Easy Agent Pro is busting out the crystal ball, dusting it off and gazing into it deeply to divine who you’ll be working with next year. When we’re finished, you’ll be raring to hit that 2018 business plan. In the meantime, who are the 2018 homebuyers? Who are 2018 home sellers?
The two types of homebuyers in 2018
If you thought “liars and really-good-liars” when you read that, think again.
According to NAR, the typical homebuyer is 45 years of age, married and earns a median household income of $88,800. That means these buyers are members of Gen X, despite all the hoopla about millennial homebuyers (age 23 to 41 in 2018).
These Gen X buyers (those between the ages of 39 and 53) are the group that will also spend the most money on homes, according to the NAR. Look for them to “buy the largest homes in median square footage and bedrooms,” as well. These folks will be hot prospects as 2018 homebuyers.
The report concludes that this group of buyers want neighborhoods close to their work and near quality schools.
Baby Boomers (age 54 to 72) are the third largest group of buyers, behind Generation X, according to NAR. Be aware, however, that they split the generation in two, for some reason.
Boomers as 2018 Homebuyers –
When looked at in total, Baby Boomers comprise 30 percent of homebuyers – only 4 percent fewer than millennials
And, what are they looking for in their next home? They’ll be looking to move closer to grandchildren, first.
Then, they want “a multi-car garage with plenty of storage,” according to Del Webb’s Baby Boomer Survey.
They also crave bodies of water, be they lakes, rivers or ocean and lots of open space and parks.
Agents who practice real estate in sunnier climes, especially Arizona, the Carolinas, Florida and Texas may be particularly busy showing homes to older Americans.
Sure, Millennials dominate the first-time homebuyer market, but overall, it’s older folks who have the means and the desire to buy homes, and they will be out there, looking for them, in 2018.
Want to lure listings?
Don’t expect listings to be an easy catch if inventories remain suppressed in 2018.
A Value Insured survey conducted in spring of this year found that, although more than 60 percent of homeowners understand that this is the best time to sell, they also angst over finding their next home in a puny inventory and with soaring prices.
In fact, more than 60 percent of the homeowners surveyed said they are waiting for home prices to stabilize before they make their move. 2018 home sellers may want to go while the market remains tight. Change is in the air, it seems.
In fact, their wait may be over next year, at least according to Freddie Mac’s prognosticators, who say that
new construction will increase, helping to ease the inventory shortage, thereby “moderating prices.”
According to NAR, Gen X homeowners were the largest group of sellers in 2017. And, the Value Insured study finds that 62 percent of Gen X homebuyers are seeking a larger or “forever” home. So will a little luck, this group can show up in both your 2018 homebuyers AND 2018 home sellers lists.
Of course, they’ll need to sell off their starter homes first, positioning them to be your largest listing pool in 2018.
Baby boomers are NAR’s second largest group of sellers
Sure. they were widely blamed for 2017’s low inventory, but 2018 may be the year the industry can shake them loose and entice them to finally downsize. Look for boomers to figure large in 2018 home sellers activity.
And, although it isn’t expected to happen until fall of next year, we can thank homebuilders for the turnaround.
“Builders won’t ignore this hungry market, and we’ll start to see a rise in new construction at the more affordable end, instead of all the luxury buildings we’ve seen lately,” predicts Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell.
Smaller, more affordable new homes?
What more can a downsize-craving baby boomer ask for? Be on the lookout for boomers who have the potential to be both 2018 homebuyers and 2018 home sellers.
This trend may just be the key to convincing boomers that not only is it an amazing time to sell their large homes, but to buy a less maintenance-intensive retirement home as well.
The robust job market and rise in home values coupled with a larger inventory bodes well for listing agents in 2018.
Gen X homeowners have built up enough equity to finally pursue their upsizing dreams – buying the large homes that boomers will hopefully be selling.
Given all this – how should you handle marketing in 2018?
