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The real estate industry contains a small number of agents who are not just excellent negotiators, but also excellent marketers. But the industry also contains a significant number of agents who make a big mistake – over and over again, writes Nick Bendel.
That mistake is to make themselves the hero of their marketing.
In any industry, the more people who consume your marketing, the more successful it will be. The more interesting you make your marketing, the more people who will consume it.
So how can agents create interesting marketing that people want to consume? By talking about the goals, hopes and fears of either vendors (if they’re trying to win listings) or buyers (if they’re trying to sell properties), because that’s what those people care about the most.
But who do most agents talk about in their marketing? Themselves – which is the thing potential vendors and buyers care about the least.
Bad marketing v good marketing
Many agents publish ads and social media posts that boast about how amazing they are, which is a massive turn-off for the average person. Instead, agents should publish marketing that positions either the vendor or the buyer as the hero.
Vendor-focused marketing might talk about the aspirational couple that needs to sell so they can upgrade to a better neighbourhood, or the growing family that needs to move to a bigger home, or the older couple that want to downsize because their children have flown the nest.
Buyer-focused marketing might talk about the first home buyer who wants to achieve a milestone by entering the property market, or the family that wants to relocate to the suburb with the better school, or the investor who wants to build wealth for their family.
Once you’ve hooked the vendor/buyer, you can then explain how you’re the ideal agent to help them achieve their goal, because of your experience or passion or whatever your point of difference is. So even when you talk about yourself, you do so in a way that’s ultimately about the vendor/buyer.
Examples of bad and good marketing
There’s an old saying: “Don’t tell me you’re funny; tell me a joke.”
If you analyse bad real estate marketing, you’ll see it often involves agents doing the equivalent of telling clients how funny they are. Conversely, most of the good marketing consists of agents telling metaphorical jokes.
There was a case with an example of good marketing and bad marketing that I saw on social media recently.
The example of bad marketing was the agent who wrote a post that spent 150 words talking about how skilled, likeable and trustworthy he was. Everything he said might have been true, but because the post was 100 per cent about the agent and 0 per cent about the consumer, the post was more likely to have repelled clients than attracted them.
Instead, it would’ve been better for the agent to write an educational post on a topic, such as how vendors can get top dollar when selling their home. That kind of client-focused marketing would’ve enticed vendors – and, in the process, demonstrated how skilled, likeable and trustworthy he was.
The example of good marketing was the agent who wrote a post that analysed his local rental market and criticised the council for cracking down on short-term rental providers. What made this such an effective post was that it not only focused on an issue his investor clients cared about, it also gave him the chance to prove how knowledgeable he was and how much he cared about his clients.
By contrast, if he had written 150 words about why he was such an amazing agent, clients wouldn’t have cared.
Why so many agents get their marketing wrong
At this point, you might be thinking: if agent-focused marketing is so bad, why do so many agents do it?
Two reasons.
First, the vast majority of agents do it because the vast majority of agents do it. When you see everyone around you following one path, it’s hard to follow another.
Second, humans (me included!) are self-absorbed. Given that we spend most of our time thinking about ourselves, it’s natural to create marketing that’s all about us.
But while making the agent the hero is conventional and understandable, it’s still wrong.
If you want your ads and content marketing to be more effective, shift the focus from you to them.
Nick Bendel is the owner of Hunter & Scribe, a copywriting agency that writes content for property and finance professionals.
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