Tag: Target Marketing

Arounds

Of course, you have your ‘Just Listed’/’Just Sold’ programs mapped out and happening automatically, right? Good! You do that because you know it works; and there’s solid psychology behind it.

When a sign appears in your neighbor’s yard, a window of opportunity opens in your mind. Suddenly you are curious about why they are selling, where they are going, what they are asking, why they chose that particular real estate company and so on. In essence: you are OPEN to receive a real estate oriented message.

If I can put MY Help-U-Sell real estate message (sell fast-save thousands) in front of you while this window of opportunity is open, the chances of you receiving the message and perhaps responding to it are greater than at any other time . . . except, perhaps, when YOU need to buy or sell. And there’s not that much time to get the message to you. It’s a window, and windows shut.

Now, let’s expand that concept. And let’s change the pronouns. Now YOU are a Help-U-Sell broker. As such, you have carefully analyzed a ton of data about your area and have judiciously chosen a couple of ripe target markets within that area. You’re just getting started (or just getting re-started) and don’t have much of a presence in your target markets. You can use the ‘window of opportunity’ concept that works when YOU get a listing even when YOU don’t have one. Here’s how:

Start cruising your target markets every day. By cruising I mean driving and checking the MLS. You’re looking for new listings the moment they hit the market. They can be listings taken by anybody. All of the neighbors – and ‘all’ might be 40 or 60 or 100 – now have their real estate windows open. They are ready to receive a real estate message. Why shouldn’t it be yours?

Work with Excel Print/Mail (husmailnow.com) and The Alexanders (brandsawonline.com/helpusell) to create a postcard program to go AROUND the new listings that come up in your target market. I think the best thing to do is be fairly generic. Create an ETM-like Jumbo postcard with content that doesn’t change or doesn’t change much. That way, the program is easy to administer and you can get your message out faster. By an ETM-like card, I mean one with pictures of homes for sale, sold & saved listings, testimonials, an Easy Way, and a bulleted description of your program. Decide how many homes you’d like to reach whenever a sign appears and lock that geography down with Excel or Alexanders. Maybe it’s 20 homes across the street from the new listing and 10 on each side. Maybe it’s more.

Now when a new listing comes up, Push The Button. Get your message into those open windows as fast as possible and listen for the phone to ring.

What are the ethics of prospecting around someone else’s listing? Excuse me: last time I read the REALTOR Code of Ethics it didn’t say anything about this! But shouldn’t this kind of prospecting be reserved for the agent who worked so hard to get that new listing or to make that sale? Absolutely not! Because in all probability, the listing agent will NOT make any attempt to reach the neighbors. They will not have taken the time to create an easy to administer program for this kind of outreach and they will be too busy to do it now. It’s YOUR window of opportunity – take advantage of it and watch your target market share bloom.

Big Brother: 1984, 2011 Style

Does the idea of someone hiding secretly in your living room, peering out through a little hole in the curtains, watching your every move, taking notes, gathering information they may use against you in the future creep you out a little?  Are you starting to recognize a pattern in the results your Google searches retrieve?  Does there seem to be a theme to the ads on your Facebook page?  Cue the eerie music, and start looking over you shoulder because there is most definitely a Ghost in Your Machine.

Eli Pariser is out with a book today (The Filter Bubble: What the Internet is Hiding from You) describing the discomfort if not the danger of the new ‘highly-personalized’ Internet.  Since 2009, Google has gathered information about your online behavior and used it to tailor your search results.  Facebook has been doing the same and at this point most sites that serve up information to you are following suit.  The idea makes great sense from a marketing standpoint:  if they know what kinds of information you routinely seek, if they know what kind of advertisement makes you ‘Click’, they can serve up more of the same to you eliciting even more clicks.  It is the ultimate in targeting, something we Help-U-Sell folk know all about.

So, if you are a tea party Republican and visit sites espousing those views and your friend is an eco-friendly liberal and surfs accordingly, when you both Google ‘Obama’ at the same time, you’re going to get very different results.

And that’s the danger.  The Internet (read: Google) is serving us a diet made up not of truth, but of what we want to see.  And it is a very personalized offering.

I am particularly disturbed by this because if flies in the face of so much I’ve said about the glories of unlimited access to information.  Let me see if I can quote myself . . . ‘Instead of sending troops to Afghanistan, we should be flying over and dropping smartphones on the people.’  I guess if we did that and the people immediately started surfing to sites that espouse hatred for the West, Google would establish that pattern and serve up more of the same; hardly  the eye opening and broadening effect we might want.

We had so much press about polarizing rhetoric several months ago, particularly after Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was  shot.  There was a plea that we turn down the volume, crank it back a notch, become more civil to one another.  Now I understand how the language could have become so rigid, so harsh, polarizing.  Thanks to the personalized Internet, each side of the debate (any debate) was being buoyed by the constant reinforcement of their own point of view.  If all you see is what you want to see you can become pretty rigid in your thinking.

After all, tolerance is a virtue and it is born of empathy – the ability to walk in the other guy’s shoes, live in the other person’s skin for a moment.  If all you’re getting is a recycling of your own opinions, how can you ever know what the other guy thinks or feels? How can you ever empathize?  How can you become tolerant?

