To achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves, we need to overcome our fears, and in overcoming our fears, we have to find our courage. Fear limits our actions and success. There is no hero nor a powerful figure who can boldly claim that they do not have or live without fears. However, courageousness does not equate fearlessness. Courageous individuals still have that fear, but they are able to manage and overcome them.
It is never easy to overcome our greatest fears and to go against the flow of the norm. Undoubtedly, different risks will come our way. Some risk their limbs, others risk their reputation, and some people even risk their lives. Needless to say, we can see that risk is a serious thing. One must have a tremendous amount of courage to face and endure a particular risk. No matter how young or old you are, and whatever field you are in, there will be a time that you will face your fears, and facing that fear entails taking risks.
So, why are we talking about this?
As real estate agents, we encounter numerous risks every single time. To succeed in this field, we need to incorporate perseverance and courage in everything we do. Yes, this is not a single day process. In this market, everyone strives to be number one. However, not everybody wants to put in the time and work they need to do in order to achieve that. And that is a big issue. We attend conferences, and we try to acquire as much information as possible, and we stop at that. We lack the fuel to keep us going.
In order for us to build our courage and persevere in our work, we need to determine our vision. What should I do? What are the things that I need to consider? These are just two questions that will probably set the tone. But apart from these two, there are still numerous ways and questions to brood over for us to reach that ultimate goal.
Many real estate agents and brokers think that marketing seems to be an endless cycle. As technology continues to rise, tons of new and fresh ideas keep coming in. When you browse your Facebook timeline, you will notice many so-called experts promising a good outcome when you sign up for their services. With all these things, choosing a suitable marketing strategy somehow becomes a difficult task. Creating content requires a lot of hours and a good amount of hard work in order for you to achieve your goals. Add these to the inevitable glitches and the money you need to spend.
Don't get too agitated. It would be best if you focused on your goals – the long-term ones. Pause and take as much time as you need to think because the latest marketing strategies do not mean even a single thing if you ask the wrong questions. Questions are, most of the time, important than answers. This is true. Because in the real estate industry, questions help you define the message you want to convey to your clients and prospects. Below are some of the essential questions you need to ask yourself before putting up your next marketing project.
What sets you apart from other agents?
Most of the people, if not all, tend to believe that having a lot of differences make you look bad and not fit for the community. People think that for you to belong, you need to imitate and follow the norm. Life is much easier that way, right? You do not need to think about what others would tell you because you acted according to the standard. Normality is a paved road. It is really easier, but there is no growth nor success. Real estate agents must come up with something that sets them apart from the norm. There are numerous agents out there carrying what seems to be the trend, do not join their ranks. You better think of something that will make you stand out. If you happen not to have this kind of unique factor, that is the first thing you need to think of before in creating your content. You must not forget this because even the most efficient and latest marketing will not be effective if all agents are using it. It would be best if you come up with your own value and identity. Get out of your comfort zone to meet the needs of the world.
How much budget do you plan to allocate on online and offline ads?
We cannot ignore the fact that almost every move we make involves money from the food we take, the electricity we consume, the gadgets we use, etc. This also applies to whatever advertisement we put online or offline. As a real estate agent who wants to be on top of the line, you need to allocate a budget to make your services known. Several years ago, we relied on print advertisements as the most effective tool to introduce a brand. Through time, alongside the fast-changing environment and technology, numerous ways are being developed to make your brand visible to the market: we have Craigslist, Yelp, Facebook, Instagram, etc. Many agents continue to use offline marketing. However, one must be careful about how they spend their funds using this type of medium as no one will know how many people have actually looked at the postcard they sent.
How can the 80/20 rule help you?
Hard work is necessary in any aspect. However, this must not be taken literally. While it is true that you need to work hard to become successful, it is also true that you don't need to lay 100% of your energy in every aspect of your business. Yes, you have read it right. Not all things require your full attention. Knowing the 80/20 rule will definitely make you more productive and lets you focus more on the things that are an expert on. What is this rule? As real estate agents, we need to know that 80% of our business comes from 20% of our effort. What does this mean? This means that you need to hire someone more knowledgeable on things like creating landing pages or the ins and outs of IDX instead of you trying to figure them out yourself. You always have the final say to things such as that. You can instruct the person you hired on what to add on your site for your potential clients to see. Your strength lies in the vision and the client services that you offer.
After reading the three things above, maybe some of you might ask: What now? What should I do? As written in the earlier paragraphs, questions are, somehow, more important than answers. This generates a special kind of feeling to aspire and aim for more. As we know, there are numerous advertisements out there that promise astonishing results. And we get used to it. We become numb to the point that we don't care anymore. This gives us dilemmas. How can we be more effective when people are already used to different types of advertisements?
Despite the problems above, we still risk. Because that's what we are as real estate agents. Every single day is a risk that we need to take. But, risking it all without having any plan seems to be pointless. It is like you're sweeping all the leaves in your garden on a windy day. For our efforts to be paid off, we need a sound strategy. And it starts with a question: how can we sell ourselves to the market if there is a sea of competition around? If we wanted to find the answer to this question, we must first understand our business and role as real estate agents.
Maybe some realtors think that having a website is sufficient to generate and acquire more clients. That is really simple, isn't it? We will be making a lot of money if this is the case. However, this is not the actual scenario. A website plays an integral part in your business, but it is not the be-all and end-all.
