Oct
31
Real estate agents who ignore research are quite dangerous. They are about as dangerous as real estate agents who neglect business plan, who neglect marketing strategy.
Drunkards Leaning on a Lamppost
Sometimes this ignorance is born, well, from ignorance. They don’t realize that there are methods they can use to see which size postcard pulls in more responses, which email subject line rocket-launches open rates.
Some ignore research because they are afraid of it. It’s something new to them and so they ignore it. They excuse themselves from their responsibility by saying, “I’m not exactly sure how I’d go about finding out how home buyers think.”
What they don’t realize is how easy it is: grab a piece of paper, a pencil and the phone. Dial. “Hello, what are you looking for in a real estate agent?” That’s the easiest way to go about it.
Others ignore it because of “research pitfalls,” like Liars: If you interview someone, they won’t always tell you the truth. [Of course, there are ways around this: one enterprising St. Louis pub used a private room and served patrons a free beer if they answered a questionnaire.]
Then there are those who abuse research. They use research as a drunkard uses a lamppost–not for illumination but for support. They use research to prove that they are right.
10 Miracles of Real Estate Research
On the whole, however, research can be of incalculable help in producing more effective advertising.
Here are the top 10 miracles real estate research can perform for you:
1. Research can help you decided the perfect positioning statement for you.
2. Research can help you define your target audience. Seniors or Gen Xers. FSBO or foreclosure. Education. Lifestyle. Habits.
3. Research can help you determine what’s the most important point in a purchase for a home buyer or what sellers want to hear from you during a listing presentation.
4. Research can warn you when buyers and sellers needs change, when trends in buying or selling occur, when a competitor may be taking market share. It can help you find these things out before it’s too late.
5. Research can help you keep track of a competitor, whether he’s cutting his commission to get listings or simply warming up to every home builder in the area–a thought that hadn’t occurred to you.
6. Research can determine the most persuasive promise. Samuel Johnson said, “Promise, large promise is the soul of an advertisement.”
When he auctioned off the contents of the Anchor Brewery Johnson made the following promise: “We are not here to sell boilers and vats, but the potential of growing rich beyond the dreams of avarice.”
Advertising that does not promise a benefit to the reader does not sell, yet the majority of ads out there contain no promise whatsoever. [That is the most important sentence in this post. Read it again.]
7. Research can tell you which headline will work the best. Dig this: Write two ads, with two different promises in the headlines. Insert a call to action. Run the test so the ads rotate. And bingo. You have a winner. This technique is called “split run” and was invented by Richard Stanton. Its merit is that it tests promises in the context of a real advertisement versus an interview.
8. Research can tell you not only are you sending the right message, but any message at all. Remember E. B. White’s warning, “When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of you having said it are only fair.”
9. Research can measure the wear out of your advertisement. For five years the theme of Shell’s commercials were mileage, and tracking studies recorded increasingly favorable attitudes to this promise. When attitudes stopped improving, and only then, the ads were changed to consumer testimonial, and the upward trend resumed.
And finally.
10. Research can settle arguments. If your broker is dead set against trying out new technology or an unconventional marketing strategy, tell him this: “Let’s just test it for 30 days. If it works, we keep it. If it doesn’t, we’ll ditch it.” If 30 days is too long, offer 21 days. And so on. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
For an in-depth study of research I recommend Charles Young’s, The Advertising Research Handbook, Ideas in Flight.
Skim the chapters and skip the case studies and you’ll be done in an afternoon, yet armed and dangerous. Dangerous in a good way this time.
Oct
30
Greg Swann at Bloodhound Blog and his weekly blog post writing competition inspired some very good writing.
And we happened to be one of this week’s winners! Thank you for your support.
This week’s three winners were as follows:
- Geno Petro wins the Odysseus Medal for his post Memoirs Of A Big Fat Liar.
- Krista Baker takes home the Black Pearl Award for writing Negotiating Commissions with Buyers.
- Gary Elwood grabs the People’s Choice award for: The Curious Secret to Getting People to Believe You.
Head on over and read this week’s winners if you haven’t yet.
