Thoughts on Real Estate Marketing…

Do you want to lose a potential client because your blog posts show you have bad manners?

Do you want to lose a potential client because your blog posts show you don’t know the basic rules of grammar?

I didn’t think so.

I’m being picky again… Sorry, but I do think a potential client might cross an agent off their list for breaking these basic rules of etiquette and grammar.

Every now and then, in a real estate blog post, I see a “manners and grammar” mistake that sets my teeth on edge.

It goes like this: “Me and my clients” used as the subject of a sentence. It reminds me of high school when I used to hear “Me and John went to the movies Friday night.” It was usually spoken quickly, so it came out as “Mean John went to the movies.” People would look at me strangely when I’d ask “What makes John so mean?”

So… first the manners.

Aren’t we taught from pre-school years to always state the other person’s name first?

Yes – it’s just good manners. So in these examples it would be correct – and polite – to say “My clients and…”

But then… the word “Me.”

“Me” is an object word – never a subject word. Use it after words like for, with, to, before, or after. 

When you yourself are the subject of the sentence, the word to use is “I.”

“My clients and I arrived early and found …”

Would you say “Me arrived early?”

Use the “leave them out” trick…

If you aren’t sure whether to use “me” or “I,” simply omit the other person. Then read it and listen to how it sounds. Just as you wouldn’t say “My client referred a friend to I,” you wouldn’t say “Me toured a beautiful home on Sunday.”

At least I hope not.

In the meantime… just remember: Never begin a sentence with the word “me” unless you’re talking about the word itself. For instance: “Me is an object word.”

You want to encourage communication with people who could be your clients… Are you doing things that make them leave instead?

How often have you to wanted to leave a comment on a blog post – only to find that you need to log in first? Or even worse, that you need to register first and THEN log in.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t care enough about commenting to take the 5 minutes or so to do that.

Are you using these tactics to put a road block in front of people who might want to interact with you?

If you want people to respond and leave comments – let them do it!

Here’s another one that can send people away…

Require readers to click 3 or 4 times before they can read your complete message.

If all you’re doing is providing news, OK.  Go ahead and make it difficult.  But if you want your prospects to stay and read what you wrote – and then follow your call to action – why are you making them work so hard to get there?

I’ve clicked away without reading the entire message at least a half dozen times just today.

It starts with an email with a headline. So you click and get to another page that offers the headline and a paragraph or two of the story – then you have to click again. But is the whole story there? NO, not always. Sometimes you have to click yet a 3rd time to read the whole thing.

Do you do it? I don’t. I have satellite Internet. It would take news that I simply HAD to know to get me to click that third time. It had to be pretty darned interesting just to get me to click twice. Three times is out of the question.

If you have a marketing message – make it easy for your prospects to read.

Trust me when I say that they aren’t going to work hard just so you can sell them on your goods or services.

What is an empty adjective? It’s a word that doesn’t really mean anything – but it can mean different things to different people.

For example: nice, large, small, great, pretty, cozy, cute, huge, and spacious.

You’ve read hundreds of real estate ads filled with those empty adjectives.

If you’re writing them, it’s time to stop. Your goal should be to paint a word picture that entices both buyers and buyer’s agents, and you just can’t do it with empty adjectives.

Before you panic, realize that most of the time, it’s not that difficult to write a better ad. It just takes a few extra minutes.

Instead of saying that your new listing has a “great” view, say it has a view of (whatever is out there.) If you have to be really brief, choose a word or phrase such as “panoramic,” “180 degree,” “ocean,” “mountain,” “city” or “valley.”  Just don’t call it great, because that doesn’t mean a thing.

After all, what does “great” mean? Different things to different people.

For instance, you might say the yard has a great fence. To me that would mean it’s tall and dog-proof so I could let my critters out to play without worrying. Chain link comes to mind. To someone else it might mean a rustic split-rail that only keeps people from walking or riding bicycles through your flower beds.

And then there’s that wimpy, meaningless word: “nice.” Instead of saying the home is surrounded by nice trees, say it’s surrounded by “100′ pines.”

But of course, if you have the space – such as on your own website – you can paint a word picture that includes privacy, shelter from the sun and wind, birds nesting in the trees, or whatever fits. Just don’t say “nice trees,” because “nice” doesn’t paint any pictures (and “trees” is too generic.)

