Marketing for Realtors is more than just placing an ad or mailing out postcards. There are countless aspects you need to be aware of and improve on but one of the biggest is tracking marketing campaigns that you've started. If you want to be a top producing Realtor, you need to track the statistics of your marketing campaigns. Don't worry, it's 2nd grade math!
Let's start off with postcard mailings as an example since this is common marketing for Realtors. Most Realtors will pick a neighborhood, mail out their postcards for 3 months and count the number of active clients or closings they receive from their mailing. Is that enough? Not even close.
The first thing you need to do is prepare to mail your postcards much longer than 3 months. Most prospects need to see your message at least 7 times before they become familiar enough with you to respond. Sure, some prospects will respond in the first 1 or 2 months but the bulk of them will respond further down the road. Plan your marketing budget accordingly.
The next thing is to make sure you have a "prospect funnel" in place; a process for these prospects to respond to your marketing. For example, most marketing for Realtors means making a prospect call your cell phone and trying to sell them right then and there. But that's like trying to convince the girl you just met in the gym to "tie the knot" with you tomorrow at 7pm.
I'd suggest taking it a little slower and having a "prospect funnel" in place to develop these relationships. You'll capture more prospects and turn more of them into active clients and closed deals.
Let me explain this type of marketing for Realtors like this…
One way to set up your "prospect funnel" is by having a website or blog ready for prospects so they can sign up for some kind of "Free Report" or "Free Video Tutorial on How to Save $7,000 When Selling." Get creative on something valuable you can offer them in exchange for their name and email. This way, you can now begin developing the relationship that'll lead to an active client and then a closed deal.
So after a prospect passes through the first part of the funnel, by responding to your postcard and signing up on your website, you now need to set up an "autoresponder" to send these prospects information and periodic updates.
An "autoresponder" is a software system (my 4 year old can use it!) that allows you to email these prospects automatically. You can write a sequence of emails and have them sent to your prospects on the days and times you choose.
In these emails, you can continue to give them valuable info, advice and tips but also direct them to the next step in the funnel; talking or meeting with you. For buyers, you could mention that they can email you or call for a free home tour. For sellers, you can let them know to email or call you for a free market analysis.
Now here's the thing with this type of marketing for Realtors that you need to understand……
Offering a free home tour or market analysis is nothing unique. Every Realtor in the world offers this. But the reason why you'll get a higher response rate is because you're offering these services after you've started building a relationship with them. Other Realtors are impatiently offering it before they meet the prospect; just like trying to convince someone to marry you before you meet them.
You have the advantage by building the relationship through this "prospect funnel". Capturing a client is all about the relationship. Without it, you're just another Realtor, in their eyes. Be patient; let them get to know you and you'll see much higher results.
Ok, so after a prospect has called you or emailed you about, let's say, a free home tour, you then start the next step of "selling" them on committing to working with you. This is your expertise as a Realtor, right?
When you get in front of someone, you know how to show them why you're the best. You know how to let your personality shine through. And it'll be so much easier to get this commitment from a prospect because you've already been building the relationship! You're not starting from scratch like every other Realtor.
The last step with this type of marketing for Realtors, after you have a commitment from a prospect, is to close a deal. Whether it's helping them buy a home or sell a home, that's the end goal and where your cash is made.
Where the tracking of your marketing campaigns comes into all of this is the conversion rates of each step in the "prospect funnel". You need to know the number of prospects that go from one step in the funnel to the next.
- You need to know how many postcards you mailed out and how many prospects responded by going to your website.
– You need to know how many of the website visitors signed up for your free offer.
- You need to track how many of the prospects who signed up, requested a home tour or market analysis.
- You need to count how many of the prospects who requested a home tour or marketing analysis turned into closed deals.
The funnel I just described is only one type of "prospect funnel" you can use. You can set up and design your funnel however you'd like. The key is to make each step a small step and not a leap for the prospect. Make the steps too big and scary and you'll see your numbers drop. Make each step small and comfortable and your numbers will shoot through the roof.
Marketing for Realtors usually boils down to only knowing how many deals you closed from a particular campaign, and sometimes you don't even know which marketing campaign they came from. If you track your marketing this way, you're missing out on a ton of information that could possibly triple your closings.
If you know the conversion rates from one step of your "prospect funnel" to the next, you can see which steps need adjusting so your end goal is reached; more closed deals and more cash in your pocket.
As an example, if you have more website visitors signing up for your free offer, that'll mean more home tours and more closed deals, right? Each step in the funnel affects the following steps.
See how this style of marketing for Realtors works? See how critical it is to track your marketing campaigns like this? It's the difference between running your real estate business blindly and running it like a top producer.
As for the math involved, it's all simple division. For each step in the "prospect funnel", you simply divide the number of prospects from the previous step by the number of prospects who went on to the next step.
For example, if you have 100 visitors who went to you website and you had 5 visitors who took the next step of signing up for your free offer, that's a 5% "conversion rate". That's the most difficult math you'll have to do! Not too bad, right?
Once you've been tracking your marketing for a little while, you'll want to start a little competition with yourself and always try to beat your current numbers. If you're getting a 5% conversion rate at one step, strive to improve it to 7%. You might change some of the sales copy you're using or maybe use a different image. If you can keep increasing your conversion rates, you'll keep increasing your income. It's that simple.
Play around and test, test, test! Tracking your marketing campaigns is not an option if you want to be one of the top producing Realtors in the business!
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