You’ve heard the phrase “Your network is your net worth” in terms of real estate marketing and email marketing, but when Charles Blair, “Mad Scientist” and founder of the Baltimore area’s Real Deal meetup, says it, he means something entirely different from just getting out there and introducing yourself to other local professionals. “I got the nickname ‘The Mad Scientist’ because I take complex marketing strategies and make them simple, but [they act] basically like a monster,” Blair explained in a recent interview with Think Realty Magazine. Blair’s co-organizer at Real Deal, Brittney Callaway, added, “Since my forte is teaching people how to automate and systematize their business, we work really well together when it comes to helping our investors build the foundations in their businesses that will be key not just to consistently doing deals, but also to consistent marketing.”

According to the Real Deal organizers, most real estate investors have a huge asset in their email contacts, their “list,” that they are not leveraging effectively, if at all. “The big word right now in marketing is behavioral marketing,” said Blair. “The magic happens when you have a list that is actually doing something that you need it to do, whether that means converting real estate sales or buying something else entirely.”

Here are three ways to make that “marketing magic” happen in your real estate email marketing the same ways that you do in your real estate business:

1 | Understand Your Buyers

Just as you need to know what your buyers want when you rehab a property, you need to be informed about what your email list wants from you when you send them an email. Calloway recalled one investor who lost nearly $65,000 on rare, unusual, custom upgrades in an investment property. While you might not directly lose tens of thousands of dollars by sending out emails that do not correspond to your list’s interests, you could lose the opportunity to do deals with members of your list by losing their interest before that opportunity arises. “You have to go multiple levels deep to have a list that will convert sales,” explained Blair.

2 | Know What You’re Getting

Real estate investors know that buying a property sight-unseen can be risky business. “I once saw an investor buy a property off an online auction that looked great,” said Blair, “but when he went to property in person, it turned out the house had no back. There was nothing but a brick façade!” While most real estate investors will balk at the idea of purchasing a property based on nothing but a physical description and a picture of the front porch, they often think nothing of buying an email list with no real information about what they are paying for.

“I always hear about ‘gurus’ telling people just to buy a list. You can’t just buy a list,” said Blair adamantly. “You have to go four or five levels deep to know who is on that list. Are they absentee owners? Are they in a particular zip code? What is their debt-to-income ratio? Once you have all the information then you have a better idea about whether or not you’ll be able to do deals with them.”

3 | Be Willing to Give Back

While number three may seem, at first, to be nothing more than good behavior, Blair and Calloway insist that this is the key to effective email marketing. “We use our meetup to give back,” said Calloway, emphasizing that the meetup was originally formed “as a way to give back to the community without selling anything” and has not deviated from that goal. However, that does not mean that the pair does not receive a great deal of attention and business as a result of their dedication to providing that free training and content.

“You give back, and people want to work with you more,” said Blair, noting that Real Deal offers a mastermind program largely as a result of popular demand. “People said, ‘Hey, we love the free information you give every month, but we want one-on-one coaching; we want more,” he explained. In email marketing, the same tends to apply. Giving truly valuable, truly free content has proven, time and again, to be among the most effective ways to build a productive, profitable relationship with your email list whether you do deals with list members or leverage the list toward profit in other ways.

Thanks to this marketing approach, Real Deal meetup has grown “exponentially” since its inception and its organizers, Blair and Calloway, have encountered countless opportunities to do real estate investing deals in areas that they might otherwise never have encountered. “Our goal is a Real Deal meetup in every state over the next five or six years. In fact, we’re debuting in three new markets this summer,” said Blair. “We opened in Orlando already, and we’re looking at Columbus, Ohio, as well.”


The Real Deal Meetup’s Blair and Calloway will be presenting their “10 Steps to Closing a Deal in 30 Days!” at the Think Realty Conference & Expo in Baltimore, Maryland, on April 14, 2018. Click HERE to purchase your ticket and learn more about the event. 

Categories | Article | Operations
  • Carole VanSickle Ellis

    Carole VanSickle Ellis serves as the news editor and COO of Self-Directed Investor (SDI) Society, a membership organization dedicated to the needs of self-directed investors interested in alternative investment vehicles, including real estate. Learn more at SelfDirected.org or reach Carole directly by emailing Carole@selfdirected.org.

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