Again, thank you for your support. This blog would not be successful without you.
Oct
29
Why So Many Agents Fall Down Before the God of Commission Cutting
Filed Under Real Estate Negotiation, Real Estate Sales Tips | 2 Comments
Do you know the value you bring to a real estate transaction? Could you easily justify your 6% commission to a skeptical buyer?
Often, real estate agents don’t know the value they bring to a transaction. They underestimate their worth. They dread the “C” word. They worry someone will figure them out.
So, when commission is mentioned, they throw themselves at a buyer’s feet and say, “How much?”
Over dramatized, I agree, but close to the truth. Especially in this wonderful mortgage meltdown we seem to be having.
Knowing the value of what you bring to the table is essential if you want to overcome any objection to a 6% commission.
With that in mind here are five simple reasons to justify your commission:
1. Without a professional, sellers may not sell as quickly. This is critical if they have a deadline or contingency clause on another house.
2. You are an objective, seasoned negotiator. You bring an emotional, clear-headed stability to the table. You are able to see the whole picture and you might pick up on advantages amateur negotiators would miss.
3. You know competent home inspectors, architects, contractors. You’ve been dealing with these people for years and know their work well.
4. You will list their home on the MLS–a privilege granted only to real estate professionals. And the MLS means nationwide exposure.
5. You will advertise and promote a seller’s home on the internet in newspapers, magazine ads, brochures, the MLS and on your own web site. To do this themselves would be costly.
Listen, the point is to distinguish yourself as an expert in the art of buying and selling a home. Educate yourself. Designate yourself.
Lawyers command enormous fees for a reason: they are experts. Surgeons are the same way. It’s not enough to say that you passed your state exam.
You have to define some skill you bring to the table that any hack on the street couldn’t bring. And once you define this for yourself, learn how to articulate it with pose and clarity.
Finally, have the courage to walk away from any deal, especially if someone insists you cut your commission. This attitude alone will make you a powerhouse, profit-making real estate professional.
Then, believe in yourself. Wholeheartedly.
Oct
28
I could really use your help. I can’t give you much in return immediately, but…
Just came across this: one of last week’s blog posts “The Curious Secret to Getting People to Believe You” was nominated as last week’s best real estate post by Bloodhound Blog [which is considered one of the top 25 most influential blogs in real estate]!
The final winner is driven by votes, so if you haven’t voted, vote now. You won’t want to drag your feet on this because voting ends on October 29, Monday, at 11 AM CST.
All you have to do to vote is enter your name and email address, choose “The Curious Secret to Getting People to Believe You” and press “Submit.”
That’s it. Takes less than 14 seconds. [Seriously, I timed it.]
The only incentive I could offer you for voting is somewhat of a stretch: vote and you could be part of a growing community of networked real estate agents. [Watch me as I try to connect the dots.] See, by participating via comments on our blog, you open yourself up to contacts across the nation who could send you business. And the larger our audience, the greater your exposure to that audience and the higher your chance of getting some kind of referral.
If our post wins, that’s some pretty significant exposure for all of us. See how that works? [Not an airtight kickback, but the best I could do at the moment.]
In all honesty, vote for the best blog post. There are some killer articles we’re up against. And don’t vote for me if you don’t think I had the best post.
However, if you did think that my post was the best in last weeks blogs, please vote for it.
And if you do indeed vote for my post, trust me when I say that I’ll be very honored.
This blog is not successful without you.
Gary Elwood
Oct
26
The Curious Secret to Getting People to Believe You
Filed Under Persuasion, Real Estate Sales Tips | 11 Comments
Ever wonder how you could get more people to believe you?
It’s easy, actually. And quite odd the way it works.
What’s the secret? Never tell a man more than he’ll believe.
Sounds like a moron statement, right?
Let me explain why it’s not.
The Law of Diminishing Credibility
There’s a law of diminishing returns directly tied to the law of diminishing credibility.
Even if you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that a home will triple in price in the next 5 years, if you have any concern that the buyer might find what you say hard to believe, it’s best to leave that information out.
See, the moment your claim passes the point of believability, credibility drops off like a rock.
