Download MP3

Dear Friend,

This week we’re going to look at something I was shocked to see when I looked at the results for last weeks poll.

What shocked me was how little people are spending on advertising.

Nearly 80% of responders are spending LESS than $500 a month, with almost half spending less than $100.

But that totally lines up with the results from a few weeks ago where we found out that nearly 80% of responders have less than 3 listings.

I came across a couple of quotes I thought were especially appropriate this week.

The first quote is from Ben Franklin who said:

“He that would catch a fish — must be willing to venture his bait”

Meaning…if you’re going to catch a fish, you’ve got to be willing to put up your bait to do it…

The next quote is from PT Barnum who said: “You can’t catch a whale using a minnow for bait.”

I know why you spend so little on advertising, and it’s because of the level of confidence you have in what you’re spending the money on.

Most people don’t have the confidence that the money they spend on advertising is even going to get them a return OF their investment let alone a return ON their investment.

Have you ever heard someone say that if I just do one transaction it will more than pay for itself when they’re talking about some fancy marketing scheme they’re going to try?

Maybe you’ve said it yourself.

Stop thinking like that…and start focusing on learning how to create advertising that multiplies itself instead of paying for itself.

How much more money would you be willing to spend on advertising if you KNEW that you would get $5 back for every $1 you spend.

How about $10 for every dollar?

Not hope but confidence.

When you focus on implementing low cost lead generation strategies focused on a single target market, it’s not uncommon to get returns of 30 or 50 to 1 on every dollar you spend on them.

I want you to take the mindset that you’re in the Money Multiplication business, and it just so happens that the vehicle you’ve chosen to multiply money is your real estate
business.

and that’s a completely different mindset for a lot of people.

I’m hoping that you’re interested in approaching your real estate business as a business and not just a job.

It’s this Business-like mindset that will free you up to make real money.

So, let’s talk about Advertising this week. Specifically, let’s talk about advertising and what it’s role is in your business.

So let’s start with your purpose for advertising. The real purpose of advertising is to MULTIPLY money.

Not to spend money on getting your name out there. Not to keep within a monthly “advertising budget”.

The real purpose of advertising is to take a little bit of money, and SKILLFULLY and INTENTIONALLY turn it into MORE money.

Advertising done right is one of the best opportunities available to truly create wealth in your business…starting from nothing.

In order to start looking at advertising as a tool instead of an expense, we’ve got to look at some of the misconceptions and mistakes people make that prevent them from multiplying their money…and in most cases actually cause them to LOSE their money.

Most of these mistakes are because of a faulty mindset.

So, I’m going to share the biggest mistakes I see every day, and then give you a winning mindset to eliminate that mistake.

Money Losing Mistake #1:
Trying to do too much with your advertising

Money Multiplying Mindset #1:
Treat each target market as an individual campaign.

By far the most common and costly mistake I see people making with their advertising is trying to get it to do too much.

The biggest cause of this is not wanting to leave anybody out.

It happens geographically, and demographically.

This starts out innocently enough with setting the boundaries of where you’re WILLING to go to help people. It may be that you live in a town surrounded by 4 other towns, and you (in the past) may have helped someone buy a home in ll of those towns, so you
decide THAT is your target market.

All of your county…and the next county over.

Or all of the “Bay Area” for instance. I recently talked with someone on a Web clinic who worked the entire San Francisco Bay area…and didn’t want to narrow it down at all.

She didn’t get that even though you CAN work in all those areas, it isn’t the most profitable way to approach it.

People who are looking for a house have very SPECIFIC ideas. The very best prospects do anyway.

Think about how people would talk about looking for a home to their friends and co-workers. They wouldn’t say “yeah we’re going to buy a home in The Bay Area”…and they certainly wouldn’t say”we’re going to buy a home in Northern California.”

You have to understand that people think much more narrow than that. They probably are going to say “we’re going to buy a home in Walnut Creek” or an even more specific area of Walnut Creek.

That’s the way buyers think. They only think about themselves and their needs. Selfishly. The same way you’re thinking about yourself when you talk about covering the entire Bay Area.

