INVESTORS’ CORNER: Mexican Boy Glues Self to Bed to Avoid School

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But what, you may ask; does this recalcitrant youth’s behavior have to do with real estate investing?

Nothing in some ways, and in some ways- everything.  (By the way, to stave off accusations that I made that headline up, the link to the newspaper article is at the end of this email).

An email is very much like a piece of direct mail that you send to your motivated seller list (be it preforeclosures, probates, eviction mailings, condemned houses, ugly, vacant houses, etc . . .).  Following are several of marketing assassin Dan Kennedy’s thoughts on what is most important in direct marketing (be it mail or email):

1. The list.You can have the most compelling offer, absolutely magnetic sales copy, and the most professional image in the world.  And, if you are delivering this piece of marketing Nirvana into the hands of someone who does not have a house for sale under flexible price or terms, and does not know someone who does, you have wasted your entire direct marketing effort.
2. The headline. I don’t know about you, but I’m exposed to a lot of marketing messages on a daily basis.  In fact, the average consumer is beset by so many attempts of advertisers to break through into his or her attention, we now live in what psychologists have dubbed a state of “continuously fragmented attention”.  We are quicker than John Wayne at high noon to push the “delete” button on a piece of junk email, or throw that postcard in the trash, if the headline does not reach out and slap us in the face hard enough to force us to momentarily pay attention.  Thus, the subject line for this email.  Constant Contact shows me how many people open every email I send, and I guarantee this one will be higher than average.  You just had to know what that silly boy was thinking, didn’t you?
3. The P.S., or Post Scriptum.  After the headline, studies show that the majority of people turn to the end of the letter to see who signed it, and will read whatever is written as a P.S.  It appears important, so much so that the author broke away from all conventions of English etiquette and had the temerity to use a Latin phrase to attach it to the end of the letter!  Make your P.S. compelling.
4. The content.  I hope your copywriting skills are well-honed, or it can all fall apart at this, the last yard.  Dan Kennedy says that when he is designing a mailing piece, he has a picture in his head of a huge, grossly overweight man laying on the couch and eating potato chips, reading his letter.  Dan throws every linguistic thunderbolt possible at him, until his subpar motivation level compels him to pry himself up into a sitting position, and to grab the phone (or computer) and respond to what you have written him.  Give them reason after reason after reason to do business with you, and to do it now.

For those of you who absolutely must read the story about young Diego’s reluctance to end his Christmas vacation, CLICK HERE

Lou Gimbutis is director of education at the Metrolina Real Estate Investors Association, which provides education, mentoring, and networking for real estate investing in the Charlotte region. He can be contacted via his website, www.SoldCarolina.com. For more information, visit www.MetrolinaREIA.org.