The truth about the myths surrounding Self-Directed IRAs…

Have you ever watched a health report on the evening news, wherein even the most credible researchers appear to completely reverse an earlier notion about which foods are healthy to eat and which are not?

Truth is, we’ve all experienced myths like these in our lives. Sometimes we buy into them, like believing that an urban legend is real when it turns out to be a fabrication. And sometimes we wisely keep clear of the myth by not making a judgment one way or another.

Most of the time, these myths are innocent. But sometimes these myths embed themselves into the popular consciousness and prevent people from making fully-informed decisions.

Consider the world of Self-Directed IRAs. Myths about these IRAs are rampant-some of them true, some of them way off base. If you’ve just discovered this site, now’s the time to learn more about Self-Directed IRAs so you can evaluate them with a clear head… and a mind free of myths.

“The Only Possible Investments in Retirement Accounts are Stocks, CDs, and Mutual Funds.”

You might not have even heard this one directly. It simply seems to be the underlying assumption that many investors make. Even money managers make this mistake often enough that the myth has become pervasive. The truth? Self-Directed IRAs allow you the ability to invest in intellectual property, real estate, private companies, gold, and more. There aren’t as many limits on retirement accounts as you might think.

We should note, however, that if you want to expand your retirement investment options, you might have to switch over to a Self-Directed IRA. These IRAs will allow you the financial freedom to make more of your own decisions, pay fewer fees to wealth managers, and take charge of your retirement destiny.

Our ruling on this one: Myth.

“Self-Directed IRAs Are Inherently Riskier.”

Have you heard this from a money manager? Try asking yourself if they were selling you on their latest mutual fund.

The real truth about IRAs and investment in general is, well, a little murkier. Sure, we could sell you on a number of easy platitudes and generalizations, but the truth is, different retirement accounts work for different people. Self-Directed IRAs might work out better for you than the traditional IRAs you’ve been sold all your life.

If you have a lot of experience in real estate investing, for example, then you might actually have less financial risk associated with Self-Directed IRA real estate investments. You know the market well, you know how to handle the investments, and you know how to generate a return. Is that riskier than the traditional IRA? You tell us.

Our ruling on this one: Myth.

“I have more options with a Self-Directed IRA.”

Is this one really a myth? Consider the limited scope of the traditional IRA: CDs, mutual funds, stocks. That’s the traditional route. With a Self-Directed IRA, however, you can open up your investments to real estate, private IRA lending, private stocks, tax liens, precious metals, and more. Opening up a Self-Directed IRA will expand the breadth of your options… and possibly the depth, as well.

One common argument money managers often make is that Self-Directed IRAs require a more subtle appreciation for the difficulty investments. And while this is true, it’s not prohibitive by any means. Ordinary people make real estate and private investments all the time-often, with stable, effective results.

Starting an eBay store means there is a ready audience that can be tapped into and making your products easily available to the online buyer. To sell items on eBay, you need traffic in form of visitors and marketing through paid and free channels can get your eBay store get noticed.

Once your eBay store is like a well-oiled machine, start using the following marketing strategies to take your eBay store’s operations to a further level and there will be a quantum growth in terms of earnings and traffic.

• Set up your website – Make it very easy for your customers to find you. Keep the URL neat and include information about the products on auction, new items and other necessary pages. The regular customers will show the greatest interest in your eBay operation. To gain the attraction of the new and existing customer, place eye-catching banners or a simple link to your eBay store on the website and on the pages that get the maximum traffic. This is the best way to send the traffic from the website to your eBay store.

• eBay community posting – eBay has a huge community chat forum which should be tapped to get noticed, this can be done by solving people’s queries here. So while posting comments, include a link back to your store. Exude confidence about the knowledge of the subject by actively participating in discussions without spamming the list with your products.

• Completely well described listings – Would you buy a product with a small note, no picture and a fancy price tag? Nor you or any other buyer would prefer to buy such a product. Not being a brick and mortar store, your customer will want to see all visuals along with a complete description before they decide to buy it.

• Free listings – There are a number of sites such as Craigslist and Kijiji to name a few which allow to post free listings. Find out the free websites and post pictures of your products along with the link to your eBay store.