I guess the point is this:  you can’t rely on Google or Facebook or any clickable source to serve up truth.  If you want truth, you’re going to have to do it the old fashioned way:  you’re going to have to dig.  You’re going to have to go out of your way to understand the opposing point of view.  Bias is everywhere and on the Internet, the bias is YOURS.

It’s Time to Start Marketing Again

I can’t say it any more clearly than that.  And I’m only echoing what Jack Bailey said in his video interview a couple of days ago.

We’re going to have a Spring Selling Season this year, but — thanks to the Tax Credit and a number of other factors — it’s going to come early.  To be in the game you’ve got to have listings and the time to get them is RIGHT NOW!

The new Tax Credit program requires buyers to be under contract to purchase by April 30 and for the transaction to close by June 30.*    If average time on market for a listing in your area is 90 days, then these properties will probably go under contract in January.  That’s just a couple of weeks away. 

Many of us have cut back on nearly everything.  It’s OK:  the tough market of ’08 and ’09 dictated some serious changes.  But since the Fall, the market has been stirring — and it’s not just first timers attracted by the $8,000 Tax Credit that came to an end in November (though they became a much bigger factor than ever before).  Now it seems everybody — even sellers with equity — are starting to dip their toes in the market again, intrigued by the possibility of moving up for less.  It’s time to give the market engine a little gas:  kick it into gear with some marketing.

Certainly, the place to start is with past customers and clients.  They need to know about the new Tax Credit program and you can probably let them know inexpensively:  through phone calls and personal notes. 

Obviously, it’s time to really put some energy into your FSBO and Expired campaigns.  Again, this does not have to be expensive.

The place to spend a little money is in targeted marketing.  Start by breaking your marketplace down to the smallest geographical areas you can — usually that’s Carrier Routes, and you can use Melissa Data to get the numbers.  Look at each small segment:  where is the turnover the greatest?  Go one step further:  which Carrier Routes include homes appropriate for first time buyers?  Listings in these areas may produce two parties motivated by the Tax Credit:  the first time buyer and the move up seller. 

Now choose an approach.  Like Jack Bailey, I’m a believer in post cards.  They are relatively inexpensive and deliver the message even when they are not carefully read.  If you choose this method, don’t shoot your entire budget on the first mailing.  Hold some funds in reserve so that you can go back to the same households with another mailing in 3 – 4 weeks and another after that. 

And remember:  you can do target marketing even without spending money on marketing pieces.  You can spend time and energy instead.  You can pick up the phone and make targeted calls — ordinary brokers call them ‘cold calls’ — into the areas where you want your listings to be.  Trust me:  the first one you make will be the hardest and by the time you complete call number 3 it will be easy. 

And, oh by the way:  if the phone is not exactly your thing, there’s nothing wrong with going door to door handing out a flyer with information about the Tax Credit on one side and information about you on the other! 

Bottom line:  this is not the December to take off and be reflective.  I know:  that’s what we real estate folk usually do.  This year, let’s leave that up to our competitors.  This year, let’s get busy like never before.  Let’s get our signs out in the marketplace so we’re ready for the big kick-off in January.  This is going to be the Super Bowl of real estate.

*Qualified members of the military, foreign service and intelligence communities receive a one year extension on the April/June deadlines.  Go HERE to learn more. 

whitehouse

Rely on Facts . . . Not Rumors

The other day, Ron McCoy told me about a broker who had been beating herself up because she didn’t have any REO business.  She kept reading in the newspaper and hearing on the radio what a huge part of the market foreclosures had become.  Why wasn’t she getting any? 

All of this gnashing of teeth led this broker to do what Help-U-Sell brokers do in situations like this:  she did a Market Analysis.  Guess what?  Turns out REOS accounted for less than 10% of the business in her target market!  Suddenly all of that energy that was going into stewing and worrying about REOs that didn’t exist could be channelled into capturing as much of her market as she could.

Here at the Set Fee Blog, we did the whole Chicken Little/Foxy Loxy thing a couple of days ago and we all know not to pay attention to the negative press that’s out there.  But why not take it one step farther?  Why not replace the negativity circulating around you with solid market place facts?  Even if REOs are 40% of the activity in your MLS, what’s going on with the 10,000 – 15,000 households where you intend to do business? 

As Help-U-Sell brokers, we rely on market data for so many decisions:  where to set our fee, where to target our marketing, when to gear up and when to wind down.  Confusing times, uncertain times, times when all the birds in the barnyard are squaking — these are the times to update your Market Analysis and examine your data again.  You’ll find the full set of forms and instructions you need to do a Market Analysis in the Help-U-Sell Download Library. 

(You know:  go to www.helpusell.com, scroll down near the bottom of the page and select ‘Help-U-Sell OMS.’  Proceed to OMS Login and, if you’ve forgotten your user name and password,contact support@helpusell.com.  You’ll find the Market Analysis package in the ‘Marketing and Content’ section, under ‘Operational Tools’ and ‘Office Operational Forms.’  If that’s too many clicks, just drop me a note and I’ll send you the package and even help you fill it out!)

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