Check the answering machine. Make sure the mail is divided, stamped and ready to be mailed. Authorize purchase agreements. Read up on recent legal changes. OK the ad running in the newspaper. Make the coffee. Scrub the toilet. Turn on the Open sign. Yes, running your own business means you are in charge of all departments, all divisions, all decisions and all duties. It doesn’t matter that you have the desk plate that says President, you get to clean the toilet too. But, when it comes to the important job of generating leads and getting clients, you want to develop a system that is the easiest job of all. And, the way to do that is to keep it simple.
Today’s world is complicated as we all know. There are many diversions to keep people’s minds busy and distracted. In the world of Marketing, you have a split second to grab that person’s eyes and mind and attention and draw them in before they decide to move on to something else. You have to figure out what that split second thing is and if it has a sense of quality and value and if the message is clear. There are a few things that you can do to grab the light and hook the prospect so that you can make them your very own client.
When it comes to Social Media, you should pick and choose which platforms work for you and your brand and your message. You don’t really have to be on every single place offered. The standard locations where the most people hang out are on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and your very own website. To get a handle on where your leads are coming from, you should post a different message on each site and see which one draws the most traffic and response. Each platform is a bit different in nature and form and they may require a bit of tweaking of the type of content. Facebook is the popularity place where you can be funny or lengthy or quick and snappy. Instagram is all about the picture and Twitter is about the conversation. Pinterest is the place to create a poster and draw the crowd over to your website. So the content of each posting needs to be designed for the characteristics of each platform. To make things simple, create one interesting post with excellent photos and post it on Facebook. Note the interactions and activity. They take the same photos and shorten the content and post on Instagram. Leave you message there for a day and again note the interactions and activity. Take the first content and edit it into 250 character segments with a picture in the first segment and post on Twitter. Again, look at the activity. And finally, take the content, make it very short with a stunning headline, add a picture and and a landing page URL and post it on Pinterest. Have a landing page ready on your website and take note of how many sign up for your newsletter or other offering that you had on your landing page. If you do all of this in the course of one week, you should have a pretty good idea of which platform your leads are coming in from. From then on, you should spend the most time and effort on the platform that gets you the most leads.
You have between three to five seconds to get to that potential client. They need to take in your message that quickly in order to look further into who you are. Attention spans have decreased to the point of a bug. We are hit with so many pieces of information and marketing every single second, that for one to get someone’s attention for a full five seconds is almost a miracle. The world has changed dramatically in how much information a normal person is exposed to. In 1970, the average American was exposed to 500 marketing ads per day. In 2006, the average American was exposed to 5,000 marketing ads per day. In 2017, the average American was exposed to 10,000 marketing ads a day. Obviously, social media has changed the marketing landscape and you are just one in 10,000.
So…. you have to become extremely targeted. You have to know your audience and exactly what they need and want. You need to increase your brand awareness, and become the leader in your marketplace. You have to become the person who is the expert and knows everything. In other words, you need to be the specialist. Your messages have to be relevant and easy to absorb. Create pieces that are an interesting short story that is the beginning of a conversation that is very intriguing. You need to know your goal and write your ads with the goal in mind. Do not clutter it with too much information. Keep it simple and enticing. And then, leave them wanting to know more. You want them to look for your website, follow you on your social media and sign up for your newsletters. You want to be the most sought after person ever!
Once you have achieved a comfort zone of name recognition, brand identity and a nice amount of clients, you can not stop your marketing. If you snooze you lose is a very true saying. You are your company. You are your brand. You are the one everyone knows and if you disappear off of the social media platforms, website signups and monthly email newsletters, you will be gone forever and have to start completely over. Without a presence, you do not exist.
A real estate marketing campaign needs to be kept simple and easy. You will always be tweaking things and adding and taking away messages and updating art and photos. You are honing your messages, and keeping things relevant so that you will always be fresh and new. Once you get the ball rolling, you just have to keep it rolling with consistency, a simple message and a recognizable image and brand.
To be successful in real estate you have to be able to do more than just close the deal. You need to effectively manage and grow a small business. That means finding clients, keeping them, and motivating them to buy or sell. We at Everest Direct Mail and Marketing, help build quality lead pipelines through consistent marketing and client relationship management. We will help you customize and send marketing materials that are written and designed to connect with today’s consumer. We use high quality printing to create new business opportunities or print full color property flyers to promote your listings at home. We will send drip email, direct mail or MultiChannel campaigns with our pre-built real estate marketing materials. We will create content including listing flyers or monthly newsletters. We will help you consider the various types of homeowners when determining the type of content to use in your direct mail campaign: Probate owners, Absentee owners, FSBOs, Expired and withdrawn listings and Owner-occupied.
