Aliso Viejo, CA – March 2, 2008 For today’s buyer or seller, their choice in hiring a real estate professional may be influenced by their need to associate themselves with the best and the brightest in the industry. Their hiring decisions then may be based on who they perceive to be not only the most qualified agent, but also the agent who best represents them. This is sometimes known as the ego driven decision.

 

This ego driven decision making process can be influenced by many factors, but can be boiled down into one sentence – Your image is a reflection of their image.  

 

To build a higher quality brand name you may wish to review several factors within the field of marketing that are dramatically altering the way wise agents market themselves. There is no doubt that marketing is changing. Smart marketers today have to rethink their advertising strategies, build new distribution channels and look for more creative ways to stay in front of and engage the consumer. With global spending on advertising having long past half a trillion dollars per year (with more than half spent in U.S. markets) advertising executives have to overcome consumer fatigue, apathy and resistance to the bombardment of non-stop advertising messages. Real estate professionals share this common dilemma.

 

Marketing expert Greg Stielstra states in his book, PyroMarketing, that branding is overvalued and badly misunderstood. A study cited by Stielstra found that 96% of consumers would dump their favorite brand if a competing product offered more value at the same price. His marketing solution?

 

Start a fire to survive!

 

"Picturing a single match is a reminder of the finite nature of your marketing resources," Stielstra writes. "No matter what they are – money, people or time – you only have so much. Opportunity costs are critical. How will you use your match? What will you touch it to? What tactics will deliver results? Use it wisely by building your marketing fire according to proven principles. You may only get one chance."

 

Stielstra recommends four steps to take to build a successful marketing campaign – starting your fire with a single match.

 

1.       Gather the Driest Tinder. "Selling SUVs?" Stielstra asks. "Don't think about a prospect's income or age. Instead, try contacting people whose cars were recently rescued by tow trucks from a snow bank." People, that is, who need your product now.

 

2.       Touch it With the Match. Give [people] an experience with your product or service. A nutty but effective example: In 2002 Procter & Gamble promoted its Charmin toilet paper by supplying high-end toilets called "Potty Palooza" at events such as Cincinnati's Oktoberfest and at the Super Bowl. As Advertising Age wrote: On one side, a row of typically wretched public toilets at last year's Oktoberfest in Cincinnati. On the other, squeaky-clean, tractor-trailer-mounted ["Potty Palooza"] bathrooms complete with running water, wallpaper, faux wood floors and plenty of Charmin toilet paper. The feedback was instant." In one year Charmin, touched 2 million people in Potty Paloozas, and Charmin sales went up 14% among those who used the facilities.

 

3.       Fan the Flames. Turn your first customers into rabid evangelists. Rick Warren sold the first 400,000 copies of his book The Purpose-Driven Life for $7 each to ministers and other churchgoers. Study groups were formed to discuss the book, and sales boomed. The Purpose-Driven Life has sold 30 million copies to date and is the bestselling hardcover book in history.

 

4.       Save the Coals. Keep a database of your customers. Then you won't have to start the next marketing campaign from scratch.

So, we are left with the question: Is there a better way to market yourself, a way to ensure that your personal marketing plan will be the absolute best that it can be, and will attract a steady stream of affluent buyers and seller leads?

Jim Remley, in his Accredited Luxury Home Specialist course, boiled it down to RESULTS.

R – Research Yields Rich Rewards

 

Top producers research their markets, their clients and their advertising channels before investing their hard earned commission dollars. A top producer’s best place to find marketing ideas is often their own client database. One key question to ask every client: What real estate marketing motivates you to contact a real estate agent? Although this is a moving target that can and will change over time; by continually asking for your clients’ input, you can stay abreast of the changing market. 

 

E – Effort Does Not Equal Effectiveness

 

It’s easy to equate hard work with effectiveness; after all, one should equal the other, right? But that is not always the case. Just spending money on marketing, or investing time or effort doesn’t necessarily mean that any campaign will work. Wise agents look at what other top producers in their area are currently using to successfully market themselves. In addition, consider looking at successful marketing campaigns from other industries and attempt to identify ways you can adapt the same concepts for real estate.

 

S – Stop at Nothing but Excellence

 

What if the value of your real estate business was solely judged by the quality of your advertising? Agents at the top of their earning curve understand that consumers often make decisions about the character and quality of a brand based on their first impression, and often their first impression is based solely on a marketing “impression.” Based on this simple truth, most top producers stop at nothing less than absolute marketing excellence.

 

U – Understand the Power of Being Unique

 

Differentiate or die! This is the call to arms made by marketing professors in business schools across the country, and they are absolutely correct. Ask yourself: What do you do differently or better than anyone else in your market? How are you better than your competitors?

 

L – Learn from Mistakes

 

When you look at most agents’ personal marketing you will find a very common mistake. They market themselves and not their business; vanity marketing. With this simple truth in mind, professionals focus their marketing dollars on building value based advertisements. In other words – they lead with the client need. 

 

T – Track the Results

 

As a business professional you have an obligation to track all of your marketing investments and measure them against their effectiveness. In fact, one rule of thumb in business and a motto you should live by is this: If you can’t track it, don’t do it!  How do superstars track their marketing effectiveness? The simplest method is to ask new clients what prompted their contact.

 

S – Start Over

 

While strong agents always allow enough time for their target audience to be repeatedly touched by their marketing messages, they also know when to pull the plug on an advertising strategy that is not producing results. They know when to start over. The danger for many agents is that almost any marketing campaign will produce some level of results. The key is to establish a minimum acceptable standard.

 

RESULTS – always a great measure of success.

 

If you want to learn more about how to work with luxury home buyers and sellers you should consider taking the Accredited Luxury Home Specialist (ALHS) course from a RealtyU School or you can take it online by visiting www.becomealuxuryagent.com.