The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Many of us have heard this saying before but, I wonder how many of us have actually listened to it and then applied it to our own businesses. Many times real estate agents are afraid of change. It is completely understandable. Especially if they have been in the real estate business for any period of time, they may be afraid to rock the boat or step out and try something new. However, the state of the real estate industry today is forcing change. Between the online social media explosion and the state of the market, agents are finding that they are doing the same marketing over and over and are getting the same results... and those results are no longer hacking it.
It is time to stop the insanity. If you want different results, you need to have different actions. Here are 3 different things that you should be using in your real estate marketing arsenal:
1. Internet Marketing - Buyers are looking online first. It is that simple. Agents can no longer stick their head in the sand and say it isn't happening. If you haven't already, make sure you and your listings are there when they come looking. Here are a few ways you can do this:
Websites: The biggest mistake agents make with their websites is not having enough of them. You should have both a main website where people can pull information about you and your company and smaller niche websites that are focused on specific target markets. These smaller niches could include first time buyers, renters converting to buyers, sellers, bad credit buyers, or any other niche market you can think of. An important thing to remember when setting up your niche websites is to start slowly and as you get one successful move on to the next and so on and so forth. You only want to be doing the same thing over and over again once you know you want the same results, right? Find out what works and then apply it across the board.
Social Media: This includes blogging, forums, social networking, etc. This form of marketing is somewhat foreign to real estate agents because it utilizes pull marketing strategies instead of the push marketing that they are used to. Using social media agents can share their knowledge, increase their presence online, increase brand awareness, and generate leads.
Listing Syndication: One way to get the most exposure for your listings is to syndicate them out to the heavy hitters. You can syndicate them to sites like Zillow.com, MyRealty.com, Homescape.com, etc. There are a number of ways to do this depending on whether you are a broker or an individual agent. The advantages of this are two-fold. One advantage is that it will obviously get your listings in front of more people and two, it can drive traffic back to your websites.
2. Call Capture Technology - For more exposure for your listings incorporate call capture technology into your marketing. As with listing syndication, there are also multiple advantages with call capture:
Lead Generation: By using your call capture toll free number and extensions in your marketing, you will be able to generate more leads. Toll free number advertising is a proven marketing strategy. Potential clients are more likely to call to get information on a listing when they do not fear they will have to talk to anyone.
Get More Listings: Get more listings by demonstrating call capture technology to potential clients as just one of the tools in your arsenal that is going to help them get their house sold in a timely manner and for the best price.
Easily track the effectiveness of all of your advertising pieces. Instead of doing the same thing and expecting different results, you will have a tool that will actually tell you what marketing is getting you the results that you want. You are then free to stop the insanity of running the same poorly performing ads over and over again.
3. A Real Estate Marketing System - One of the things that real estate agents should do when they are looking to do something different is to get involved with the people that are already doing it. If you have never been involved in a real estate training system before, now may be the time. There is nothing more valuable than getting advice and guidance from someone that is getting the results you want, from the tools you want to use. There are a number of real estate systems out there and it can be hard to figure out which one to use. Here are a few things to look for:
Make sure the trainer practices what they preach. A trainer that is no longer an active real estate agent will not have their finger on the pulse of the industry. A trainer that is still in the trenches will be able to continue to fine tune the tools that they make available to the agents employing their systems. They are also more likely to be developing the new tools that are needed as the industry changes. Which leads us to...
Make sure the system you choose includes tools that are current. This would include the websites, social media and call capture technology that I spoke about. If they don't include those things, they are still doing the same things over and over again expecting different results.
And last but not least, look for a system that has everything you need. If you have to piecemeal your marketing system together with one contact manager, another website provider and a different mail campaign you are going to be increasing the insanity in your life not reducing it. An all inclusive system will integrate your lead generation, drip campaigns, websites, newsletters, contact manager and printing so that you can easily and quickly manage your business and put most of your marketing on auto- pilot.
Many real estate agents' businesses are the definition of insanity. They continue to do the same marketing, the same networking, in the same markets, in the same way and expect to have different results. The real estate industry is changing and your marketing should be too. Begin to stop the insanity by adding different tools for different results.
