Real estate marketing communications: Are you hitting your target?

When it comes to real estate marketing, are you a generalist? Or do you focus on a real estate niche? No matter which category you fall in, you'll want to make sure you're hitting your target.

You may be a generalist real estate agent. It’s unknown how many of you are among agent ranks, but it’s safe to say that you’re in the majority. Those of you who don’t have a real estate niche, listen up.

So you don’t have a real estate niche that’s ok. It’s frightening for some to consider niching down their real estate business – possibly alienating even one buyer or seller.

Be a generalist, if you must – but not in your marketing. Sending out generic and what you assume to be one-size-fits-all-real-estate-consumer messages doesn’t cut it with the public today.

It’s important to not only personalize certain marketing message (emails, direct mail letters, etc.) to each client, but to ensure each piece you provide is relevant to the recipient. It ticks them off when it isn’t.

This means segmenting your database, in whichever way is easiest for you yet still effective. A good place to start when considering a real estate niche is with the big groupings, such as “Buyers,” “Sellers,” and “Renters.”

Then, consider a smaller real estate niche within these, such as “Condo Buyers” and “Condo Sellers,” Generations, such as “Baby Boomer Sellers” and “Gen X” sellers and “Millennial Buyers.”

Notice how the smaller the group, the more focused your marketing message becomes. If I’m creating a piece for sellers, I can laser-focus on boomers, sending them only super-valuable information that appeals to them as older Americans.

Information about downsizing, about using retirement funds to bridge the gap between selling and buying, etc.

Now, consider that you’ve created this piece and blast it to everyone in your database. How is a millennial going to feel when she receives it? What about the Gen Xer looking to upsize?

Check out the infographic below to find out.

In the meantime, keep your marketing pieces simple, and focus on your real estate niche. Ensure each one is relevant to the recipient, error-free and easy to understand (with short words and short sentences).