Real estate marketing encompasses two major functions. Real estate agents and brokers market their business and they market the properties they've listed for their clients. Within these two areas there are a myriad of methods, media and budgeting considerations. Here we'll break down this huge subject into the basics and learn to market effectively in today's marketplace.
The Federal Do-Not-Call Registry Rules are too important to treat lightly. Real Estate Agent Independent Contractor status won't protect the brokerage when phone marketing. Know and enforce the rules and develop procedures and agent training.
One of the most important business tools of the real estate professional is their real estate contact & prospect management system. Proper planning will help to select the best system and set it up to help you manage your prospects, market them efficiently and take more of them to a commission.
Call that prospect or FSBO without folowing the rules, and risk a huge fine. Violations of the Federal Do Not Call Rules are expensive. Real estate agents need to know and follow the rules and procedures to the letter.
Real estate farming of neighborhoods has always been a very effective tool for success. However, in today's mobile and Internet world, we must adapt to achieve maximum success when farming neighborhoods. This series of articles is going to bring you new ideas and real estate farming tools for success. And, even more exciting, most of them are free or very low cost.
With all of the discussion of Internet marketing through websites and blogging, a great deal of emphasis is placed on content, but how much of that content is right for your "ideal real estate customer?"
If you're still doing all of the same old refrigerator magnets and post card mailers, you're falling behind in the new world of real estate farming.
Are you looking at your marketing budget and wondering if you're spending in the right areas? Real estate websites are still getting short-changed, even when the numbers show they are critical.
Real estate auctions have become more common in a slow market environment. Learn about real estate auctions, how they work, and the types of auctions.
The huge Quality Improvement movement that's been going on in the U.S. makes one activity of the highest and first priority. A company surveys its current and past customers to find out what they like, what they want, and how they perceive the company's value in the provision of their products or services. Let's look at what actual home buyers tell us about our business.
Learn what actual buyers say they want to see in your real estate listing ads. Give them what they want for better marketing results.
Do you know what you do for clients and prospects that they value the most? Do you really know? Don't push your ideas at them, pull them in with theirs.
No matter what media, do you know whether you're putting the right services out in your marketing? Actual buyers told NAR what they valued most from their Realtors. Pitch that.
Hear from actual home buyers exactly what they value and want to find when they visit a real estate website. And 25-to-1 say it isn't about you!
In which media do you advertise your listings? Do you know what actual buyers tell us are the places they actually first saw the homes they ultimately purchased?
Which of our qualities and skills do our clients value the most? This is a bit different from which services they value. Learn what they want most in personal qualities and job skills.
Writing a real estate ad for a home or other property is an art and a science. There are volumes written on good advertising copy. Too many real estate agents and brokers just don't do their sellers justice when it comes to writing ad headline text.
Learn what it takes to make your next real estate ad more effective by starting with a title that draws in the prospect.
If you haven't yet recognized the Move-Up buyer as a profitable and easy-to-market niche, take a look at the concept here now. You'll be glad that you did.
Is what you do real estate sales, the selling of homes and land? Or is this a service business, and the sales part is selling yourself?
One of the most important business tools of the real estate professional is their real estate contact & prospect management system. Proper planning will help to select the best system and set it up to help you manage your prospects, market them efficiently and take more of them to a commission.
Your real estate prospect management system needs a field to track the status of a prospect as regards how close they might be to a transaction. This helps you to plan activities with priority based on the status of the prospect.
Knowing where contacts and prospects come from is quite important for recording in your real estate contact management system. In the future, you can make much more intelligent marketing budget decisions if you know how you first gained your clients. Move marketing time and money to the prospect sources that work for you.
Real estate contact and prospect management is at the heart of building a successful real estate business. Keeping track of your many professional contacts is critical to smooth transactions, while prospect management keeps you in the minds of your prospects until and after a transaction.
Are you mailing periodic newsletters to your prospect and client base? How about one sentence in each newsletter that will gradually convert them over to an emailed version that will cost you less, speed delivery and guarantee the freshest content?
Many MLS software and online systems offer contact and prospect management as part of their package. There is nothing wrong with them, and it's nice to have the integration with the MLS. However, your business is then dependent on a product over which you have no control. Your board could decide to change systems at any time.
Many highly successful real estate agents and brokers get that way by concentrating on one niche market and serving it well. Learn some of the best niche market opportunities here for real estate.
Actual surveys of real estate buyers and sellers tell you how many would use their agent again or recommend them to others.
The Multiple Listing Service is by far the most prolific source of buyers for your listings. Since the MLS is made up of cooperating brokers and agents, you're really presenting your property listing to these agents and brokers.
Don't forget the purpose of your real estate agent business card when doing the design for a custom card. Though the world is going digital, there is still a use for business cards, and one of your most important design considerations should be how well it will convert to digital with a business card scanner. Don't get to graphic, but if you do use images, be sure to make the text clear and prominent.
A very popular method for farming an area in the real estate business is the regular mailing of postcards. With a properly maintained mailing list, regular mailings and follow-up, this method can be highly effective at building business in an area for the real estate agent.
The 2007 Swanepoel Report of the Top 10 trends in real estate is out. As can be expected, most of the content is in some way related to the internet, the changes in the way agents and brokers need to market themselves and do business, as well as the changes that must come in the structure and MLS's. Web 2.0, listings as a commodity, local association change and other topics are analyzed in relation to the ways in which the internet is impacting the real estate industry.
Call that prospect or FSBO without folowing the rules, and risk a huge fine. Violations of the Federal Do Not Call Rules are expensive.
The Federal Do-Not-Call Registry Rules are too important to treat lightly. Agent Independent Contractor status won't protect the brokerage. Know and enforce the rules.
Before diving into the details of different marketing theories and media, a new broker might want to look at some business models. Tailor your marketing to your market and model.
Actually, the four marketing points mentioned in this article apply in any market. It isn't all just ads and internet. There are all kinds of ways to position your listing to facilitate a faster or higher-priced sale.
Don't get caught in the trap of wanting or needing to change real estate contact management systems, only to find out that you cannot export all the information for transfer to the new system. Also do frequent text file exports to your hard drive just in case your online contact management service disappears.
First, know the difference between contacts and prospects in real estate contact management systems. A contact is virtually anyone you know or do business with, such as appraisers, surveyors, etc. A prospect is someone you're hoping to represent in a real estate transaction.
Successful long term real estate prospect management will depend in part on how well you categorize your prospects by type. With proper grouping of prospects, you'll be more successful at targeted marketing and spend less money doing it.
