It is no secret that marketing is responsible for much of your success in real estate investing today. However, it isn’t just about how great your marketing pieces look or even how spectacular your copy is. In order to reach your maximum real estate investing potential and realize the best ROI you need to be sure that you are marketing to the right crowd.
This isn’t just a secret niche group you read about in a book or where the news headlines say you should be focusing. Marketing to the right crowd is something that is fluid and changes depending on a number of factors. Yes, building a brand and honing in on a niche is important but if you really want your real estate investing business to be all it can be in the New Year you have to be flexible too.
For example throughout much of 2011 the media has pushed the message that first time home buyers are the biggest pool of buyers to go after. However, recently released data shows that as a percentage of all real estate transactions, first time home buyers have actually shrunk from a traditional 50% to closer to just 30%. Plus home ownership remains the highest among the oldest generations.
When deciding who to market your real estate investing services and deals to you may also want to take a look around and see who your competition is targeting. Just because they are doing something and it ‘appears’ to be a success, doesn’t mean that it is. Plus you may want to avoid a head to head confrontation with those that have bigger budgets than you do.
Then look at who has money and who is moving at any given time of the year and plan your marketing well in advance, including reserving appropriate vanity numbers and web domain names. For example, tourists may be big second home buyers during the winter, middle class workers may be flush with cash for down payments at tax time, families tend to move during the summer and executives and bankers are often loaded with year end bonuses in December.
