Take Your Marketing From Personal to POWERFUL!
Competitive Strategies for Today’s Agents - By Tanja Kor
Competing in today’s real estate arena involves stepping outside the ordinary and stepping up your visibility in an ever populated industry. One out of every 227 people in the United States is a REALTOR®. That total reflects a jump in National Association of Realtor membership from 600,000 in the mid 1990’s to a little over 1.2 million today. In the San Francisco Bay area alone, the number of real estate agents has increased by 44% in the last five years. With all that competition, getting your name, reputation and message to the forefront of your community’s collective conscience will require some Personal Marketing POWER tools!
Lead Generation: Today, more than ever, to stay in the business of sales, you have to first be in the business of lead generation. Start with an abundant list of prospects which will include your Sphere-of-Influence and your Geographic Farm Area, add to that a consistent system of varied marketing tools and a strategic plan for maintaining contact with your entire business base, you can effectively compete and even surpass your goals in the next twelve months.
Put the “Influence” in Your Sphere: Ultimately we are in the people business which requires constant care, contact and nurturing. Make friends with the people in your pipeline. Get to know who they are and what they need first, and the sales will follow. One of my first clients was an agent in San Leandro, CA. She was shocked to find out that a family she had known and been close friends with since childhood did not choose her to sell their home for them. Why? The matriarch of the family was being moved to an assisted living facility, and the family was so preoccupied with getting Mom settled and comfortable, they didn’t think of this agent at all. They forgot their old friend was a real estate agent. Whom did they choose? An agent their mother had never met, but who had steadily and consistently sent personal marketing pieces over the years. She naturally associated real estate with the agent who consistently and professionally reminded her of his expertise. According to NAR, 76 % of sellers contacted only one agent, and 16% contacted just two. 59% of buyers contacted one agent, and 22% met only two. Move your name to the top of that short list, and you have the key to unlocking your potential.
Brand Yourself: To move to the head of the line in the minds of those on your prospect list will require you to brand yourself as the agent to contact to get the best job done in the shortest amount of time for the best possible price. My agent friend took that advice to heart, embarked upon a frequent, consistent personal marketing campaign, sending out postcards monthly to her sphere of influence and farm. She now regularly mails a variety of postcards, including holiday cards, helpful reminders and how-to’s, inspirational postcards, and cards that just say hello. Her business has increased 38%, and people are no longer “forgetting about her.” Identify yourself as the neighborhood or community real estate specialist; reiterate that as frequently and in as many forums as possible, and you too will find your market share climbing.
Flex Your Advertising Muscle: Putting the muscle in your marketing will require you to effectively care for the people in your current base of prospects, finding creative ways to reach those you haven’t yet met will help catapult your production in coming months. One strategy for targeting outside sources is to run ads in local Real Estate magazines, Home Guides, and newspapers. A proven method is what we call “Guerilla Direct Response.” It will produce leads and sales on a consistent basis for a very small investment. These ads are designed to generate calls immediately.
To succeed with Direct Response ads, remember:
- Know your market (say the right things to the right people)
- Speak in specifics, make the benefits match your prospect
- Carefully plan every cent of your advertising budget for maximum profit
- The more that people have been exposed to your other marketing, the more readily they’ll accept what you have to offer with direct marketing
Ads will generate a large number of leads. Many agents focus their lead-generation efforts on getting “quality” leads, so that they get higher conversion rates. However, lower conversion rates can be just as effective if you can amass them in great numbers. For effective lead generation, choose to be systematic and go for sheer volume.
Employ Data Mining Technology: The new must-have power tool to find additional prospects requires cutting-edge data mining technology that literally will allow you to seek, in specific detail, what type of prospects you are looking for. We provide a system with MarketShare Online which allows our clients to choose variable by variable exactly which market they would like to target. From attorneys to physicians, builders to renters or corporations with 25 employees or more, this unique technology allows agents to manipulate local area data to create a specific prospect list and market to the mindset of that client type. For example, if you were looking to find potential investors, you could go to www.prospectsplus.com, click on MarketShare Online, choose your city, state and zip code and search for household incomes over $250,000. Sort the list according to how many people you’d like to add to your prospect list and you are on your way!
Speak in Specifics: Giving people reason to learn more about you, keep what you send them or recognize you as the expert can be rewarding, fun and challenging. Industry facts tell us that your best prospecting success comes when you are as specific as possible. In other words, when your message matches the mindset of your prospect, you win. This is a strategy we teach weekly when we are invited to host a workshop or sales meeting. Having the right tools or marketing materials for the right person at the right time will always glean you the highest results. My children attend a school near a hospital. Every year, I run the school book fair. A few years ago, I decided to post flyers by the elevators of all 8 floors of the hospital, to increase attendance to my book fair, with good success. I suggested to a local Realtor® friend of mine that she post doctor/medical professional specific flyers in the hospital, on all of those 8 floors. She now gets regular inquiries from people working in the hospital, wanting more information. She learned to personally market to specific groups. The same can be done for local CPA’s, explain with a flyer, postcard or brochure that tells them how you can help them and their clients with their real estate needs. Help your local school sponsor their annual teacher appreciation week to target teachers. The possibilities are endless.
Freshen Up! Never become old news in this fast paced industry. Things change quickly and the top producers make sure they change even quicker. I have a client who spent several weeks creating his own brochure. He put it in the lobby of his son’s school. For the first few months, the brochures steadily disappeared, and he got a few calls. After a while, they were no longer effective. People had been there, read that. He needed fresh material periodically to regenerate interest. Armed with our new software, he now produces flyers and brochures that target tax season, garage sale tips, summer safety tips, and more. Now, he gets a steady stream of calls, inquiries, and ultimately, leads. When mapping out your marketing strategies for the year, do utilize time-tested tools such as Just Listed and Just Sold postcards, newsletters, and sports schedules, just don’t stop there. There are hundreds, even thousands of reasons and ways to reach out to the people in your prospect base. Be different, be creative, stay fresh, and you will get noticed.
Put Systems in Place: Commit to the business development side of your career. Live by the 3-7-27 rule of contact. Know that it takes 3 contacts to recognize your name, 7 contacts to make the association and 27 contacts to ensure that those in your database/pipeline/contact management program are comfortable enough with you to entrust you with one of the single largest investments in their lives. Commit to a program or calendar of consistent contact at least every 30 days. Map it out in advance to avoid stress. Set aside time each week to monitor your prospecting progress and don’t fall in to the “I don’t have the time” trap. Make the time. Your career and your success depend on it.
Take Advantage of the Times: There has never been a more challenging or exciting time to be a Realtor. Though competition is great, the resources, tools and technology available are even greater. Arm yourself with as much knowledge and as many tools as possible. With the right commitment, a specific plan and a forward thinking perspective on success, you will create the foundation for a powerful year. I wish you success!
Tanja Kor, National Real Estate Speaker and Regional Director for ProspectsPLUS! has educated, entertained and motivated thousands of agents. She effectively mixes humor and how-to’s to help countless sales associates realize their real estate goals utilizing the tools and techniques she shares in her workshops and sales meetings. To invite Tanja to teach your associates how to play at the next level, or sharpen your company’s competitive edge, contact her today at 1.866.999.MLSM (6576).
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