The Real Estate Marketing Expert's Blog

Are you selling to ALL your buyers?

One size does not fit all -- not in T-shirts, not in lattes, and certainly not in real estate. 

We're now in the age of...customization. It's an era where marketers have to work creatively and strategically to reach each of their potential buying groups with a unique, tailored message just for them. That means cookie cutter messaging won't work. That means a campaign targeting both retirees and first-time buyers is bound to fail with one (or both) of those audiences. Why? Because rarely will you find a single product that can appeal to all people in the same way -- which means you need to find ways to speak to all of your different buyer segments with messages relevant to them.

One of the biggest mistakes real estate developers make is to use one brand statement to try and reach everybody. In the old advertising days, they used to call that tactic "Spray and Pray" because it involved blindly blanketing everyone with the same message, and hoping and praying it sticks to somebody. But those days are over, and I'll tell you why.

Whenever you use one tagline for everybody, you're wrong nine times out of ten. A first-time buyer has different wants, needs and desires than an empty nester or an international buyer. A Canadian buyer has different needs (not to mentioned different prices) than an American buyer. Realtors (who likely contribute 70 percent of your sales) don't want a brochure with the same information as the single mother buying her first family home. These diverse groups don't come from the same generation or profession, the same region or country, they don't listen to the same music, don't yearn for the same things for their future -- so why create one website with one tagline that tries to speak to them all? It shouldn't be done because it doesn't work.

Eventually, you'll realize that you have three different buyers: investors, first-timers and empty nesters. And, if you have three different buyer segments, you should first be creating three different messages. The good news is that it's not expensive. Because most of the marketing you will do is digital, you can create a different Web experience for the investors, a different Web experience for the single first-time buyers, and a different Web experience for empty nesters. 

It might sound complicated, but it's not when you break it down. Start with three different website addresses (unique URLs) that focus on the information (particularly the home page) that each audience would want to hear. Investors generally don't care about the esthetics of the home; instead, they want to know about the commissions, contracts and closings. The site should answer all of their financial questions about the rental market, typical re-sale value in the area and other more left-brained concerns. First-time buyers, on the other hand, want to know that the area is young, sexy and hip. Does the place have Wi-Fi and iPod docking station? Their website should focus on these details, and use fresh imagery that would get their attention. The third group, the empty nesters, usually want a lot of floor space, storage and two or three-car garages. They'll want their pets to move in too. They are less interested in financing, with many of them paying cash because they will be selling a property at the same time.

One last thing: when you're looking to speak to buyers, don't forget the ones who might be right in front of you. Let me give you an example: My company, N5R, was asked to consult on a project in Mississauga -- near Toronto, Canada -- which has a very competitive condominium market. The project underway was called Onyx and it was stunning. The developer was doing a lot of marketing in the Greater Toronto area, but it was the kind of enormous marketing spend that wasn't trackable or measurable. So we started to analyze where the buyers were actually coming from. After some careful research, we found out that all of the buyers were coming from the three postal codes right next door to the building. What does that mean? It means that any marketing should heavily consider buyers within one to two miles of the property -- so make sure to create messages that target them too.

Get to know Google and the online world.

If you've never used Google as part of your overall marketing campaign, then it's time you do. Over the years, Google has transformed into more than just a search engine for finding the latest sports scores or what the weather will be like next week. Nowadays, you can buy much of your traditional media through Google, including radio and television spots. And, as new means of advertising become popular -- like marketing on our cell phones, which is just around the corner -- it's likely that Google will lead the way there too.

But, because most of us don't have time to become Google experts (and that's what is required, because things change at warp speed), I recommend hiring one. Hiring a skilled Google expert is probably the best investment you can make. And it's an investment that should be made, considering the Internet drives 80 to 90 percent of all real estate sales despite being allocated only 2 percent of the average marketing budget.

Let me give you an example of how Google marketing can pay off: We did a final report for a client called Waterside, the largest condo conversion project in America at the time with 917 units. Our marketing plan focused on getting unique 1-800 numbers and unique URLs, and here's what we found out about the last thousand leads we received.

Our price-per-lead was $660 from all our traditional printing -- even with great copywriting and messaging targeting the right market. Our online cost-per-lead was in the $100 range. But out of all our online advertising, the least expensive -- and most valuable -- investment was Google. It cost $13 per lead. Now, let me ask you, would you rather pay $600 dollars or $13 dollars per lead? Sure, the $600 cost might make you feel good because you'll see a big photo of your project in a major newspaper, and you can show it to your friends. But, in the end, you'd be paying 25 times more for those leads than if you were advertising on Google.

Here are some important things you need to know about what Google can do for you:

• Traditional marketing pieces that sync with your website can be particularly effective. For example, a postcard is the least expensive direct mail piece you can send -- and it's even better when that postcard addresses a client by name (Sally, for example) and include a specific call to action: "Want to see if you've won a weekend in the Florida Keys? Log on to: www.atripforsally.com". Once Sally logs on to this unique URL, a salesperson can be notified and can contact her within hours to inquire about her interest in your project.
• Do you know what the single biggest online resource is for selling real estate? Craigslist -- and it's free. If you've never posted a Craigslist ad, even with photos, it takes about 10 minutes to do it. It's worth familiarizing yourself with Craigslist as well as other social networking sites, like Facebook, MySpace and others. So, when salespeople in your center aren't busy, this is an important thing they could be doing -- building an online ad and online community for free.

