What do you know about advertising as a wholesaler? What a lot of people do not know is, while advertising is marketing, marketing is not advertising. Advertising is actually a component of marketing: it can be used to promote you, your real estate business and service, or to generate leads. Marketing identifies seller needs, determines how you can best meet those needs, and facilitates indirect communication, which includes the content of your website, all the way to automated multichannel campaigns.
You have several means of advertising when wholesaling properties and generating real estate leads. But what are the best advertising strategies for wholesalers? Which strategies are going to help you stand out in a saturated market and get you more sellers and potential buyers?
Should you be interested in wholesale marketing strategies, you can also read our article on Marketing Strategies for Real Estate Investors, which suggests strategies based on the type of investing you do.
Top Pick: Pay-Per-Click Advertising aka PPC
Pay-per-click or PPC is an online model of advertising in which you pay every time someone clicks on your ad. There are different types of PPC ads you can use, from showing visual ads to text ads, the most common being Search Ads, which appear on the top and bottom of search results pages, like on Google or Yahoo.
Top Pick: Pay-Per-Click Advertising aka PPC
Someone searches “sell my house fast” or “sell my house for cash” in Google, and their search terms match your keywords, giving you a chance to appear on the page, BUT only if you win the bidding system. You do not pay for top billing but bid for it.
Search engines run Ad Auctions to determine ad relevance and validity when a user runs a search. Your money goes towards clicks, so it’s important that you only bid on the most relevant keywords to your business, so as to earn good ROI from your ad spend.
Pros of PPC Advertising
- High intent search results in motivated sellers, for example “sell my house for cash”.
- PPC has been known to generate leads with shorter time frames to sell, from weeks up to 3 months.
- Fewer but better seller leads. It’s a numbers game, and you pay to play, but the odds are in your favor, if you have the correct keywords in place.
- Cost per conversion decreases over time, as the ad gathers data through interactions and conversions.
- Ads get placed in front of the right target audiences, and those that engage are more open to a deal
Cons of PPC Advertising
- It’s costly. In a highly-competitive market, some keywords cost up to $100 per click and cost per lead can be high. For example, in San Diego the average Cost Per Lead is around $600.
- Takes time for the algorithm to learn the audience, and it depends on how many clicks and conversions it gets. It takes at least 3 weeks to learn the audience, and up to 90 days to optimize to the correct target sellers.
- Highly motivated sellers submit multiple forms and call, and it becomes a race as to who gets to them first.
- If you don’t have a VA and automated campaigns, you need to be available 24/7 to receive leads.
- You need to have a sufficient budget to use PPC and keep up with competitors in the bidding game.
- Not DIY advertising. To be successful, you need to hire someone who understands how to set up and manage PPC and can do everything that influences its performance, and this includes your landing pages, forms, website reviews, etc.
You can learn more about What PPC Is and if Real Estate Investing PPC Marketing Is Worth It by clicking to read our articles.
Why PPC is Our Top Pick
PPC can target sellers based on what they are actively looking for, such as “sell house for cash,” “sell house in foreclosure,” or “sell house inherited from parents,” among others keyphrases.
Motivated seller leads typically want to sell within a short timeframe, ranging from within a month up to 3 months.
Most wholesalers and real estate investors are closing one deal every 10 to 15 leads versus having to call or text several hundred homeowners to find potential sellers and get even one deal.
Who PPC is For
Wholesalers and real estate investors who have sufficient funds to support it and can quickly reach out to leads. “How quickly” you can get to a lead can be the difference between success and loss.
2. Direct Mail Advertising
A lot of real estate wholesalers and investors wonder Is Direct Mail Dead? No, actually it is still relevant in real estate marketing and advertising strategies, so long as you make sure to customize to stand out from the competition.
Why Direct Mail Still Works
Direct mail marketing is more flexible with its advertising options. Pieces vary by type, style, and design, so you can stand out from regular yellow cards, and your message can incite desirable action. But why does it still work?
- It’s memorable. Spark an emotional response by adding a personalized touch.
- It can have a bigger reach. Depending on where you target, you can reach a wider demographic than with digital advertising.
- It can create a seamless customer journey. Include a CTA to call or visit your website, and pair with your social media and digital content marketing tactics.
