Business
What's Your Real Estate Marketing System?
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Learn About Marketing Systems to Boost Your Real Estate Business
Let's face it, the market has changed. While most real estate agents enjoyed a good run in recent years, the market started to slow down in 2007. Now many realtors find themselves working hard and getting poor results.
Do you want to learn how to succeed no matter what the fluctuations of the market? The key to your success is good marketing. With a great marketing system, you can boost your real estate business. Don't work harder; work smarter!
Great marketing should be targeted to a specific group of prospective clients, be emotionally compelling and generate a measurable response. Always remember the main goal of any business: to find customers, to provide them with outstanding service, and to keep them coming back.
Your marketing system is the heart and soul of your business and your success. Check out the articles below to learn more about achieving success in your market. I've included articles on choosing a target market, effective advertising and internet marketing. I've also provided some great resources to help you build your marketing system.
Stop wasting your time and money on poor results: make your real estate marketing system work for you!
Real estate marketing secrets!
Know Your Market
If you want to be a successful marketer, it's essential that you target a specific market and know that market inside out. Without a targeted market, your time and money spent on attracting prospects is going to waste. Generalized marketing just doesn't generate the results you deserve.If you're trying to sell to everyone, chances are you'll end up selling to few. Successful marketing will make your prospects feel you are connecting with them on an individual basis. Target a specific type of prospect and cater to them, and you can successfully carve out a niche for yourself.
Once you've identified your target market, learn as much as you can about that market. Who are your prospects, and what are their interests? Remember, you are trying to build relationships within your market, and you should be sincerely interested and knowledgeable about that market.
So what should you be looking for in a target market? A target market should consist of a group of people who have a defined need for your service and are able and willing to buy.
You can choose a targeted segment of the general market of home buyers and home sellers by narrowing them down into subgroups. You should look for a subgroup that is under-served and that you have the ability to connect to.
Focus on a subgroup that you're comfortable working in and can develop a relationship with. You can hone in on this subgroup by considering the following:
Demographics
Demographics include income, age, gender, ethnicity, and education level of your prospective market.
Lifestyle
What do your prospective clients do for a living? What are their hobbies and interests? Are they single, newly married, divorced? Do they have young children, or are they empty nesters or retirees?
Motives
Consider the motives of your target market. Are they primarily first-time home buyers or are they looking for vacation homes? Find out why your prospective clients are buying or selling, and cater to their motives.
Here are some examples of areas you might focus on:
*Single women
*Baby boomers
*Minority buyers
*Luxury or vacation home buyers
*Young professionals
Poll
Effective Advertising: An Essential Part of Your Real Estate Marketing System
Once you've chosen your target market, it's time to get the word out! Since you are in the business of forming relationships, it's ideal to meet prospects face-to-face, talk and get to know them, and offer your card. Realistically, though, how many hands can you shake?This is where effective advertising comes into play. A well-planned advertising campaign will bring you incredible results that you can duplicate again and again. Whether you choose to advertise with direct-mailings, print ads, emails, TV, or a combination of many methods, you can use the same principles to guide you.
Above all, your advertisements must speak to your prospective clients on an individual basis. Targeted marketing should address your potential customers-- their concerns, needs, fears, and so on. Remember, it's all about the customer. Focus on them, rather than tooting your own horn.
Another key to effective advertising is frequency. In order to stick in the minds of your prospects, it's essential that you put out a consistent, frequent image. Some experts suggest you should aim to get your name out to your target market at least three times per month. Keep in mind that this may be a combination of face-to-face prospecting, mailers, billboards, and other forms of advertising.
Lastly, effective advertising must bring you measurable results. It is crucial that you track your advertising-- how much business is each ad bringing to your door? If you aren't tracking your advertising, you have no idea what's working and what's not. Once you know what's bringing you the most business, you can duplicate your success indefinitely!
Websites and Your Real Estate Marketing Plan
Tailor your site to your visitors, first and foremost!
The average prospect that comes to your web site has a specific goal in mind. Ease of navigation, a good layout, and making it easy for users to find the information they're looking for is key to keeping prospects on your page and ultimately turning them into buyers.You have to put yourself in the customer's shoes, and think about what the average person who comes to your site is looking to accomplish.
How can you make your site easy to use?
Put yourself in the prospect's shoes. If you came to your site for the first time, would you be able to find what you were looking for? Do you use a PDA, or a large monitor? What specific features would you want on a site if you were looking to buy property? Is your internet connection fast or slow?
Make your content readable and be clear. Avoid small text and choose colors for your background and text that are easy on the eyes. If your visitors come to your site and can't make out what you're trying to say, you'll lose them to a better-looking page in no time. Present concise, informative content, and don't put more information than necessary as you will lose your prospects' interest to another page.
Don't reinvent the wheel-- follow the leader. You can be creative with your site, but you should follow a conventional layout in organizing your web page. Visitors will expect a certain layout, and if you break from the norm, you may confuse your prospects and make it difficult to navigate the page.
Test! Test! Test! Testing your sales pages and understanding what works and what doesn't work is essential to any web-based endeavor. You may be getting tons of traffic to your site everyday but not seeing the conversions you expected. This could simply be a matter of layout and copy. Work and tweak your website until you feel you have the perfect setup and are getting the conversions you are aiming for.
Four Common Mistakes Agents Make With Their Websites
Poor NavigationMarketing on the internet requires insight into how people shop and gather the information they are looking for when browsing the web. If a visitor comes to your site and can't find their way around with ease, chances are they'll be gone in a few seconds, never to return.
"Page Not Found"
You never want your visitors to see an error page or be redirected to a different link than intended. Errors will frustrate visitors, and it reflects poorly on you.
No Agent Information
Your website should always have your visitors in mind first, focusing on their top concerns and giving them the information they are looking for. Make sure your prospects can find a bit of info about you, as well. You want your prospective clients to get to know you a bit. Give a brief bio that tells why you're in real estate, and focus on connecting with your target market.
Missing the Target
As always, you must keep your target market in mind. The internet may seem like a great place to cast a wide net, but you'll get much better results if you focus on a target group. Narrow down your market from generalized groups like "home buyers" or "home sellers" to a more specific subgroup, and tailor your web page to that targeted market.
Real Estate Marketing Questions or Comments? Leave Them Here!
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The_Real_Estate_Informer
hey, great lens, thanks! its very well organized. Posted August 08, 2008 |
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AnnSieg
Hi, Posted June 17, 2008 |
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ddixonart
I create house portraits, and I have some clients who are real estate agents who order the custom portraits as closing gifts. I decided to create a Squidoo page about the benefits of a house portrait as a closing gift vs. the classic fruit basket. I would love for you to visit and let me know what you think. I'm going to Lensroll your lens to mine. Your page looks great! Posted April 07, 2008 |
Look who made this lens!
brseminars
About RETU Founder and Creator Brian Rodgers
As an agent that rose to the Top of the real estate industry quickly, Brian Rodgers has been on a fast-paced, me...
moreWhat's here
- Real estate marketing secrets!
- Know Your Market
- Poll
- Effective Advertising: An Essential Part of Your Real Estate Marketing System
- Websites and Your Real Estate Marketing Plan
- More...
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