Reader Q&A - How To Market Your Services During Tough Times

A reader asks:

When the real estate market is down, no response to advertisement/promotion & target customers are reluctant to buy or invest now & would like to wait for some time even though the rates have been reduced & promotional offers are provided, how would a real estate marketer generate potential leads & attract customers for sales to sustain in such uncertain market?

It’s no secret our economy has taken a downturn. With Wall Street in crisis, the credit market tightening, Detroit on the verge of bankruptcy and millions of Americans scrimping to get by, it’s not surprising that home sales are down considerably.

Yes, many people are taking a “wait and see” approach to real estate rather than jumping in to buy or sell a home. Lots of people aren’t looking to buy or sell right now.

But - many people still are. In the last four months, two of my close friends just bought houses. And while the media is quick to report that home sales are down, they haven’t stopped, which means there’s still business out there!

So how do you attract those people who may be on the fence or looking to buy or sell?

Use your marketing to educate prospects.

As a real estate professional, you know far more about the state of the industry than the average person (I hope!). It’s up to you to educate prospects about their options because most people don’t know about all the incentives that are out there.

When the economy is booming, it’s easy to attract new clients. You barely need to promote your services because there’s just so much business out there, and people are enthusiastic about buying and selling.

But when the economy slumps, fear sets in. People are bombarded by negative media warning them of the dangers of an industry in crisis. They hear horror stories about homes going into foreclosure, tightening credit lines, and the subprime mortgage fiasco and it makes them nervous.

You can’t blame them - people don’t buy or sell a home because you need business. They do so because it makes sense for them to do so at that point in their lives.

But you can educate them on why this might not be the bad opportunity the media says it is.

Focus on giving rather than getting.

When most agents run ads, they focus on themselves and their accomplishments. I receive all sorts of agent promotions, and they’re almost always the same - a picture of the agent smiling, with perhaps a line about how they just sold a home in my area or how that agent is the No. 1 agent, and a brief “if you’re thinking about buying or selling, call me.”

Those types of promotions are mostly a waste of money, but they can drum up business during a real estate boom because so many prospects are ready to buy or sell. But in a downturn, those types of promotions just don’t work because they’re focused on the agent’s self-interest, which is “getting” new business regardless of my current life situation.

When you focus on “getting” business - that is, your needs are more important than your prospect’s needs - you sound needy. You don’t sound like a competent professional who has more clients than you can handle. Instead, you sound like you’re begging for business, which, in your prospect’s mind, means you probably aren’t very good at what you do.

Marketing that does work in a downturn focuses on “giving” prospects value. It involves putting yourself in your prospect’s mind and asking - what is this prospect most concerned about, and how can I educate him or her about how to solve that problem?

Then, you write up a special report or record yourself giving a talk about a particular problem, and what your prospect needs to know or to do in order to take steps toward solving that problem.

Here are a few examples of special reports you could create:

• Top 10 Reasons Why This Is a Great Time To Buy a Home, Despite What the Media Tells You
• 25 Ways to Get Financing For Your New Home In a Tightened Credit Market
• 17 Issues You Need To Be Aware Of When Buying Foreclosed Properties
• Top 15 Mistakes Made By Home Sellers in a Down Economy - and How To Avoid Them

Make your report specific to one problem your prospect has. Then give him the steps required to understand the situation, options he has, and the best way to solve his problem.

Promote your special reports, not you.

Now, when you run ads or do mailings, make your special report the focus of the offer, rather than a picture of a home or you smiling. Get a graphic designer to create a nice cover for the report, and put a picture of the cover on all your promotions. Include the headline in big letters, and make all the text in the promotion focus on why your prospects need to know the information in this guide - all of its benefits and points of interest - and how they can get a copy.

If you’ve successfully targeted your market and have written the guide based on your prospects’ top concerns, you’re bound to get a number of people requesting your guide.

Keep track of all the people who request your guide and start building a database of leads you can continue to market to (through more educational materials). These people have self-selected themselves as good candidates for your services because they’ve shown an interest in your free report. Sure, some won’t turn into qualified leads, but many will - and even if they aren’t quite in the market yet for a new home, that doesn’t mean they won’t be in a few months.

Education-based marketing works in every market - from booming economies to downturns. Listen to what your prospects and clients tell you are their biggest worries - they’ll tell you how to market to them if you pay attention.