You’re doing that because you think if you don’t say that you’ll be missing out on the person who wants to buy in Oakland.

You’re afraid to narrow your focus.

The best thing you can do if you really want to multiply your money is think about your individual buyer’s needs and desires too. Thinking of each of them as a SINGLE Target Market.

The narrower the better.

Think of walking in to the grocery store to buy some chocolate cake. That’s specifically what you’re there for.

You walk in and look at all the aisles…and every aisle is labeled FOOD.

It’s accurate in a way. Chocolate cake IS food. Just like Walnut Creek IS in the Bay Area…or Northern California — but it’s NOT very helpful.

Just like NorthernCaliforniaHomes.com is accurate…but not that helpful. Now imagine if you walked in to the grocery store and among all the aisles labelled FOOD there was one aisle in the distance that was labeled CHOCOLATE CAKE.

Where would you head? You’d head straight to the Chocolate Cake aisle…because that’s what your selfish desire is right now.

Same thing with someone looking for a home in Walnut Creek. They are going to immediately gravitate to information that is labeled specifically for Walnut Creek…whether it’s a website, a homes and land ad…or a classified ad in the daily paper.

The fix? Narrow your target market, and if you’re going to try and cover a broad area…at least LABEL the aisles!

You’re much better off appearing to be a specialist in Walnut Creek Condos — especially to the person looking for a condo in Walnut Creek. They’ll be immediately drawn to your attention to their selfish desires.

Try it. It works.

Money Losing Mistake #2:
Choosing the wrong media for the wrong reasons.

Money Multiplying Mindset #2:
Be where the your buyers are looking.

Often I have people come to me when I’m speaking at a Main Event and they look like they’ve got a secret.

They look around to make sure none of their competitors is lurking in earshot…and they whisper their secret to me.

Usually it’s that they’ve got the “opportunity” to be the ONLY Realtor in the Little Theater journal, or the high school football program…or the Latvian Times.

Whatever it is, it’s usually a specialty publication, or the shopping carts at a grocery store, or the back of theater tickets.

They come to me and say “What kind of ad should I run?”

The truth is…it really doesn’t matter what kind of ad you run. It’s probably going to lose money.

The mindset is completely wrong. Picking the media first is going about things backwards.

When you’re using our first Money Making Mindset, you’re selecting the target market first…and THEN deciding what would be the best place to find those buyers.

The answer is to think like THEY would think.

If you were a buyer looking for a condo in Walnut Creek…where would YOU look?

You’d probably look in the “Walnut Creek Condos for sale” section of the classifieds…because you know for sure every ad you see there will be for a Walnut Creek Condo.

You’d probably drive around the areas looking to see if there were any condos for sale in the complexes you’re most interested in.

You’d probably look in the Real Estate publications…even though you’re going to have to wade through page after page of pictures to find what you’re looking for.

You’re probably NOT going to start your search by looking in the Bay Area Beekeepers Digest.

When you think like a buyer…you start looking to advertise in the highest probability places they’ll be searching, with a highly targeted message just for them.

Money Losing Mistake #3:
Trying to convince people to do something

Money Multiplying Mindset:
Getting in front of people who are already in motion.

Educating people is a difficult job. Especially if you’re trying to do it in the limited time and attention you have with an ad or a postcard.

I often see people trying to convince renters they should buy a home by sending a postcard to aparment complexes…usually with a tongue in cheek message questioning their intelligence for paying their landlord’s mortgage.

This type of message is trying to convince someone to do something they might not be thinking of right now. Like buy a home, or refinance, or sell their home.

Money Multiplying Advertisers know it’s a futile effort, and they spend their time getting in front of people who have already made up their mind they want something…and they’re already taking steps to get it.

There are plenty of people who have already decided they’d like a condo in Walnut Creek, and YOUR job is to get in front of them where they’re already looking. NOT to try and convince apartment renters that they should WANT a Walnut Creek Condo.

Money Multiplying Advertising uses the already powerful momentum of a prospects internal desire to attract them where they are.