Which one are you? Figuring out who you are and who you will likely resonate with in these statistics can be helpful as you plan your efforts.
Based on your answer to the first question, who do you want to target?
Where are they? Where are they moving? Social networks, communities, schools – how can you find groups of the folks you want to target? Can you place yourself strategically in these already-established flows through ads, community involvement, and other activities?
As you market, identify your targets and track your success by group. If you run a Facebook ad and it performs or under-performs, look deeper into the demographics – sometimes average performance across the entire demographic spread masks above and below-average results in particular niches. Identify these and test them in your next efforts.
Make sure you have a great website (oh wait, is that too shameless?)
As much fun as social media can be, when we’re considering social media for real estate, we have to look at what really adds value. Often, we’re looking at statistics for this information. Funny thing about statistics: we can (and many do) manipulate them to tell others whatever we want them to know.
By omission, primarily
For instance, NAR, in its “Digital House Hunt” publication, put some study statistics in graph-form. The text accompanying the graph claims that “31% of home shoppers who take action on a real estate site are age 25-34, surpassing all other ages.”
Sadly, most of us won’t bother to do more than glance at the graph before rushing off to polish up on our “how to attract millennials” knowledge.
And, that’s a problem
Because when we look closer, and strip away NAR’s arbitrary age groups, we learn that 54 percent of these survey respondents are older than 35 and 33 percent of them are older than 45.
Which, by the way, validates NAR’s other claims that the median age of a homebuyer is 43 and the median age of a seller is 44.
Whenever someone throws statistics at you, it pays to remember Disraeli’s words of wisdom: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, da%#ed lies, and statistics.” This statement definitely applies to social media for real estate.
If you don’t, you’ll be wasting your valuable time on social media sites that make no sense for the average real estate agent.
The new year is a time many agents are reevaluating their marketing – what works, what doesn’t. Hopefully, digital marketing will be on that list.
So, today, let’s dive deeper – past the flashy numbers – to determine how effective these social media platforms are for the real estate industry.
How to digest the statistics
Even the smallest social media site has an impressive number of monthly users and most will knock your socks off with the statistic showing the platform’s snappy growth in popularity. But be careful thinking this growth will directly benefit you in using social media for real estate.
For instance, that 300 million-plus people use SnapChat every day is impressive, but it doesn’t tell you the real story (you can find that, below).
Before making the leap, get the answers to the following questions:
How many of the platform’s users live in the U.S.?
Where do these users live? Cities, suburbs? If you’re looking for listings you want to target suburb-dwellers, primarily, right?
How old are they? Unless you’re going after only 35 percent of the buyer pool, first-time buyers aren’t your holy grail. Remember, the median age of a buyer is 43 and the median age of seller is 44.
How much money do they earn? The typical homebuyer makes $88,800 and homes sellers, by and large, have a median household income of $103,300.
From these statistics we can come up with a plan – a bit rudimentary, but a plan nonetheless.
Buyers agents should look for social media platforms with the following characteristics:
A large number of U.S. users.
Largest share of users includes those 45 years of age.
The typical user makes around $88,000.
And here’s what listing agents should look for:
A large number of U.S. users.
The largest share of users are at least 40 years of age, but older is better.
Users have a median household income of at least $90,000, higher is better.
A large pool of suburban users.
So, how do the various social media platforms stack up when it comes to digital marketing for agents?
Facebook
Total Number of Daily Active Users: 1.37 billion, according to Statista
Of these, 214 million reside in the U.S.
The largest age group in the U.S. that uses Facebook is between the ages of 35 and 54 (56 million).
Nearly three-quarters of Facebook users earn more than $75,000.
The number of users who live in urban versus suburban areas is almost evenly split.
When it comes to Facebook, there is simply no reason why all agents shouldn’t include the site in their digital marketing mix. What other platforms are useful for social media for real estate?
