When It Comes to Marketing, the Mix Is as Important as the Message

Let’s take a glimpse back at realtor marketing in the 1960’s: mornings began with a meeting where realtors discussed and previewed new listings. Afternoons included real estate lead generation activities such as door-to-door canvassing and conversations with walk-in customers. Remember, two-car families were rare, and some homes didn’t have phones.  Advertising was straightforward. Realtors handwrote a few ads and gave them to a secretary who placed them in the local paper on a rotational basis.

Fast forward to 2019: you face new challenges when marketing your brokerage. We live in a digital world where people order food, buy airplane tickets, and watch movies online. We’re connected to at least one device all day, every day. It’s not surprising that more than 90% of prospective buyers use online research throughout their home-buying process, according to a National Association of Realtors’ survey.

Marketing your realty today includes more than advertising or a catchy slogan. Marketing encompasses all the activities you participate in to generate awareness and encourage engagement with your team. From business cards to billboards, yard signs to presence at community events, these are all part of an effective marketing mix to keep you top of mind and encourage clients to think of you first when they need a real estate professional. Balancing traditional marketing tactics, like advertising, direct mail with things such as open houses and digital advertising creates an effective mix of activity that puts you in more places, gives you more connection opportunities and creates a greater chance you will be seen by your target audience.

Traditional Marketing Establishes Your Brand

The strengths of traditional marketing efforts like direct mail, print ads, and billboards are noteworthy:

• You can reach a broad local audience in a region, city, or neighborhood.
  
  
• Delivering a consistent message across billboards, print advertising, and signage gives clients several opportunities to see your brand and get a sense of what you’re about. Clients can save hard copy marketing materials like brochures and direct mailers as reference tools. People connect emotionally with tangible items.
  
  
• Clients are familiar with traditional marketing and easily understand the messages you deliver with this type of media.

Importantly, traditional marketing activities boost awareness of your company, helping your brand become known and recognized. People seeing or hearing your message may not need a real estate agent — yet – but your realty name will be familiar when they do need one.

You can also use traditional marketing efforts to encourage engagement with your digital programs. Including your website and social media links give potential clients more information as they shift from a passive observer to an active seeker of your support.

Digital Marketing Generates Real Estate Leads and Brokerage Awareness that Helps Connect

Digital marketing adds power to your traditional marketing activities; however, it does not replace them. It supplements them. Digital marketing tactics like blog articles and online ads allow you to reach clients when and where they are online and ensure your messages meet their needs.

Here’s what we mean:

• You can deliver messages cost-effectively through multiple channels. Videos, email blasts, and targeted ads give potential clients a variety of ways to learn about your company. Since digital marketing goes where clients are, there is a greater chance you can reach who you want, when you want.
  
  
• If you have news about real estate in your market or receive the same question repeatedly from clients, you can adjust your digital activities in real time. You can add digital content or revise existing information quickly and inexpensively.
  
  
• Response to digital marketing can easily be tracked with metrics. Unlike traditional marketing, you don’t have to wait for data to accumulate or guess about whether you reached your audience. You’ll know how many people visited your website, which pages they read, and whether they downloaded your whitepaper. With information about how well your messages connect with clients, you can adjust how you engage with them.

Digital information can be easily shared and redirected from one potential client to another, creating ‘brand ambassadors’ who help you with additional real estate lead generation.

Non-Advertising Promotion

Then there are the activities outside of advertising that are just as important in promoting your business and connecting you with clients, such as lead gen programs, open houses, yard signs, participation in community events and hosting educational seminars. These are all tactics you need as part of your marketing mix to stay in front of consumers through a variety of channels and also provide the necessary ways to connect them with your services when they are ready to buy or sell.

At Weichert, we teach the importance of engaging in a variety of activities to build brand in your local market. Our coaching team provides a roadmap and is available to guide you every step of the way. Through Weichert tools, systems and approved vendors, you’ll have a foundation on which you can build a solid marketing plan that works for your business.

To learn more about affiliating with Weichert and building your brokerage, call us today at 877-567-3350 or contact our team today.

Original content posted on https://www.weichertfranchise.com/blog/when-it-comes-to-marketing-the-mix-is-as-important-as-the-message/