Your Real Estate Unique Value Proposition

Real estate professionals are usually familiar with niche marketing, while few have developed a UVP, Unique Value Proposition, for their marketing plan. The niche strategy has been around a long time, with real estate professionals working niches like first-time home buyers, condominiums, area or location niches, vacation and resort properties, and more. UVP has been around a long time in marketing circles as well, but few in real estate develop it for their marketing.

So, Just What Is UVP?

As the name implies, it's a Unique Value Proposition; you're proposing to your target market that you're unique in your market area, or that you're providing a product or service with unique qualifications and value. What differentiates you from your competition? What makes you better, more efficient, faster, a better negotiator, technologically superior, or just easier to deal with? You should be considering your Unique Value Proposition while you're developing your marketing plan, niche, and your brand. However, it's never too late. Sometimes you've already defined it through your marketing and branding, but you just haven't called it what it is and focused on it.

Pitch Your Niche

Actually, UVP can be related to your niche. If you can illustrate that you're bringing some unique experience, processes or services to the first time home buyer, then it could be your UVP and work well for you. The same might hold true for vacation and resort properties. If you're a local expert on vacation rentals and Return on Investment for vacation properties, then your UVP ties in well with your niche.

However, whether you have a niche market or not, developing your own Unique Value Proposition and working it into your marketing will increase your business. And, don't just think volume, as that's not value to the current prospect, at least not much. So, "top producer" may draw some interest, but it doesn't say anything to the prospect who wants some help in selecting and closing on a vacation home from a state 1,000 miles away. However, possibly your technology aptitude may be your UVP. Marketing your expertise in working with remote buyers and sellers over the Internet with eSignatures and online document preparation, storage, and sharing might be a UVP.

It could be something in your process, or your entire process when it comes to listings. The Unique Value Proposition that your sellers experience shorter times on market than the average and/or higher sale-to-list price ratios both are great UVP statements. While you may have multiple designations, surveys continue to show that the "alphabet soup" after your name isn't valued that highly by prospects. That doesn't mean that specialization and a designation can't be a great UVP. You just need to separate the acronym from the actual knowledge, expertise, and service that sets you apart. In other words, while the letters designating you as a trained buyer representative might have meaning in the trade, work your Unique Value Proposition around the words and services performed. Show how you have unique value to the prospect because you've had this training.

Check out the Competition

If you visit many of your competitors' websites, you'll see a lot of the same marketing material. Many tout their volume numbers, all say that they'll give you great listing services, and most will now syndicate a listing around the Web. Most will tell buyers that they can help them to make the best deal on a home, and they'll tell sellers they'll get them the highest price. It's stepping out of this repetitive mold and showing the prospect something unique about your services that will set you apart and get their attention ... and business. That's your Unique Value Proposition.