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