Instagram
Total Number of Daily Active Instagram Users: 500 million
Of these users, 25 percent reside in the U.S. (source)
Nearly 60 percent of the platform’s users are age 18 to 29 (90 percent of users are younger than 35).
The largest proportion of users (38 percent) earn less than $30,000 per year. However, 37 percent say they earn $75,000 or more.
Nearly 40 percent of these users live in urban settings (only 28 percent live in the suburbs).
The most-widely touted Instagram statistic is the one detailing its “explosive” growth (100 million users in a six-month period, two years ago). This should mean nothing to you unless the new users’ ages, income and other demographic information is included.
“Instagram is a tricky one for a business,” according to Cogent Communications digital strategist, Emily Hunt. Without the assistance of a stylist or pro photographer, “your feed has the ability to rapidly devalue your brand and make it look slapdash,” she warns.
Since Instagram is such a labor-intensive digital marketing tactic, and the demographics aren’t ideal, put this one on the back burner as you watch its progress. There are better networks to consider for social media for real estate.
LinkedIn
Total Number of Monthly Linkedin Users: 250 million (LinkedIn doesn’t specify the number of daily users, according to Fortune.com)
More than half of LinkedIn’s users reside in the U.S. (53 percent).
The primary age groups who use LinkedIn are those between 30 and 49 years of age (27 percent) and 50 to 64 years of age (24 percent).
Forty-four percent of Linked users earn more than $75,000 in a year. According to LinkedIn, 41 percent of millionaires use the platform.
LinkedIn’s location (urban, suburban and rural) numbers are elusive, at best. The closest we could find is that “About 1 in 3 internet users who live in an urban environment use LinkedIn,” courtesy of brandongaille.com.
Although LinkedIn is most effective for B2B marketers, here’s something to consider:
Real Trends, in its 2016 Brokerage Online Performance Study, took a deeper dive into “the social side of traffic generation,” and — no surprise here — finds that Facebook returns 97 percent of social-generated traffic.
But, LinkedIn came in second, followed by Yelp, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. All but LinkedIn, by the way, were statistically insignificant, with well-below 1 percent of traffic generated.
Since all the demographics line up perfectly for the real estate agent’s consideration, though, it may be worth your time to occasionally post your real estate wisdom on LinkedIn. Looks like this one is a good bet for social media for real estate.
Hey, CEO’s buy and sell homes too.
Pinterest
Total Number of Daily Active Pinterest Users: 110 million (source)
75 million users reside in the U.S.
Although the median age of a Pinterest user is 40, the majority of active pinners are younger than 40, according to Omnicore. The agency also finds that “Millennials use Pinterest as much as Instagram.”
While half of Pinterest users earn $50,000 or more per year, 10 percent earn more than $125,000.
The largest group of Pinterest users live in the suburbs (34 percent), but city dwellers are close behind at 30 percent.
Pinterest, like Instagram, is a labor-intensive social sharing platform. If you like what you see in the demographics, plan on a steep learning curve and huge blocks of time to get your boards where they should be.
Then, plan on remaining active if you want viewers.
SnapChat
Total Number of Daily Active Users: 173 million (source)
Eleven percent of SnapChat users (33 million) reside in the U.S.
Nearly three-quarters of SnapChat users are younger than 34. Of this group, 45 percent are between the ages of 18 and 24. NOTE: The usage rate among American internet users, age 12 to 17 years old, is 83 percent.
We could find no income statistics for the average SnapChat user. But, keep in mind, most are college students, so what they earn isn’t much.
Information on where users live (urban, suburban or rural settings) is elusive.
Unless you’re looking for top-top-top of the funnel prospects, SnapChat is a waste of time. Since it’s growing, however, keep an eye on the site’s demographics if it’s of interest to you.
Twitter
Total Number of Monthly Active Users: 330 million (source) (Twitter doesn’t disclose the number of daily users, but analyst James Cakmak estimates it at around 125 million)
Only 21 percent of Twitter accounts are based in the United States. This represents about 67 million users, according to Omnicore.
