Today’s & Yesterday’s Tasks (I worked on Sunday and it was fun!)
1. Visited open houses to meet Real Estate Agents
When I was originating loans I went to open houses all the time to meet new Realtors and try to drum up business. I thought it would be a great idea to do it with Automated Marketing, and my guess was that it would be better received by Realtors a lot more then it was when I was a Loan Officer. I was right and it was fun! All in all I met 7 new agents from 5 different companies and I got my business name out there to new people. (Remember my goal is to get my name out there right now) I took with me the new brochure that I made and it seemed to impress the agents I gave it to. One important thing that I did when I met these Realtors was to ask for their business card and most importantly ask if I could add them to my email list. Everyone said yes which is great for future marketing opportunities. Now the key to drumming up business from this event is to follow up….
2. Created a follow up campaign for leads
Consistency is the key to making any marketing effort work and for generating sales. Follow up is apart of consistency and critical when you get a new lead. Research says it takes up to 5 contacts to a person before they decide if they will buy from you. Based on that information I created a 5 week touch point campaign today to follow up with the Realtors I met on Sunday. I will post it in a separate post. I did week one of the campaign today which was a follow up email thanking them for their time on Sunday.
3. Get costs to advertise in 4 local newspapers
Wow is this expensive! I knew it would be. I avoided the big papers (Star Tribune and Pioneer Press) and looked at This Week Newspapers, The Sun Newspapers, Tidbits and Coffee News. I personally think that the best route for my business will be to look at Coffee News to start. I made my list so when I am ready to do newspaper advertising I don’t have to spend the time doing it then. I also haven’t completely decided if I think newspaper advertising is effective. The jury is still out on that one. I think direct mail would be more effective and I am more likely to put my advertising dollars there first.
4. Determine local business places to put up business cards
I made a list of all the Caribou Coffees in Apple Valley, Lakeville, Eagan, Burnsville, Bloomington and Southen Edina. (Minnesota suburbs for those of you not in Minnesota). My goal is to put business cards plus a postcard about my services at these particular Caribous. I even took it one step further and ordered Card Cues to put my business cards in on the bulletin boards. This will make my business cards stand out and hopefully generate a positive response. The bonus is that the Card Cues hold 40 cards which means I don’t have to go back and constantly check to make sure I have cards left at the coffee shop. Another bonus– Business Owners, Realtors and Loan Officers hold a lot of meetings at coffee shops. I believe I am hitting my target market right where they do their business.
5. Post to this Blog
I am pretty proud of myself with this blog. I knew it would be hard for me to be consistent and I was very worried about what I would say. So far so good and I have come up with a lot of ideas to write about.
How’s your 30 day Marketing Challenge going? I would love to hear about it!
