Remember: Help-U-Sell Real Estate is a target marketing business. Our success is built our ability to save consumers money; but it is driven by marketing focused on specific target markets. We study the local market carefully to discover where the highest turnover rates are, then we focus all of our business development activities in those areas.
Personally, I believe one of the most significant ways in which we have strayed form the original Don Taylor model is in expanding the targets to unmanageable levels. You can’t build a business on a dozen listings spread out over 5 square miles. However, dozen in a small focused geography makes a powerful impression and almost ensures growth and success.
Our targeting process usually begins with a Market Analysis. We gather sales data by Zip Code in our local area. We choose the Zip(s) with the highest turnover rates and then tailor a marketing plan to hit those areas hard.
And that’s the problem.
It’s not turnover rates or marketing plan that screws it up, it’s Zip Codes: they are too large and often too diverse for effective targeting. Maybe Zip ‘A’ has the highest turnover rate in your area, but 30% of the sales are new construction (a market segment not generally available to you ) which skews the number. Or maybe Zip ‘B’ has a low turnover rate but also has a large number of apartments. Take out the rentals and the turnover rate skyrockets.
Of course, all of this sounds ridiculously difficult . . . .but it doesn’t have to be. There’s a new wrinkle to add to your market analysis and targeting effort and it’s very exciting.
Mike Paholke at Excel Print/Mail (husmailnow.com) can take your sales data by zip code and sort it into carrier routes. You can see turnover rates by much smaller geographies, more closely resembling neighborhoods. His carrier route report also breaks down households by single family and multi-family, shows average household income and median sales price. When coupled with the US Post Office’s online carrier route mapping tool, the report gives you the kind of micro focus on your local market you have always wanted. Instead of targeting entire zip codes – and spending a ton of money in the process – you can now target the 4 or 5 carrier routes within the zip that will produce the best results.
When you start getting results within a carrier route, everyone in the carrier route sees it and your ability to garner market share there increases. This is how we come to ‘own’ an area.
We’re going to talk more about this in the weeks and months to come, but if you want to get a head start on this program, get in touch. All you’ll have to do is go into the MLS and pull a year’s worth of sales data on each zip code in your area. I’ll help you export it to the proper format and we’ll send it off to Mike who will turn the report around in less than a day (usually). I think this more precise way of targeting will get you really excited about marketing. You’ll be going at it with the tools that will help you slowly come to dominate your target market.