Occasionally when I talk with prospects about their marketing, I hear those dreaded 4 words: I already know that.
They know they need to focus their marketing. They know that it can take 5-7 times or more for a prospect to remember them. They know that the message they use must be relevant to their readers. They know all that. So why isn’t their marketing working?
Marketing isn’t rocket science. In fact, the basic principles are easy to understand. There are really only four key steps:
- Decide to sell your real estate services
- Choose a real estate niche
- Create a relevant marketing message
- Promote your services
Most real estate agents already know that. What holds them back are their perceptions and ingrained beliefs about what they should or can be doing. And the best way to move beyond those limited ways of thinking is to keep an open mind. There’s a reason why so many articles and books use “Back to Basics” principles. Those principles work. But they do take some brutal honesty on your part.
I often hear prospects and clients tell me they already tried this or that. When I ask them to go into more detail, they tell me that since they didn’t get a response, they moved on and tried something else. The cycle continued and soon they tried just about everything and nothing worked. They never stop to ask themselves the one hard question, “Why isn’t this working?” Is it because:
- Your niche doesn’t have a need for your service?
- Your niche doesn’t understand your service?
- Your marketing message isn’t relevant to your niche?
- Your marketing message doesn’t clearly explain why you are different from competitors?
- Your marketing message doesn’t explain the value of your service?
- Your target audience doesn’t read the newspaper your advertised in?
- You aren’t communicating with your target audience enough to build trust and demonstrate your expertise?
- Your “call to action” expects too much from your prospects?
- You don’t have clear, measurable goals to compare performance to?
- You are using the wrong metrics to measure success?
Saying that something “isn’t working” isn’t enough. Like a two year old, keep asking yourself “why?” Don’t stop at just one answer. Brainstorm. Come up with a list of at least 10 possible why’s. And then start trying to narrow down the heart of the problem.
That’s where the basics come in. When we keep an open mind, we believe that every interaction we have, every book we read, every conversation we have can teach us something. And quite often these lead to “aha” and “I didn’t think of that” moments that shed new light on our current problem.
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