marketing success

3 Old-School Tips to Get Listings FAST

Apr 7, 2022

Ah, spring. Unfortunately, this one looks a lot like last spring, with tons of buyer demand and a small supply of homes for them to buy.

Homeowners who do decide to sell are the big winners while buyers and real estate agents are hungry for more homes to hit the market.

Getting listing leads quickly in this market may seem impossible, but it’s not. No, it isn’t easy, but it is possible.

1. Go after starter homes

Starter homes are not only in high demand right now, but, as you know, they’re in very short supply.

Sure, a homeowner’s reluctance to sell has a lot to do with the shortage, and many of them are afraid they can’t afford their next home. Would they feel the same if they had an idea of how much equity they’re sitting on?

Farming, via direct mail, is the best way to reach out to and educate these homeowners. Start by narrowing the audience to those who’ve owned their homes for more than 10 years.

Then, create a very simple direct mail piece that highlights the equity these owners have accumulated. The ProspectsPLUS! Call To Action Series has a postcard that offers a “Free Home Equity Analysis”, an ideal marketing piece for this situation.

For instance, Maurie Backman at fool.com (quoting stats from Black Knight) says that “At the end of 2021, home equity grew to $9.9 trillion on a national level. That’s a 35% increase from the previous year. It also leaves the average homeowner with $185,000 of tappable equity.”

If you can localize those stats, all the better. But, overall, don’t you agree that $185,000 sounds good right about now to a lot of homeowners?

2. Do more socializing

With the weather outside no longer frightful, and millions of Americans have had, or will receive, the anti-COVID jab, it may be time to consider a client appreciation event.

This one, however, will have a twist: it will be a potential client appreciation event.

The goal here is to extend your brand recognition to those potential sellers in your farming area. Hold the event outdoors, preferably in a park near their homes.

The Get More Listings II Series is shown above. To send a one-time mailing, Click Here. To send a recurring campaign, Click Here.

Agents we’ve spoken with offer up the following ideas:

A barbecue
Movie night
Ice cream social
Block party
Outdoor concert
A day at a sporting event (this is best for your two or three most promising leads)
Seller seminar

The invitation sent to your farm should be, again, simple yet attractive. If the event is family-friendly, let them know.

3. Take a dip into your CRM

When was the last time you went fishing in your CRM? It’s a rich source of possibly quick business that too many agents ignore.

Since warm calls are always easier than cold calls, start with past clients and call each of them. Explain the lack of inventory and ask if they know anyone who is thinking of selling.

Then, dive deeper into old leads, especially those for whom you supplied a listing presentation and they ended up not selling. All seller leads in your database, regardless of age, should get a phone call.

Finally, call everyone in your SOI to see if they know anyone who is thinking of selling.

End this project by ensuring that everyone you’ve spoken with is put on a scheduled campaign.

Yes, these are old-school techniques, but they are also tried and true. If you need listings relatively quickly, try one. What have you got to lose?

PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine, with rich, full-color content, and a sharp, professional esthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts, combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.

Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and, it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes, but it is a business building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Become-A-Listing-Legend-3D-Book-White-274x300.jpg

Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

How to Work with a Reluctant Home Buyer and Save a Faltering Deal!

Mar 31, 2022

One thing that hot and heavy real estate markets bring is anxiety for buyers. In slower markets, homebuyers have time to leisurely view homes for sale.

Today, they have to act so quickly they let common sense fall by the wayside. Remorse sets in and, can you blame them?

Buying a home is a huge financial commitment and feeling rushed or challenged in a bidding war can make even the strongest buyer develop lingering doubts.

Think about buying a car. Unless you walked onto the lot knowing exactly which make, model, and year you wanted, you may have had to do some comparison shopping. When you finally narrowed down the choices to one, did you hear that little voice in your head that questioned your choice?

The First Time Buyer Series is shown above. To send a one-time mailing, Click Here. To send a recurring campaign, Click Here.

“Am I making a huge mistake? Maybe I should choose the Nissan instead of the Honda.”

That, my friend, is known as “cold feet,” and it’s the first symptom of a full-blown attack of buyer’s remorse.

