How to develop a marketing program for agents

Marketing is essential to your real estate business and how you differentiate from other agents. To succeed, you have to make a difference now with your buyers and sellers.

The first step is to create a marketing program. When I do listing presentations, I always present a marketing program or plan.

How are we going to market this house? It’s not about marketing “me.” I gain from that, but it’s about marketing my product, the listing.

Real estate agents are skilled at farming and marketing themselves. But now that you have that listing, how are you going to market it? You have a product to sell. And that product is a house.

It’s similar to a shoe store. The ads for the shoe store are not about the sales guy behind the counter or the helper in the aisle. The ads are about the shoes. You might have the store logo on the ad and maybe a picture of a sales person, but people return to the store for the experience.

If you are working in the luxury market, and your million dollar days on the market are over 90, you have to get creative. You have to promote your listing — and keep that listing top-of-mind.

My marketing program consists of:

Sales

I am selling the house, and I am also selling me as the agent.

For the most part, we all put the house for sale on the MLS. We all syndicate on Truila, Zillow, realtor.com, Homes.com and so on. Using that as a sales technique in your listing presentation is great, but that’s not all you should do.

I’m not talking about just putting your sign in the yard, placing the home on the MLS and hoping someone else will bring the buyer.

I have to define my product. There are always features to highlight such as three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a nine-car garage and more, but I’m talking about what makes that home worth $1 million? What value does it have?

Maybe my buyer just came from Italy, and my home has Italian tile. Or they just came from Europe and the home is ultra-modern. You need to explain to the buyer (who, by the way, already knows what they want) what makes the home worth that much money.

Advertising

I use social media as well as magazines. I buy a booth in places like the home and garden show, and I buy ads. But you must have a budget; mine is 10 to 16 percent of my 3 percent listing commission.

For instance, on a $1 million listing my marketing budget is $3,000 to $4,800. You need to know where your marketing dollars go and how those efforts are producing. If you are not getting the results that you want, you need to adjust.

Publicity

Use events, open houses, social media and TV or YouTube to your advantage.

Direct sales

You need to be calling the agents in your area and surrounding areas to let them know you have that listing. “Hey, Mr. Agent. I have a $1.5 million listing coming up. I know that you have buyers in that price range. I really want you to see this. Maybe you can come down to our brokers open house and have some wine and cheese.”

You can learn more about marketing your listing by following my video blogs here.

Melinda Goodwin is Luxury Home Division Director with Engel & Volkers St. George, Utah. Follow her on Twitter or Facebook.

Email Melinda Goodwin.