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Introducing an exciting new marketing breakthrough for real estate agents.
Development Background
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1. Relationship marketing is going to be, by far, the most productive marketing you can do.
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2. If you want to do a lot of deals this year, you'd better be doing some consistent relationship marketing to a lot more people than you have been.
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3. Since 99 out of every 100 people in your database are not likely to be actively in the real estate market at any given point during the year, your marketing content had better speak to them as homeowners, rather than as buyers and sellers; that is if you don't want them to be annoyed and tell you to leave them alone.
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Since NAR surveys say that about 70% of all agent relationships with buyers and sellers are established through referrals, you definitely want to keep in close touch with everyone you've ever met, but you don't want to annoy them by continually sending marketing content that isn't relevant to them right now.
NAR surveys also show that buyers and sellers make their agent selection decisions based on three key criteria:
- Perceptions about the agents level of real estate KNOWLEDGE
- Perceptions about the agents SKILL at applying that knowledge
- Perceptions about the agents level of PERFORMANCE; especially, how responsive is the agent in applying their knowledge and skill on the prospect's behalf.
That's why whatever you send as marketing content should continually demonstrate your real estate knowledge, skill and performance.
Census demographics indicate that nationally, on average, about 10% of homeowners move every year. That means that for every 100 contacts in your database, ten of them will move sometime in the next 12 months. Another way to look at it is that less than one family out of every 100 in your database is likely to be actively in the real estate market this month.
Therefore the focus of your relationship/referral marketing really needs to focus on homeowners as homeowners, rather than as strictly buyers and sellers.
Three observations come out of an analysis of these facts:
- Relationship marketing is going to be, by far, the most productive marketing you can do.
- If you want to do a lot of deals this year, you'd better be doing some consistent relationship marketing to a lot more people than you have been.
- Since 99 out of every 100 people in your database are not likely to be actively in the real estate market at any given point during the year, your marketing content had better speak to them as homeowners, rather than as buyers and sellers; that is if you don't want them to be annoyed and tell you to leave them alone.
Our consulting specialty is creating fully automated marketing systems that help our agent clients maintain closer relationships with everyone they meet, thereby getting them more first calls from buyers and sellers entering the market, and facilitating referrals to their contacts friends, relatives and coworkers. We achieve this by configuring drip, relationship marketing systems that continually bring our clients' prospects back to their Web site knowledge and skill content.
The trouble with typical real estate agent Web sites, however, is that their content is almost exclusively geared to active Buyers and Sellers. That's terrific if you're bringing a hot buyer or seller to your site, but not so great if you're trying to maintain relationships with people who aren't currently in the market to buy or sell a home (as the vast majority of people you know and want to stay close to are not).
We've created our exciting new Homeowners Intelligence Marketing System to fill that void. Take a closer look. We think you'll agree that this is the most exciting new marketing system that real estate agents have seen in a very long time.
To test drive the live demo of our Homeowners Intelligence site, and to get a price quote for your customized Homeowners Intelligence Marketing System; just complete the information request form at the bottom of this page.
Your Marketing Challenges
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Your Best New Solution
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1. Build and Maintain Relationships
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1. Focus On “Met” Relationship Marketing
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NAR surveys show that 70% of all Buyers and Sellers find their agents through some kind of referral activity. This is not surprising due to the complexity, price and impact of home purchases. People just naturally prefer a referral from a trusted source over a relatively blind gamble.
You don't need the NAR to tell you that relationship marketing is king, however. Just look at how much referral business the top agents you know are getting.
Another key bit of evidence that relationship marketing is king comes from Gary Keller's, "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent". The 100 top agents he surveyed reported that they get one transaction from every six "Mets" in their database per year.
Do the math:
200 Mets/6 = 33 Transactions per year!
No matter how good or bad the economy gets; homeowners always keep moving. Why? Their families grow. They change jobs. They marry. They divorce. They retire.
The trick for you clearly is to maintain relationships with as many homeowners as you can, so that when they decide to move you'll be the first one to get the call.
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The biggest problem with real estate agent marketing is that it focuses almost exclusively on current Buyers and Sellers.
That's a problem because in any given month less than 1% of homeowners are in a buying or selling frame of mind.
If you hammer your "Mets" with buyer and seller oriented information when they aren't in the market, you'll mostly be annoying them; that's very questionable relationship maintenance activity.
We designed the Homeowners Intelligence Marketing System to focus exclusively on relationship maintenance and referral generation. Maintain good relationships with your "Mets" year-round and you'll get the calls when it comes time for them, their friends and relatives, to buy or sell.
