agents of change: real estate marketing and branding

As I mentioned at a recent sales meeting, Trulia.com now offers the capability for agents to personally brand themselves. Many of the nation’s leading brokerages are feeding listings to Trulia. As you scour to the bottom of the listing page you notice an empty agent headshot and a place for your contact information… that’s right YOUR contact info.

Don’t discount the potential that Trulia has to offer. According to an newsletter released by Trulia, your listing is available to be viewed by over five million visitors each month. Trulia’s new feature, “Brand Your Listings!” gives you the opportunity to maximize on that exposure - plus did I mention that it’s free!

Go to Trulia.com, setup an account and attach your personal branding to all of your hard earned listings. With this new feature, you can add your personal head shot, contact information and take control of your listings. Inquiries are routed directly to you, stats about your listing are available for you to keep track of, and you also have the opportunity to promote your Open Houses on the site.

With over 70% of Trulia users wanting to buy or sell within the year, and of those users, 70% are not yet working with a Realtor… there is no bettet time to generate some fresh, FREE leads from one of the leading real estate search portals.

The real estate market has certainly seen better days. However, a lagging market represents a great opportunity for those agents willing to ride the waves. When things were booming, the real estate industry saw a large increase in the number of agents nationwide. Everyone saw dollar signs and ran to be a REALTOR. Now, we are seeing record numbers being forced to either leave the business or work a second job.

Agents who want to thrive and succeed in not only a down market but the eventual and impending rebound, must dedicate their time, energy and money towards developing their business and differentiating themselves from the rest of pack. The industry is constantly evolving with new technology, innovative strategies and fresh ideas. In order to come out on top when the market picks up, today’s agent cannot just go into hiberation and wait for the sun to come out tomorrow. When the market heats up again, it’s those agents who worked now that will reap the benefits of their labor.

You cannot remain idle and hope things will get better, you must be proactive! Agents must go back to basics and reinforce their overall strategies, engage their sphere/farm and actually seek out business. What is most daunting is the fact that many agents who have yet to see such a down market don’t actually recognize what the basics are. Invigorate your contacts… set up direct mail campaigns, use e-cards to send notes and news, know your inventory, get your name out! Scroll your palm pilot, Rolodex… whatever, choose a contact, pick up the phone, dial their number and start a conversation. Buyers and sellers are no longer going to magically appear at your door, you must seek them out, warm them up and ask for their business.

Remember… being proactive today will lead to an increase in productivity tomorrow.

Slowly but surely the predominant online classified portal, Craigslist.org, has become an important part of many agent’s marketing plans. According to the site, it is home to local classifieds for over 567 cities and more than 50 countries worldwide. The site produces over 40 million users per month and the number of people joining the Craigslist craze just keeps growing.

Realtors® can particularly benefit from Craigslist because they are able to reach such a broad and diverse audience with just a few clicks of the mouse. Listing homes for sale or even featuring ‘wanted’ ads for your buyers makes Craigslist a must-have resource for any Realtor® who wants to be competitive in today’s marketplace.

Another resource that compliments the many features of Craigslist while adding a more colorful and descriptive posting is vFlyer.com. vFlyer is an online source where people can create wide-ranging flyers selling everything from real estate to services. vFlyer is truly an answer to everyone’s prayers who wanted to jazz up their Craigslist listing. With vFlyer, you are able to post your listing in one of their many attractive templates, brand yourself with full contact information and add up to 15 photos for display instead of the ordinary four as supported by Craigslist.

What’s better is that vFlyer automatically distributes your published flyers to Zillow, Trulia, Google Base, Oodle, Backpage, Lycos, Vast, Hotpads, Olx, Geebo, Yahoo! and DotHome. If your Broker does not already feed to these sites, vFlyer is a must-have for your online marketing strategies.

If you choose to upgrade to the paid package through vFlyer, you can use premium templates that brand the most reputable brokerages in the industry - plus you enjoy added features like the capability of embedding video into your flyer… a bonus for Prudential Connecticut Realty agents who utilize the company’s Home Suite technology.

Powered with the prominence of Craigslist and the great features of vFlyer - Realtors® are able to distribute their listings to a broad range of web sites and in a customized, agent centric display.

Watch out Rachel Ray… Carla Rea, Realtor® in Westport recently launched a new marketing campaign targeting the food lovers in all of us. “What’s Cooking in Real Estate” is an exciting new series of videos that show Carla cooking Italian recipes in the kitchens of her listings for sale. Presently, you can see her making her delectable ‘Frittata di Zucchine’ at 11 Terhune Drive in Westport, offered at $1,400,000, and she prepares ‘Lentil Soup’ at 38 Sturges Commons in Westport, offered at $1,649,000.

Carla’s husband, Michael Rea, first came up with the vision of “What’s Cooking in Real Estate” over ten years ago, and today his dream has come to fruition with Carla’s video being featured on her website - CarlaRealty.com, YouTube, WellcomeMat, and she even has her own fan page setup on facebook.

“Real Estate marketing is continuously evolving and you always need to come up with inventive ideas to help market your listings for sale,” said Carla, “In a tough market like today and with so much inventory, you’ve got to always stay a step ahead to make sure your properties get noticed.”

Carla believes all great meals start with the right ingredients, call her today at 203 895-5788 and find out how you can put her recipe for success to work for you!

85% of brand decisions are made face-to-face between the sales agent and client.  So while having 98% brand recognition with a brokerage like Prudential is valuable and important, you will ultimately make or break the deal.

The VRIO strategy by Dr. Jay Barney of Ohio State University is a four-step process that works effectively to separate yourself from the pack.

• V - Define your VALUE. What makes you valuable to your clients? What do you have to offer that makes your service more valuable than your competitors? Example: You post your listings on today’s leading real estate portals like Zillow, Trulia, Google Base, etc. or you personally send out neighbor letters announcing that you have a new listing or potential buyers in the neighborhood.
• R - Define your RARITY. The characteristics that make you valuable to your client must also be rare. Carve yourself your own niche and go with it. Example: Use taglines, images and service guarantees to help the customer remember you.
• I - Be INIMITABLE. If you are going to be of value and a rarity, make sure that you are offering something that is rare enough that your competitors cannot easily copy. Example: If your stats reveal that you are able to close on your listings within 60 or 90 days of list, then you have something that is rare and difficult for another Realtor® to achieve.
• O - Leverage Your Differentiator throughout your ORGANIZATION.  If you say that you close your listings in 90 days or less, add that tagline in all of your marketing materials, brochures, emails etc.  Your audience will begin to associate you with that differentiator. Consistency is king when
  developing a strategy to  set yourself apart from the competition.

Real results can only be acheived when you dedicate yourself to a long-term strategy that will not only get people to recognize you, but also recognize you as the best in your particular market or niche.