It used to be a common one – describing people who knew a little bit about a lot of things and could perform a variety of tasks. The down side was that they weren’t expert at any of them.

That’s what can happen to as a real estate sales person. If you’re working with first time buyers on a tight budget one day, searching for unimproved lots for a buyer another day, and trying to list a waterfront mansion the next, your focus is too scattered to let you become “the” authority in any one place.

When you choose the kind of property you love best (Not what has the highest potential commission) and then focus on learning all you can about that niche, you’ll soon become an expert.

Once you become the expert, it will show. People will notice. And before long you’ll be THE person to call in your niche.

Not only that, you’ll save time and energy. If you know all there is to know about a specific niche, you won’t have to stop and do research when someone asks you a question. You’ll know.

And yet, amateur marketers still pay too much attention to the rules their High School English teacher taught. The result is dry as a bone, stiff copy.

And you know, nobody reads dry words until they’re required to do so.

At the same time, being too casual makes you sound a little demented. And I HAVE seen it done. In fact, I’ve received emails with a subject line that went something like: “Like You Gotta Dig This!”

Uh – no, I like don’t gotta.

I thought that “like” habit had fallen out of fashion years ago – but I was wrong. I not only heard it in the grocery store this week, I heard it on a television commercial tonight.

But there are a couple of other common errors that I’m seeing more and more lately.

One is the over-use or mis-use of commas.

Look how difficult it is to read this:

By now, you know, that following instructions, from your high school English teacher, will cause you to write dry, dull, uninspiring copy.

This one is SO easy to avoid. Here’s the trick:

After you write a sentence or a paragraph, read it out loud. Pause at every comma. If it sounds like normal conversation – great. If it sounds choppy or clunky or halting (as if you were really not sure about what you wanted to say) get rid of a few commas.

The other is the over-use of descriptive words and phrases.

Take this sentence from a property description one of my ezine readers found on an agent website: “Well-favored uncommonly modern kitchen equipped with top-of-the line appliances and unpredicted materials.”
(No, that’s not a typo. It said “unpredicted.”)

Sadly, all those words draw attention to themselves and away from the message they were meant to convey.

Keep it simple – and communicate.

Before you sit down to write, think about the people you want to reach. Then narrow that down to just one of them. Picture that person in your mind’s eye…

What will they be doing when they get your message? What will they be thinking / worrying / dreaming about? That’s what you want to discuss with them.

Now pretend that you’re sitting across the kitchen table from them, sharing a cup of coffee and perhaps a plate of cookies – and just talk.

The message you write will be much more natural. Your words will flow easier and you won’t be tempted to throw in any “$40 words” for emphasis. (You wouldn’t do that in person, would you?)

The best part – people will enjoy reading what you write, and they’ll respond… What could be better? (The cookies, maybe??)

The rule is: Remember that it isn’t about you.

Your marketing, if it’s to be effective, HAS to be about your prospective customers/clients and what they want or need.

Test each of your marketing messages (including web pages) by checking to see what the first sentence is about. If it says “we” or “I,” rewrite it.

Then count the number of times you say “we” or “I” or any variation thereof. Next, count how many times you use some version of the word “You.”

Unless you’ve used “you” at least 3 or 4 times as often as you’ve used “I,” – rewrite it.

Once again, he was promising the sun, moon, and stars to anyone who signed up for his latest and greatest.

I have no idea why I read the first few paragraphs, but I did, and here is what I found:

“You have to see this new video that me and George just produced.”

I was shocked, so I read on, and there in the third paragraph, he repeated it. “Me and George.”

Now, all copywriters use conversational grammar. But that error is one that everyone should have gotten past in say… 3rd grade.

There’s no excuse for this. If English is your first language, you know better. If it’s NOT your first language, find someone to proofread your materials before you send them out to the world.

Just yesterday I spent nearly an hour on the phone with a client who was trying to decide on the best word to describe an offer he was making.

It can be a long process, pondering each word and trying to decide how it might affect a reader’s perception of the offer.

Most copywriters and marketers go through this same process… and sometimes they come up with words that are just plain annoying.

At least, they annoy me. Once I see them in copy I am stuck with the feeling that the person is “All hype and no substance.”

The problem, of course, is that the words that annoy me might not be the same ones that annoy you.

But for what it’s worth, I’ll share two of the words/phrases that turn me away…

Both of these are used by marketers who are promoting their expertise and asking you to buy their program or listen to an audio or video – which you know will only promote what they have to sell.

One is “drill down.” They say “We’re going to drill down and …”

The other is “grill.” Just yesterday I got a promotion for a teleseminar, “In which XX will grill me until he discovers my secret for…”

Yeah sure. Delete.

Before you send your promotion out to the world, check to see if any of the words you use make you sound like “All hype and no substance.”

