The Right Way to Make Marketing

Decisions in Your Business

SEPTEMBER 6, 2021

The cost of bad marketing decisions and how to change how you make your choices to increase ROI and build your agency.

Effective marketing is essential to building your real estate business. Without strong marketing campaigns, you cannot reach new markets, engage with those in your database, or build relationships with possible referral sources.

Unfortunately, many real estate agents simply don’t know how to make solid marketing decisions and instead base their choices on emotion, guessing, or by following trends. Does this sound like you?

If you’ve been making marketing decisions the wrong way, don’t worry. You can’t still turn it around and create marketing strategies that will help your business grow. Here’s how.

The Cost of Bad Marketing Decisions

When we talk about the cost of bad marketing decisions, most agents think in terms of money. This is an obvious assumption, since the majority of agents waste thousands of dollars a year (or month) on marketing campaigns that never return any significant leads.

Though wasting valuable marketing dollars is one of the most impactful results of bad decisions, it certainly isn’t the only one. Here are some more consequences of poor marketing decisions:

■ Wasted time.

The more time you waste on marketing efforts that are not panning out, the more of an opportunity you are giving your competitors to win your potential clients’ business.

■ Diminished reputation.

While some bad marketing decisions simply result in low ROI, others can actively harm your reputation. Marketing that is too pushy, poorly executed, or that taps the wrong target market can confuse or even turn away those who might otherwise want to work with you. It can also cause bad word of mouth that can follow you for months — or even years.

■ Lack of trust.

One of the goals of marketing is to build trust with your ideal customers. Just as solid marketing strategies slowly show your potential clients that you will treat them right should they choose to work with you, bad strategies erode that trust and take you one step further away from winning their business.

■ No growth.

When your marketing is not generating new leads or helping you get closer to those who may eventually want to do business with you, your growth will be limited. To keep your business strong, you must be able to reach new markets and effectively engage with those who will give you referrals or end up becoming clients one day.

The cost of bad marketing decisions and

how to change how you make your choices

to increase ROI and build your agency.

Database Marketing Strategies

The Importance of Your Website as a Realtor

Effective marketing is essential to building your real estate business. Without strong

marketing campaigns, you cannot reach new markets, engage with those in your database,

or build relationships with possible referral sources.

Unfortunately, many real estate agents simply don’t know how to make solid marketing

decisions and instead base their choices on emotion, guessing, or by following trends.

Does this sound like you?

If you’ve been making marketing decisions the wrong way, don’t worry. You can’t still turn

it around and create marketing strategies that will help your business grow. Here’s how.

The Cost of Bad Marketing Decisions

When we talk about the cost of bad marketing decisions, most agents think in terms of money.

This is an obvious assumption, since the majority of agents waste thousands of dollars a year

(or month) on marketing campaigns that never return any significant leads.

Though wasting valuable marketing dollars is one of the most impactful results of

bad decisions, it certainly isn’t the only one. Here are some more consequences of

poor marketing decisions:

■ Wasted time.

The more time you waste on marketing efforts that are not panning out, the more of an

the opportunity you are giving your competitors to win your potential clients’ business.

■ Diminished reputation.

While some bad marketing decisions simply result in low ROI, others can actively harm

your reputation. Marketing that is too pushy, poorly executed, or that taps the wrong

target market can confuse or even turn away those who might otherwise want to work

with you. It can also cause bad word of mouth that can follow you for months —

or even years.

■ Lack of trust.

One of the goals of marketing is to build trust with your ideal customers. Just as solid

marketing strategies slowly show your potential clients that you will treat them right

should they choose to work with you, bad strategies erode that trust and take you one

step further away from winning their business.

■ No growth.

When your marketing is not generating new leads or helping you get closer to those who

may eventually want to do business with you, your growth will be limited. To keep your

business strong, you must be able to reach new markets and effectively engage with those

who will give you referrals or end up becoming clients one day.

The Wrong Way to Make Marketing Decisions

So what does make a good marketing decision? It usually helps to look at all the wrong ways to make these choices. They include:

■ Following what everyone else is doing.

See your competitors sending out mailers with recipes on them so you decide to do the same thing? You’re not going to stand out from other realtors if you’re doing all the same things. In fact, it may even impact your reputation if your clients get the idea that you have no original ideas and are only piggy-backing on others in the industry.

■ Jumping on new trends.

Many agents suffer from “shiny object syndrome” and constantly get distracted by the next great thing in marketing. This prevents them from being consistent or persistent with any of their marketing strategies and leads to poor results.

■ Making decisions based on emotions.

Do you get upset because a campaign isn’t generating leads and immediately abandon it for something with more guarantees? When you make decisions based on emotions instead of data, you will never get the solid returns you are after.

■ Trying to do everything.

Some agents think the more types of marketing they can get involved in, the better. However, they usually end up spreading themselves too thin among various marketing vehicles and never put enough money into the campaigns that have the potential to deliver the largest returns on investment.

■ Guessing.

Most real estate agents are not experts at marketing. Instead of delegating the marketing work to a dedicated professional, they guess at what will give them the best ROI. This guessing game rarely bears fruit, and most agents get frustrated and end up spending money they’ll never get back in the form of leads.

■ Letting someone else in your office handle everything.

If you have an in-house marketing team whose sole job it is to handle your marketing campaigns, you absolutely should let them handle the decisions. However, most agents don’t have these resources. If they don’t want to make decisions themselves, they often delegate it to an assistant, an intern, or another agent who doesn’t have any more knowledge of the subject than they do. This results not only in poor decisions, but also in the agent not even knowing what those decisions are or how they might be hurting the agency.