While it is true that online presence is the most in-demand thing nowadays, we must not also forget our presence offline. In order for us to have a good position in the online platform, we need to establish first our offline presence. We need to let others know who we are. We need to introduce ourselves offline. Though most people consult the internet before making a purchase, we cannot disregard the fact that offline marketing should not be downplayed. Remember, for us to have a long relationship with our clients, we need to have a formal introduction of who we are. Our target leads would not browse our website if they didn't know about us. Would you mind talking to a person whom you do not know? I guess you probably think that it would be a total waste of time.
We need to make sure that we are marketing our property cards, postcards, business cards, flyers, brochures, etc. correctly to establish our offline presence. How can we do that? We need to use the "call-to-action" marketing. This only means that we must give the people we send out our marketing materials to enough reason to act the very moment they receive it. They must reach out to us directly because this is the only way to generate more leads. To see if our offline advertisements are truly working, we need to ensure that we drive traffic back into our sites.
The money we put for our offline marketing must never go to waste. And to prevent us from committing this mistake, we need to ensure that the cards we will send will include landing pages that will enable us to track down which place we are generating most leads from. In order to do this, we must create a specific landing page for every area we send our cards to; that landing page is what we will put as our website link. Once we have determined which place performs the least, we can leave those areas out and focus more on the places that generate good results.
If we happen to remember our Physics class, Newton's third law of motion tells us that there is a reaction for every action. This is true; however, we have to make sure that the steps that we make will give enough reasons for our leads to reach us out. There are a lot of reactions that our target market will certainly do. It only depends on how we persuade them through our offline marketing strategy. If we give them so much information on the brochures and postcards, why are we still expect them to visit our website?
Simply because we already gave them everything. There is no more room for them to ask questions. Imagine having all of the necessary information in one brochure. Do you think they will still visit your website or attempt to call you if they already have the information they need? Of course not. As real estate agents, we don't need to give them all. We just need to provide enough information that will tickle their curiosity to visit our website.
Some real estate agents and brokers may think that offline marketing is a total waste of time. Why? Because in a technology-run society, more and more businesses are going online. We consider offline tasks as dead. We are too engrossed with online shopping, online banking, and online selling to the point that we forget how to make a transaction offline. In the real estate industry, we cannot set aside offline marketing. When used by the right hands, these tools can trigger substantial growth for our business. As real estate agents, we must always consider that creating more avenues will assure us that clients will go back to our website.
In the previous paragraphs, we mentioned that you don't need to provide all of the information in the postcards you will send. This is done to pique your prospect's interest to go and visit your website. But how can an agent do this? One good example is that don't put the price of a particular property. If a client is interested in the home you are selling, not putting the exact price is a good start. You also might want to consider inserting fewer pictures in your brochure to tickle the minds of your prospect. You can display only the front and backyard photos of the property and make inside images hidden. This type of seemingly clickbait hacks will prompt your audience to think about what this house would look like from the inside.
You may also want to consider changing the terminologies you use. Instead of saying, "visit our website," you may want to emphasize the word "mobile website." We need to take advantage of this because most of the people have their smartphones. When they hear the word "mobile," they probably would think that they need not get a laptop or a desktop computer to view your site. They will simply get their smartphones and search for your mobile site. But of course, you have to make sure that the website you built is mobile friendly.
Let me reiterate that offline marketing is not a total waste of time despite the changes in our times. The results of its implementation differ in the way you delivered it. If you want to have a good standing in this industry's race, you need to maintain both online and offline marketing.
In the previous paragraphs, we discussed the magic offline marketing could do to your business, especially when it is laid out properly. Here are a few more tips that will surely spice up your ad to add more flavor to this marketing strategy.
Make Each Listing Unique
Yes, you were able to catch your target market's interest to come and visit your site. Your next goal is to make them stay. How can this be done? By adding some personality to the listing, you directed them to. You may want to add a personal twist to the property descriptions.
Ask for Customers' Review
With the side-by-side online stores and businesses, people tend to be more curious about the reviews from your previews customers. Because there are some anomalies in the industry — agents not delivering what they promised — most buyers are carefully evaluating every detail before acquiring services. We should take advantage of this: the more customers' review, the more chances of getting their attention. When people evaluated you as a trustworthy agent or seller, they will come to you more frequently. If they are happy with the services you offer, they might also recommend you to some of their friends, family members, or even acquaintances. This is the power of every review. But, an agent must also be careful with this. Because when there is someone who doesn't like your services and gave terrible feedback, this will affect your overall performance. That is why we need to be more careful in every service that we render to our clients. One wrong angle and your image will be ruined.
Record Video Testimonies
While an in-text customer review is persuasive, you might want to ask your clients to record themselves while giving their testimonies. Words don't show so much emotion when it is read. It could become more compelling when you can see how it was delivered. A video testimonial that is given with full emotions tends to be more convincing. The simple secret of this is, make the video of your client into a fascinating story. People often relate to the stories of other individuals. Suppose they see that this person's account is quite similar to theirs. In that case, chances are they will attain your services over others because they know that you already have the experience and know what to do next. That is how you can establish a connection between the two.
Combining your online and offline marketing strategies can increase the overall effectiveness of your advertisements. And there are various ways on how you can execute this. Each approach has its pros and cons. You will be wasting your time if you will still weigh which one to use. Why not use them both. Don't be afraid to get creative!
If you want to become successful in the real estate industry, you need courage every single day. You need to fight and strive for greatness. Remember, this is not an overnight success. If you want something to last, learn how to get it in a harder way. Those who take time are precious, so as you. Even your progress is not the same as theirs, remember that even the little progress is still considered progress. Let the journey of a thousand days begin with your courageous first step. The real estate industry is not easy, but this is worthy of your efforts.
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