Any time you’re tempted to describe a feature as “nice,” stop and think about what makes it nice. Then say that.

If you want to talk about size,  say how large it is. A “12′ X 40′ deck” paints a better picture than a “large deck.”

Remember that while you’re painting word pictures of the features in a home, it’s good to add some action/benefits. You do have to be careful to follow the ADA rules, but try to suggest how the occupants will live in the home and benefit from its features.

A purchase is an emotional decision, justified with logic. And it’s benefits, not features, that affect emotions.

Write your ad. Then read it. What do you see in your mind’s eye?

Sometimes we all need a break – if you need one right now, go visit this website and play for a few minutes. Then forward the link on to your kids and grand-kids. They’ll have fun too!

http://www.drawastickman.com/index.htm?o=66-69-32-67-82-69-65-84-73-86-69s69-86-69-82-89-32-68-65-89

It amazes me that someone can create a program that will behave this way…

Discouraged underwater homeowners can be tempted to just walk away and let the bank foreclose. After all, doing a short sale means doing the work involved with selling a home. Since they aren’t going to realize a profit, why bother?

Because they could become victims of a zombie foreclosure – and that would be a disaster.

Not ONLY could they end up owing the city because the house they left was not maintained, they could end up owing Federal income tax on all the equity they lost.

Read this post and watch the video clip – then pass the warning along to your short sale prospects.

Write your own letters, or use my Short Sale prospecting letters. Zombie foreclosures are real and they pose a huge threat to underwater homeowners.

You’re much more apt to become “the chosen agent” if your listing presentation and/or your conversation addresses your prospect’s greatest concern.

How do you make sure you’re doing that?

Each client is different, but there could be a trend in your marketplace that you could subtly address.

For instance:

• If houses are selling quickly, your client may be worried about listing too low.
• If the market is slow, he may worry about listing too high.
• If your prospect is underwater the concern may be getting the house sold quickly, before it goes into foreclosure.

Those are problems that you can address in your overall marketing, but you can take it one step further. Simply take a little time to talk with your prospect on the phone before you go to the listing presentation.

Before you call, prepare a list of questions that will prompt that seller to open up. And when they answer, really listen. You’ll not only learn about both their concerns and their goals, you’ll create a good atmosphere for your presentation. And once you know that prospect’s concerns, you can adjust your listing presentation to address them.

People make decisions based on emotion – so give your prospects plenty of reason to feel drawn to you. Then back it all up with facts and figures, so your prospect can justify his or her emotional decision with logic.

Do you ever feel pity for the people who are trying to earn your business? I do.

Just today a message arrived that begin “We are trying to reach people who need website design services.” It went on to apologize if the message has reached me in error – and to beg me not to label it as spam.

Oh boy – what else could they do wrong?

Beginning their letter with “We” and explaining what they wanted was the first mistake. Do I have any reason to care what they want? Not even one.

And then, of course, it WAS spam. I have no idea who those people are and surely didn’t ask for their message.  Some will no doubt label it spam, simply because the message made them think to do it.

I feel sorry for them because they ARE trying to promote their business, but don’t have the first clue how to reach out to prospects. Their approach is sure to cause hundreds or thousands of people (whose addresses they have no doubt purchased from some crook) to hit the delete button without giving them a second thought.

Wouldn’t you think that with all the instruction and information available here on the Internet, that these people would learn?

Last week a real estate agent contacted me about writing a letter of introduction to go with my 10-letter expired listing prospecting letter set. He had decided to mail just once – and include all ten letters in one package.

Here’s what I said when I wrote back:

Are you up for some advice? I understand you wanting to get your information out to these people in a hurry, but unless they have specifically requested it, sending it all at once would probably be a mistake. That would give you only one chance to impress – and if they didn’t happen to be in the mood that day, your entire package would be tossed.

Instead, consider drip marketing to them. That way, you’re giving yourself multiple chances to catch their attention. Plus – you’re giving them information in small enough bites to keep their interest. I doubt if any seller would sit down and read everything in a packet of 10 or 12 pieces. People are just in too much of a hurry these days, and attention spans are short.

Effective marketing requires patience and persistence.

People who test marketing campaigns say that it takes between 5 and 12 contacts before a “cold” prospect will respond to a marketing message. The more messages, the higher the response rate, but you begin to see an actuall return on investment with letter #5.

Why does it take so many messages? For a few reasons.