• Email sign-ups – Collect emails of the visitors from your website, send them regular newsletters or emails at the time of discounts, thereby directing the traffic back to the eBay store. In case if the email list is small, it can be easily managed, if the audience extends to thousands, use services such as Mail Chimp.

• Setting up a blog – The best way to establish yourself as an industry thought leader is via sharing knowledge on a blog. How often do you stumble across a blog while searching for information about a product? Similarly tap into this resource, add a link back to your store and also include an email sign-up box. You can either set up a blog on WordPress or Blogger or on your website.

• Whitepapers on website – Are your customers facing certain problems while using a product? Solve their problems in form of a detailed eBook that can be freely downloaded from your website. Help the customers and in reward you’ll get their loyalty.

• Facebook page – Facebook, which has millions of users is one arena that can be used to direct the traffic back to your eBay store. Posting creative, funny and helpful pictures and curating useful posts will attract a lot of attention and convert viewers into loyal customers.

• Videos rich with keywords – Create enticing videos rich in keywords and post them on video sites such as YouTube and Vine to get the maximum traction. Videos rich in keywords are placed on higher ranks by search engines and help you get noticed. Post a link back to your eBay store at the end of every video.

• Pay Per Click – This paid channel of marketing helps your business in various ways such as placing your website on the top of Sponsored Links and driving traffic straightaway even in absence of the website being indexed by search engines to boost the organic search results.

It is always beneficial to depict your business in front of a wider audience. These eBay marketing techniques are directed to drive millions of online shoppers to your eBay store.

The American Marketing Association (AMA) which represents marketing professionals defines marketing as “The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational objectives.”

Effective marketing requires that managers recognize the interdependence of such activities as sales and promotion and how they can be combined to develop a marketing program. In marketing, exchange is a central concept. For exchange to occur there must be two or more parties with something of value to one another, a desire and ability to give up that something to other party, and a way to communicate with each other.

Marketing facilitates the exchange process and the development of relationships by carefully examining the needs and wants of customers, developing a product or service that satisfies these needs, offering it at a certain price, making it available through a particular place or channel of distribution, and developing a program of promotion or communication to create awareness and interest. The focus of market driven companies is on developing and sustaining relationships with their customers. This has led to a new emphasis on relationship marketing which involves creating, maintaining and enhancing longterm relationships with individual customers as well as other stakeholders for mutual benefit.

The marketer’s task is to devise marketing activities and fully integrated marketing activities and assemble fully integrated marketing programs to create, communicate and deliver value for customers.

Advertising and promotion play an important role in the exchange process by informing consumers of an organisation’s product or service and convincing them of its ability to satisfy their needs or wants. The American Association of Advertising Agencies developed definition of Integrated Marketing Communication as “A concept of marketing communications planning that recognizes the added value of a comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic role of a variety of communication disciplines – advertising, direct response, sales promotion and public relations – and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communications impact.” Integrated Marketing Communication involves coordinating the various promotional elements. Six major promotional tools are advertisement, sales promotion, personal selling, direct marketing, publicity/public relations, internet marketing.

The Integrated Marketing Communication approach helps companies identify the most appropriate and effective methods for communicating and building relationships with their customers as well as other stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, investors, interest groups and the general public. Companies send messages to customers and other stakeholders through all aspects of their marketing mixes, not just promotion. Consumers make inferences about a product on the basis of elements such as its design, appearance, performance, pricing, service support, and where and how it is distributed. For example a high price may symbolize quality to customers, as may be the shape or design of a product, its packaging, its brand name, or the image of the stores in which it is sold.

The Integrated Marketing Communication approach to marketing communications planning and strategy is being adopted by both large and small companies and has become popular among firms marketing consumer products and services as well as business- to-business marketers. By coordinating their marketing communications efforts, companies can avoid duplication, take advantage of synergy among promotional tools, and develop more efficient and effective marketing communication programs.

