We Are GaREIA Issue 3, September/October 2015 | Page 8

GaREIA Motivational Minute: Getting Effective with Creative Marketing

We’ve all heard the saying, “The best things in life are free,” but one area in which
that is certainly not always the case is when it comes to marketing. Free
marketing ideas blanket the internet. Log onto Facebook, and you’ll probably see
a promotional booklet of 5 million “creative, free marketing tips for real estate
investors.” Pull up Pinterest, and the free-marketing pages go on and on. You
know that there is such a thing as effective, free marketing, but you also know in
your heart of hearts that there are not actually 5 million ways in which to
successfully go about it.
The key to successfully marketing for free (or cheap) and creatively is to not get
too hung up on the adjectives “free” and “creative.” Instead, evaluate strategies
from a pragmatic standpoint. Imagine yourself as a heartless predator, stalking
these strategies and removing the weak ones systematically from the herd. Think
hard about every strategy. Remember that simply not costing money does not
make something free. Is it time-effective? If it’s going to eat up your entire
weekend, for example, what will you gain and how soon will you gain it? Do you
stand in a position after 20 man-hours where you are likely to have a viable deal
in hand? How about after 40? 80? 100? At what point do you begin neglecting
things that are working for you in pursuit of this “creative” and “free” alternative?
Once you have a clear bead on just how long you’ll be applying this method, in all
likelihood, in order to attain your “free” results, determine how long you are