First, any one of your messages may arrive on a day when they won’t even look at it. They might be extremely busy, they might be ill, there might be a family crisis going on, they might simply not be in the mood, or they might even be away from home.

Second, when you send just one message, they don’t know who you are. Why should they trust a stranger? Why should they spend their time on you?

Third, when you send too much information at once, reading it takes too much time – and people today all seem to be in a hurry.

Drip marketing accomplishes four things:

• It increases your chance of having at least a few of your messages arrive on a day when they’ll read it.
• It presents your message in small bites – making it easy to read and understand.
• It builds name/face recognition.
• When you send interesting and informative information, it builds trust.

Just as dripping water can wear away rock – the steady drip of useful information from you can wear away resistance to your marketing message.

My advice to anyone thinking of mailing just one letter is: Don’t bother. 

The time and effort (and maybe even money) you’ll spend getting your list together and getting that letter ready to go is not likely to give you a good return on investment. It’s the cumulative effect of many letters – possibly interspersed with phone calls, emails, or personal visits – that will bring the results you want.

Most of the books and articles I’ve read about email marketing assume that the majority of people access their email at work.

If that’s true, then their advice to write on Tuesday or Thursday is probably valid. On Monday their in-boxes are filled with all the junk mail from the week-end and your message might get lost in the shuffle. On Friday they’re busy trying to get everything cleared out so they can perhaps leave work early. (I don’t know why Wednesday isn’t supposed to be good.)

They also recommend choosing the time of day based on the assumption that workers are only reading personal email during breaks or at lunch time. (Do you believe that story?)

But is it true that people only read their email at work?

What about people who don’t have desk jobs? What about people whose work computers don’t allow them to access email? (Our local bank, for instance.)

Don’t most people have computers at home now? Don’t a whole lot of them also have phones and other devices that they carry with them all day, every day?

If you write to people when they’re more apt to be at home, wouldn’t they have more time to read and absorb your message?

I don’t know the answer to this question, but I think it’s worth considering and worth testing.

Personally, I wish more people would send me interesting things on the week-end. It seems like my clients think I take week-ends off, so I don’t often hear from them on Saturday or Sunday. And none of the interesting and informative newsletters show up on the week-end either. In fact, email on Saturday and Sunday is mostly spam.

I can’t test time of day because my client / prospect base is not local. But I think I will test days of the week. Maybe I’m not the only one who would welcome something interesting in the week-end email.

What do you think?

Common knowledge (and common complaints) among real estate agents is the fact that buyers and sellers refuse to take sound advice from them.

Some take advice from their brother-in-law, their car mechanic, their child’s first-grade teacher, or a news report before they listen to the professional they’ve chosen to help them.

Why is that?

My guess is that it’s because they aren’t sure they can trust you.

There are SO many agents out there who don’t do their jobs, and if they do get involved with an actual closing, they leave the real work up to the agent on the other side of the transaction. You know who they are – if you’ve been in the business long, you’ve had to do their share as well as your own more than a few times.

These folks give everyone in the industry a bad name – and create at atmosphere in which people are reluctant to trust you.

What can you do to overcome the mistrust that these poor performers create in the marketplace?

You can start, of course, with giving excellent service to one client at a time. If you do that long enough and consistently enough, you should be able to build a sizable business based on their referrals.

Strangely, it seems that the #1 most important thing you can do in the “excellent service” category is to return their phone calls and e-mails promptly. Such a simple thing, and yet so many fail to do it. The agents my son hired not only didn’t return his emails or calls promptly – they didn’t bother to return them AT ALL.

Until you’ve built a strong referral business, you can start by asking those happy customers and clients for testimonials. Then you can post the testimonials on your website and include them in your fliers, your listing presentation, your e-mail messages, and even in news ads. Third-party verification is stronger than anything you could say about yourself. And you do have to ask, or people won’t think about it.

Next, you can offer good advice on your website, in your blog posts, and through e-mails delivered by auto responders.

Show those consumers that you know your business and are passionate about doing it well.

• Offer tips that will help homeowners sell more quickly and help buyers make choices they’ll love for years to come.
• Show them that you know your market by offering reports on recent trends.
• Explain the differences between buying from a homeowner and buying from a bank
• Do a Q & A column and answer questions your clients have asked in the past.

And don’t worry about giving away your knowledge. They’ll still need you.