The largest age group who uses Twitter is between the ages of 18 and 29 (37 percent of users). Twenty-five percent of users are age 30 to 49
Twitter users’ income is pretty evenly spaced, with 19 percent earning between $30,000 and $49,000, 25 percent earning between $50,000 and $74,900 and 26 percent earning more than $75,000.
The typical Twitter user is located in an urban setting
Reading the daily news might lead one to assume that the average Twitter user is older. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, the typical Twitter user is a young female urban dweller.
“High-school-aged teens are the most active age demographic on the social network: a full 42 percent of online youth aged 15 to 17 use Twitter,” according to Christina Newberry at Hootsuite.
If you are targeting urban teen girls (“far and away the largest demographic segment,” according to Newberry), Twitter is ideal for you. Likewise, if you hope to attract clients who live in Brazil, Japan and Mexico, by all means, jump on Twitter.
If, on the other hand, you’re an agent who understands that if “you list, you last,” put Twitter on the back burner. Older Americans aren’t, by and large, using it. If you want to use Twitter as a part of your social media for real estate, see Tyler’s 9 Must-do’s for Twitter.
Key Social Media for Real Estate Takeaways
Take the users’ earnings claims with a grain of salt. It’s widely known that self-reported income is inflated (a tendency known as “social desirability bias.”) Look at Twitter users, for instance. Teenage girls dominate the site, yet the highest reported income is in excess of $75,000. It takes a lot of babysitting jobs to earn that kind of money.
The key takeaway here is that when researching where to spend your time with digital marketing, ask yourself the following questions:
Where is my target audience?
Which of these platforms will return the largest investment of my time?
Looking for somewhere to get started with social media for real estate – check out this video:
Yeah – we’re back with a divisive idea that scares or excites agents – real estate niche marketing. In the dental field, a dentist who takes on all patients is typically known as a “general” or “family” dentist. In real estate, an agent who takes on all clients is just known as a real estate agent.
Crazy, isn’t it? When you need a root canal you’re referred to an endodontist. Need braces? You’ll see an orthodontist.
Want to buy or sell a luxury home? Work with any old real estate agent you happen to meet. 😙
[bctt tweet=”Crazy, isn’t it? When you need a root canal you’re referred to an endodontist. Need braces? You’ll see an orthodontist. Want to buy or sell a luxury home? Work with any old real estate agent you happen to meet. ” username=”easyagentpro”]
Niching is Enriching
Now, who do you suppose makes more money – the generalist or the specialist?
On average, general dentists earn $125,168 per year. Oral surgeons, however, make an average of $212,303 annually and an endodontist will bank nearly $201,000, according to koolsmilesjobs.com.
Obviously, it pays to specialize – even in the real estate industry. Micro-specialization is, in fact, the best way to build long-term wealth in your real estate practice, according to Seth Godin, former VP Direct Marketing at Yahoo and now an author, blogger and speaker.
While speaking to a group of agents, he claimed that “you’re either the best in the world (where ‘world’ can be a tiny slice of the environment) or you’re invisible.”
And, guess what?
“Best in your world means burning your other bridges and obsessing,” according to Godin. Real estate niche marketing pays.
Burning bridges is hard to do
Hyper-specialization means choosing one real estate specialty to the exclusion of all others. Then, you’ll laser-focus your marketing to that pool of real estate consumers until you dominate the niche. In a sense, real estate niche marketing is about saying ‘no’ to some potentially good things.
Scary thought, right? Burning all other bridges to concentrate on just one?
For real estate agents, one of the scariest thoughts is alienating even one real estate consumer. An example of this is, despite knowing that “when you list, you last,” few agents eschew buyers and become, exclusively, listing agents.
I’m working with a client right now who claims she doesn’t want to work with buyers, yet insists on having a “Buyers” section on her new website.
