If You're a Marketer -- Don't Do This
 | It bugs me when I see marketers throwing their money away. Contrary to misguided popular belief, marketing is
not about branding...it's not about name recognition...it's not about promotion. Marketing is about one thing: Selling more, faster. That's it. Let me show you an example of a marketing campaign that won't sell more, faster. Follow me here... What is most peoples most valuable asset? Their home, right? Ok, now suppose your community or country was in the midst of a financial crisis caused by a depression in the housing market, and peoples homes were languishing unable to be easily sold...and when they were finally purchased it was for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars less than the home would have sold for just a year ago. Lastly let's also suppose that everyone is no more than one degree of separation away from knowing a real estate agent themselves— a cousin, neighbor, sister-in-law, co-workers husband etc. Now imagine you live in Washington D.C. and for one reason or another you've got to move, which means selling your home. You're terrified because if you don't sell your house relatively quickly you're going to go broke paying TWO mortgages, your current home and the one you've put a deposit on. Plus, there are other comparable homes also up for sale in your neighborhood, who you must compete with. Then out of the blue in your mail comes the direct mail piece you see to the left. Oh, how nice, a lovely Redskins football schedule. And look it was sent to you by these nice, smiling real estate agents...(who look like they work together so each can have a part-time job. You almost get the sense that one takes clients to see houses, while the other watches the kids....then they switch.) Does this "gift" inspire you to want to work with them? Or does it reinforce the fact that they are either not serious about selling real estate or are out of touch with their prospects angst? To be fair, they might argue "everyone" in real estate does marketing like this, and from what I've seen they're unfortunately right. The problem is that since everyone knows a real estate agent, wouldn't you at least opt for an agent you know over an agent you don't know, if you couldn't tell their skill sets apart? A better approach would have been to reflect the markets sentiments in your marketing...to give prospects the sense that you understand the concerns swirling around in their heads. Frankly, almost anything would be better than a football schedule. |
Thanks for the tips.
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Great article honestly, most blogs I read about are more into gossip and what the press has covered. I personally like to see useful information that is worth reading once in a while. Give somebody a reason to come back.
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