In the 60’s some brilliant ad men took advantage of this.
Selling the Ugliest Car in the World
Remember the old Volkswagen sedan with the rag top that hadn’t changed in 20 years, the round top one?
One of the ugliest cars ever made.
In addition, it didn’t have any extra features that any ad man could talk about. Only later years did it have a gas gauge.
You could get so many miles on a tank of gas that you simply drove it until you ran out of gas and then switched to a small reserve tank that held more than enough fuel to get you to the closest gas station.
When the Doyle, Dane + Bernbach agency was given this account, they must have groaned.
What could you say about the car?
It only had two features: it was cheap to run and it was reliable. But everyone already knew that.
What more could they say about it?
Then they hit on a brilliant flash of inspiration: they decided to tell the truth.
I can imagine every ad man in America coming off their chairs and saying, “You are going to do what?”
Doyle, Dane + Bernbach ran a whole series of ads that said, “This car is ugly. It looks like a bug. A beetle.”
“This car is slow. You’ll be lucky if you ever get a ticket.”
The results of the campaign?
Phenomenal. People loved the campaign and sales shot up.
The truth. Simple, pristine truth is an astounding force. And these ad men had touched on a very important key of persuasion: if you point out the disadvantages, it makes everything else you say more believable.
How This Works in Real Estate
In real estate this might mean being frank with others about a house with some real issues, like its small, only has two bedrooms or one bathroom. The roof hasn’t been shingled in 25 years. It’s so old there isn’t central air and heating.
But once you have the disadvantages out of the way, then you can share the advantages.
“Quaint cottage with a historical background. Nice for one, maybe one-and-a-half, with ambition and muscle and a tad bit of cash.”
Isn’t that curious how that works?
By positioning the disadvantages first, you view the advantages in a whole different light. And it is a whole lot easier to swallow.
Besides, when we see an ad for a home that says “great home, lots of potential” don’t we immediately think, “Money pit.”
This rule of persuasion says this: never tell a person more than you think they’ll believe.
In fact, tell them the truth, share with them the disadvantages first, then move onto the advantages and you’ll have a captive audience.
Oct
24
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?Of course, as a real estate agent, you don’t need to fear Proctor & Gamble. You aren’t competing with them.
However, it is a good practice to every once in awhile look in a completely different industry and study successful companies, to see how they do things, why they have been successful for so long.
Proctor & Gamble is a great example. Especially when it comes to marketing and advertising consumer goods. Knowing a handful of people who have worked there, I’m able to offer you this advice.
Discipline: Create and Work the Plan
First, P&G is disciplined. Their guiding philosophy is to plan thoroughly, minimize risk and stick to proven principles.
Back in August I wrote about business and real estate marketing plans. I encouraged you to take the time to create both plans if you already haven’t. This helps you in the long run, allowing you to make more informed decisions faster.
And once that plan is finished, work and never deviate from it. Remain disciplined.
Prognosticate
Second, they use market research to identify consumer needs. They are forever trying to see what lies around the corner. They are forever studying the consumer and trying to identify new trends in tastes, needs, environment and living habits.
They are trying to predict the future.
More importantly, they have a way of creating products which are superior to their competitors. And with blind in-home tests, they make sure the superiority is apparent to the consumer.
The key to their successful marketing superior product performance…if the consumer does not perceive any real benefits in the brand, then no amount of ingenious advertising and selling can save it.
Your takeaway: make sure you communicate to your market why you are superior to every other real estate agent in the market. Avoid egotistical claims. Make it a real benefit for the home buyer or seller.
Present the Promise Clearly
Proctor & Gamble believes that the first duty of advertising is to communicate effectively, not to be original or entertaining.
Proctor & Gambles commercials deliver the promise verbally, and reinforce it. And in every commercial they typically end with a repetition of the promise. And in their commercials they tend to use a lot of words, sometimes more than a hundred in a 30-second commercial.
Communicating effectively goes back to delivering a promise to the home buyer or seller. If you are a new agent, it may take you some time to find out what you are really good at and what you can give the market that your competitors can’t.It will be hard work. But take the time. It will pay dividends because 90% your competitors won’t take the time. And they can drop out as you take their business.
