Real Estate Advertising 101 – What Every Agent Should Know About Marketing
There is an overwhelming amount of information about the “best practices” of marketing. Classes are taught about it, books are written, and coaches pitch their programs. One of the most important tenets of marketing, and often the most forgotten, is that successful marketing requires patience and persistence.
This can be difficult for impatient real estate agents who want to see instant leads from short-term efforts. However, studies show consistent contact turns prospects into clients and generates a second wave of upcoming business. Your goal as an agent is to make sure prospects that are in the researching stage become convinced that you are the agent to contact when they are ready. Win them over through a well thought out marketing plan and determination.
It’s a well-known fact that real estate is a constantly flowing and changing business, as evident by the current market and the ups and downs experienced over the past decade. Successful agents, and anyone who advertises for that matter, grew their business during these cycles by staying in front of potential customers with the following three objectives.
Reach your target audience everywhere they might look. To be effective, reach them through multiple avenues: your website or blog, real estate search sites, social media, print advertising, and don’t forget direct mail. Yes, a combination of online and offline methods is best. Magazines and direct mail put you in front of prospects, eliminating the need for them to search for you. Simply asking for their business can make an impression upon a potential seller and resonate with them down the road.
Real Estate Advertising 101 – Raise Your Visibility in the Market
Your goal is to be so high on the visibility scale that people immediately think of you when they think about real estate. In his book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, Gary Keller said, “… buyers and sellers seem to have room in their minds for only one or two real estate agents. In the battle for real estate consumer mind share, you’re either first or second or you’re out of contention … So the big question and challenge is how to win those first two positions of real estate mind share with enough people.”
Real Estate Advertising 101 – Earn Your Prospect’s Trust
Advertising when others are not can make you appear more stable than your competitors. How and where you advertise impacts whether or not you receive serious consideration. The real estate market, as an indicator of the overall economy, has been in the news so much lately that people are paying attention. All real estate is local, right? So where is the best place for people to get local market information? It should be you. Use market reports, testimonials and real estate niche magazines to provide information and enhance credibility. Consumers trust magazine advertisements and content over all other sources of media. Add to that word of mouth referrals and you’ve covered both the front end (credible advertising) and the back-end (happy customers) to explain why they should choose you. The more consistently prospects see you and your message, the more likely they are to trust and respond.
Real Estate Advertising 101 – Stay Top-Of-Mind
To be effective, implement your plan no matter what the market is doing. That may involve budgeting ahead. When the market is hot, you need that contact to prevent your competitors from stealing your visibility and therefore market share. When the market cools, the consistency is even more important. If prospects stop seeing you, they stop thinking of you. When others have put their marketing on hold, you’ll have gained attention and remain top-of-mind when things pick up.
This graph of time-honored statistics shows us that the decision to act is made not after 2 or 3 encounters, but after many, repetitive exposures. If you’ve ever engaged in a marketing campaign to promote your business, you probably have seen this to be true. If you haven’t reached your target audience at least 5 times, you may have quit too soon to win them over.
Go the distance. Often we’re tempted to give up without realizing how close we are to reaching our goal. An inspirational scene from the hit movie Facing the Giants illustrates that we often create our own limitations based on what we see and not on our true potential.
Every step you take toward increasing your visibility, gaining trust, and holding that top-of-mind spot brings you one step closer to increased prosperity. Don’t lose your hard-earned visibility. Elevate your presence and remember patience and persistence will pay off!
