There Is No One Size Fits All When It Comes to Real Estate Marketing

So often we see Realtors® come to us with an idea for a marketing plan in mind. Usually they have just gotten back from a trade show or seminar or have seen a presentation about marketing and have decided they want to align their plans with what they learned.

What could be wrong with this? Nothing, right? After all, the agent is honing their skills by attending these workshops or seminars. They are taking pride in their profession and they are staying steadfast in their dedication to improve the health and success of their real estate practice. So this definitely can’t be a bad thing, correct? Well, yes and no.

It is not a bad thing, for all the reasons described above. But why it may be a bad thing is because, many times, the presenters at these seminars do such an outstanding job of selling whatever philosophy they have. The agent walks away thinking, “Gee, all I need to do is this one, single thing and I will be wildly successful.”

That is a recipe for disaster. This is the worst thing an agent can choose to do with their marketing efforts. This is the one single thing that could potentially destroy their entire real estate practice. Why you ask? It’s simple:

There Is No Single Type of Homeowner

Everybody is different and everybody responds to different things. One of the greatest things about humans is that we all exhibit different personalities, have different likes and dislikes and gravitate towards different things. So if you shift your marketing focus to one single activity or vehicle, you are going to potentially be alienating a giant percentage of homeowners in your marketplace. Why on earth would you spend your hard earned money to alienate homeowners in your marketplace? That’s crazy, right?

Even if you don’t believe my statement about human nature, consider it this way: If someone truly did boil being successful in real estate down to one simple activity, everyone would choose to be a Realtor®, rather than whatever profession they are currently in. Even more, if this “one magic activity” were in fact truly a thing, why is it that 10% of agents actually do 90% of the transactions in any given marketplace?

The answer is simple. There is no magic bullet. Those top 10% of the agents that are doing all the business in their respective marketplaces are doing that much business because they were willing to dig in, work hard, pay their dues and not accept anything other than success. For many, that is too tough of a pill to swallow. Many agents simply aren’t willing to dig in and work hard at that capacity to become a top producer in their given industry. It certainly is not for everyone, and that is the reason you see 10% of the Realtors® doing 90% of the business in any given marketplace.

So If There Is No Magic Bullet, What Is the Formula for Success?

It may sound trite, but the true formula to success in marketing your real estate practice is a little bit of everything in moderation. Remember, there is no one single type of person in the world. So, by definition, different things attract the attention of different people.

When prospective clients come into our company for marketing advice and representation, we generally go through a quick exercise to get them thinking in terms of a well rounded approach. First of all, we like to explain to them how there truly is no one single type of person in the world. Based on that, we explain that the best way to approach a well rounded marketing campaign is to approach it in the mindset of putting together a three pronged approach. The three points to their overall campaign will be distinctly different marketing vehicles. The end result will be two fold:

1) You will resonate with the largest number of homeowners in your marketplace possible, ensuring you the greatest chances of capturing those homeowner’s business

OR, even better

2) You will hit the sweet spot where homeowners see you on multiple platforms, thus building up your brand awareness more rapidly and closing business faster than the average ramp-up time for a marketing campaign

There are lots of ways you can mix and match marketing vehicles to come up with the perfect combination. The take home message though that you must remember is you want to pick things that are distinctly different from one another. That will give you the highest percentage of capturing the most business possible in your marketplace.

I’m happy to help you sort out ideas, or even give you advice on any marketing plans you may have. Just contact me anytime and I’m all yours. In my next article, I’ll even share with you a suggested combination of marketing engines that I happen to think hits the sweet spot perfectly.