In addition, they measure communication at three stages: before the copy is written, after the advertisements are run and in test markets.
You should do the same: knock on doors, call people, attend PTA meetings or volunteer for a local organization. Anything to get the inside scoop on a particular street, neighborhood or county.
Then sit down and knock out your ads.
Once you’ve launched the ads, measure their success. Keep a log of all of this information. For the next ad launch, tweak the copy or test a different photograph or market based on your results. They idea is to optimize the real winners.
And don’t forget A/B split tests. Their is even A/B split testing software available.
The Sacred “B” Word
Very often Proctor & Gamble will show the users of their products deriving some emotional benefit. That’s benefit with a capital B.
In your copy you should do the same. Make sure you are communicating clearly the benefit a home buyer or seller should get when they use you.
Try to fashion your headlines to contain one or more of these four key points:
- The most important is it must be written with the self-interest of your reader in mind
- Try to make the headline appear to be something news-worthy.
- Provide some timely news
- Make it appear that you have a quick and easy solution to their problem
- Avoid headlines that only provoke curiosity…combine curiosity
- with self-interest, news and a quick and easy solution and you’re
virtually guaranteed a winner
Using these tips will allow you to communicate a benefit to your reader.
Wall Street Journal Had It Right, Too
Once P&G have evolved a campaign that works, they keep running it for a long time, in many cases for ten years or more. But they continue to test new executions of the ongoing strategy.
Resist the temptation to change a winner because YOU are getting bored with it. You the results from your tests to determine when a winner has finally become a loser.
Wall Street Journal ran this ad for over 27 years.
Here’s how it starts:
Dear Reader:
On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both – as young college graduates are – were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.
Recently, these two men returned to college for their 25th reunion.
As long as it was working, they wouldn’t dream of pulling it. And you should keep the same discipline when it comes to your winners.
What to Do With Your Budget
Once Proctor & Gamble established the advertising budget, they continually test higher levels of expenditure.
This means that you increase your expense on an ad [whether you increase frequency, exposure or length] to see if you can optimize the results. You might find that paying an additional $100 a month brings in an additional 50 leads.
Flight Ads Only If It Works for You
Finally, almost all P&G brands are advertised through the year.
They have found that this works better than “flighting”–running an ad for six weeks on, six weeks off. It also provides considerable cost savings from bulk buys.
My advice for you: test to see if this works for you. We’ve tested it ourselves and we actually found the opposite to be true, that flighting allows the ad to refresh and pull better next time around.
One thing worth repeating: test everything. If you do that, you’ll learn, grow, dominate and succeed.
Oct
23
Real Estate Gets the Shaft
Filed Under real estate | 1 Comment
I found this article on Inman News Blog very interesting:
The housing market drops, the number of consumer complaints against real estate professionals rises.
It seems like a logical premise: when people are making money on housing then all is well, but when home prices decline and people lose equity — or worse, lose their homes — then there’s a problem. Lots of problems, actually.
Read Falling markets, rising complaints.
Does it seem fair to you? Do you think consumers give agents and real estate industry the shaft when times are tough?
I believe this is really just part of a nation of people who refuse to take responsibility. Every one wants to point the finger. Everyone wants a bail out. Our legal system makes it to easy to fall into such a trap.
Do you have a horror story like this to share?
Oct
22
Do You Understand the Importance of Outbound Links?
Filed Under Real Estate Prospecting Ideas, SEO | Leave a Comment
[Editor's note: In the scheme of our flagship content, anytime we talk about SEO, blogging or social media we are talking about marketing and prospecting.]
In terms of SEO you may know there is a lot of emphasis placed on the importance of inbound links.
But do you understand the importance of outbound links from your website or blog to other sites?
SEO
One of the common pieces of advice that SEO types give is that relevant outbound links to quality sites can actually help your own performance in the search engines.
