The secret to successful marketing in any field is standing out from the crowd. Unfortunately, many Realtors have failed to learn this lesson. Read any Sunday classified ad or look in any real estate magazine and you’ll see what I mean. The same terms are used over and over. The same front shot of a house appears. The same abbreviations for bedrooms, baths, etc. In fact many times it takes a codebook to determine what an ad is saying. How boring! Let’s be creative.
If you want to run a successful marketing campaign, there are several things you need to consider:
1—Market more
than your listings.
You can’t just market your listings. You’ve got to market yourself, too. Establish an identity for yourself and reinforce it in everything you do. Here’s an example of what I mean. Have a professional designer create a logo for you and use it on your business cards, your web site, your flyers, your newspaper ads – everything. Not many Realtors have a logo but in other business fields nearly every company has one. Where would McDonalds be without those golden arches? You’ll be surprised at how a logo can help establish your identity within the real estate community. Also consider using a picture of yourself. To take it a step further, create for yourself a certain “look,” which includes color schemes, fonts, certain types of pictures or illustrations, and so forth. And again, use that same style on everything you publish. Don’t forget to include your website and email address on all marketing pieces - even the memo pads you give away.
2—Be creative
in what you say
How you say it can be just as important as what you say. If you’ve listed a house that has a pool consider using the following headline in your ads: “Free Pool!” That little four-letter word “free” is guaranteed to grab attention. Try to be creative when you write all your ads but don’t be cheesy. If you’re having a bad day and cheesy is the best you can manage, it’s better to stick with the mundane. We once listed a house that was built back in the 1800’s. After some research I decided to use the following headline. “When This House Was Built Abraham Lincoln Was 31 Years Old.” This one headline had the phone ringing off the hook. This house sold in less than 30 days and of course we picked up tons of leads.
3—Where you
advertise is important
Where you say it is important, too. Don’t forsake conventional methods of advertising but do consider such things as renting a billboard if you can afford it. Or the side of a bus. You don’t have to go to extremes either. Some grocery stores will let you rent space on shopping carts and that’s a lot less expensive than a billboard. Be creative. The point is, advertise in places that traditional Realtors don’t. I have been doing a live real estate radio talk show for years. This show cost me nothing because I have sponsors but each week my name is in front of thousands of listeners for one hour. The radio station promotes the show 22 times per week, which puts my name in front of people even more.
Send out press releases on everything you do to everyone you know and all the media. Make sure the press release is only one page long, double-spaced and gets to the point quickly. I am surprised at how many times the media has published our press releases.
4—Let your clients advertise for you.
I give my sellers a stack of business cards with a picture of their house and some basic information on the front and my contact information on the back. I instruct them to give those cards out to everyone they come in contact with. Just about everyone knows someone who is looking for a house and a business card is so convenient for passing around. The best part is the cost. I print these out on my color printer and the cost is small. Another way to get your clients advertising for you is to have your seller post a 4-color flyer on their bulletin board at work. Make sure they put several flyers up with the message to take one. We have sold several homes as a direct result of sending flyers to the workplace. Another excellent way to advertise after the fact is with the offer to send change of addresses to the friends of your sellers and your buyers after they close. This has worked well for me over the past couple of years. I use an oversized postcard with the family’s picture on the front with a big “we’ve moved” head line. On the back is a message from the family to the people they are notifying of the address change. This side has my picture and logo on it and a message that tells their friends that if they ever consider a move Jerry Fowler would be someone they would recommend handling the job. This is a very inexpensive way to get your name out. Of course all the people on your sellers or buyer’s list are put on your database for continued follow-up.
5—Track your marketing
Finally, you’ve got to find a way to track your marketing efforts or you’ll go broke. Different things work in different markets. You want to quickly discover which marketing avenues pay off for you and which don’t. Once you know what works, you can rest assured that your marketing dollars are well spent. I use a call-capturing 800-number system with special prefixes for my flyers, website, newspaper ads, real estate book ads and so forth. When a call comes in, I know immediately where the potential buyer heard about my listing. Each month I create a marketing report that tells me the number of calls I received from each source. I remember one time I had a small town newspaper come to me preaching about how many people they reached and how effective their paper was. I made them this offer. I will run a full-page ad and if I get over 25 calls I will pay your price for the ad. If I receive less than 25 calls you split the ad. Quickly we found out how many readers this paper truly had, and the ad cost me only one half. I have used call capturing for three years now and I don’t know how I was successful without this fantastic marketing tool. Your system doesn’t have to be that elaborate. You could just make it a point to ask each caller where he or she saw your ad if that suits you better.