Knowing the signs puts you in a position to help your client and save the deal, so let’s unpack this.

Watch out for these warning signs

Not all buyers prone to remorse will exhibit the same symptoms, but do pay attention if any of the following occur:

The buyer is concentrating on the minutia when deciding whether to make an offer. “Asking about when the roof was replaced or how old is the water heater are good questions and the buyers are thinking straight,” suggests Conor MacEvilly at myseattlehomesearch.com.

“But when they start asking about the wine stain on the living room floor, the hairlike crack in the kitchen ceiling, and the dripping bathroom faucet before making an offer, you are probably going to end up with one extra picky buyer …,” he concludes.

The buyer complains of feeling “rushed” or pushed into making an offer. Whether this is because you are actually rushing them (please don’t) or market conditions are putting pressure on them, pay attention to this warning. This is the time to remind them that contingencies are their friends and that nothing is a done deal until those are removed.

Deal with it

Always insist on a buyers’ consultation session before viewing any homes for sale. This is your opportunity to learn more about them and to get a feel for their motivation. It’s an important factor when judging whether they will stick with a deal.

During the consultation, ask them their reasons for buying a home. Here is what you should hope to hear:

Their monthly housing payment will remain stable (at least with a fixed rate loan)
Build wealth
Tax advantages
Freedom to own a pet and make changes to the home
Starting a family or a growing family
Need a larger home to accommodate an aging parent
Just moved to the area and need to move quickly
Want to cut their commute time

While there are others, these are strong motivations for a homebuyer. When feet appear to be getting cold during the buying process, remind your client what motivated them to buy in the first place.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and, it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

3 Simple Rules to Gain Your Market’s Attention and Get Them Calling

Mar 29, 2022

Before you launch your next direct mail marketing campaign, make sure to add these rules to your list of must-do’s.

Rule #1 Provide a Compelling Call-to-Action

Retailers have an easy time with calls-to-action. Offering a percentage off, free shipping, or buy-one, get-one-free are all popular examples.

What about real estate agents though? What kind of call-to-action can you provide that might compel a recipient of your postcard to contact you for more information?

The following are a few examples that are attention-getting and have the potential to engage homeowners and get them requesting more information.

• Free Downsizing Review and Strategy
• Free Home Equity Analysis
• Free Vacant Home Sales Strategy
• Free Home Price Analysis

The Call to Action Series of postcards is shown above. To learn more about sending a one-time mailing, Click Here. To learn more about sending a recurring campaign, Click Here.

Keep in mind, however; the number of hoops you force your prospects to jump through to take advantage of these offers does impact the response rate, according to Bob McCarthy at DMNews.com. The more they have to do to receive that offer, the lower the response rate.

Rule #2 Utilize Standout Designs

“One strategy we use to get our highest response rates is to make the call-to-action the centerpiece of the direct mail piece,” McCarthy claims.

Whether you choose to include an image representing the free offer or use text to describe it, mention it boldly and repeatedly. Your message (its length and graphic requirements) determines the size and style of the medium.

Plan on keeping it plain and simple? A standard-sized postcard may do the trick, although jumbo, panoramic, and mega-sized postcards stand out in mailboxes, which makes for a genuinely lasting impression.

If it is graphics-heavy and you include substantial copy, using one of the larger postcard sizes (jumbo or panoramic) becomes even more important.

Choose a font that is easy to scan as people sift through their mail. As direct mail experts, we recommend using a sans serif font, such as Arial, rather than Times New Roman or another serif font.

Consider varying the font size throughout the text. For example, you can highlight important items with a larger version of the font you choose.

Additional design tips to keep in mind include ensuring your headline is bold and compelling, yet short and specific. Use lots of white space to make the piece appear to be easily digestible.

Subheadings are important, as they help guide the reader through the text.

Don’t forget to use high-resolution photographs, and avoid placing text over photos. Last note, ensure that your call-to-action stands out and that your contact information is easy to find.

Rule #3 Track Your Results

Tracking your results is vital to long-term marketing success.

In fact, the only way to continue to improve your marketing results, and achieve a higher ROI, is to understand what has worked and hasn’t worked in the past.