The fear of driving away even one potential client paralyzes most agents, so they remain in the “pack,” doing the same things as every other agent while wondering why they aren’t more successful.
But, look at it this way
Let’s follow agent Anita Deal, who decided to focus her business exclusively to condo buyers and sellers. She is, in fact, the only condo specialist of the more than 700 agents in her market.
Last year, 645 condos sold at an average price of $362,280.
Although Anita now dominates the condo market in her city, let’s be conservative and assume that, due to her focused marketing, she was able to attract 5 percent of the 645 condo deals in her market last year, or 32 deals.
Her before-split earnings at the end of the year would be $347,788.
Now, according to the National Association of REALTORS, most agents receive 68 percent of their broker’s split.
So, Anita’s year-end commission earnings, by capturing only 5 percent of her niche, are $236,496
What are the chances that she would’ve snagged 5 percent of the condo market in her town had she been a generalist – shooting arrows in all directions?
All Roads to Leads
Real estate niche marketing makes lead generation easier too! The more dominant you are in a smaller market, the more likely you are to get leads referred to you from people who are aware of your depth of knowledge and experience.
But there’s another more subtle benefit – understanding the angles. Lead generation is all about capturing attention – knowing what people are looking for, not just at a surface level, but deeply, enables you to speak their language in ads, landing pages, and emails.
This small but significant edge can push you over the finish line ahead in lead generation and conversion – people want to talk with experts and you’ll look and sound like one because, well, it’s true.
Your Mileage May Vary
Niche marketing doesn’t work in all markets, by the way
Micro-specialization works well in large and medium markets. Agents in small markets, where the client pool is already tiny, probably won’t get the same benefits as their colleagues in the huge ponds.
There are other bonuses to real estate niche marketing
Aside from making more money, narrowing your business’ focus makes branding a whole lot easier. How better to brand your business than by knowing exactly who you are targeting?
Take veterans, for instance. Focus solely on that market and you will know that most of your clients will be male and that they’ll easily get financing.
Then, there’s the fact that, after a while, an expert at anything has all the answers to any question right at the top of his or her brain. No research required and, as you know, research takes time. And time is money.
Plus, think how impressed your clients will be that you know everything there is to know about ranch property in your market. From septic systems and wells to city or county regulations regarding livestock.
If 2018 is the year you decide to stop the relentless chasing of business, it’s time to step away from the pack and dominate a niche market.
Mike Hicks – top performing real estate agent in the Tampa market talks about niches in this video:
What are you going to do in 2018 to identify and mine a niche? Stop right now and make a list of actions you can take and then get started making this the best year yet for your real estate career.
Much as we might not like to talk about it, it seems a lot of agents fail at real estate. Tom Ferry once said that 87 percent of real estate agents leave the business within five years of getting their licenses. Others say that number is closer to 95 percent. It’s safe to say that the churn rate in real estate is high, and for a number of reasons.
If you’re struggling to not be among them, read on to see what you might be doing wrong.
1. Hold on tenaciously to those rookie expectations
Ah, the allure of a career in real estate to those who don’t work in the industry. You get to drive a fancy car, work whenever you want and make gobs of money.
If you’ve ever read the comments section in an article on becoming a real estate agent you know that the expectations don’t end there. Many wannabe agents think that their broker will be their boss, walking them through training, handing out peachy leads and supplying them with everything they need to become a success.
And, real estate school does nothing to dispel these expectations. So, that first week on the job is a real eye-opener for many a rookie. Some will continue to cling to those expectations, fighting the reality that the only person holding them accountable for their success is themselves. Many folks keep their mindset for years after, confident their fail at real estate was someone else’s fault.
2. Fail to plan
Every agent needs a solid business plan to keep them focused on their objectives and goals.
Without one, you’ll be guessing at what it will take to meet them. And, in case you missed it, guessing doesn’t cut it (does the word “Zestimate” ring a bell?). With a new year ahead of us, now is the perfect time to either tweak last year’s plan or create your first one. NAR offers the Field Guide to Writing a Business Plan and Quickbooks offers tips as well.
