Monday, November 4, 2024

niche marketing

    Over the past few years, direct mail real estate marketing has seen a resurgence. Experts chalk it up to the overuse of email marketing, but direct mail outperforms most digital marketing tactics, according to the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).

    Direct mail marketing’s “response rate ranges from about five to nine times greater than that of email, paid search, or social media,” according to the pros at datatargetingsolutions.com.

    Pretty impressive, right? Yet, at least in the real estate industry, it’s still not utilized like it could be.

    This leaves the door open for agents seeking an additional marketing vehicle and a way to stand out.

    Niche real estate postcards

    A few years ago, scientists at Temple University’s Fox School of Business Center for Neural Decision-Making teamed up with the Postal Service to study the circumstances under which email or direct mail was more effective.

    Postcards were more effective in five of the nine tests performed.

    The most popular postcard agents are familiar with are the time-tested Just Listed and Just Sold postcards, which are still highly effective. To stand out further in this market, consider a local market update on the postcard back or a QR code leading to a valuable direct response flyer opt-in.

    To think outside the postcard box, there are a multitude of real estate niches that you can drill down and focus on to stir up interest.

    Some popular niches include baby boomers, high-income renters, expired, absentee owners, FSBOs, move-up markets, and investors. The more obscure niches include divorce, foreclosure, estate sale, and notice of default.

    ProspectsPLUS! has postcard designs available in all of the niches listed above, already done for you with the perfect message for the niche market.

    Education Direct Response Reports

    Direct response reports are a great educational tool, filled with valuable information homeowners appreciate.

    You can share them on social media as a “free offer”, include them in your email newsletter as a free offer, add them to your website as an opt-in in exchange for an email address, or add them to your listing presentation folder and pre-listing packet.

    Personally branded agent magazines

    Consider a personally branded agent magazine to level up your real estate presence in a way that few agents do. Homes & Life Magazine is a done-for-you magazine with rich, full-color content.

    It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles, and engaging lifestyle content, and costs less to send out than a greeting card!

    Sphere or farm scheduled postcard campaign

    When clients need a real estate agent, it pays to have an easily recognizable name at their fingertips. But coming up with fresh, eye-catching content and sticking to a regular schedule of sending this content out is incredibly time-consuming.

    A scheduled, recurring postcard campaign is the easiest way to maintain brand exposure and stay relevant while freeing time for more high-level tasks.

    According to Lenskold Group, 78% of marketers reported that marketing automation increased revenue.

    And 75% of brands saw a return on investment within 12 months due to using automated marketing campaigns (Focus Research study).

    Launching a scheduled marketing campaign is the best way to make every moment count in your business, raise your brand profile, and stay relevant.

    ProspectsPLUS! offers over 40 scheduled postcard campaigns, including sphere, farm, renters, absentee owners, holiday, and other niche markets.


    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 aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct, response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and 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 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

    The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

    3. The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review

    The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review allows you to enter your business goals for the remainder of the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closings, and so on are needed to reach your goals.   – Click Here

    4. 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


      We’ve mentioned recently, and you’ve no doubt seen it in your real estate practice, that baby boomers are large and in charge of the housing market. 

      “In 2023, baby boomers overtook millennials as the greatest percentage of homebuyers in the U.S., making up 39% of the market compared to 28% for millennials (and 24% for Gen X),” suggests Dawn Allcot at Nasdaq.com.

      This cohort makes up the largest share of home sellers as well, setting up a scenario where a whole bunch of agents will have the opportunity to get two deals out of one client.

      They win bidding wars

      Listing agents know well how challenging it sometimes is to calm down the seller who is receiving multiple offers. It’s heady stuff to have a group of people vying for your home, and visions of “over-asking” often dance through their heads.

      Counseling the seller to also compare the terms of each offer is a wise move. Is the proposed closing date most convenient for your seller? What about the amount of cash the buyer is willing to put into the deal? 

