1. Share Valuable Information
One of the most common methods of creating useful marketing is publishing current real estate market facts. There’s an agent in my neighborhood who, every month, publishes a full-page advertisement with all the home sales in my community, including list price, days on market, sales price and all other pertinent stats – and that’s for all the area’s listings, not just hers. With that approach, she’s done a wonderful job staying top of mind, in that she’s providing information that people do not want to find themselves – and that people will keep in mind when they need an agent.
2. Be the Community Guide
Real estate is a community business, and agents are ultimately working as members of their community. So with that in mind, what better opportunity to go out and curate a list of fairs, festivals and community events that you can house on your website and publish in a direct mailing? It will not be related to real estate, but rather, things that are going on in the community.
3. Know All of the Hot Spots
There are tools, such as Yelp, that are great for amassing large amounts of input on a community’s restaurants and venues, but what if you, as an agent and member of the community, publish your own top 10? You can write about your top 10 bars, or restaurants, or boutique shops. You can also link directly to those local merchants, and you’ll provide additional support for other members of your commerce community.
4. Forget ESPN
Another idea is to go out and provide sports schedules, but not in the conventional way. Wouldn’t it be awesome if you were the go-to resource for high school sport scores? Particularly if you were in the environment where high school sports were very important? You could publish them in a real-time format and establish a network with members of the community, who will text you the scores as soon as the games conclude. Your website will become the ESPN for local school sports.
5. Make Holidays Impact Events
Halloween is one of those holidays that is not only fun, but one that also inspires people to buy one particular thing, and that’s a pumpkin. So how about you buy a truck-full of pumpkins and, around the stem of the pumpkin, tie a card advertising your business? You can then deliver the pumpkins to people’s front porches while playing music from your truck – you could even place banners for your business along the side of the truck – making the delivery a community event.
6. Best Closing Gift Ever
The last tip I have to share is the most valuable one. Many real estate professionals, particularly when they get to a certain level, are able to invest in buying a truck people use on moving day. I say, let’s take it a step further: for everyone who buys a piece of property, offer them a free “moving kit” with 20 branded boxes, bubble wrap and tape. That will be the most useful closing gift ever for your clients, because nobody likes to go out and buy those items when they’re moving.
About the Author
Retired real estate franchise co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Oldham says that certain marketing can actually harm your overall relationships vs. improving them.
“In an effort to keep ourselves top-of-mind with buyers and sellers, we often become a nuisance instead of an asset. Any marketing should benefit the recipient in some manner.”
This is what inspired Oldham to launch Diffactory and Smart Agent Life to help create marketing that enriches the lives of anyone their clients are targeting.
After sitting on the real estate sidelines for two years Kevin partnered with his old COO and co-founder, Ted Laatz, to help agents create valuable businesses that enrich the lives of those they serve while also building long term wealth.
Through their new collaboration, Smart Agent Life, they are attracting like-minded agents throughout the country to fundamentally improve real estate for agents, buyers and sellers.
Be honest and think about it. If you are like most real estate professionals you deploy turn-key programs that shout about how awesome you are:
Just listed!
Just sold!
Look at me!
Wanna buy a house?
While those touch points may move the needle a little bit, what if you adopted a different approach called “utility marketing?”
What is Utility Marketing?
Think of utility marketing as a way to enrich people’s lives at a moment on non-commercial need.
It means doing things that benefit them, not you. It’s a way to make their lives better, build trust and build long-term relationships instead of looking for the next transaction.
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