Pay close attention to the marketing plan for your business. If you need tips, check out realtor.org’s marketing plan or the one from Florida marketing agency owner Jordan Scheltgen at inman.com. Turns out, it doesn’t take planning to fail at real estate – don’t become a statistic.
3. Spend all your time chasing buyers – a key step to fail at real estate
It’s the old “When you list, you last” axiom at work.
Need proof? Matt Williams on Realtor.org has a tip on how to find it:
“Go into nearly any real estate office in North America during any kind of market, ask to meet the top producer, and the odds are you’ll soon be shaking the hand of someone whose income comes mostly from listing.”
So, if you’re intent on failing in real estate, spend all of your time chasing buyers exclusively.
4. Be content to be average (remember, the average is that most fail at real estate)
The NAR member survey reveals that less than a quarter of its members earn less than $10,000 a year. About the same number earn in excess of $100,000. The rest make an amount somewhere between the two.
A few years ago, Active Rain released Rich Real Estate Agent, Poor Real Estate Agent, a survey of agents. The goal was to determine what habits the rich agents cultivated that the poor agents didn’t.
The results were rather astounding.
Successful agents invest more money in technology and spend 10 times more of their income on marketing.
Tech dollars were spent primarily on their websites and CRM. They also spend a lot on email marketing – especially newsletters.
To stand out from the average agent requires you to be imaginative – and extraordinary.
Bryan Casella – who we’ve featured before – takes it further:
Shoot for being World Class… not just above average. At that point, you become invaluable in… https://t.co/kswJKqEns8
5. Ignore everyone you’ve done business with in the past – don’t pass go, don’t collect $200 – just fail at real estate now 🙁
The statistics are telling: 85 percent of real estate consumers swear they’d use their agent again but less than a quarter of them actually do.
Why?
Most likely it’s because they forgot about you. And, no, that closing gift you gave them five years ago didn’t make you all that memorable.
If you aren’t consistently following up with past clients and your sphere, you’re throwing away a huge chunk of business that’s not only a lot easier to get than chasing after new clients, but less expensive as well. How fast do you want to fail at real estate?
Two Harvard Business School researchers learned that bumping your client retention rate by a mere 5 percent will increase your income by anywhere from 25 to 95 percent.
The fortune is most definitely in the follow-up.
And, since 65 percent of your business may come from your sphere (according to the NAR), put them on your list to follow up with as well.
Whether it’s a drip email campaign, newsletters, postcards or client appreciation events, keep in touch if you want to succeed.
However you stack up on this list, now is always a great time to stop doing a few things, and start taking the right actions. If you see yourself in any of these descriptions, take a quick inventory and plot a new course. Future-you will appreciate it – building a sustainable, freedom-giving real estate business doesn’t have to be a dream. If success and failure are just choices, why fail at real estate when you could succeed? Get after it and make 2018 your best year yet!!
It’s a little difficult to believe, but 2017 is nearly over. Figure in a few Christmas carols, a present or two, sweets at the office party, and another year will be wrapped up before we know it. If you’re like me, this news is stunning. Admittedly, I’m sometimes fascinated by simple truths – but the passing of days, weeks, and months moves apace regardless of our attention.
Meanwhile, overachievers everywhere have been planning 2018 for months. (I don’t know if that’s actually true, it’s just the sort of sneaking suspicion that I have about folks who look like they are holding things together better than me!) Fortunately, business planning is always great, whenever it happens.
It is never too late to plan for a better year. An old proverb reminds us, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Planning is like planting a tree – now is always better than later. But just before you start…
Before you Plan – Reflect
Planning is difficult without reviewing where you are starting from. It’s worthwhile to spend a few minutes considering your efforts and outcomes from the prior year, before jumping into the next.