      “With all this in mind, new research from Realtor.com shows that baby boomers have the upper hand when it comes to sealing the deal on the next home of their dreams,” according to Allcot.

      The ideal next home for the baby boomer

      It’s easy to make assumptions about what type of home our aging population is seeking. And many of those assumptions are valid. One-story homes, for instance, are in great demand, as are homes with wide halls and doorways to accommodate a wheelchair in the future. 

      A few other items that are on the wish list of older clients include:

      • A walk-in shower
      • Lowered countertops
      • No stairs, inside or out
      • A home office for those who haven’t yet retired
      Think they don’t want to sell? Think again

      It’s common knowledge and a bone of contention for younger homebuyers that our older generation refuses to budge from their family home. 

      A 2021 AARP survey found that more than three-quarters of adults ages 50 and older want to stay in their current homes, also known as aging in place.

      There’s a problem with that, however. “A significant majority of adults want to continue living in their homes as they age, but the unfortunate reality is that many homes and communities weren’t built to support that desire,” according to Rodney Harrell, AARP Vice President, Family, Home, and Community.

      AARP finds in another study that “About half of adults say they’d consider leaving their home if it meant finding one that would help them age independently,” said Anna Deen at TheMessenger.com.

      I smell an amazing real estate niche in there, don’t you?

      As you tour new listings, pay attention to the layout of the home to determine if it’s move-in ready for a boomer who wants to age in place. Even homes that require minimum renovation are attractive to this generation, so don’t ignore those, either.

      Then, do consider reaching out to the baby boomers in your CRM.


      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 aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts and 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 6-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

      The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 6-Month Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

      3. The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review

      The Free Interactive 6-Month Real Estate Business Review allows you to enter your business goals for the remainder of the year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals.   – Click Here

      4. 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


        With our FREE Contact Manager, you can tag entire mailing lists or just one contact within a list, building one highly targeted list from many.

        Now achieve better results from your marketing and ensure you are hitting the ideal target within your various lists with the right message at the right time!

        This new tool is available to use right now on Prospectsplus.com, for free, just for being a ProspectsPLUS! member.

        To check out the Contact Manager tutorial, CLICK HERE.


        The Following are Five Ways You Can Start Using the New Contact Manager Today!
        Just Sold Follow-Up Series

        1.Compile Contacts From Your Just Listed Just Sold Lists

        Move all your Just Listed Just Sold mailing lists to the Contact Manager. As you move them, “tag” the lists with the name of the neighborhood they are from.

        Now you can send follow-up postcards or schedule a campaign to go out to specific contacts from various “tagged” neighborhoods. The Just Sold Follow-Up campaign or a postcard from this series is a great choice.

        2. Create Monthly Customer Birthday Lists

        Upload your SOI list or move your current one into the Contact Manager. Add birthdays to each contact’s personal information in the space provided.

        Now mid-way through each month, you can select and send a birthday card to all of your contacts with a “Tagged” birthday for the upcoming month. You can even schedule these Birthday postcards to go out for the whole year in one sitting.

        Happy Birthday Postcards

        3. Create Monthly Home Anniversary Lists

        Upload your SOI list or move a current one into the Contact Manager. Add the home anniversary date to the applicable contact’s personal information in the space provided.

        Now mid-way through each month, you can select and send home anniversary postcards to go out to all of your “Tagged” contacts with a home anniversary in the upcoming month. You can even schedule these cards to go out each month for the whole year in one sitting.

        4. Tag Your Past Clients for Special Mailings

        Customer Appreciation Series

        When your current client becomes your past client, be sure to “tag” them with a “past client” tag. Now they are ready for you to be able to quickly pull together a targeted list to send out special Customer Appreciation postcards, thank you’s, and referral reminders.

        5. Tag Your Buyers Across Lists For Special Mailings

        Any time you create a list of buyers, be sure to tag them with the “buyers” tag. Now you can send a targeted mailing to all of your buyers across several lists.

