Real Estate Marketing Mistakes

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Know how they run those ads before the movies? The ones for local businesses? Haircuts, casual restaurants, real estate agents and so on?

Given half a chance, most people seem to ignore those ads in favor of keeping their noses in their phones, or munching on popcorn and snacks.

Captive audience, bad message

There was one the other day that stuck in my head, but for the wrong reasons. It promised XYZ Real Estate was a “cutting edge” company, a leader in real estate since _____ with innovative solutions.

I’m not in the market for a house (don’t have the $4,000,000 it takes to buy one around here), but if I were, this company would not be at the top of my list.

They’re trying to build themselves up, rather than tell me how they can help me.

No differentiation. No niche. And no message that matters to a client. They’ve spent a lot of money on a marketing mistake that likely won’t get them many sales (or even phone calls inquiring about their services).

A better marketing idea

Why not skip the useless gobbledygook and offer something that does matter.

For instance, how about help getting a loan. Or a list of 10 things I need to know before I buy a house. That wouldn’t fit in a movie ad, but a phone number to call would.

Or, what about an offer of relocation assistance (what’s in my new neighborhood, getting kids enrolled in school, local grocery stores). Another tactic could be specializing in townhouses or condos or large families needing a home (space is at a premium in New York).

Any of these strategies would have made this real estate agent really stand out. And get more clients too.

What do you think?

Do you pay any attention to those ads? Do you like them? Hate them? Do you want some popcorn? 😉

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  5. Do You Make These Common Marketing Mistakes?

3 thoughts on “Real Estate Marketing Mistakes”

  1. I like this post.

    I work with a few real estate agents and many have trouble doing things differently from the way agents have done them in the past.

    We would always sit down and discuss the message. I’d say – explain the house to me and it would sound just like the typical classified ad (2 bedroom, 2 bath, new fireplace, big backyard, great for kids)

    fail.

    I’d then say, OK now explain it to me like I was your son buying my first home. Eventually, we’d start to make some progress and build the human connection.

    It was a struggle for a few of the clients to move away from the typical big company provided real estate website to something more like a personal blog where ideas that matter could be shared. Even once we got there, sharing and spreading those ideas was a whole other issue.

    Ian Watt is a guy who’s killing it in real estate. He gets it.

    Thanks
    .-= Noah Fleming´s last blog ..Stupid Ideas? =-.

    • Thanks Noah! I really like your “tell it to me like I’m your son” approach. Brian Clark of Copyblogger was once in real estate and was very successful by being personal and building connections, rather than acting like an automaton.

  2. Pingback: Tweets that mention Copywriting Lessons from a Real Estate Agent | Fix Your Broken Marketing -- Topsy.com

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