When it comes to real estate, marketing and sales go hand-in-hand. You could be the world’s best salesperson, but if no one knows you or what you have to sell, then you won’t be making deals anytime soon. It’s critical to remember that you’re offering inventory to potential buyers but that you are also part of the inventory in the form of your sales skills. Let’s take a look at how you can use those skills to grow your reach with effective marketing.
Integrating Sales Tactics into Real Estate Marketing
There are several ways you can integrate your sales tactics into your marketing to sell both your inventory of properties and yourself as a go-to realtor. These strategies can help you expand your pool of potential customers.
Build a compelling value proposition: As a realtor or broker, you have to know and share the details of properties with potential buyers. By crafting unique selling points for each property that target the needs of your desired audience, you can help your inventory stand out in the crowd. Highlighting distinctive features and tangible benefits, like dedicated parking in a busy downtown area, can really boost the visibility and appeal of your listings.
Use storytelling techniques: Salespeople need to be storytellers, and for marketing purposes, this means building a narrative that creates an emotional response and helps buyers connect to you and your inventory. If you’re selling a historic home, put an emphasis on nostalgia. If you’re selling a commercial property, lean into the possibilities and show potential buyers how that property can help their business dreams come true.
Create a sense of urgency with calls to action: Calls to action, or CTAs, don’t have to be complicated to be effective. Buyers feel a sense of urgency when they’re told about limited-time offers or other exclusive deals. Make sure all your marketing materials include CTAs, urging people to set tour appointments or take advantage of fee waivers, or anything else that might be applicable to the action you want them to take.
Be personal: Personalized marketing works and modern technology makes it even easier. Mass-mailed emails and marketing text messages can be addressed to the recipient simply by uploading a contact list. Printed mailers can be sent with names rather than just ‘current resident.’ You can also use your social media platforms to tell personal stories that help people feel more connected to you and your business. Use your active listening and communication sales skills to relate to your customer base.
Target, target, target: Just as you adjust your sales tactics when working with different customers, so too should you adjust your marketing to reach different people. Take the time to do your research on your potential clients. Who do YOU want to work with and why? Once you can figure that out, you can find out where that client base receives its advertising. That’s where you need to spend your ad money.
Striking a Balance in Marketing and Sales
Marketing is about finding the right mix of detail and pizzazz to draw in customers and keep them engaged. The same is true for sales. Just being thoughtful and purposeful about the language you use when marketing can make a huge difference. If you’ve won awards for sales, then you need to start calling yourself an award winner. Putting ‘Award-winning Realtor John Q. Jones’ on your marketing materials looks a lot cooler than just being John Q. Jones. It will let potential customers know that you’re good at what you do and they should trust you for their needs. Plus, it’s not bragging if it's true.
Don’t Be Afraid to Take Risks
I’m not suggesting you blow your entire advertising and marketing budget to hire a skywriter, but I am suggesting that there is room for testing and experimentation. Using your sales skills and translating them into marketing techniques is a great way to use a resource you already have (you!) to inform another business strategy.
If you connect with people really well in person, schedule an open house day at your office where you grill free burgers and dogs for the neighborhood, and potential clients can get to know you face-to-face. If you like public speaking and want to guerilla-market to adults through their kids, participate in career days at schools and send the little ones home with branded swag. There are so many creative ways that you can use your strengths as a salesperson and leverage them into effective marketing events and campaigns. The bottom line on marketing and sales is that there is a great deal of overlap in these skill sets, which you can use to your advantage when strategizing your marketing and advertising.
