Marketing Tips for Real Estate Agents

Quick tips on real estate marketing:

1. Add value to your marketing message.
The more you build value into your marketing message, the more likely your prospects will be to respond. Give people a good reason to call you. Hint: the free consultation is not that reason. You need something more significant.

What can you offer? You tell me. Do you know an interior decorator? Why not partner with them to offer free design consultations to new clients. "But incentives are against the rules," I hear some agents say. To which I would respond, "Well, you better find a way around that rule."

Here's the bottom line: A marketing message without some form of offer, incentive or motivation is not a marketing message -- it's just a message. People may read it, but they won't respond to it.

2. Be professional with your marketing.
Real estate is a detail-oriented business. One paperwork slip can put the entire transaction off track. Your prospects know this, so don't ever show the a real estate postcard (or flyer, or blog, or website) that's less than perfect. It only takes one sloppy design to blow your reputation, especially when you're not present to compensate for the mistake.

I once came home to find a real estate agent's flyer taped onto my front door. It had been printed on a cheap office printer that looked like it was running out of toner. The photo was fading as if the agent were disappearing into thin air. I could only read about half of the text, and within that half I noticed a huge typo right off the bat. There were more explanation points than you'd find in a comic book.

My reaction? "Are you kidding me? Why would I want this person to represent me in anything, let alone something as important as selling my house? They obviously have zero attention-to-detail."

3. Write an irresistible headline.
Many of the first-draft real estate postcards I see have weak headlines, or no headline at all. I've never understood this. A postcard has mere seconds to capture the reader's attention. That's what headlines were born to do!

4. Make your offer noticeable.
Making a strong offer is crucial with any form of marketing. Making that offer highly visible is just as important. After all, what good is a great offer if nobody notices it? When you make an offer on a real estate postcard, email or website, make sure it's the dominant item in that portion of the design. Remove distractions and let your offer have center-stage.

Look at the sidebar of this blog, for instance. What's the most dominant thing over there? My offer for you to download the postcard book. Sure, I could have cluttered that area up with all kinds of graphics and links, the way a lot of people do. But that postcard book would not stand out nearly as much, would it?

5. Make your offer clear.
Now that your offer stands out on your real estate marketing postcard (or email, or website, etc.), you need to make sure the reader understands it. This is not the time to show off your vocabulary or use clever language and puns. Make your offer clear, simple to understand, and loaded with value: "18-page survey of local schools. Exclusive information — yours free! Call today."

6. Be unique.
If your real estate postcards look and sound like every other real estate postcard your prospect receives in the mail, what's to make them notice you? You can be unique in a number of ways. You can make a stronger offer, create a more professional postcard, use more specific information, personalize your message, brand yourself in some memorable way, etc.

7. Leverage your website
Using your real estate postcards in tandem with your website can improve the performance of both marketing channels. I offer you plenty of ways to do this in the postcard book, so I won't labor the point here.

Like most things in real estate marketing, your imagination is your only limit here. Unleash some ideas of your own. Good luck.

Have questions about the postcard book?
Email me here: brandon@realestatepostcardbook.com

-Brandon