Of course, the easiest way to track your marketing is to make it a habit of asking each person who calls how they heard about you.

Another way is to make your free offer unique for easy tracking. When you receive incoming calls you will know immediately what marketing piece inspired their call based on the offer they inquire about.

One more popular method used by agents is to create a dedicated landing page on your website. The URL should be unique to the campaign, so you are able to learn your exact response rate (number of responses divided by the total number of pieces sent).

Marketing experts vary when quoting an “average response rate” for direct mail.

The most recent figure puts it at 9%. How close or far you are from that figure depends on how closely you follow the guidelines outlined above.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and, it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

Social Media – Avoid The Time Stealers

Real Estate Marketing

Nov 28, 2017

Spend Time Here, Not Here

There’s only one you. There are just 24 hours in a day. Put those two together and you have an insanely busy schedule.

And, it’s all too easy to get distracted by the next shiny object.

Social media is shiny. It’s distracting. And, some platforms are completely unnecessary – at least for real estate professionals.

As we head into 2018, and you’re contemplating your business plan, you’ll be prioritizing where to spend your time and money.

Take a hard look at which social media platforms you use and whether or not your time is better spent elsewhere.

Facebook – it’s not free

You may think that marketing your business via social media is a fabulous free way to get your brand in front of people.

If done strategically, it can be.

But, consider this: The majority of agent’s average about three hours a week spent on Facebook, according to a 2016 Inman.com survey.

Sadly, that doesn’t tell the whole story because more than 21 percent spend twice that amount of time – a whopping six hours a week – on the social media giant.

Ask yourself this question:

Is six hours each week better spent chasing after new business on Facebook or reaching out to former clients and those in your sphere?

Both are “free” in terms of money, but the latter isn’t as much of a time stealer and the return on time invested has a better chance of being higher.

Multiply your time spent by the number of social media platforms you’re currently using. While they all have something to offer, they aren’t all worth an agent’s time.

Instagram – A waste of time?

Unless you have an in-house marketing person, don’t feel guilty about not being on Instagram, and don’t listen to the hype saying you should be.

Here’s why.

Most online articles pushing the use of Instagram for businesses point out “In 2016, Instagram grew its daily user count by 100 million users and now has more than 600 million active users.”

What they fail to do is dig deeper. So, let’s do that right now. First, however, let’s take a look at your average homebuyer.

According to the NAR, “the typical home buyer is 44 years old, married, no children at home, and has a median income of $88,500.” Keep these statistics in mind while taking the deep dive into Instagram.

Who’s hanging out on Instagram?

80 percent of Instagram users don’t live in the U.S.
Of the users who do live in the U.S., only 28 percent of them are on Instagram, according to Pew Research.
The largest demographic of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 and 29 while only 18 percent are between the ages of 30 and 49 – the most likely buyer pool.
The largest demographic earns less than $30k
The average Instagram user “misses about 70% of the posts” in their feed, according to Influencer Marketing Hub.

Until Instagram begins attracting an older, wealthier demographic, it’s an ineffective use of time. Your time is better spent on other lead-generation strategies.

LinkedIn – A good investment

No, it doesn’t have the largest share of online users (only 29 percent of American adults), but LinkedIn’s demographics are ideal for real estate marketing.

77 percent of users are age 30 and older
50 percent are college graduates
45 percent of LinkedIn users earn more than $75,000 per year and only 21 percent earn less than $30,000.

Again, recall the profile of the average homebuyer and seller and you’ll realize that this is the demographic you should be chasing.

Not only are the demographics ideal on LinkedIn, but Hubspot gathered data from more than 5,000 companies and found “LinkedIn 277% More Effective for Lead Generation than Facebook & Twitter.”

Hubspot’s Rebecca Corliss points out that “because most of the content posted on LinkedIn is of a marketing nature, as opposed to family photos or social ‘chatter,’ there is less clutter…

…so business’ marketing posts are more likely to be noticed on LinkedIn than somewhere else.”

Social media is an ever-evolving resource.

What’s hot this year may die next year.

When choosing where to spend your marketing time, don’t judge a platform by its number of users – that figure is useless for real estate agents.

Do a deep dive, periodically, into the demographics of each to decide when the time is right to jump in.