I’m no SEO expert but all I can really say on this is that some SEOs that I know and respect argue good cases for this. That is something that I’ve always done with this blog. I don’t know how much of an impact that it has had on this site…but it does tend to do well in search engines.
My suspicion is that search engines have hundreds of factors that they rank a site by and that outbound links is probably one of them - although not one of the ones that they give most weight to (read: it’s not as important as your title tags or the inbound links pointing at your blog).
The only guidelines that I’d recommend in outbound links from a purely SEO perspective (and there are others to consider below) are:
1. Not too many links (apparently too many outbound links can be frowned upon by SE’s)
2. Keep them relevant (link to other sites/pages that are on a similar topic to you)
3. Use appropriate keywords as anchor text (the words you use as the link can help both you and the site you’re linking to with SEs)
4. High ranking sites (some SEOs argue that if you link to highly ranking sites for the keywords that you’re after that it will have more impact).
Of course these tips are purely speaking from an SEO perspective.
My own approach with SEO is to know the principles but not let them dominate my blogging. As a result, the only two principles from these four that I do regularly are 2 and 3 because I can do them without impacting the ultimate goals for my blog.
The SEO benefits of outbound links are something I believe in but they are also something I don’t get to worked up about.
Reader Satisfaction
The impact that links have upon readers is more important to me than SEO.
I link to a lot of other sites. The main reason that I link out so much is purely that I want to give my readership as much quality information on my topic as I can.
If I see something that someone’s written on my topic that says something useful then the chances are that I’ll link to it.
Some argue that linking out to other sites isn’t worth doing because you drive people away from your blog. My theory is that if I send them to useful content often enough that they’ll keep coming back for more. And don’t forget about the Bikini Concept.
And also, keep in mind also that too many links can actually decrease reader satisfaction…if they are not relevant or useful links.
Other Reasons to Link
There are other reasons that it can be useful to link out from your blog including these two:
- Building relationships with other bloggers. Linking out and sending traffic to other sites is one way to get on the radar of their owner
- Perceived expertise. Showing your readers that you have your finger on the pulse of a niche by showing what other sites are doing can increase their perception of you as someone who knows what they’re talking about.
Let me here from you: do you have any other reasons why you’d link out from your blog?
If you haven’t already, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by feed or email.
Oct
19
Why We Procrastinate
Whether it has to do with prospecting, spending money or simply introducing your self to someone at a party, the reasons why you procrastinate boil down to the few:
- Fear of failing
- Feeling overwhelmed with a situation.
- Given up hope that a situation can be changed or affected.
- Too “Busy” to get the really important things done.
- Can’t make a decision.
- Overworked, tired.
- Want to avoid work you don’t like.
Each of these can be reduced down to the pleasure + pain principle: we do things to gain pleasure and to avoid pain.
Method to Overcome Procrastination
1. Get clear about what you want in life. Take a half-day to write down all your goals in some or all of these categories: career, education, relationships, financial, physical, mindset, creative, spiritual, public service, travel, leisure, and other. Once you have your list, then whittle it down to your top 10, then down to your top 5, and then your top 3. Do this by asking yourself, “Can I live without this?” Let your less important goals lie dormant on a “maybe” list that you can check on again in a few month.
2. Delete or delegate from your To-Do List those things that don’t relate to your top 3-5 goals.
3. Tie tasks you don’t like to your goals. It helps to mentally (and in writing) tie these tasks to one of your main goals or values. For example, “Picking up the phone and calling prospects allow me to have have business constantly churning in the pipeline, which is something I highly value. By having prospects constantly in the pipeline I will be better able to work on my goals and have less anxiety.” By linking the task to the pleasure of being able to think clearly, you now have a reason that will motivate me to take action.
4. Plan your day every morning. This is not a big task. It should only take about 10-15 minutes of quiet time. Refer back to your master list. Do the most difficult and most important things first and work your way down to the easier stuff in the afternoon. You’ll feel really good if you do this. Focus on that to motivate you to wait to check email and such until after you’ve finished your first big task.
5. Plan by weeks, not days. Start every Sunday and fill in your calendar with all the big things that you’d like to accomplish for the week. Sometimes procrastination happens simply because a task is not scheduled.
