Property Marketing - Why Do You Need to Understand It?

Let's start by saying, this topic is big and it is a very scary one. The money that is spent on marketing by commerce is simply astronomical.

Let's start by saying, this topic is big and it is a very scary one. The money that is spent on marketing by commerce is simply astronomical - that's the big part. The scary part is understanding where the data comes from in order for marketing to be effective by way of serving products and services to the targeted consumer.

As our world becomes smaller, thanks to technology, every online interaction you have is now part of this data set, perhaps the planets largest advertising and marketing platform is diguised as a place where friends can see what is happening in peoples daily lives - Facebook. The data, your viewing habits and every action you take on Facebook is used to identify what products or services may interest you - scary right?

I have heard people say 'I am not on Facebook so they know nothing about me' - Wrong. Probably the worlds most powerful and influential company basically owns the web, yep, Google. Google has become an intrinsic part of life, imagine a world without being able to google something? So, the entire web is designed to capture information about you for the purpose of marketing and business pays big bucks for this data, for the reason that it is accurate and allows them to target specific demographics for their product or service. And guess what? It works!

If we now look at the Real Estate Industry, I can see a big problem, the problem is not the consumers who entrust us, the problem is the industry itself, I know why though and we are going to talk about it now.

So we know marketing works (when planned and implemented correctly) yet I still hear Agents saying the same thing I have heard for years now, either 'Marketing does not work' or 'I don't ask my owners to pay for marketing' - They say this and appear to be proud of it? What on earth is going on? I can tell you, it's not their fault. Our industry is broken a little bit, we are Real Estate Agents, not advertising and marketing executives, therefore, nobody has ever provided them with the understanding of the function of marketing and how their clients massively benefit.

I am a simple person in a lot of ways, I got trained around understanding marketing and continue to evolve that training, so, if I can get it then everyone can! The best way to explain marketing is to break it down into some simple compartments and then you too will get it, here are the 3 topics:

REACH

FREQUENCY

LAYERING

I actually believe the words are self explanatory, but, to provide some detail around them, lets briefly talk about them:

Reach is the audience size capable of being targetted ie realestate.com.au may be able to reach 10,000 people whom are potentially interested in that property or a local area letter drop could reach 8,000 local residents.

Frequency is best decribed as the number of times the consumer is exposed to the message ie They see the property on realestate.com.au and then receive a letter in the mail, they have been exposed twice.

Layering is the different marketing mediums available ie realestate.com.au is an online marketing platform, the letter in the mail is print marketing directly delivered to the consumers letterbox.

Research is evident that when a consumer is exposed to a message multiple times, whether it be online, print, or a physical sign they are more likely to engage in an action such as doing further research (maybe contacting the agent about the property), inspection (physically attending an open for inspection, enabling an agent to qualify and identify a buying opportunity) and a resulting sale will occur when value for money is evident. Imagine if you had 5 of these consumers? 5 opportunities to sell would be very exciting.

Our current market is still providing challenges to locate buyers in some areas, marketing has never been as critical. I truly hope with this little bit of understanding about how it works, there will be more discussions within our industry about how we can help and assist our clients get success faster and on better terms.

Marketing should now be one of the most discussed aspects of selling or leasing a home with the client, it's importance is unmeasurable and it's power has never been easier to harness.