Thoughts on Real Estate Marketing…

Finally! It’s voting day and I’m sure I’m only one of millions who will be relieved when it’s over.

The “Hard marketing” that the candidates have been doing these past couple of years will finally come to an end. We might turn on the news and find that other things are going on in the world, and the phone will hopefully quit ringing with robo calls.

The thing that strikes me most about this election – and most others before it – is that we got very little telling us what’s good about either of our Presidential candidates – and an overload about what’s so terrible about the other guy. Even the phone calls I received about candidates on the State level followed that model.

Why does that work in politics? Is it because Americans love to gossip? Do we really savor the dirt and align our loyalties with the person who can sling the most mud?

Do we forgive the candidates for it because we know that their words aren’t really theirs – they come from a staff of writers who get their information from another group who is busy digging for dirt?

I really don’t get it.

If you – as a Realtor or a plumber or a hairdresser – started doing that to your competition, you’d probably lose business rather than gain. You’d be seen as a mean-spirited person for trying to build yourself up by knocking down the competition. People would shun you because they’d wonder what you were going to say about them once they were out of hearing distance.

The same is true with products you’re selling. Mentioning the competing product is almost always counter-productive. All you do is get the name of the other product stuck in your prospect’s heads.

I have no idea why mud slinging and harping about your rival works in politics. I do know that it’s a poor idea for the rest of us to use in marketing our goods and services.

Today, let’s all think about the benefits we bring to our customers and clients – and focus on letting them know we’re here to help.

Yours for prosperity,

Marte