Related: 3 Tools That Drive More Business

Need help? Call our team today at 866.405.3638 to put the best marketing tools in place to build your business easily, and cost-effectively.

Why 90% of Agents Fail

Agent Success

Oct 23, 2017

How You Can Beat the Odds

By Real Estate Speaker and Trainer Todd Robertson

There are many factors that lead to success in this business, and of course, many that can stop an agent in their tracks. This week, I wanted to share some of the biggest factors agents face when trying to dominate in a geographic farm, why 90% of agents fail and what they can do differently than their competitors to come out on top.

1. Fear and Uncertainty. In today’s world, fear is unfortunately an all too common and powerful headline that garners attention thanks to mass media. HOWEVER, in the real world of listing and selling real estate, consumers don’t want fear and they don’t want uncertainty. They want and need an agent who comes from a place of 100% clarity and certainty. They want an agent who is respectful, responsible, competent and CONFIDENT. They need to know that the person handling this big transaction in their life has everything it takes to ensure their best interests are cared for. Be that agent for them by ensuring that you have the right tools, systems, training and marketing plan in place.

2. Money. The old adage is true, it takes money to make money and marketing effectively costs money.
Consistently. And that’s not something everyone is ready, willing, or able to sign on for. However, to brand yourself as the turn to agent in your geographic farm, there’s really no way to get around spending marketing dollars. Fortunately, you can spend smarter by using systems that are designed to capture market share while utilizing budget-saving tools such as Every Door Direct Mail. Our Market Dominator System does just that – and it allows you to send the very largest possible marketing piece acceptable for EDDM – 12×15, and puts you literally in every door in the geo farm of your choice for just $1 each. That’s smart marketing.

3. Impatience. One thing that seems to stop many agents from developing a successful farm is their inability to hang in there for the duration. When they don’t get instant results from their marketing, they give up. I get it. I walked in those shoes as an agent as well. But one and done mailings or marketing is never ever going to result in establishing a dominant position as a competitor. What does that? Consistency. Repetition. Showing up month after month after month. That’s the winning formula.

4. Becoming a “Victim”. You know the drill. The ones who get sucked into the market doom and gloom around the office coffee pot and buy into other agents’ ideas of why your marketing or theirs just “doesn’t work”. Stop. Stay in your own lane in terms of mindset. There will always, always, always be people who want to drag you down, tell you that you can’t accomplish something, or root you in negativity.

It’s up to YOU to stay focused on your WINNING formula of skill building, market-savvy tools and systems, and consistent, repetitive follow up and let others worry about their own track to success.

5. Not Having a Campaign. What’s the old Ben Franklin saying? “Fail to plan and you’re planning to fail?” It’s true. Without a viable marketing campaign plan in place, you have no way to gain traction in a market area. That’s why our Dominator Members commit to sending their 12×15 Market Dominators every month for two years – because they know that’s what it takes to truly own a market. To become THE brand in a geographic farm. They also know that if left to their own devices, most agents would have a tough time consistently researching, creating, and producing a powerful, direct-response marketing piece all on their own every single month. So they work smarter, not harder, and tap into a system like the where it’s all done for them.

6. Bogged Down in Busywork. Top agents know the highest and best use of their time is prospecting, presenting, and closing – not all the minutiae of busy work that can easily, and effectively be delegated to a virtual assistant or admin. It’s easy to be super busy being busy and not making any money. I know, it’s less intimidating to spend a day trying to design your own postcard than it is to pick up the phone and call until you get a listing appointment – but which one will get closer to those goals you just set faster? Delegate. Use systems. Use pre-designed, time-tested tools that are done for you. And yes – pick up the phone!

Give yourself your best shot at developing a geographic farm. Lean into a powerful mindset of certainty and confidence and put a strong campaign that works in place so that you can effectively brand yourself in that farm as the agent to call. If you need help with that, I’m happy to share some additional strategies. Email me (todd.robertson@prospectsplus.com) and let’s talk.

Need help? Contact our marketing team at 866.405.3638. They’re incredibly knowledgeable, and ready to help get your geo farming and all your marketing on track to close out this year stronger than ever!