by In real estate there are many different ways to generate business. Many start with the aspect of “branding” themselves, some start with their sphere of influence, and others start down the road of direct response marketing. There are many different ways to build a marketing foundation for your real estate business and your solution should fit your needs and your personality.
Before you spend any money on real estate marketing, it is important to consider the following:
There is no SILVER bullet
No matter what type of solution you decide to use for your real estate business there isn’t going to be a silver bullet or a magic pill that will give you as much business as you could imagine without any work or money. A good marketing solution will require that you invest your time and money into making it work for your business.
There are a few important factors to consider before starting any real estate marketing program.
- What type of business do you want? – Don’t just say “I will work with anyone” as that will result in marketing that has no direction and will be too expensive. The most obvious first decision to make is whether you want to work with buyers or sellers. With just a simple focus on working with buyers or sellers you will be able to determine what marketing will help you to best reach your target audience. Buyers and sellers have different needs and your marketing needs to fill those needs for you to have success.
- Are you an expert in a particular type of real estate? – In real estate there are many different types of real estate to consider. For example, are you an expert in raw land, new home developments, income properties, condos, townhomes, view properties, luxury real estate, retirement communities, income properties, vacation properties, larger multifamily properties, mixed-use properties, and the list goes on and on. Think about where you have the greatest expertise as you can focus your efforts on that particular expertise to be the best in your market for that type of real estate. Remember, you don’t hear on the news “here is the best generalist in medicine”….no they always want to find the best specialist (i.e. brain surgeon, knee surgeon, etc.).
- What are you most passionate about? – Even if you are an expert in a particular aspect of real estate, if you don’t have passion you won’t stick with it. Think really hard about the type of real estate and the type of customer that you are passionate about. Do you love educating the first time buyer or first time investor? Do you enjoy helping people get their first vacation property? Do you love the complexity of selling a property and finding a family a move-up property that is the perfect fit? When you really understand your passion you can have a marketing solution that helps you to align your passion with your marketing.
- What type of marketing do you really want to do? – With online advertising growing at such rapid rates it is certainly one of the most popular and effective mediums to go with to get new customers, but is it a fit for you? There are many real estate professionals across the country that are having huge success with magazine ads, flyer inserts, and postcards so if that is something you want to do then choose a marketing solution that offers those templates as well.
- How are your phone skills? – Be honest with yourself on this one as this can make the difference between massive success and wondering why “the leads are bad”. With new marketing comes a new source of leads so take time to consider if you are prepared to handle leads from that new source. Whether you are getting calls from your website, magazine ads, postcards, sign calls, or another medium there are different questions you can ask prospects to qualify them and see if they are a match for your services. A complete marketing solution should also help you with scripts and objection handling techniques.
There are many different real estate marketing solutions out there and one of the best ways to see which one is right for you is to pick up the phone and call the people who have created it. When they take the time to answer your questions you can see how it would work for you and they might even give you some new ideas you hadn’t thought of yet that you can apply to your business.
