Reassessing Your Marketing Strategies in a Pandemic with Don Costa

August 18, 2021 melissa Real Estate Comments Off on Reassessing Your Marketing Strategies in a Pandemic with Don Costa

Reassessing Your Marketing Strategies in a Pandemic with Don Costa

We’ve learned about how to pivot a business during a crisis, but how do we keep the momentum going in a seemingly unending pandemic? A good way to remain connected with your customers is by adjusting your marketing strategies to fit their needs. To be able to do that, you need to reassess your current marketing plan and look at the necessary changes that need to be implemented.

Continue reading, and see what Don Costa, rehab and real estate expert, host of the Flip Talk Podcast, and founder of The Inner Circle Elite Mastermind, has to share!

The points below are from the eleventh episode of the Real Estate JAM, where Don Costa talks about prioritizing the health of your business, acting fast during a crisis, and making tough calls when it’s necessary. He shares some smart and practical inputs on successfully pivoting your business amidst a changing and uncertain market. If you’re interested, you can listen to it on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.


 

What is a Marketing Strategy?

A marketing strategy is all about your business’ overall plan on how to reach and connect with your target customers.

A good marketing strategy covers the 4Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. It dictates the direction of your advertising, PR, and other sales initiatives you may have. Additionally, it measures the performance and results of each element of your plan based on how they impact your target market.

However, when a crisis happens, the behavior of your target market changes dramatically. The COVID-19 pandemic, for instance, has completely changed the way people communicate. Face-to-face interaction is almost impossible. Events are being forced to cancel indefinitely.

During these moments of extreme challenges, some businesses would just throw in the towel and stop any form of marketing altogether. There’s just too much risk. But, according to Don, it’s at these crucial times that businesses need to keep their marketing momentum going the most.

 

Marketing Amidst the Pandemic 

Don’t let fear and panic get the best of you and your business. The smart thing to do is to stop, clear your mind, get yourself together, then reassess your plans.

Don suggests to immediately evaluate which elements of your marketing strategy yield great returns and which ones do not. From there, you’ll know where to appropriately funnel in your resources and where you can dial back. As an example, though not totally on the marketing side of things, some restaurants were able to drive their funds into putting themselves online and reduce their physical presence since there’s less people on the streets.

Next, you have to look at your financial situation. Don shares that when the pandemic hit, he was lucky to have the luxury of using some of his money for marketing, even if he wouldn’t get a return on his investment right away. But it’s not the case for others. Don advises that if you do not have the money to spend, burning a lot of dollars on marketing isn’t really a smart thing to do.

So, what do you do? Don suggests taking advantage of cheaper or even free methods of marketing, both online and offline. Post on Craigslist, use bandit signs, call agents, and let them know that you’re interested in their properties. There are lots of ways! You can also try looking for opportunities through your MLS. You might be surprised at how much you can do at a fraction of your marketing cost with just a little bit of ingenuity!

Bottomline, DON’T STOP MARKETING! You may be struggling right now, and it may seem like you’re endlessly treading water. But completely disconnecting from your customers will only hurt your business more. As Don explains, “You want to get the follow-ups and the conversations going. Because as the dust settles, you want to be the one they’re talking to whenever they’re ready to pull the trigger and make it happen.”

 

Want to learn more from Don Costa? Listen to the full episode on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts.

 

Outline of the Episode:

  • [03:21] Learning from past mistakes and bad calls and rebuilding your business.
  • [06:40] The advantage of acting fast in times of crisis and making decisions based on facts instead of fear.
  • [08:10] Downsizing your team when necessary. Who do you keep, and who do you let go?
  • [10:34] Taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously. It’s not a hoax!
  • [13:19] How to keep the marketing momentum going based on your financial situation.
  • [15:33] Calculating for your ARV (after repair value) during the pandemic. Or should it be AVV (after virus value)?
  • [19:43] Why you should communicate with your private money lenders more often.
  • [21:46] Dealing with changes in lender fees.
  • [26:18] When should you say no to a deal? Don’t let sellers bully you!
  • [29:46] The challenges in managing a team remotely. How do you measure productivity?
  • [32:48] Why it’s important to have a good mastermind or network of people during tough times.
  • [39:39] Getting to know more about the Inner Circle Elite community.

Resources Mentioned in the Episode:

Connect with JD, Annabel, and Melissa!