Money Losing Mistake #4:
Basing your adveritising on a monthly or percentage “budget”

Money Multiplying Mindset:
Find and Maximize “winning” campaigns

Sometimes people mistakenly base their advertising on a fixed monthly budget — “I’m going to spend $500 a month” or on a fixed percentage “I’m going to spend 5%” on advertising.

These are both limiting mindsets. It doesn’t matter how much money you spend if you have a winning formula. If you find a way to spend $300 and turn it into $3000 the first
thing you should be asking yourself is “If I spend $600 can I turn that into $6000?”

That’s a money multiplying mindset. If you can run a classified in the “Walnut Creek Condos For sale” section one day a week and it works…will it work if you run it EVERY day of the week?

That’s what we’re looking for. We’re looking for places we can advertise with certainty that we’re going to multiply that money.

Most people don’t know what’s working though…because they’re making:

Money Losing Mistake #5:
Not tracking and monitoring results of your ads

Money Multiplying Mindset:
Know every detail of each campaign…so you know what’s working

If you’re spending $500 or $1000 a month on adverising and you’re”spreading it out” over several publications or campaigns…you should make it your business to know exactly how each campaign is working.

A money-multiplying advertiser tracks every ad in every media.

If you’re running ads in different real estate publications, track them with a unique extension on your hotline.

If you’re attracting buyers to your website…use a different domain name for each ad so you know which ads worked best.

Your intention is to weed out the losers and nurture the winners. Some of your advertising dollars are working for you right now, and some of them aren’t. If you KNOW where you get the best return it makes your decisions easy.

Try on these mindsets for yourself…and see if they fit for you.

My desire is to make sure you are getting the VERY MOST out of every dollar you spend on advertising…and know what it feels like to be in TOTAL control of your income.

Think about it…

If you KNEW how to get all the clients you want for less than $200 or $300 dollars each, how would that change your life?

Money Making Marketing is the skill that can help you take total control of your business and use it as a tool to fund ANY lifestyle you choose.

That’s where I come in.

I spend all of my time working to find and develop predictable, duplicatable and wildly profitable turn-key marketing tools.

Ways for you to get MULTIPLES of return on your investment.

One of the programs I’ve developed is the Getting Listings Program at GettingListings.com

It’s a completely turn-key system to help you find, get and sell more listings.

A new class started this past week, and participants are already generating a flood of listing leads.

We’ve had almost 400 people go through the program this year, and if you go to GettingListings.com you can join them.

Here’s what you get in the program:

Lead generation postcards, ads and fliers to attract a constant stream of prospects who are highly likely to sell their house in the next 6 to 12 months.

You get a turn-key custom webpage hosted on our servers where homesellers will go to leave their contact information asking for your help.

The leads come automatically without having to do any cold-call prospecting, or any door-knocking…and they come in such volume, people are shocked at how many leads they generate.

When the leads show up in your inbox, you just send them the initial package that’s already prepared for you…so you don’t have to do any “creative” writing…you just copy and assemble the info in an envelope and mail it out.

The package is designed to get people to want to take the NEXT step…and they call you for one of 3 special offers and invite you over to see them.

You also get a complete 12 month follow-up program with a custom newsletter, direct response letters and special inserts that completely build your reputation as the ONLY choice to help them sell their home when it’s time.

You get a special turn-key package to review with your homesellers in advance of putting the home on the market to make sure their house has the best chance of selling.

There are ready to use ads and strategies for selling your listings…because the only good listing is a SOLD listing.

And in the final session you’ll find out how to create a waiting list of buyers for every listing you take from now on…even if you don’t have any listings right now.

The complete program is only $349 with no extra monthly fees for your website, or the monthly Open Line Q&A calls, or access to the members only forum where members from all across the country get together to share results and ideas.

This program is literally makes getting listings like shooting fish in a barrel.

The next class starts in just a few weeks, and as soon as you register, you’ll have instant access to all the tools, and over 6 hours of audio trainings in 5 sessions, with complete word for word transcripts you can print, and MP3 files you can download right into your ipod, or burn CDs to take with you in the car.

The sooner you get started…the more of a jump you’ll have on the fall market, which starts in exactly 22 days from today.

Are you going to be ready?

