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Our fast-moving and ever-evolving real estate market is constantly influenced by outside forces, like economic shifts, government policies and legislation, interest rates, and unforeseen events. With all these ebbs and flows, ups and downs, you need to be able to keep business as steady as possible. So, what can provide agents stability in the storm? The answer is marketing.
Marketing strategies allow you to be adaptable and proactive, but many agents give up on marketing when the market cools down. It's understandable, because they're generally thinking in the short term, but it’s a big mistake. Most successful real estate pros know better, though.
“Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.”
Henry Ford once said, “Stopping advertising to save money is like stopping your watch to save time.” And he was right. Savvy agents understand that a tough market opens up opportunities to do things you didn’t have time to do during better times and that the benefits of effective marketing outweigh any short-term hurdles.
Plus, in tough real estate markets, agents are needed. Especially in tough real estate markets. Prospective buyers and sellers are facing challenges, uncertainty and are inundated with varied forecasts and predictions from media outlets. That's why they need you: the local real estate expert who can help them understand what the condition of the market means for them and how to navigate it to reach their goals. You are their guide, and you can’t allow yourself to be forgotten.
Crucial to this is never letting your marketing fall by the wayside. Here are the top four reasons why:
It Builds Your Brand
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Your brand is your foundation, and creating a lasting presence in your community is key to building relationships with homeowners. Keeping your name, face, market insight, and transaction success consistently in front of prospects promotes not only your credibility, but also provides a perception of dependability, familiarity and trust that is important to homeowners.
Nancy Haas, CEO of The Haas Group, knows this well. “You have to invest in yourself to invest in your company,” she said in an interview with RSP. “Your marketing of your company, of you, is the last thing you want to cut."
It Promotes Your Expertise
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Now, let’s expand on trust. A real estate purchase is usually a person’s most significant financial decision. You can provide valuable information that creates awareness of the market and helps people make informed choices, which establishes you as an expert upon whom they can depend.
A consistent marketing campaign is what will help homeowners remember you, so it's important to promote yourself with marketing that builds your brand over time.
"You have to take daring action."
"Basically, a lot of agents sit on a fence. And how many homes are you going to sell while you sit on a fence? None. You have to take daring action,” said Haas. “You have to actually jump. Jump in … pick three, four things, and do them consistently year after year…"
By consistently providing prospects with market insight, property listings, and more, you can create an ongoing conversion that educates and generates trust. Plus, when homeowners trust you, you’re far more likely to get referrals, which are so important for growing your business.
It Helps You Stand Out
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Effective marketing is meant to differentiate you from your competitors. And in the real estate industry, there are plenty! Its role is to help you stand out and position you as, not just a choice, but the best choice. Marketing allows you the opportunity to highlight the things that are special about you and your business, such as specific credentials and designations and expertise in a niche market.
Realtor Susan Colella values high-quality marketing and understands what a difference it can make when you're working to build your brand. “A few agents said to me ‘You have the most beautiful marketing material that I've ever seen,’” she said in an interview with RSP.
Well-designed and data-driven direct mail marketing has put Susan's name and face in front of qualified prospects and contributed to word-of-mouth in the community to help her stand out and gain business.
“Some of the successes I've had . . . a seller will call me and say ‘I found you from a postcard. When can you come by?’ This is somebody that I normally would not have found on my own…” Colella said. “And this happens time and time again.”
It Keeps You Focused on Qualified Prospects
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When you can get your brand in front of the right people at that right time, you can increase your chances of getting more business. Rather than casting a huge net over an entire zip code area and crossing your fingers, you can target likely sellers on a neighborhood/street level to generate qualified leads.
A marketing strategy, like a Target Farming Report Campaign, allows you to do just that, utilizing direct mail to provide valuable local market insight to those targeted homeowners. It also gives you the opportunity to gain market share in an area you may not have been able to break into before.
"Everyone is not your customer."
As famous marketing strategist and best-selling author Seth Godin said, “Everyone is not your customer.”
The point is that all businesses have a target audience. When it comes to real estate, not every homeowner needs or wants to sell their home at the same time. That’s true for buyers, as well. Only certain segments of people will need your services at any given moment, and it's marketing that can help you meet those customers.
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Ultimately, marketing in the real estate industry is not only a cornerstone of an agent’s success—it’s a requirement. What marketing provides is what you always need, no matter if it’s a hot market or a cool one, whether you’re busy with transactions or facing a slowdown in business. It sustains you by building brand recognition, fostering familiarity and trust, and helping you stand out in front of the right audience at the right time to generate qualified leads.
You can easily apply effective marketing with RSP USA’s innovative, data-driven campaigns and lead-generating tools. Get in touch to learn more!
Still need to keep your marketing spend low and cannot commit to a campaign? There are several ways to increase your reach without breaking the bank! Try out Postcards, Facebook Ads, Listing e-Announcements, and more.
TL;DR: Even in a tough real estate market— often especially in a tough market—marketing is a crucial ingredient for success and should never be cut from an agent’s priority list. It builds and maintains your brand and positions you to be the best choice for the right homeowners at the right time. Reach out to RSP USA to get started marketing yourself.