Running a real estate business is not as easy as it seems. A couple of years ago, anyone could have got their license and sold over $5 million in a year. In today’s real estate market, you have to resort to old school tactics to stay in front.
1. Cold Calling. Yes, if you haven’t already, you have to pick up that phone and start calling numbers. Agents that have been around for 10+ years (before the Internet) know what it means to cold call. It’s tough, but it will pay off.
1. Press Release. They do still exists and are used by big corporations to announce everything and anything from new product launches, quarterly sales results, upcoming events and employee movements. Anyone in marketing before 1990 used press releases as a major marketing tool. There are a number of press release distribution sites on-line which will get your message out for as little as $80. Any marketer worth his salt will tell you that press is better and more effective than advertising – and a whole lot cheaper.
2. Local media. Most real estate agents sell primarily to local customers. Your local newspaper is a good way to reach them. If your real estate business is community oriented, you can often get free press for upcoming events or people transactions. Make a friend of the local business reporter. Take him or her to lunch. Start by sending a friendly email complimenting them on a story. Follow up a day or two later with some related information. Don’t be too pushy. But recognize that they are not the enemy. They are actually looking for stories all the time. Their job is tough. You can make it easier and help your business at the same time. Try to educate them on your industry. The same can be done with local radio or TV personalities.
3. Literature. No, not Moby Dick. I mean product brochures, flyers, catalogs, etc. These used to be the staple of any advertising campaign. Now, many real estate businesses have dispensed with these items in favor of web pages. How often have you emailed a business asking for information only to be told to look at their website? If I’d wanted to look at their site, I wouldn’t have asked them to send me something.
Literature should be designed to support marketing and sales through all stages of the process – initial response, follow-up, close. There are on-line printing businesses that will turn your web pages into flyers, leaflets and brochures. Print-on-demand has significantly lowered the cost.
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Good post reminding us realtors that it is no longer a free ride. I suppose I should remind my self of that fact as well as I have gotten lazy over the last couple of years. My, how the market is humbling; I went from making around $600k per year to struggling to earn 30k. Perhaps I should pick up the phone and do some work. One thing that I might add to this though: no matter how much of a marketing budget you outlay, if the market has the quality of a distinct and very real lack of buyers right now then the appropriations and efforts will be in vein.
While I agree that you cannot abandon all old school marketing efforts, I think you may be under estimating the power of the internet. Online marketing efforts for your website can be targeted to a local reach. If someone emails me for info, I do not simply send them a link to the info, I send the info, a link where that info can be found on my website, and then perhaps a follow up survey to see if I can answer anymore questions, etc and attempt to get them signed up for a weekly or monthly newsletter, etc.