Go over to GettingListings.com…get started today…and I’ll see you again next week for another Marketing Monday.

Make my life better day

Do you ever run out of stuff?

Or not have something when you need it?

I hate it when that happens.

This week I’d like to share a concept I learned from my friend Thomas Leonard.

Thomas is regarded as the father of the ‘life coaching’ industry.

Before he died we used to have long talks about this concept of make my life better day? And he developed a program called, ‘A Perfect Life’.

One of the best concepts he shared with me, was the idea of a ‘super reserve’.

Now a super reserve is about having so much of something that it never becomes an issue.

It’s different than having extra or more than enough it goes beyond that to abundance.

It can be anything in your life but some simple things you can practice on are things like socks and underwear.

That was the first thing I did I went and got 30 pairs of underwear and 30 pairs of the socks I wear.

It’s amazing to look in your drawers and see what appears to be a bottomless supply of underwear.

Same thing for the sock drawer.

I have never run out of socks or underwear since I first built up a super reserve in 1999 but each year when we make the transition from Florida to Toronto part of that routine is to re-stock that super reserve with a drawer full of new socks and underwear.

There are lots of things you can build a super reserve of.

About a month ago I was complaining to Sony that I could never find the fingernail clippers.

Of course, she reminded me that it’s because I take them from where they’re supposed to be and wander off with them.

She was right.

But, she also fixed the problem forever by buying 12 sets of nail clippers and putting them in my bathroom drawer.

This way even if I wander off with them there’ll always be a pair there waiting for me until the paid I wandered off with find their way back to the drawer (usually because our house cleaner finds them somewhere).

See having an extra pair would be nice and it would solve the problem some of the time.

Having 2 extra pair would be better.

But having 12 pair solved the problem permanently.

What can you build a super-reserve of this week?

One thing I just noticed this week is that I’m always fishing around my golf bag looking for ball markers. I’m headed to Golf Town today and I’m going to get enough ball markets to fill one of the pockets in my golf bag and a bag to keep in my locker, so I’ll never have to think about it.

It could be something small likes socks, toilet paper, nail clippers. It could be a super reserve of listing forms or buy brokerage agreements, or tape measures or batteries. If you get started small, it will spur you on to bigger things.

Like a super reserve of money or time.

Pay attention this week and look around for your own super reserve of possibilities.

Share what you’re doing on the message board.

A Super-Reserve Mindset makes my life better.

Calamity-Proofing Your Life: Sometimes It’s not about YOU…it’s about THEM

This week’s calamity proofing idea comes straight from the marketingmonday message forum.

It’s from Jan Cotton, and it speaks for itself…so I’m just going to quote her here:

“Well, I don’t know if this qualifies as “make your life better” but it is sure something that can make things easier for your loved ones, in the event of a catastrophe.

One of our dear friends in California died from cancer this week, less than three months after being diagnosed.

He thought he had more time, and so did his wife. Subsequently, now she is scrambling, trying to find his insurance papers, his military papers (so she can have him interred at the national cemetery), and all those important things that you hope you never need.

Well, he had them in his safe, and she didn’t even have the combination. whew, what stress that could have been avoided if she had just known where all that stuff was and how to access it.

So this week, Gary and I have taken all our important papers from the one place that we keep them in his office, and made two copies of everything, insurance, wills, trust, deeds to all our properties, contact info on all the property managers on our out of state rentals,etc, copies of our mortgage statements, anything pertinent that we could think of, and put then in bright colored envelopes, to give one to each of our daughters, along with notes on where the originals can be found in Gary’s office.

If something were to happen to both of us, then they will have duplicates of the important info, and will know exactly where to find the originals.

I realize that it’s not something that we want to think about, however, I don’t want my family going thru the additional turmoil that I have witnessed my friend Shari going thru, in addition to the shock and grief of losing her husband, Don.

Just think about it…”

Well, that’s it for Marketing Monday this week…tune in next time and we’ll talk about more money-making, life-simplifying ideas.

Have a great week.

Dean

PS – Get involved in the message board…it’s easy. Just click on the link at the top of this page cleverly labeled Message Board, and it will take you right there.