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2. Increase Touch Volume
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2. Use Turnkey Automation
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Relationship building and maintenance requires frequent contact. The agents surveyed in "The Millionaire Real Estate Agent" reported that they "touched" their "Mets" an average of 33 times per year.
That's pretty tough to keep up with if you don't have an automated marketing system in place.
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To address this challenge we developed a homeowner content rich Web site and a fully automated marketing system that drips high-value content year-round.
The only thing our clients' need to do is provide the names and email addresses for their "Mets".
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3. Avoid the "Spam" Perception
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3. Send Valued Information
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The perception of "Spam" is in the eye of the beholder. If you don't want it, it's spam. If it attracts and holds your attention, it's useful and welcome.
Most agent web sites are chock full of buyer and seller content; but are woefully weak on homeowner content.
Since less than 1% of all homeowners are in the market during any given month, most recipients of typical agent online marketing content are likely to view it as spam.
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We designed the Homeowners Intelligence Web site to be entirely different from typical agent Web sites. It is 99% focused on homeowner interests as you can see from the index:
Click to view larger image.
And these are just some of the over 170 links we carefully researched for inclusion in this marketing system:
Click to view a larger image.
The only, but very strategically placed, Buyer and Seller links to be found are at the top of every page in the sponsoring Agent's personalized banner:
Click to view larger image.
This is how we ensure that our "touches" are welcomed by homeowners, and are more likely to be forwarded to friends and relatives.
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4. Communicate Real Estate Knowledge
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4. Make Frequent Knowledge Demonstrations
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NAR surveys show that perceptions of a real estate agent's "Knowledge", is the most important factor in agent selection. That only makes sense. Of course people want the most knowledgeable agent they can find to help them with the most complex, highest priced and most impactful purchase of their lives.
Recipe cards and refrigerator magnets are better than nothing as “touches", but they aren't nearly as effective marketing communications as helping prospects believe that you really know real estate.
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The index above shows the breadth of homeowner topics addressed on the Homeowners Intelligence Web site. Here are just a few examples of the depth of the over 170 links that are included.
Click to view larger image.
Click to view larger image.
Click to view larger image.
The Homeowners Intelligence Marketing System automatically sends a link each week to valuable homeowner knowledge content.
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5. Communicate Skill at Applying Your Knowledge
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5. Make Frequent Skill Demonstrations
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Obviously, the Web is dramatically and increasingly important in real estate marketing.
Having your own agent Web site is now the minimum level for demonstrating skill with today's real estate online marketing tools.
Using a system that frequently demonstrates your ability to integrate targeted, useful email and Web content is the next, and a very important level.
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The turnkey drip campaigns built into the Homeowners Intelligence Marketing System reliably demonstrate your mastery of real estate relationship marketing on a weekly basis.
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6. Communicate High Level Performance
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6. Make Frequent Performance Demonstrations
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Consistently touching your prospects with high quality, useful and relevant information is very important for building and maintaining your image as a high level performer.
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Our consistent, weekly drip "touches" that link to relevant, useful homeowner content is a powerful demonstration of your high level performance ability.
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7. Control Marketing Costs
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7. Put a Cap On Your Marketing Costs
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Advertising costs are high; yet newspaper circulation is falling like a rock.
Direct mail costs are high, and increasing; yet direct mail performance is declining.
Online marketing performance is increasing; yet email is still essentially free and so are Web site page views.
Given that you can do and say more on the Web than you can in either advertising or direct mail; it's clear that doing more with online marketing is the best way to control your marketing costs.
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There is a reasonable setup fee for your personalized Homeowners Intelligence Web site and the automated drip campaigns.
Thereafter there is a low, flat monthly fee (no matter how may people you add to your marketing campaign) for:
- Maintaining your personalized Homeowners Intelligence Web site
- Continually enhancing the content on your personalized Homeowners Intelligence Web site
- Sending out weekly drip emails with links to your personalized Homeowners Intelligence Web site to your entire “Met” database.
Go ahead; add hundreds or even thousands to your database. There is no additional fee.
It's okay if your recipients forward your emails to hundreds, even thousand of their friends and relatives; who, in turn, also visit your Web site. There is no additional fee.
Conclusion
Finally, you can have appropriate, high-interest marketing content, sent on a weekly basis, to all the right people; and your marketing cost is fixed at a level far lower than the cost for a single advertisement or mailing.
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Copyright 2008, By Cobel Target Marketing
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