Realty Business Coach

How to Cost Effectively Generate Leads

This is step 3 of a five-part series on how new agents can successfully break into the real estate market.

Yesterday, I discussed why agents should focus on creating education-based marketing materials that address prospects’ key problems and concerns rather than focusing on “getting their name out there.” In today’s article, I’ll talk about the best ways to generate leads using those education-based marketing materials - but first, let me again stress why education-based marketing is so important.

Marketing in the Attention Economy

Irrelevant advertising no longer works. Sure, back in the ’50s when there were only a handful of magazines, TV and radio channels, it was fairly easy to reach a broad audience and tell them virtually anything you wanted them to know. If you repeated your message enough or had a cute jingle accompanying your commercial, prospects would remember it and, hopefully, they’d buy because of it. Read more…

How to Create Education-Based Marketing Materials That Demonstrate Your Credibility

This is step 2 of a five-part series on how new agents can successfully break into the real estate market.

General common sense dictates that your marketing materials should tell prospects who you are, what you do and what you’ve accomplished. If you pick up any ad, mailer, or other promotional material, chances are you’ll read about the agent’s accomplishments, sales background and history, or awards they’ve won. Yet this is exactly the opposite of what works in advertising.

The problem with this approach is that it focuses on boosting the agent’s ego rather than addressing their prospects’ problems, fears and concerns. Agents love to see their name and picture on billboards around town, or create a glossy, full-color brochure they can hand out, or design a website with lots of bells and whistles. Read more…

How To Build Trust and Credibility as a New Agent

This is step 1 of a five-part series on how new agents can successfully break into the real estate market.

Building credibility and expertise as a new agent is somewhat of a chicken or egg dilemma. You need clients to gain credibility and expertise, yet clients won’t hire you unless you already have that credibility and expertise. What is a new agent to do?

When your prospects analyze which agent to hire, they also weigh in risk - and hiring a brand new real estate agent who has only worked with one or two people is incredibly risky, especially in a down market. What if problems come up or you make a mistake that prevents them from buying the house they want? What if you don’t know about marketing techniques other agents are using? What if you fill out the forms wrong or any number of things that might possibly go wrong? Read more…

Reader Q&A: How New Agents Can Break Into Real Estate on a Shoestring Budget

Mike asks:
I am new to the business, and I have about $2500 to spend on getting my name out there. Where do you get the most bang for your buck in marketing?

Thanks for your question, Mike. It’s a question I get pretty regularly from new agents who are trying to break into real estate, so I wanted to take a few minutes to answer the question.

Unfortunately, while I wish I could give you the one trick that will bring a flood of clients and cash in the door, marketing just doesn’t work that way. There is no magic bullet when it comes to growing your business. I wish there was, but the reality is that you are entering a difficult market and need to overcome quite a few obstacles before your marketing will start to work. Read more…

Back to Blogging

Wow, I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted. I’ve been crazy busy between current clients and working on a few upcoming projects for this site. Here are a few details about two of them…

Over the last few months, I’ve gotten a number of requests for some type of step-by-step marketing plan guide for real estate agents. For those who’ve asked (and anyone else interested), I’ve been hard at work putting together a 40+ page guide which I’ll be launching (free of charge!) next week. I’ve spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on the draft and will be handing it over to my editor for one last proofing session this week, so look for it next week. Read more…

Debunking the Myth That There Is a “Recipe For Success”

I was catching up on my weekend reading when I came across this misguided article published at RISMedia that describes the way to succeed in business: find an industry guru and follow his/her formula for success. Read more…

Friday Links for 1/18/2007

It’s been a super busy week for me, so I’ve been really light on posting. I’ll pick the pace back up next week. In the meantime, here’s some weekend reading. Read more…

6 Ways to Make Your Website More Personal

In previous posts, I’ve talked about mistakes real estate agents make with their websites and how to make your site more useful to visitors. In this post, I’ll discuss how to make your site more personal.

People do business with those they know, like and trust. They want to know who you are - not just that you have local real estate knowledge and experience but that you’re an honest, trustworthy person who will help them complete one of the most confusing and stressful transactions of their lives. Here’s how you can connect with prospects through your site. Read more…

Friday Links for 1/11/08

I haven’t done much linking recently, as I’ve been so focused on content creation. To make up for it, I’ll be doing link roundups once a week or so from now on. Here’s the first link roundup of the year. Read more…

How To Make Your Site More Useful To Visitors

When your prospects come to your website, they already have specific goals in mind. It’s your job to anticipate what your prospects are looking for and make it as easy as possible for them to find what they need. For instance, those goals may be to: Read more…