It's the holiday season once again. While most of your competitors are bumping up their marketing, you should find a smarter way to get noticed. My office provides owner builder construction loans - a small fish in a large construction financing ocean. The only chance we have of getting noticed is by being different and wacky - focusing on odd-ball holidays to send out our marketing pieces.
Never heard of owner builder construction loans? That's okay, because owner builder loans are a very small niche within the construction financing industry. Basically, they are loans for people who want to build their homes without using a general contractor.
But, that's not really the point. The key is that our office works in a small niche in a large industry. In order to be recognized and get the word our there about our services, we never shy away from an opportunity to do something a bit off the wall, if not down-right crazy.
With the holiday season upon us, it's a perfect time to think about your marketing strategy for next year. One of the simplest ways to be different from all of your competitors is to celebrate odd-ball holidays with your customers and potential customers.
As far as marketing is concerned, you can keep Christmas and Hanukah. Personally, I love National Pancake Day, National Jelly Bean Day, National Yo-Yo Day and many other weird-o holidays that no one else even knows exist.
Why? Because no one else even knows they exist.
And that gives me a simple, inexpensive opportunity to stand out. I use these holidays as excuses to reach out to past owner builder clients, new leads, and even referral sources.
Imagine your customers' reactions when they get some random, off-the-wall mail piece with Jelly Beans for National Jelly Bean Day. It's guaranteed to be more memorable than a Happy Holidays card around Christmas time. The costs are low, as far as mailings are concerned.
And, if you put a small item in your mail piece, the postage won't go up. But, the customer will be much more prone to open it. In other words, if the customer receives a letter from you, having a small bit of bulkiness to the mailing will drastically increase your opening rates. It doesn't matter if the bulky item is a jelly bean, a guitar pick, or a plastic army figure. All that matters is that the bulky mail will get opened a lot more regularly than a boring, regular, flat envelope.
And, once the mail piece gets opened, the different, random, wacky holiday will help get your message read and remembered! It's a direct marketing strategy that doesn't just apply to owner builder construction loans. It will work for any niche.
For example, did you know that the third weekend in May is the annual Calaveras County Jumpin' Frog festival and competition? The same one Mark Twain wrote about in 1865? Try sending your customers their very own frog to enter (no, not a real one - a cheap plastic one), along with a re-print of Twain's poem and a somewhat interesting letter. It's unique, it gets opened, and it puts a smile on their face.
In our case, this example costs our small, owner builder office all of sixty-four cents, including postage, to do all of that!
Don't have any money at all for marketing? Can't afford to send cheap mailings? These odd-ball holidays are still a great excuse to send an email to your clients. It's an excuse to keep in touch with your clients, and it will still be so different from your boring competitors that you'll be remembered. For instance, our owner builder clients like to keep abreast of the latest happening in the construction and mortgage industry - these odd-ball holidays are the perfect excuse to send them email updates that are interesting and memorable.
Everyone knows that October 31 is Halloween, but good marketers are not like everyone else. Who cares about Halloween when we know that October 4th is "National Golf Day" and October 25th is "World Pasta Day." I'll bet anyone reading this can come up with some fun and inexpensive theme cards to send for one of these days.
Go online and find a sampling of oddball holidays you can use to stay in touch and set yourself apart from your competition. Imagine what you can do all year round. Be creative. Do not be afraid to take a chance on being a madcap marketer!
Dare to be different and stand out in your customers' eyes. Customers will only buy from the people whom they remember! It doesn't just work in the world of owner builder construction loans - it works for every niche in every industry - as long as you take action.
Chris Esposito provides owner builder construction loans for people who wish to build their own home without a general contractor. Visit www.OwnerBuilder101.com to get all the info you need to be an owner builder. Or call Owner Builder 101 at (877) 876-3688.
Orignal From: Odd-Ball Holidays: A Different Way to Market Your Product
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