To move to Integrated Marketing Communication also reflects an adaptation by marketers to a changing environment, particularly with respect to consumers, technology and media. Major changes have occurred among consumers with respect to demographics, lifestyles, media use and buying and shopping patterns. Media strategy involves determining which communication channels will be used to deliver the advertising message to the target audience. Two most important aspects of the advertising program are development of the message and media strategy. Message development, referred as creative strategy involves determining the basic appeal and message the advertiser wishes to convey to the target audience. Once the message and media strategies have been determined, steps must be taken to implement them. Most large companies hire advertising agencies to plan and produce their messages and to evaluate and purchase the media that will carry their ads. Marketing Communication can tell or show consumers how and why a product is used, by what kind of person, and where and when. They can learn about who makes the product and what the company and brand stand for; and they can get an incentive or reward for trial or usage. Marketing communications allow companies to link their brands to other people, places, events, brands, experiences, feelings and things.

Real Estate Marketing is ever changing. With technology becoming so front and center you can no longer rely on print advertising in the newspaper or Just Listed – Just Sold postcards to get the job done. So… where should you spend your real estate advertising budget in 2015? What is the golden ticket?

Facebook Ads for Real Estate

The big winner in real estate advertising for 2015 is going to be Facebook Ads. Almost every REALTOR has a Facebook Business Page. If you pay attention, you may have noticed that the reach of your posts from Facebook Business Pages have substantially went down over the last year or so. They will continue to go down as EdgeRank continues to update. OK, for the techies out there—its no longer called EdgeRank. The ranking system that Facebook now uses to decide what posts are seen and by whom, no longer has a nifty name. Its now simply considered Facebook’s News Feed Ranking. In the past, Facebook used the number of likes, the amount of interaction and the decay of a post to determine which posts would be seen. Today, it is much more complex and regardless of the relationship—your Facebook Business Page Posts will barely been seen by anyone without some level of advertising. Starting January 1, 2015 the Facebook algorithm for display gets much more aggressive in only showing paid advertising. Facebook has gone as far as starting to Limit Promotional Posts from business pages.

Lets face it… Facebook is a business. In order for them to appease their shareholders Facebook must generate advertising dollars. You may have noticed that now when you post from your Facebook Business Page you are offered to “Boost This Post”. Although we may all long for the glory days of using Facebook for free advertising, the winners in 2015 will quickly adapt to paying for Facebook reach with targeted ads.

Consider the fact that Facebook knows everything about its users. What they like, where they live, their age, what music they listen to, where they eat, what they watch, what their interests are and so forth. It becomes abundantly obvious that this is an incredibly powerful tool for targeted marketing. If I want to advertise to real estate agents in New Orleans, I can simply run an add and have it only displayed (directly in their Newsfeed) to people who are in the National Association of REALTORS Facebook Group and live within 60 miles of New Orleans. I can also pick a specific gender, age, or any other criteria I wish. With the “average” Facebook user spending almost 7 hours a month on the site, that can be money well spent. As a matter of fact, that may be why you are reading this right now!

So How Do I Convert From Facebook Ads?

Creating and targeting on Facebook is only half the battle. Getting clicks on a Facebook ad doesn’t put money in your pocket… but getting a new buyer or seller does! The key to a successful marketing campaign using Facebook Ads is having those ads drive the end user directly to your website. Even more specific, driving them to a custom built landing page on your website. That custom landing page should back up exactly what you said in your ad and entice the user to “click” for more information. And by “click” I mean give you their information. Needless to say, YOU MUST reply to any engagement within 5 minutes or everything you have just done is fruitless. In addition, you should have multiple ads resolving to multiple landing pages — and do daily analytics to see which ones are the most successful in getting results. You can adjust your advertising spend on Facebook daily and you should double down on the ads/landing pages that work.

Are Other Forms of Advertisement Dead?

Absolutely not! Any successful marketer will tell you, a successful marketing strategy should be diversified and consistent. In an age with postage increases, you may have noticed substantially less junk mail. That being said, you can still generate results from properly designed and strategized direct mail campaigns. Pay Per Click is still the a force to be reckoned with for internet advertising and isn’t going away any time soon. You still need a business card and you still should be socializing, blogging about real estate and getting the word out about how great you are. I will say that with Facebook Ads for Real Estate Agents being in its infancy, the early adopters will reap huge benefits.

I Don’t Have Time For All That

Here it is… our Shameless Plug. If you don’t have time to design your Facebook ad, build the landing page, analyze the results and make daily changes, DEAN Knows can do that for you. You will still have to reply to your new clients—and don’t take that lightly, if not responded to within five minutes, they are lost.