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When we are on social media platforms we hear all the buzz about Facebook and Google marketing.  They are great platforms for sure.  But for some businesses, it is not that simple.  So here is a little bit of technology but old school marketing.  All it does is take some time, a little money and creativity.

In the old days it was the MLS sales catalog they had next to the newspapers at the store, you may remember the FREE take one’s.  Fast forward to now,  we have so much more with Redfin, Zillow and the like.

You can take a virtual tour, meet all the players and get some good marketing insight if you know what and how to look at it.

Let’s look at the boring stats before we get into the meat of the tactic.  It helps to know the numbers…always know the numbers.

Arrow A Section:

40 plus homes sold per day.  How can you position your business service so you can target 10 or 20% of them?  Maybe target 80% with four different offers. Based on what you see when doing the research.

Arrow B Section:

This gives you an average home price, which in turn gives you an estimate, of your prospects average income or range.

When targeting Facebook demographics, figure 40% of the cost of the home as your target income range.  A $200,000 home would be $80,000 income.  Go up and down a bit in your targeting.

Arrow C Section:

The square foot price should give you an indicator of the value of your service.  In this article’s example below, there is a sq. ft. spread from $50-275.  Place your service offer in front of those that are in the same market share value as your business.

No sense being that company known for apartment flip paintings and trying to sell yourself as the mansion artist.  Not saying you can’t rework or segment your business model, but be true to your business…be you.

Arrow E Section:

90 days on the market average, this should tell you about how long you have to get in front of them and also an angle to market your service with a time frame.  If a home is on the market for a long time, you can send a sales letter using that information.  Their pain may be selling that home and your service may solve that pain and help sell it.

Arrow F Section:

You can see the average number offers and figure out how to use this to your advantage.  When looking at the history of a certain home, you see how long it was on the market vs. how many views vs. how much the price has been adjusted, etc.    Again, information is valuable.

Arrow G Section:

Going with the average selling price and these figures, we see that most home buyers have $50,000 plus for the down payment or 27%.  So, it would appear there is some income or budgeting involved. There may be some left for upgrades and improvements.

These images below are a wealth of information.  This marketing tactic answers the who, what, where, when and why.  I will explain how.

In this image you will see I did not do any filters as to price, size, style etc.  Let’s look at the highlights to get started.

Volume:

We see there are 5264 homes for sale.  What percentage of these can you market to?

Value:

The value per sq. ft. for this area is on the high side, this is a good indicator that pricing your service with value in mind will be good for the seller and the new home owner.

Contact:

If you want to work the realtor angle you can or you can only work the homeowner as you now have the address to mail to.  Hint:  Work both.  Find the realtor on Facebook and message them directly and ask them to like your page.  Also, tell them what you do and what your offer is.  Network.

Critical Date:

They have an Open House coming up.  If you spot any damage or repairs that align with your service offer, wouldn’t it be important to get it fixed before the Open House?  Use that to your advantage.

Stress first impressions on anyone coming to look at buying the house, the fact you picked out the damage from an internet image says a lot.  The realtor wants to do is sell a house, if you position yourself as the go through pre sale business and fix things, they will most likely refer you to all their sellers.  If it makes their job easier, the love it.

Filters:

Use those filters to target the types of homes that need your service.  In this example I only did five (Price,  number of bathrooms, when it was built, yard size and square footage).

The price is upper middle so they should have money, the number of bathrooms is a personal favorite because it opens up plumbing, tile, painting work and is the most remodeled room in a home.

When it was built opens up services too.  This home is 12 years old. Hot water heaters start to go (Plumbing) heaters should be serviced (HVAC) Paint and drywall need to be touched up (Painting) Floor may be worn or dirty (Flooring/Cleaners)

Yard size is an important filter if you are a landscaper (touch-ups), fencing (repairs), etc.

Sqaure footage the bigger the home the more things to repair.

Anyway, use the filters to find what fits your service.  The ideas will pop up, I promise.

Mailing Address:

You should have a CRM started for your business, if not get one now.  Try Hubspot it is free and the one I use for my clients and myself.

Use this mailing address to…well, mail them.  Put this house in your CRM and even if you don’t get any work from the realtor or homeowner who is selling, you have invested time in looking at this property and when it changes hands, the new owner may use you and you kind of know the house and what service it needs.

Location:

You can use this for door hangers, flyers, etc.  If you have a copy of this in your truck or van when you are driving through the area, drop off a flyer.  As you can see here, most are in one location, take advantage of that close routing and the chance of word of neighborly mouth.

NOTE:  You can use Google Adwords by the location.

I picked four things up right from the first image of this property.  For a few grand, those things that stick out could be fixed and the house would show better and sell faster and for a better price.  That is how you have to sell it too.  This is a $460,000 a few grand now or $20,000 less on the offer.

What do you see and how could you use this to offer your services.

This deck is going to need to be washed, maybe a staining too.  I bet a few of those wood spindles are loose.

A little mulch and a few snips of the pruners would do wonders.  Landscapers should be selling home sale spruce up services.  There are over 5,000 homes for sale in this area.  If you got 1% of curb appeal spruce ups that would be 50 projects.

Painters here is a foot in the door.  When you see bold colors in a major room, think of selling a neutral color painting.  You may not get a bite on the first offer to do it.  But, as time goes on, this may be an objection from buyers.

Now, how do you use all this for marketing.

CRM:

If you don’t have a database, you need one.  Start logging this into your database.  This gives you someone to mail to and you kind of know the house right?  If you don’t get a bite from the realtor or seller, you can still get the buyer to use your services by mailing them a postcard after it sells.

Direct Sales Letters:

You have the realtor and the home address.  So  write up a specific detailed letter for this one property.  You can use it just like an email marketing sequence, only by snail mail.  This is not the time or place to send a postcard.  You want to point out the things you see and the service you provide.

Facebook

So many ways to use Facebook, but here is the short answer.  Run an ad targeting new homeowners do it by zip code.  The realtor most likely has a FB page, get them to like your page.  DM them and pitch your service.  The first law in the Laws of Attraction is ASK.

Direct Response

Keep a simple folder in your vehicle with the map locations, when you are in the neighborhood, you can do one of three things.  Flyer, door hanger or knock on the door and ASK.

NOTE:  If what you do is on the interior of the house DO NOT knock and pitch and say I saw online your purple paint.  But you can say, if you need anything painted or touched up.  Only say what you can visually see from the curb.

Networking

This is another way to build a network.  With realtors, I know most hate the realtors but they are a piece of the puzzle and like customers there are some good ones to network with.  Also, the selling and buying homeowners.  That seller is possibly moving into another house in the area and the buyer may need more work done.  Thing community.  The more that know you around the longer you will be around to do business.

Mailing List

Although this is a snail mail list, it will turn into an email list (which you should have).  You should have no less than 100 people on your list and the bigger the better.  Going by the numbers and marketing averages, this is how it pans out.

100 people mailed once a month @ $.75 = $75.00 a month or $900 a year.

100 @ 2% conversion (the lowest rate my sales letters have gotten) so two jobs a month or 24 jobs a year.  What is two jobs worth?  Enough to cover the mailed list.  Not counting the indirect work you will get.  A neighbor sees you working, more work while you’re there, yada yada.

Think LTV (Life Time Value)

Hope this article was helpful.  If you need any more help with your marketing feel free to email me at RJCooper@ContractorMarketingNetwork.com

I am a Hubspot (Inbound/Sales Funnel), Google (Adwords/Analytics) and Facebook (Ad) certified marketing consultant.

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