6. Cheat and nap. Don’t be so hard on yourself about the timing of a task. And take short breaks, always. If you do, then you won’t try to escape through procrastination so hard in the future. Just reschedule and get back on track later or tomorrow.
7. Just do it.
8. Break down big tasks into smaller assignments. The novelist Anne Lamont said as a little girl she remembered her brother becoming frantic over a huge project he had due in three days. The project was to document and briefly describe dozens of birds in his local neighborhood. To keep his son calm and on track, her father often said, “Son, just do it bird by bird.” Take a few moments to think about how to break down a larger task and schedule it into your calendar in pieces. This is good for when you are feeling overwhelmed.
9. Get help making decisions. I like to use the pro/con method. I also recommend getting help from a friend that you know is good with making decisions. Once you’ve made your decision then break it down into tasks and schedule into your calendar.
10. Believe in yourself. If you’ve lost hope, know that you can turn things around. Release the fear of failure. Failure is just a learning experience. Slow and steady wins the race. A little bit done every day adds up to a lot over a year. If you have to, just fake your belief until it becomes real. Remember, you can do it!
In a nutshell:
- Know your most important goals and values.
- Only do tasks that contribute to those goals and values.
- Mentally link tasks to the pleasurable outcomes you seek.
- Plan your day & week.
- Do, but don’t overdo. Rest when needed.
- Break down big tasks.
- Get help making decisions.
- Believe in yourself!
What do you do to overcome procrastination?
Oct
17
5 Real Estate Websites You Can’t Live Without
Filed Under Real Estate Marketing, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the real estate websites I spend a lot of time on [not the viral ones]…the websites that keep me informed, on the cutting edge, out there on the frontier of real estate marketing.
In particular I’ve been thinking about why I go back to these website so often. And because four out of the five websites are blogs, I started asking myself what makes blogs so enticing and valuable to me.
The answer, I believe, is that they own their space. They are clearly authorities in the topic–whether it’s technology or online advertising.
I think if you visited just these five websites throughout your day, you’d have all of the current and most important information that is being discussed out there.
What are the 5 industry-related websites that you learn the most from - the 5 that you couldn’t live without (or at least, couldn’t earn as much without)?
I’ll share my answer:
1. The Future of Real Estate Marketing
By reading FOREM I can be virtually assured that there will be no “big” conversations in the blogosphere or the tech world that I’m missing out on. That alone is worth its weight in gold. I really can’t remember how I survived without it, but I’m pretty sure I had to do a lot more skimming to find the signal.
When it comes to real estate blogging, there’s no better source for blogging-specific tips. On the other hand, I find enormous value from their guest bloggers who provide invaluable ideas and strategies for online advertising. Every article is in-depth and comprehensive, giving the full picture and walk-away points that are worth using and sharing.
I’ll let their Bio say it, since it says it best:
Bloodhound Blog is everything you wish were in Realtor magazine — but isn’t.
That’s pithy but inadequate, because there’s more here already than Realtor magazine — or The Specialist — would ever take on. We have three lenders to take us inside the mortgage industry. We have two investment experts to brings us hard-core, hands-on advice. We have some of the best writers in the RE.net — who produce some of the best reading in real estate writing, period, web logged or printed.
When I need help with a topic or a resource on foreclosure, the current market, housing rates, I go to the place where plenty of folks smarter than I will rush to the rescue. This place is Inman News blog. Brad Inman provides data on the industry that is 100X better than forums 100x its size, thanks to the quality of people and contributions - no small feat.
I know, I know, technically neither of these are in the real estate industy. However, the stories I find at these sites [which they are kind of the same, but not really, that's why they tied], particularly some that never make it past page 3 give me a view into what the influencers of real estate are enjoying and reading. It’s also the best way I’ve found to have good stories to share at dinner conversations when everyone gets tired of talking about the latest top blog list.
Now it’s your turn–which 5 sites would you be unable to live without? Feel free to leave live links to the URLs and don’t worry about needing to explain your choices if you don’t want to.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to the real estate marketing Blog by feed or email.