The Wrong Messaging

Build and Market to Your Database

As a realtor, your database is your best friend. This is your list of past, current, and prospective clients as well as referral sources who can help grow your business. A basic rule of thumb is that an effective database consists of around 1000 names and contact information. Once you’ve built a solid database, you can market to your contacts through regular email newsletters, texts, or personal invitations to events or open houses. The marketing you do to your database should follow the same guidelines as your social media marketing: keep content informational and helpful rather than salesy. This keeps your contacts engaged with your brand and ensures they will continue to pay attention to what you have to say even when they are not actively looking to buy or sell real estate.

Harness the Power of Social Proof

The theory of social proof states that people are likely to conform and copy the actions of those in their peer group or those they view as experts or who are trustworthy. When it comes to real estate marketing, you can take advantage of social proof by featuring testimonials on your site and social media, soliciting online reviews from those you’ve done business with, and by establishing yourself as an authority on the local real estate market with helpful, informative content. When you harness the power of social proof, you essentially have others selling for you and no longer have to hustle or chase leads.

Database Marketing Strategies

The Right Messaging

The Wrong Way to Make Marketing Decisions

So what does make a good marketing decision? It usually helps to look at all the

wrong ways to make these choices. They include:

■ Following what everyone else is doing.

See your competitors sending out mailers with recipes on them so you decide to

do the same thing? You’re not going to stand out from other realtors if you’re

doing all the same things. In fact, it may even impact your reputation if your

clients get the idea that you have no original ideas and are only piggy-backing

on others in the industry.

■ Jumping on new trends.

Many agents suffer from “shiny object syndrome” and constantly get distracted

by the next great thing in marketing. This prevents them from being consistent

or persistent with any of their marketing strategies and leads to poor results.

■ Making decisions based on emotions.

Do you get upset because a campaign isn’t generating leads and immediately

abandon it for something with more guarantees? When you make decisions

based on emotions instead of data, you will never get the solid returns you

are after.

■ Trying to do everything.

Some agents think the more types of marketing they can get involved in, the better.

However, they usually end up spreading themselves too thin among various

marketing vehicles and never put enough money into the campaigns that have

the potential to deliver the largest returns on investment.

■ Guessing.

Most real estate agents are not experts at marketing. Instead of delegating the

marketing work to a dedicated professional, they guess at what will give them

the best ROI. This guessing game rarely bears fruit, and most agents get frustrated

and end up spending money they’ll never get back in the form of leads.

■ Letting someone else in your office handle everything.

If you have an in-house marketing team whose sole job it is to handle your

marketing campaigns, you absolutely should let them handle the decisions.

However, most agents don’t have these resources. If they don’t want to make

decisions themselves, they often delegate it to an assistant, an intern, or another

agent who doesn’t have any more knowledge of the subject than they do. This

results not only in poor decisions, but also in the agent not even knowing what

those decisions are or how they might be hurting the agency.

Now that you understand that talking yourself and your accomplishments up on your site is the wrong messaging, let’s take a look at the content that works. Here are some tips on creating messaging that resonates with your target audience:

Content that is helpful. What are the issues your ideal client is dealing with? Are they attempting to buy and sell homes at the same time and need assistance with financing a down payment? Are they struggling to find a home they are interested in due to low inventory? Are they trying to decide if they should relocate or buy a second home now that they are empty-nesters? Identify the pain points in your target market, then address those points through blog posts that you then share on social media and in newsletters that go out to your database.

Content that establishes you as an expert. Those looking for help buying or selling property want to work with the best. To show that you are an expert in your local community and industry, develop content that revolves around neighborhood events, local real estate news, and other industry issues.

Content from experts and past clients. When you use the power of social proof to develop your website content, you let others do the selling for you. Social proof is the phenomenon where others copy the actions of people they see as peers or as trusted individuals. If they see your past clients talking about your high level of customer service in a video testimonial or read reviews from experts in the industry who have worked with you, they will be more likely to choose you as their realtor.

Content that stays ahead of the game. Your ideal client wants to know what’s going on in the industry as soon as possible. They also don’t want to read the same old content on your site that they’ve read on all your competitors’ sites. To address these needs, stay on the cutting edge of the industry and share information your visitors can’t get anywhere else.

Components of an Effective Lead

Generation System

How the Right Messaging Increases Conversions

The Right Way to Make Marketing Decisions

Marketing decisions should always be based on data. Fortunately, data is abundant when you properly use social media or Google online marketing tools. When you set up Google and Facebook Analytics properly and integrate them with your CRM system, you can rely on accurate data to determine which campaigns are working, which are not, and how to tweak them to get a better ROI. You will know the exact campaigns, messaging, pages, and audiences that are generating engagement and you can double down on what is working to drive your business forward. You can stop the bleeding from any poor marketing decisions immediately and instantly make your business more profitable. As a bonus, analytics also show you what your ideal clients like and trends that are happening in the market so you can stay ahead of the game.

Have you been making marketing decisions based on emotion, guessing, or by jumping on the newest, shiniest marketing trend? Now is the time to turn your marketing around and start basing decisions on analytics.

Need some help setting up your analytics and figuring out how to interpret which campaigns are giving you the most ROI? Reach out to the knowledgeable team at Luxury Presence. We’d be happy to help you get on the right path.