This is important. REALLY important.
For 23 years I have seen REALTORS call advertising “Marketing” and here’s a little secret… They are NOT the same thing.
Before I explain the difference and why it’s so important, let me take you back in time to 1997. I was working in a large office of about 100 agents and I actually had a computer on my desk – and used it! I had the ONLY digital camera in the entire office.
Every month, I would crank out a newsletter to my list of 4500 prospects and I’d include color pictures of events, listings, etc in my target area.
Almost every month, without fail, another agent would stick their head in my office and say “Watcha doin’?”. And I would show them what I was up to. Invariably they would say… “Wow – you should be in marketing”.
And I would sit there and think, as they walked off down the hall, “what business does he/she think we are in?”
You see – YOU are NOT in the “Real Estate Business”. YOU are in the “Marketing business” and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll start having multiple transactions EVERY month.
So here it is – the difference between Marketing and Advertising:
Marketing is a pre-programmed campaign targeted at capturing leads and turning them into customers. It is measurable. It is specifically targeted to a “market” of prospective consumers who may want to use your services. Marketing has exact, measurable parts so that we can determine a cost per lead and a cost per customer conversion (a closing).
Once you have your “Marketing plan” set up and in place and ready to roll, THEN you use Advertising to put in in motion.
So Advertising is what you do to Initiate a Marketing Plan.
The two are obviously different animals.
Since the dawn of the “Real Estate Business”, very very few Agents have understood and applied “marketing” to their business. But YOU know who these agents are… They are the MEGA producers. The 50 Million and 100 Million per year producers. You may even have one in your local market.
If you think advertising a house is marketing, you are missing out on the big money. Sure – you’ll get a customer or two from time to time from that kind of ad. Sure, you think it works. And it does – in a very limited way. But you are missing out on the really big bucks AND you are spending way too much of your valuable time dealing with every phone call.
What you are not seeing is the big picture because you have no marketing systems in place. There is no plan. It’s just put up an ad and wait and hope and when you get a call, try and make an appointment. That is NOT a system or a plan. It’s not measurable. It doesn’t leverage your time.
Think of the last time you ran an ad. How many calls did you get from the ad? (don’t guess or estimate – be honest)
Have NO idea? Join the crowd. 95% of Agents are doing the same thing. BUT – there’s 5% who “get it” and have a marketing plan and you probably know who they are in your local market.
In my next post, I’m going to begin going into detail HOW to set up a marketing PLAN. A system that will crank out ready to buy buyers and ready to sell sellers BEFORE you ever talk to them. The first phone call you get from the consumer will be for an appointment. THEY will come to You.
Sound interesting? Stay tuned…
