Real Estate Marketing by Custom Coupon Cards

How Well is Your Marketing Working?

2007-03-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Have you given any thought as to why your Real Estate marketing isn't working for you as well as you might like it to?

Some believe it is because of the thousands of messages we're bombarded with everyday, we are conditioning ourselves to disregard the "fluff" and only pay attention to the relevant words or relevant message. If you are of the school of thought that believes "repetition builds response", sorry, but schools out! People recognize your message for what it is and disregard it before the message makes an impact or the branding takes effect.

What should you do? Again there are many differing opinions on this as well, but the simple solution seems to be: make your message relevant, and make it easily available!!

Of course you can advertise that you have published free reports that can save home buyers thousands, but if you make your prospect spend five minutes registering, you'll lose many of them, especially the younger buyers. No one really cares if you're the number one agent, or if you know "Our Town" best. People will see your for sale signs and your sold signs on lawns, and that will drive them to your website or to your corporate website.

Once there, they will be able to see all your listings and all your recent solds. They can download your free reports, or review your helpful hints. You can direct them to your "Blog" about life and real estate in Our Town".

Don't have a Blog or a good website? Then you had better work your referrals. But if you do have something of interest for prospective home buyers, or information they might want regarding the community, schools, things to do, etc., give it away free, no strings attached.

They'll thank you for it by sending you an email or calling you. And most importantly, it's all about them, not about you!

Real Estate Property Videos On Demand

2007-03-19T14:03:00.000-07:00

In Mid-January, I conducted a search for "real estate" videos on YouTube and found 400 in total. Four weeks later, there were 1200 real estate related videos posted. This week, I inserted "real estate" into their search engine, and the resulting list generated over 8,000 related videos.
Some of these videos are property videos, while many more are Real Estate Agent self-marketing videos. As I see it, there are two ways for real estate agents to benefit from this video on demand explosion.
1) have their property videoed and have it hosted by a virtual tour company, &
2) video their own "for sale" properties, post it somewhere for free like YouTube, and save the $100 to $250 fees from the virtual tours photography companies. One such site is www.youmeni.com, in their real estate channel.

This video explosion is well under way, and many agents will take full advantage of it. It is a little confusing for some, but all you do is video tape a property, then upload it to a hosting website. Once you have the link, you include the link in all your web listings, or email the link to prospective clients.

It's fast and it's free. And the FSBO people are probably going to catch on to that sooner that most agents.

Marketing to the Online Home Buyer

2007-03-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

According to real estate economist Professor Paul Anglin of Guelph, Ontario, homes described in real estate listings as "beautiful" sell for 5% more, while using the expression "move-in condition" has no effect on the sale price.

So why do I see so many ads featuring homes that are in "move-in condition", and not too many that are beautiful? The answer could be something as simple as the agents don't know any better or choose not to research what works best.

When an agent writes an ad, even if it is poorly written, and the property sells, the thinking is that it must have been at least partially due to the ad . . . . Or is it that house ads don't sell houses, so it doesn't matter how the ad reads?

More & more people are shying away from printed ads. If they like an area, they drive through it. If they like the area enough, they may have seen the lawn sign of one agent more than any other, and will choose to contact him/her, and they usually do it after a visit to their website.

Over 80% of home buyers visit agency websites or MLS and conduct all their research online.
That leaves 20% of home buyers reading bad ads in newspapers. So how do you advertise to the 80%? The same way you've always done it, just a little differently.

Internet Real Estate Marketing, Why?

2007-03-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

Some Interesting stats:
1) In 2006, 80% of real estate consumers used the Internet in their search for a home.
2) Buyers are now 5 times more likely to find the home they purchase online than in the newspaper.
3) Less than 10 percent of the annual $11 billion spent on real estate marketing is dedicated to interactive. ( 2006 National Association of REALTORS® Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers )

Number 3 seems way out of proportion doesn’t it. I certainly don’t know why, but I’m happy to speculate on this huge variance. I believe that many Real Estate Agents, especially the older ones don’t really know how to market themselves and/or their clients’ properties on the Internet.

Sure they have a website, a few are great, many are OK and most are of poor quality or non-existent. If you are afraid of the technology, or do not want to spend your money on something you can’t touch or physically deliver to a prospect, then chances are you’ll stay away from the technology.

So certainly you can work your referrals and get lucky with the occasional drive-by and open house, but if you really want to be in that top 20% of Agents, then you have to buy-in to the technology. That means investing time and money and doing your homework. Meeting with several different consultants, researching their current client results, evaluating their offerings, determining which programs will work best for you in the short term while developing a longer term strategy. . . . .

But then again, you can still be in the top 20% if you work your referrals properly.