Marketing and Sales Tips

The P.O. Box 597 Story

by Marvin Levin

Almost all of the readers will recall some spectacular event that occurred many years or decades ago. A few may be old enough to remember the attack on Pearl Harbor, and everyone will remember more recent events such as the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the tragedy of 9/11. Well, I have a personal event that I can remember with the same clarity, although it occurred more than 40 years ago.

I was in to my second year of marketing Clearlake Keys, a waterfront subdivision in Lake County, California, and not doing very well. We had opened a look-alike project across the lake in Clear Lake Highlands called Highlands Harbor. I had also just formed my partnership with Bob Duca (who, by the way, is still my partner in land subdivisions).

Bob introduced me to a life-changing event, and that is the subject of this real estate idea. Those of you who are marketing experts will probably have a “ho hum” or “of course” reaction, but the idea is so important and so dramatic that I must assume that risk and tell the story.

Bob and I agreed that we would do our own advertising and marketing. Therefore, as the weekend approached, I reviewed my ad for the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee. The ad was five inches high and two columns wide, and it contained a sketch of a person sitting on the dock in the canal with a fishing pole in hand. The advertisement set forth the price, terms, directions to the property, mailing address and phone number. In other words, it told the whole story. I can still remember the results of that ad. Two people showed up on Sunday, and one signed a contract to purchase.

Now, we come to the point of the story. Bob ran a three-line classified ad in the San Francisco Chronicle which cost about one-tenth of my display ad. The ad said: “Waterfront lot, sacrifice. P.O. Box 597, Clearlake Oaks, California. When I saw that mini-ad, my thought was “what a waste of money.” Well, Bob got 47 leads from that “waste of money” ad and they resulted in 11 sales. When I expressed my disbelief, Bob said to me in a most kindly way: “Marvin, you think an ad should make a sale. I think an ad should generate traffic, from which I can make a sale.”

A few years later, we were selling recreation land in four Northern California counties. The fundamental marketing strategy didn’t change. We composed newspaper ads and direct mail pieces to pique the readers’ curiosity and to produce inquiries, rather than to try to sell the product in an advertisement.

It was a principle that I extended to many real estate ventures over the years.

If you have a subdivision property you would like to discuss please contact me.