Marketing to Buyers and Sellers

How to Write a Real Estate Ad - Magazine Ad Writing 101 by Brandon Cornett

Article summary: This guide to magazine advertising will help you write real estate ads effectively, with the end-goal of boosting your advertising response rates!
My first exposure to writing magazine ads came when I worked as a marketing writer (and later advertising manager) for a postcard marketing company popular among real estate agents.

Real Estate Marketing - Attrition is Your Sworn Enemy by Brandon Cornett

Attrition is the enemy of real estate marketing. So to be successful in your marketing, you first have to understand the concept of attrition. You also have to work hard to reduce it.

This article will help you understand attrition and give you tips for reducing it within your real estate marketing program. Let's begin with a basic definition.

What is Attrition?

How to Conduct Home Buying Seminars by Brandon Cornett

Promoting Your Seminar
How do you get the word out about your seminar? In short -- any way you can. Do you have a farming area that you send marketing mailers to? Well that's a great place to start.

Some other promotional ideas:

Promote the seminar on your website.
Add a blurb about it after your email signature block.
Mention it to clients (they're likely to have friends or colleagues in the market to buy).
If you have co-presenters, share the marketing. Multiple channels are better than one!

How to Conduct Home Buying Seminars by Brandon Cornett

Why conduct a home buying seminar - (the benefits)
Seminars are a perfect complement to your personal marketing program. They're educational, popular and much more personal than any marketing piece. They can also position you as an authority, which can easily lead to future clients.

And who knows, you might even have some fun and meet some nice people along the way!

Where to conduct a home buying seminar - (the venue)

Real Estate Marketing - The Talkability Factor by Brandon Cornett

You won't find the word talkability in a dictionary. But it has everything to do with your real estate marketing program. This article explains the concept of talkability and how it can help you gain clients.

Talkability (noun) – 1. The ease with which a product or service can be talked about. 2. Also the likelihood that a product or service will be talked about.

Real Estate Marketing - The Power of Real Estate PR by Brandon Cornett

Public Relations seems to be the forgotten tool of real estate marketing. That's too bad, because a real estate PR program can give real estate agents more exposure than traditional advertising, and for a fraction of the cost.

Real estate PR also builds your credibility due to its third-party nature. After all, what would you be more likely to believe ... an advertisement, or an article in the newspaper?

How to incorporate PR into your real estate marketing program:

Real Estate Follow-Up Marketing by Brandon Cornett

Client follow-up should be a major part of your real estate marketing program. Whether it's a postcard mailer, a thank-you card, an email or a phone call, you need some form of real estate follow-up marketing in your business plan.

Why is follow-up so important? You probably know this, but for those just joining the real estate ranks:

* Proper follow-up marketing generates referrals by showing you still care after the transaction.

* Proper follow-up marketing generates repeat business by keeping you in touch with past clients.

Real Estate Marketing - The Importance of Listing Language by Brandon Cornett

A real estate marketing story. John and Jane have just seen a listing photo of a home that matches their needs. It's within their price range, and it has all the features they want.

Now, continuing in the process, they read the details. They read what you've written to describe the house. This is when your listing language either moves them forward, or leaves them behind.

Purpose of the real estate marketing article: To explain the importance of response-based marketing in today's real estate market.

While working in the direct marketing industry for a company whose clientele was mostly real estate, I witnessed the production of more than 70,000 real estate marketing pieces each week.

I couldn't help but notice how many agents tried to overburden their marketing messages. In other words, many of the real estate marketers wanted their messages to do more than they were capable of doing.

I'll elaborate. But first, some Real Estate Marketing 101:

Real Estate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid by Brandon Cornett

This article explains the real estate marketing mistakes I've routinely encountered over the years. More importantly, it explains how you — as a real estate agent — can avoid making the same mistakes.

Basics of Real Estate Marketing
Before diving into the best practices of a real estate marketing program, we need to identify the key elements that make up such a program. Let's call this “Real Estate Marketing 101.”