To learn more about using Google and other online marketing initiatives in your real estate sales campaign, download my eBook. For a limited time, I'm offering a special discount for my readers.

Use COUPON CODE: EM0609 to save $20 off your order!

Leveraging the Herd Mentality.

Two restaurants sit on opposite sides of the street. The cuisine and atmosphere of both are of equal quality and the menus are comparably priced. But when potential diners see a line of people waiting at one of the restaurants and not the other, they assume the busy one is superior -- and they follow the crowd. It's a phenomenon known by many names -- Pack Mentality, Peer Pressure, Following the Herd -- and it plays a critical role in selling real estate.

For starters, people buy, rent and lease real estate when they see other people buying, renting and leasing. It's something people find comfort in: going with the crowd, doing what everyone else is doing so they're not left out or missing the boat. And not only do people follow the crowd when making decisions in real estate, the mere presence of too many people while making a critical decision -- like what to buy or where to live -- can cause people to act in ways they otherwise wouldn't. And that can work to your advantage.

So, how can the principle of the Herd Mentality work in real estate?

Here's one thing I always tell my clients when I'm consulting with them. Consider closing your sales offices Monday to Friday and only opening them once you have multiple appointments booked at the same time. By scheduling overlapping appointments, your team can build a sense of urgency with these potential clients, rather than spreading those same few client visits out throughout the week. This also frees your team up throughout the week the make presentations, meet with brokers and get out into the community.

Check out this video for an example of the Herd Mentality in action!

First rule of real estate marketing: Make everything trackable.

There's no denying it: the pace of change in our modern world is dizzying.

If you don't believe me, close your eyes and think about life just 10 years ago and consider how different things were then -- especially in the business world. A decade ago, nobody had high-speed Internet or HTML interfaces. There were no iPods or BlackBerrys. Google was just coming out of Stanford and had yet to revolutionize the way the world shares and accesses information. Back then, nobody was tweeting or had a Facebook profile. And although cell phones were available, they weren't everywhere like they are now.

The painful truth is that what sold your property a decade ago is terribly outdated now. Today, smart, skilled builders and developers are trying to market everything from million dollar developments to single-family residences using antiquated methods from the Dinosaur Age. My goal is to change all that.

One of the first things my company, N5R, does it to begin tracking and measuring our clients' sales and marketing efforts. It's almost life altering when we present our results. Our clients can't believe that the things they thought worked best didn't work at all, and the things they thought worked the least were actually generating 80 percent of their business.

Let me give you an example. One of the most common tools that developers in residential and commercial real estate use are the standard, old-school registration cards. Unfortunately, 70 percent of the data on registration cards is baloney. People will check off the first box in the list nine out of 10 times. Now, people don't mean to lie. But most of them can't remember what they had for breakfast let alone how they came to hear about your project. So, if registratio cards aren't telling you where your leads are coming from, is there a more accurate way to track them? Yes, there is.

But before I explain how to track leads, let me stress again why it's important to track leads.

When most developers do a marketing plan, they don't bother doing projections. Typically, they do a media plan and say, "Okay, we're going to spend this much on the Chicago Tribune. We're going to do something on Google. We're going to do something on billboards. And we're going to do a print piece." So, they write out a number of different initiatives as part of their marketing plan, and put a dollar figure beside each one. Done. The problem with that this is old-world thinking. There's nothing trackable about any of these initiatives -- and none of them include projections. So how will you know if the things on  your marketing plan are actually working?

What I challenge developers to do in my real estate consulting business and through N5R is to add a layer of information to your marketing plan by writing down what you expect your cost-to-lead to be and how many leads you're planning on generating. Then track that information every week, every month. Are you hitting your numbers with the Tribune?  If not, try changing the creative direction or try something different. If your Google ads aren't hitting your cost-per-lead or you're not getting enough leads, make a change.

Another thing: not only should and lead-generation tool be trackable, it should also give you results in real time. The days of waiting weeks and months to find out what's working and what's not over. And if you don't feel that trend already, let me assure you that your clients certainly do.

For information on how to make your strategies trackable and in real time, download my eBook.

It's not the market; it's your marketing.

In today's economy there are new rules to selling real estate. What worked in the boom won't work in the crunch. This means that home sellers, real estate agents, home builders, and residential developers must take a new, more aggressive approach to selling real estate. In other words, you need to challenge your old way of thinking and rethink the way you sell your property in 2009.

But the good news is that despite the unsold inventory across the country, there are some unused and underused marketing strategies that are showing some serious results. And my goal is to share them with you. What makes me qualified to do that? For 10 years now, my companies, N5R and Bodnarchuk Consulting, have worked with firms of all sizes to teach developers new strategies to generate leads and profit from new technologies -- and I recently wrote a compact eBook that contains 10 essential strategies to selling  your property in 2009.

Over the last decade, I've shaped N5R into one of the most successful real estate companies in America, with projects in 10 countries, 30 cities and over $4 billion in sales. N5R's clients include some of the largest and most successful global developers, including Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Hyatt, Hilton, Intrawest, Ginn and more.

Times are tought -- and what you need are strategies that are even tougher. That's what I hope to provide you in this Blog.