- It offers many ways to be creative. No two pieces have to be alike. You can create different mailing pieces for different sellers (e.g., landlord, foreclosure, or inherited property).
Pros of Direct Mail
- Easy to target through a combination of data and customer research.
- Easy to track based on phone calls or redeemable codes to your website.
- Fully informative with specific information for your intended audience, based on their needs or situation.
Cons of Direct Mail
- Requires GOOD DATA. Direct mail is highly dependent on the quality of your data list, from names to mailing addresses and even the correct motivation factors.
- Expensive to produce and mail out, and postal costs continue to rise.
- Can go unread, since most people are in the habit to toss junk mail. While sellers ages 50+ tend to check their mailbox every 4 to 5 days, young sellers can go as long as 30 to 45 days to check their mail.
- Low response rates, so you really need good data and a firm understanding of your audience and must target and personalize messaging.
- Sellers Timeframes vary from a few months to a year or longer. It is not so unusual then for an investor to get a call after they sent their postcard out several months prior.
Who Direct Mail is For
Wholesalers and real estate investors who have access to good data and use it in combination with other marketing tactics, such as texting and cold calling. It can be used to try to reach leads if skip tracing doesn’t provide a correct phone number, and also as a means of follow-up.
3. Social Media Advertising
The average person spends 145 minutes a day on social media. That’s a generous window of opportunity to steal the attention of motivated sellers and potential buyers who surf Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social networks daily.
Social media advertising is a digital marketing strategy in which you run paid advertisements on social network platforms, promoting content to sellers and interested buyers.
What Types of Ads Can You Run on Social Media?
Each social media site offers different ad types, the most commonly used for real estate investment advertising are:
- Facebook: Image, Video, Carousel, or Slideshow ads, and Instant Experience (i.e., immersive ad experiences)
- Twitter: Promoted Tweets, Trends, or Accounts and Twitter Cards
- Instagram: Image, Video, Carousel, IGTV, or Story ads
Wholesalers do not typically generate traffic from other platforms, like Pinterest, LinkedIn or Snapchat, so we’ve excluded those.
Pros of Social Media Advertising
- Increases brand awareness. Posting and promoting content from your site exposes your brand to a wider audience, increasing click-through rates.
- Promotes customer engagement. Engaging customers through your ads builds relationships and boosts conversion rates.
- Provides accessible customer insights. People like to comment and voice their opinions, which can be great feedback for you to build off of.
- Generates more leads, so you earn more deals. Connect each ad to a landing page on your website with a call-to-action; the more people interact with your ad, the more you’ll be top of mind when they’re ready to sell.
- Favorable seller timeframes. Usually the inbound sellers from social ads tend to be on the 3-to-6-month-to sell-range, which is very manageable.
Cons of Social Media Advertising
- Hard to target. The ads fall under a special category known as Housing, which makes it impossible to exclude many of the irrelevant people in the target market. You need an in-depth understanding of seller behavior to target the ones you want, using a combination of behaviors and interests.
- Allows negative feedback. Negative comments break customer trust and ruin brand perception.
- Requires multiple campaigns. Retargeting is always recommended, but when using social ads, it is required, since conversion on the first touch is lower. Ideally, you have a push traffic campaign first, and a retargeting campaign to support it, each with multiple ads addressing the different types of motivated sellers.
- There’s competition. The chances of customers finding your ad are slim when many businesses advertise on social networks, saturating user feeds.
- Not DIY friendly. Because you pay for impressions, not for clicks or results, you can spend a lot of money quickly with very few results. To be successful, you need to hire someone that understands how to set up and manage everything that influences its performance, and that includes your landing pages, forms, website reviews, etc.
- You must have follow-up campaigns. Because the timeframes range between 3 to 6 months, and you’ll likely have more leads ranging on the higher end of that timeframe than on the lower, you’ll need to have follow-up campaigns in place to reach and identify leads, so that when they are ready to move forward, they’ll click through; otherwise, you will miss many opportunities.
Social media is where the vast majority of your target audience can be found, so it’ll always be influential. Discover the Importance of Marketing on Social Media for Real Estate Investors.
