Why Your Real Estate Marketing Isn’t All About You
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When we think about marketing ourselves and advertising our businesses, the conversation often turns to us. That’s natural. As a real estate agent, you want your marketing to help you achieve your goals. Whether that’s increasing the number of homes you sell, working in a new price range, or even targeting a new area, it’s very tempting to have the voice of your real estate marketing be all about you.
You might be saying, “I’m the best agent to work with in XYZ area” or “Why I can sell your home faster and for more money.”
On today’s quick tip, let’s flip your real estate marketing script. Tailoring your marketing to focus less on you and more on the people you’re serving, will actually help you attract more potential customers and engage the people you already know.
Because great marketing isn’t all about you.
For this week’s blog & episode, I’ve left sunny Florida for a quick Valentine’s vacation to visit my in-laws in Minnesota. While the negative 12-degree weather that greeted me was quite a shock to my system, it’s been really great being around family the past couple of days. I was at my niece’s dance recital, and there was a real estate ad in the program. First, kudos to this agent for supporting their local community and the arts. However, I think they really missed an opportunity in their ad. Their ad was all about them and didn’t directly speak to the hundreds of families in the audience.
I had a longer episode planned for this week, but I want to stop and share the number one marketing principle that everyone should be doing. It’s a practice that I consider every day and through everything I do in marketing.
That’s why Episode 11 is, “Why your real estate marketing isn’t all about you.”
This one concept can be your guide in all that you do, and it’s really quite simple when you boil it down. Your marketing should be focused on those you’re serving and not you.
How to Flip The Script In Your Marketing
If you’re unsure how this will help you hit your goals, let’s dive into this.
You are still marketing yourself as a real estate agent. Instead of coming from a place of advertising, you’re connecting with the person you’re looking to serve. By focusing on your potential customers (home buyers and sellers), you’re able to better engage them.
We want your services to be the answer to the problems that they’re facing.
Real estate is a big deal. You’re helping people during some of the most stressful and rewarding times in their lives. They might have been working years to move into a first home, be expecting a child and need more space, or be in a season in life where they need to downsize for personal reasons. Internally, they are going through a lot. Outside of the real estate process, they might be facing some personal struggles as well. The last thing they probably want is to be sold to. Likewise, you probably didn’t get into real estate to sell people.
So, let’s focus your real estate marketing to always be customer-focused.
We want your ideal customer to see you as their go-to guide. They want to work with you. Through your marketing, they’ll value you as not only an experienced resource but also recognize that you truly care about helping them.
Instead of saying “here are all of my qualifications,” you recognize the problem they have and offer a solution to it.
Let’s think about that ad in my niece’s dance program. It basically read as, “Hey, I’m a REALTOR and top producer.” It didn’t talk to the people in the audience. And while a real estate ad just about you might be great for branding, it doesn’t necessarily compel actions. How many people took out their phones and went to that agent’s website? I doubt it was many because it was too much about the agent and had nothing to do with the people reading it.
What if their ad had been something like this?
“Impossible to practice the latest routine in your current living room? Get more room for the little dancers in your life. (Insert nearby) neighborhood is currently selling in the mid-300s and many homes have large basements. Visit my site for a complete list of homes with large living areas and to find out the current equity in your home. You might be closer to your next home than you think!”
So, this example is pretty cutesy for this specific ad. However, I want you to always think about focusing on the person reading or engaging with your real estate marketing.
Let’s step outside real estate to think about this.
Imagine you are getting surgery on your knee. This is a big deal! You go to your doctor’s website, and she has a 5-minute video all about her experience. She talks about how she went to John Hopkins, specializes in XYZ methods, and is very technical.
How much of that video are you going to watch?
Yes, it’s important to know she’s qualified. However, how much more comfortable would you feel with her if her video was less about her and more about you? She could have a 90-second video where she briefly mentions her qualifications. From there she could cover what to expect during and after the procedure and what you can look forward to once your quality of life improves post-surgery. A video like this does highlight her. After all, she’s the one who will be improving your life thanks to her surgery methods. Yet, the video itself is all about YOU the patient.
Whether it’s on social, paid ads, email campaigns, or even face-to-face conversations, we need to make sure that we are focused on our customers.
Now, marketing for real estate like this becomes easier with time. For everything you do, I want you to honestly ask yourself these two questions.1) how much would my potential customer care about this? 2) Am I providing value to them? If you continue to ask yourself if your marketing is specific and valuable, you’ll be able to position yourself as the expert in your area by building trust with the people you are serving.
To be most effective in this form of marketing, it’s important that you always have an ideal customer in mind. If you’re not sure how to do this, make sure you download my marketing plan. Step 3 walks you through identifying your target market and how you can tailor your marketing based on their needs. Fill out this section of the plan, and you’ll be better able to implement these practices.
I hope you enjoyed this blog/episode! And before you create your next real estate marketing piece, make sure you are thinking a little less about you and a little more about them.
Up Next:
I’m Heather Colby, host of the “Ideas for Real Estate Podcast.”
If you like what you read here today, I’d encourage you to take a listen to the episodes.
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New episodes air on Mondays and if you have a topic request, connect with me here!
It's time for seasonal marketing! Fall-themed real estate content and marketing on social media is not only trending, it also works in your Instagram Reels, posts, carousels, and more. The secret is to customize this content with photos and videos of you. So, in today's episode, let's plan an easy fall content shoot for you as a REALTOR to use in your marketing strategies this season!