        To get started with the Contact Manager tool now, CLICK HERE.
        Or check out our basic Contact Manager Tutorial, CLICK HERE.

        A couple More Notes About the New Contact Manager:

        1. This is not a free trial. Our Contact Manager will be free to our ProspectsPLUS! members indefinitely.
        2. If you have a CRM you currently use, by all means, continue. However, if you are purchasing a mailing list from us at any time in the future, it’s worth your time to take a moment and tag that list in the event you may want to take advantage of that tag in the future.
        3. We don’t share or sell your data. Please visit our privacy policy in the footer of the website and if you aren’t comfortable initially take a look at our reviews and maybe just start with lists that you are purchasing from us as we already have that data and are providing it to you.
        4. We certainly hope you choose to stay with us, but you can always download any or all of your lists out of the website at any time you choose to, and we even allow you to download a string of data that shows you the tags you associated with your contacts so that it will make it easier for you to take it to your next list management CRM platform.

        Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you in your success.  


        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 aesthetic. 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 and when. Four key market segments include 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 is also 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

        https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPukXEEmt5v4mU3iZ_hqYZ-W2g_Z6Ufgu

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

         


         

          How many more hours will you sit in front of the phone, trying to gin up the motivation to pick it up and dial for dollars?

          Is there anything more boring? Is there anything more stressful?

          If cold calling is a mega lead generator for you, by all means, have at it. But, believe it or not, there are tens of thousands of agents who are sick of it (yes, we made up that number).

          For these agents, we offer alternatives. No, they’re not unique or even new. But we’ve met plenty of agents who’ve used at least one of these strategies with great success.

          1. ‘Til divorce do us part

          “Every 42 seconds, there is one divorce in America,” according to statistics gathered by Wilkinson and Finkbeiner, a San Diego, CA law firm.

          We must warn you that working with divorcing couples isn’t for the timid agent. It is, however, quite profitable for those agents who pride themselves on their ability to remain impartial and have tons of patience.

          Once you’re up and running with it, you’ll likely find that lead generation is positively zippy compared to cold calling.

          Since “Almost 50 percent of all marriages in the United States will end in divorce or separation” (Wilkinson and Finkbeiner), you’ll have a steady stream of business. 

          Aside from the aforementioned impartiality and patience, divorce real estate agents must be consummate communicators, have endless patience, and exhibit utmost tact. Add to that someone who thrives on working under pressure, and you have the perfect person to work with clients in a deeply acrimonious relationship.

          How to find these folks? 

          • Get in touch with local divorce attorneys and solicit referrals
          • Buy a list through Rebogateway
          • Run Google or Social Media ads

          Get more tips from watching these videos at YouTube.com:

          2. Market to landlords

          Sure, landlords are making bank right now, but there will always be some who just want out from under the burden of being a landlord.

          Like other lead gen techniques, marketing to landlords takes persistence and consistency to work.

          Market Dominator is shown above; click here to learn more.

          Again, direct mail is the most efficient way to build your pool of landlord leads. A current market report and/or CMA would be welcome and appreciated. Follow-up touches can include Just Listed/Just Sold homes near the rental and quarterly market updates.

           3. Start a farm

          Farming is an amazing way for people to become familiar with you and to build brand recognition.  

          Sure, you can create a real estate farm and cold-call homeowners, but the beauty of this lead gen technique is that you don’t have to. There are plenty of ways to keep in touch with the homeowners in your farm area that don’t involve using a phone.

          Direct mail is the ideal vehicle, and you’ll find a variety of products (from Get More Listings postcards to a Market Dominator newsletter (sent through EDDM) to Homes & Life Magazines and more, right here at ProspectsPlus.com.

          Check out this blog post to learn much more about farming in general and circle prospecting in particular.

          None of these real estate lead gen strategies will make you an overnight sensation. But choose one or two and vow to give it your all—to be consistent and persistent — for the rest of the year, and you may just find you’ll never need to make another cold call.


          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 aesthetic. 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 include 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 is also 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