Who Social Media Ads are For
Wholesalers and real estate investors who want to supplement their lead generation with inbound leads OR want to retarget data lists on Facebook, though it’s highly dependent on the quality of their list(s). You must also have follow-up nurturing campaigns in place for the generated leads.
4. Bandit Signs
No doubt you’ve seen them: road signs, street signs, and yard signs, all promising “We Buy Houses”, “We Buy Houses for Cash”, or “We’ll Buy Your House”. They’re like miniature billboards, sharing your message day and night, every time a person drives by. But do they actually work? Surprisingly, yes.
These signs are not flashy but almost intentionally ugly. Why? Because the message is what matters: you want a motivated seller to see it and react. A simple message can actually make a real estate wholesaler seem more normal and approachable.
Pros of Bandit Signs
- Affordable. Printed signs are cheap to produce and bandit signs are reusable.
- Easy means of advertising. You only need to determine an ideal location to post them.
- Effective for some targets. Bandit signs can generate leads at a very low cost when placed in high-traffic areas within your target market, usually low income areas or areas with a lot of distressed or outdated houses.
Cons of Bandit Signs
- Ineffective with many sellers. Sometimes sellers think these signs are unprofessional and suspect a scam.
- They’re illegal. Bandit signs are illegal, and officials will levy a fine for every sign you post.
- Competitors might pull them down. Not all real estate wholesalers play nice, and the competition may remove your signs and put theirs up.
Who Bandit Signs are For
Wholesalers who start out with a very low budget but want to target low income, high poverty, or highly distressed areas.
5. Business Cards and Flyers
Have you ever walked into a coffee shop and seen a dedicated space for business cards or flyers? What about in an elevator, at a community center, or reception and check-out areas? These locations get high foot traffic, so there’s a good chance sellers and buyers alike will notice your “calling card.” Even better, you might catch the attention of a real estate agent, who can help you find properties for sale.
Pros of Wholesale Business Cards and Flyers
- Grabs attention quickly. They can make a good first impression the moment a lead sees them if they look professional or “serious”.
- Easy to produce. Prepare and launch in a day, without a professional designer.
- Easy to share. Whether you distribute at a networking event or post somewhere.
- Inexpensive. Low budget to design and produce.
Cons of Wholesale Business Cards and Flyers
- Require frequent redesigns. Any time you change your contact info or so people do not gloss over it.
- Ineffective at times. People tend to ignore flyers or posted business cards unless they are in need of a service.
- Distribution is labor intensive. You are responsible for distributing cards and flyers to potential seller leads and partners within your target market.
Who Business Cards and Flyers are For
Business cards and flyers are for wholesalers and real estate investors who are looking for partnerships with real estate agents and cash buyers to grow their disposition list. They’re also best for companies that want to grow their brand recognition and local visibility.
GoForClose Does Real Estate Wholesaling Advertising for You
We know how time consuming and labor intensive it is to launch and manage a real estate marketing campaign. If it’s done right and not put “on hold”, it’ll certainly bring you ideal seller types and cash buyers, but still, maybe it’s not your area of expertise, and you’d prefer a service do it for you.
Introducing GoForClose, the only all-inclusive marketing agency for real estate investors and wholesalers. We empower you to focus on your real estate business, so you can wholesale real estate and close deals, by providing a specialized team of marketing experts and marketing platform at a cost-effective rate.
Our inbound marketing tactics include PPC and social media advertising, and these are supplemented with outbound tactics, including cold calling, SMS, RVM, and email, to create a well-rounded and efficient marketing strategy.
If you have questions or are curious to know more, request a free consultation below.
Wayne Hudson
Wayne Hudson has a background in sales and real estate - but with a passion for economics. He uses his knowledge of economics and real estate to help clients think strategically and make decisions to optimize their outcome.
As the company's business developer, Wayne works to help GoForClose grow.
-
Wayne Hudsonhttps://www.goforclose.com/knowledge-base/author/opsgoforclose-com/
-
Wayne Hudsonhttps://www.goforclose.com/knowledge-base/author/opsgoforclose-com/
-
Wayne Hudsonhttps://www.goforclose.com/knowledge-base/author/opsgoforclose-com/
-
Wayne Hudsonhttps://www.goforclose.com/knowledge-base/author/opsgoforclose-com/
