is an essential process to enable you to build a database of potential clients.
You want to target these realtors because they deal in primarily foreclosures, and often realtors who specialize in foreclosures have many properties, not just one or two. You need to constantly market yourself hard to these realtors and their brokers. You can start with a letter of introduction, then send reminder postcards and holiday cards. Follow up with phone calls and friendly emails. In this way, you will be the first company they think of when it comes to foreclosure cleanup.
None of this is difficult, but it takes time and you have to repeat, repeat, repeat. It’s no use contacting them once and expecting them to remember you. Remind them you are out there, constantly. Let them know you are the one-stop shop for foreclosure cleanup.
Many of the realtors you contact may own their own small maintenance-type companies, but don’t be deterred by this. Often, they can’t do everything themselves and may still need your services.
Investors and landlords can form a large part of your client base, so search the internet for investment groups in your local area and target them with mailings and phone calls. You could also attend some of their networking meetings to get your face known. Both new and experienced landlords will need your services. Look for landlord networking groups and make contact with them often so that your company remains at the forefront of their minds.
Mortgage companies can be contacted directly for work in your local area. Many of these companies may not need you immediately, but as with realtors, you want them to remember you first. Flood your area and your target zip codes with your company’s information so you are known as the company to call for foreclosure cleanup in your area.
Don’t hesitate to contact real estate owned (REO) bank departments in your area directly (most banks have an REO department). Ask who their REO division contact is. Sometimes this information is hard to get, but it’s worth persevering. Once you have a contact, send him or her your literature so they have it on file. It is worth noting, however, that most banks already have a list of realtors that they use to handle their REO properties, and these realtors will find companies like yours to do the work for them.
Note: In this industry, many banks and mortgage companies prefer not to use the word “foreclosure” to describe their distressed assets. Instead, they will use words like “REO” or “bank owned.”
You can always get new customers by asking for them. When you sell goods to an existing customer, or finish offering a service, ask that existing customer to refer your service to someone else. You can do this in several ways. Here are some tips to get you thinking about ways to ask for referrals for your company:
Another way to get new buyers for your company is to network. Get out there and meet people, whether in a formal setting, like a Chamber of Commerce small business meeting, or in an informal gathering, like a barbecue in a colleague’s backyard.
There are some rules to follow for effective networking.
