Whether you’re marketing a $5M dollar beach front home or a $200,000 bungalow, all properties should get the same professional service to ensure they sell or lease. We’ve written in the past about how real estate professionals need to have a consistent personal and professional brand; well that same concept should carry over into how you market your listings as well: professionally and consistently.
Each of your listings should have a different marketing budget based on the value of the sale or lease, but regardless of the property or budget, all of your marketing should have a consistent, professional theme. Consumers will notice the quality of work that you produce. Go cheap on photos vs spending money on quality photography and people will notice.
Ultimately, your goal for marketing a space is to generate leads and generate leads that will close. We’ve put together our top 3 recommendations on how to properly market your real estate listing to attract leads regardless the property type.
1. Go Pro
The first step is to line up professional photography. One glance at a photograph can either draw people in or turn people away. A professional photographer or at the very least a professional camera, can more accurately capture the true feeling of a home. Knowing how to use the lighting and viewing angles to your advantage will also make a difference. After proper photos are established, put them everywhere – on your personal website, brochures, fliers, listing platforms, social media,email campaigns, and more.
Whether it’s creating image-rich brochures or fliers for use during open houses and showings, or creating innovative social media advertisements targeting specific demographics or groups, get the photos of your listing everywhere. An important thing to note is that a photograph may not replicate well on different mediums, such as newspapers (a sketch might be better for this). So, it’s important to customize your marketing material depending on your outlet.
2. Go Live
Photos are great for attracting initial interest, but their downfall is that they never tell potential buyers or renters the full story or show each individual exactly what they want to see. To begin generating much more qualified leads from your marketing efforts, start giving them more to go off of…better ways to experience the property. Think about creating a video or series of videos showcasing all of the great details about the property and answering questions most likely to be asked by interested parties. We’ll echo our first header and say that professional grade video production will provide the most professional video to market your space; however, we’ll also steer from that because consumers have shown that they are a lot more accepting of lower quality video productions if it means getting a better look at a space.
Want to take it a step further to capture the true latest consumer trend? Truly go live with your experience. Broadcast your open houses via the internet with technology like ReaLync or go personal and provide individual live previews of your space using nothing more than a smartphone or tablet. Not only will these leads already have a better feel for a space by getting to experience it with you in real time and ask the questions that arise, but you will be fostering a relationship with them at the same time.
3. Go Where They Are
The final and most important piece of the puzzle when trying to generate leads for your listing is to be where the leads are. One definition of marketing is “the selection of a distribution channel to reach the customer’s place”. You can take the best photos and create as many killer videos as you like, but if you aren’t reaching your potential buyers or renters where they are, it won’t matter. The first step is creating that content though because that is what will attract their eyes once you do reach them where they are.
Hitting consumers where they are is a fairly wide topic though based on whether you’re selling or leasing, residential or commercial, and what demographic you are looking to hit. An obvious answer is to hit the major listing platforms, but it will certainly take more than that. Have a personal website to put your listings on? Make sure it’s optimized for key search terms that will return your site or videos into the top search results (Need help with this? We’ve got a guy…). On social media? Advertise your listings on there, but don’t overdo it on your personal page. The secret to social media is in being “social” more than “media”. It’s important to be a real person – the type of person that tells great stories, listens attentively, and is authentic and honest. There are great strategies for throwing some $$ behind a Facebook or LinkedIn post as well to reach a wider demographic, but that’s more content for a later day.
If you happen to land one of those $5M beach front listings or a beautiful luxury listing, make sure to do one thing: go big! According to Debbi DiMaggio, “a luxury listing is an ‘opportunity’ to market a beautiful home now and for future business”, so don’t shy away if the opportunity arises! The more listings that you absolutely knock out of the ballpark with your marketing, the more people will recognize you for your work, and the more business will keep knocking at your door.
To sum it all up, don’t skimp on marketing. The investment is worth it. Effective marketing will not only make a difference in your sales numbers, but also in generating new clients.
Until next time…keep it real!