If they do, choose better words.

A recent Active Rain post posed the question: “Which words make you disregard a marketing message?”

Here are some of the replies:

Paradigm shift
hard-worker
well-respected
“KILLER”
Progressive
Well-respected
Content-rich
Quality
Urgent
Utilize
Typical
Innovative
leverage
A-list

Two of my own favorite “love to hate” phrases are “drill down” and “Hold his feet to the fire.”

These are quite often used when promoting a teleseminar or some kind of training program. And there’s just something about those phrases that make me think the speaker (or writer) is a phony.

Then there are the sentences that attempt to impress, but simply sound pompous. For instance:

Let’s all partner to leverage our passion and proactively initiate a world-class paradigm shift that will optimize enterprise-level interactions.

I find that embarrassment strange.

Some of those same agents have no trouble hiring a professional photographer to help them show their listings in the best light. They have no problem with hiring a stager, either. But when it comes to writing, they think they SHOULD be able to do it themselves.

What agents need to remember is that unless they’ve studied the psychology of marketing, doing it themselves might not be such a good idea.

And unless they have plenty of time to devote to writing, they probably will do a mediocre job.

The truth is, good copy takes time, study, and plenty of thought. And after that it takes proofreading. Depending upon the subject matter, one simple sales letter or postcard could hours to write.

I know – I said that once in a post and someone wrote back “Ridiculous. I’ve got a background as a journalist and I can whip out a good article in a half hour.” Well… maybe that’s why we readers have to keep going back over so many newspaper articles to figure out what they’re talking about.

But the second part of that equation is that news articles aren’t written to persuade. (Well, they’re not supposed to be written to persuade.) They’re supposed to be reporting the facts.

Marketing copy is a completely different animal.

So if you don’t want to write your marketing copy, don’t be embarrassed. If you know you need a writer but somehow think you shouldn’t, re-think that.

Find a writer whose work you like, and delegate that marketing copy, because writing probably isn’t the highest and best use of your time.

Then let your writer work while you do the jobs you do best – such as listing and selling homes, staying in touch with people, negotiating contract details, solving those goofy problems that crop up, and tending to all the details involved in a closing. And blogging, of course. That’s the writing you “should” be doing!

The same applies if you’re a stager, mortgage lender, appraiser, inspector, etc.

Quit feeling guilty because you’re not a professional copywriter, web designer, auto mechanic, hairdresser, plumber, electrician, accountant, dentist, or dog obedience trainer. You can’t be everyone, so delegate those other tasks and concentrate on being the best at what you do.

And don’t limit delegation to writing. Think about all the other things you do that keep you from doing what you do best, then delegate the busy work.

If everyone who might possibly use your services or buy your merchandise was aware of you and what you have to offer, your revenues would increase. But, a whole lot of people who might love you don’t even know you exist.

Unfortunately, “same old, same old” ads in the local news won’t get their attention. But if you do something unusual, you’ll turn into news, and becoming news will give your exposure a giant boost.

What does that have to do with Halloween?

One thing you can do that will get you noticed AND create goodwill in the community is hold a pumpkin give-away.

We did that one year when I had a real estate agency, and we got both a story and a photo in the local news – two weeks in a row. On top of that, we attracted the favorable attention of dozens of people who had only been marginally aware that we existed.

I forget the monetary cost, but it was far less than the price of two newspaper stories!

We contracted with a pumpkin grower to deliver two bins of small pumpkins – you know, the big cardboard bins that sit in the grocery store filled with pumpkins, melons, or corn.

Then we offered one free pumpkin per child. All they had to do was come to our office to get them – accompanied by a parent.

Another time I purchased a few hundred American Flags on sticks (that held our business cards) and we handed them out in the parking lot at the post office a couple of days before the 4th of July. That was a LOT of fun.

Both of those events got people talking about us and our agency for days.

Why talk about Halloween right now? Because if you want to try it, you need to get those pumpkins ordered!

It’s finished now, and you can read all about it at www.promotemyrealestatecareer.com.

In it, you’ll find 107 ways to promote your career, and all but about a dozen of those ways are either completely free or cost only the gasoline to get you out and about.

If you have a different kind of business, I also have an e-book for you. In it you’ll find a plan to keep people coming back to your physical store, or to keep ordering your party plan merchandise or “door-to-door” products such as Avon.

Read more about How to Market a Local Business.

The truth is, you can do a great deal to help yourself by spending your time and using your imagination.

Yes, you need a good website, and yes, your website needs good copy. You also need business cards. But beyond that, a whole lot of what you could get talked into will be a waste of dollars.

The catch is, you do have to spend the time.

Just as there’s no magic pill to give you good health, there’s no magic pill to make your business take off.