A simple definition of marketing is the opportunity to tell your story.  Tell your story often enough and it becomes your brand.  Telling your story describes what makes you different from all the other agents.  More importantly, it defines how people benefit from doing business with you.

Let's say that your story is how you make your customers and clients better homeowners.  You suggest maintenance tips and ways to increase the value, equity and enjoyment of their investment in their home.  Your story and the service you provide will distinguish you from your competition and create lifetime customers and referrals throughout the year.  

Once you understand the benefits of telling your story, you need a marketing plan that will make it work.  According to the NAR Profile of Buyers and Sellers, 87% of buyers would recommend or use their agent again.  Unfortunately, only about 14% actually do.  The fallout occurs most often because the agents don't stay in touch.

The most cost effective strategy for lead generation is to establish a database of people and brand your as their real estate professional.  To create top of mind awareness with them, you'll need to stay in touch on a regular basis which means much more frequently than you're doing now.

Let's explore some things that can be put into place that will help achieve our goals.  When possible, we need to set up systems to insure they'll consistently be done.  Many times, we start a project and get distracted to do something else, only to unintentionally discontinue what we had just started.

Database

A commonly quoted statistic is that it costs five to seven times more to get a new customer than to keep an existing one.  This economy of lead generation alone should justify working your friends, relatives, past customers and their referrals.  NAR has confirmed year after year that the majority of sellers and buyers select their agent this way.

In a competitive market, a customer database is essential to sustained success whether it is is maintained in an email program, contact manager or spreadsheet.  The goal is to keep the contact information current and send frequent messages to maintain top-of-mind awareness.

The challenge is for the messages to be interesting enough to be read and not ignore or block them.  The topics should be based on making them better homeowners which will directly benefit them and further your branding endeavor.

Customers' loyalty, repeat sales and referrals are the goals of database marketing and it's essential that he customer must benefit from the contacts.  The communications can vary between mail, email, social media, phone or in-person.

Facebook & Twitter Postings

Instead of posting about what you ate, how crazy drivers are or linking to the latest cute animal video, consider linking to articles on websites that would make your readers a better homeowner.

Copying an article is a violation of U.S. copyright laws and is plagiarism.  However, it is acceptable to link to the site where that article resides and even make a personal comment about it.  Instead of being the author of the information, you will be the purveyor of the information.  You will still be helping your readers be better homeowners.

If your purpose in participating in social media is to build your business, then, you need to put a business "face" forward and show your "friends" that you're the professional who will help them to understand the financing alternatives, investment aspects and tax advantages of homeownership.

Blog

There is no better way to tell your story than in a blog.  You control the content and you write about things that support your point of difference.  The benefits are that it brands you according to what you write about.  Blogs increase search engine visibility and optimization.  Blogs can lead to media attention when reporters search for sources of information and your name returns in the results.

Blogs are basically free and are considered valuable content by search engines.  It is beneficial to have your blog located on your personal website because it will drive traffic to increase exposure to your business.  WordPress and Blogger are two of the most popular platforms.  

The challenge is to post relevant material on a frequent basis and this is probably what keeps most agents from starting one.  If you're conscious about providing the weekly content, you'll be inspired by advice that you give a prospect or client that would also appeal to your readers.  There will be times that you write several articles and "bank" them until they're ready to be posted.

Summary

Marketing is an opportunity to tell your story.  Tell your story often enough and it becomes your brand.  Telling your story builds top of mind awareness which is the cornerstone to repeat and referral business.  Your story should have a value that clearly defines exactly what buyers and sellers can expect when they work with you.  As long as the value they're receiving exceeds the price they're paying, people will buy.  You'll be providing a valuable service and building a business that will last a lifetime.

If you don't have time to create your own custom solution based on the suggestions in this article, you need to see what InTouch can do for you.

Top of Mind Awareness | Pat@PatZaby.com | www.PatZaby.com  

Imagine that you've just finalized a contract with a buyer referral.  They trusted you and they were a joy to work with.  It's in the title company; you're confident it will close and you're ready to move to your next qualified buyer or seller...assuming you have one.

Imagine being in an ice cream shop.  You take a number and wait for your turn to be served.  This procedure maximizes the store's productivity because they're moving from customer to customer without wasting time.

Creating a fully-automatic lead generation system to propel your productivitiy to the next level is no small feat.  Even before you start "calling out numbers", you must have a supply of loyal contacts who will use you when they're ready to buy or sell a home.

Your contacts must think of you as their real estate professional if you expect them to "take a number."  Repeat and referral business depends on maintaining top of mind awareness.  The challenge is what to do for them between when they buy and sell which could be years.

The solution is to make them better homeowners by showing them how to increase their home's value, improve their equity position, maintain their home and enjoy living in it more.  Helping your contacts become better homeowners addresses their interests and keeps your name on the top of their mind.

Knowing what needs to be done and doing it consistently are two different things.  It's understandable with the demands that you have on your time.  Sometimes, the failure to act is due to not knowing what to say or send that will be well received.

InTouch will maintain top of mind awareness for you automatically while branding you as a professional who helps them be "Better Homeowners."  Each week, your contacts that are easily imported will receive an article from you.  Each article and four other links per week will be posted to your Facebook and Twitter accounts.  The same article can be automatically posted to your WordPress, TypePad or Blogger Blog.

InTouch couldn't be any easier or better return on your investment.  Make the decision to use InTouch and you can focus your attention on serving your next customer.

More Information | Examples of Articles | RFC Program | Join Now | Video | Sales@PatZaby.com

Part of the American Dream is to own a home.  Everyone want a place to call their own; raise their family; feel secure; create memories; and share with their friends.  Emotions create the desire to own a home but in an uncertain economy, buyers need to justify the decision with logic.  Some people are afraid to make the wrong decision; they need help from their real estate professional.

Agents have not been trained in recent years to explain why home are a good investment.  They've actually been encouraged to delegate questions about mortgages to lenders and tax professionals.  Consumer's difficulty in getting mortgage financing is today's biggest problem in closing a transaction.

Consumers want and expect agent's help in finding the "right" home but also help negotiating the price and terms, finding attractive financing and coordinating with other professionals.  Article 11 of NAR's Code of Ethics even requires residential REALTORS provide their clients and customers the services which are reasonably expected.

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With the incredibly low rates that fixed mortgages are priced currently, very few buyers have even considered adjustable rate mortgages.  Agents haven't been recommending them because the buyers are readily accepting the rate on the fixed and there really hasn't been the need to suggest something different.

In some situations, the adjustable rate really is a better alternative because it will allow the buyer to have the lowest cost of housing due to the lower interest rate.  The buyer needs to be relatively certain that they won't own the home long term and have a reasonable expectation as to when they will sell it.  Typically, a borrower who selects an ARM is not adverse to risks and may have a better than average understanding of financing.

Most people think that the breakeven point comparing an adjustable rate to a fixed rate occurs when the rate on the adjustable exceeds that of the fixed rate.  Actually, the breakeven occurs when the cumulative savings from the lower payments is exhausted.  When the buyer is confident that they'll be selling the home prior to this breakeven point, the ARM will have a lower cost of housing and may be the better choice. More...