What went well? What activity should you be doing more? What didn’t go well? What do you need to stop doing?
Using the changing of the year to get a good look at your work by the numbers helps you make a solid plan that’s based in reality. At the bottom of this post, we have a free tool to help with this process, but anything will do – a piece of paper and a pen is enough tools to engage you in some reflective activity!
Show me the Money
The obvious starting point for a review is money – and the transactions that make it. How much came into your bank account? What were your expenses? How much was left over? This last number is, of course, the biggie.
But money is a bit tricky, especially in the real estate business. Money is a lagging indicator, sometimes by several months. What does this mean? It means often you’re investing in work that pays off months later. And by the time you get the money, most of the work is completed. In other words, it’s over but the crying (or celebrating).
Counting money is useful at the very end of a period ( how well did I do this year, or over the last three) or as an ultimate measure of your progress, but it doesn’t necessarily provide the sort of insight that helps us perform better.
Ready, Set, Action!
Usually, that sort of insight comes from measuring activity. Actions are a leading indicator that helps you measure if the investment you’re making in time and effort is at a level that’s likely to generate the sort of payoff you want.
If we’re running the math forward, we’d say:
x amount of advertising (ads, Facebook ads, open houses, cold calls, drawings at the mall, etc.) generates x leads
And x leads = x amount of activities (info requests, showings, listing appts., etc.)
and x amount of activities results in x amount of transactions.
Once again, this is one of the benefits of looking at this for a big chunk of time. In any given week, you might say well, I ran an ad and no one called. But over a year, you can say ‘all these activities brought all of these people, which brought all of these transactions.’ Time brings perspective.
All Systems Go
Lastly, I think it’s a good time to review your systems. Sometimes when you’re in the heat of the battle, you don’t spend a lot of time thinking if you’re fully using your CRM or if you website really reflects the brand and messaging you want to portray. But again, at a stopping point, it’s good to review these things. Are you fully leveraging referrals? Following up with leads? Using your CRM to keep you steady even in the busy periods? Do you need to use these tools better or find better tools?
Make sure you also consider ‘Am I using all of these tools?’ Sometimes it’s easy to get so focused on ‘getting leads’ that you miss the fact you can’t handle any more details and actually your personal glass ceiling of time and process management is what’s holding you back, not more leads. Is your whole pipeline functioning? Do you have consistent efforts in each area? Or do you only market after you run out of transactions? Only follow-up in slow times? Drop direct mail pieces when you’re flush with cash?
Consistent, effective effort at increasing levels will result in growth – do you have the necessary infrastructure to support you at the highest level of personal performance?
Could You Just Behave?
The last category I find worthwhile to consider is my own behavior. While the above items are important, in a small business, the most important actor is you. So in the midst of counting money and reviewing systems, take a minute to reflect on your own performance.
There are lots of ways to gauge your conduct. Perhaps your own spiritual path offers some wisdom in this area, or you have your own personal inventory. The thing about reflection is that almost anything will do – what we need to consider is how well do our actions match our intentions – and what needs to change to improve that alignment.
If you’re looking for a list, I’d offer these gems from the book, The Four Agreements.
Be impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. Always do your best.
It’s hard to imagine a human taking that inventory without finding a few areas that could use improvement. Good – who wants to have it all together already? Taking note of and recommitting to focus in areas where we’re lacking is an important step toward improvement. Be brutally honest – business can be a great screen for avoiding ourselves, but remember, the businesses we build reflect our own dysfunctions, so if you want something beautiful and healthy that lasts, you’ll need to grow too.
Assuming you’ve taken stock of your performance in all these areas, and you’ve celebrated the triumphs and appropriately regretted the misses, you’re ready to move forward. 2018, here we come.
Need a tool to help you organize this process – click here to get EasyAgentPRO’s downloadable 2017/2018 Business Planner!
Balancing your need to self-promote with the needs of consumers
Why is it that so many agents have this need to smear their greatness on everything they touch? Everything, from community involvement to their websites and blogs is, to them, a marketing opportunity.
Why don’t they get what a turnoff this is?
Sure, there are opportunities that are ideal for self-promotion but there are equally as many opportunities to consider the consumer and how you can share your expertise without a huge self-patting of the back.
The truth is, consumers are weary of having to sift through advertising and marketing junk to get to the valuable information they’re craving.
First, you have to “get it”
I once had a potential client ask me to write a press release that “highlights our location in the prestigious” design district in his city.
I found that a rather odd request. Sure, it’s been awhile since I sold real estate but I don’t recall any clients choosing me because of where my office was located and who decorated it.
So, I did my research.
The company’s website is gorgeous, with yummy photos of the city on the home page. The text, however, floored me. The entire homepage of this residential real estate brokerage’s website was all about their “showcase office, which was “conceptualized by one of the best interior designers in the nation.”
Not one word about what they can do for the real estate consumer
Sure, this is an extreme “some agents just don’t get it” example. But, the truth is, nobody cares about your office. Nobody cares who furnished it. In fact, some of today’s most successful agents work from home, many in their jammies.
Someone searching for real estate in your city cares about listings, finding the right agent, neighborhood information and tips on the process.
Stop pitch-slapping potential clients
I wish I could take credit for the “pitch-slapping” reference, but it goes to business development strategist Liz Wendling.
She goes on to talk about the tired, useless tactics too may sales people employ today – salespeople who “pitch-slap prospects into securing an appointment,” and who jump right into selling without wasting “a moment attempting to build rapport or connect.”
That’s what agents do when they wrongfully assume that their designations provide credibility or promote expertise (they don’t), that bragging about your sales or dollar volume impresses potential clients (it doesn’t) and that merely telling them how great you are is sufficient.
Millennials – the holy grail of today’s real estate professional – are especially hard to engage if you overtly self-promote
This is a group of consumers who don’t want to be marketed to. “They can spot an ad from a mile away and will do everything they can to avoid it,” warns Drew Allen, co-owner and creative director of Peppershock Media.
The key to attracting and retaining clients, he insists, is “an easy to navigate, minimal fluff [emphasis is mine] website that gives a ton of information right up front.”
Show, don’t tell
You are in a service business, you aren’t a celebrity. So, describe your service — what do you do that is different?
Show your website visitors, show your direct mail recipient, show your newsletter list that, despite there being a multitude of other agents in your town, you are the one they should choose.
How?
Testimonials are ideal
I often wonder why real estate agents call them “testimonials” when it’s a word that consumers don’t use. They use “reviews.”
Not only do reviews allow a satisfied client to toot your horn for you, they help instill trust and build your credibility. Social proof is a far more effective tool than self-promotion.
Just slapping testimonials up on your website is fine in the short term, but believe it or not, there are “best practices” in place for using them:
Consider using a mix of video and text reviews.
Put at least one above the fold on your site.
Include client photos with each one (and place the photo above the review).
Consider adding the best testimonial you’ve received under your email signature.
Use them in all of your listing and marketing materials.
Consider using case studies in your testimonial mix. These expanded reviews tell the story of a client with a problem that you were able to solve.
Ask your client to tell his or her Facebook and Twitter friends about you.
Two notes of caution
1. Don’t offer incentives for reviews unless you also disclose that you’ve done so. The Federal Trade Commission is cracking down on the illegal practice of what they call “misrepresenting online reviews.”
2. Yelp frowns on soliciting reviews on their site. In fact, their Business Owner Guidelines warns “Don’t ask for reviews and don’t offer to pay for them either.”
One of the most challenging tasks the real estate professional faces is distinguishing him or herself from the rest of the pack. Even if you’re doing everything right, it’s all but impossible to innovate your service.
Innovating your marketing, however, is within your control. Dump the self-promotion and embrace social proof instead.
