Time To Pivot Your Marketing

On today’s episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent, it is time to change and PIVOT your marketing. If you’ve been saying the same thing in your marketing messaging for years, it is truly time for a change. This real estate market is unlike anything I’ve seen in my 18 years as a real estate agent. And it’s, it’s due to two things, not only is there a 40-year record, a 40 year low for the number of houses that are available for sale, which I talked about last week, quite a bit. But on top of that, there is more competition for those same listings and those same buyers than ever before. And the reason is because not only is there more real estate agents than there ever have been, at least in the U.S., but on top of that, you’ve got these quote-unquote disruptors coming into the industry, heavily funded, wanting to serve from that real estate agents at all the things like I buyers and instant offers, and those types of companies that are coming in wanting to kind of take the attention away from real estate agents at all. And often, they are good options. So how do you have clients coming to you? What are you say? What do you do so that buyers and sellers want to work with you versus all? There are other options out there, including all these other agents, including the new quote, unquote disruptors, the I buyers, and including feeling stuck in a market like this, not knowing where to go, and doing nothing at all, and feeling like it’s too competitive. So how do you get people who actually do want to move to contact you? That’s what we’re going to talk about today. Welcome to this episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. I’m your host, Jennifer Myers, listen in, as I share exactly what I did to go from not being able to sell a house for years to becoming one of the top 1% of agents in the U.S. to even opening my own brokerage full of agents, help me serve all the clients that were coming my way. I taught those agents the same strategies I used, and they too became top-producing agents. Now through this Podcast and Agent Grad School dot com, I’m sharing those same modern marketing and business strategies with you. Most of which I learned from looking outside of the real estate industry, no fluff, no theory, no outdated sales techniques or paying for leads, or just the exact steps to get you the real estate business you’ve always wanted. And the life outside your business, you’ve always wanted too. Let’s make it happen and dive into today’s episode. The topic for today’s episode was actually inspired by some real-life marketing that I received from a real estate agent that I know that came directly to my house. I was checking my mail, and all of a sudden, I get, you know, that normal stack of postcards in the mail that I don’t know about you, but start tracking your behavior. I tend to not read postcards. I don’t actually think that’s the best way to market yourself as a real estate agent. I understand why real estate agents like doing them, but most of the time I just kind of stand over the trash and go through the mail. And I actually physically have to stop and open the letters I receive, but the postcards I frankly don’t usually even read, and they just kind of go on the trash because they feel like marketing, right? Nobody really wants to be marketed to, so start paying attention to your own mail habits and whether or not you pay attention to postcards. If you are somebody who sends out postcards. But normally, I just kind of sit over my trash can and do my mail, and I try to go through as quickly as possible. And so unless it’s in an envelope or, you know, some, a bill, usually it’s going in the trash. Still, this one, in particular, this piece of marketing stopped me because the marketing in this postcard that I received from a real estate agent was all about how quickly homes are selling in my neighborhood. It was touting, you know, sold in one day, sold in three days for above the asking, that kind of thing that you know, and I’m sure all of you have seen a real estate agent marketing just like that. So you can kind of picture it, But here’s the thing right now, At least in my market where I live, it is a crazy, crazy seller’s market. And kind of, I already know that houses are selling quickly. And frankly, It feels like because of the money, Man, not necessarily because of a particular real estate agent, right? So where I live, houses are flying off the shelves, they’re bidding Wars, things are going quickly. That’s just kind of the norm, regardless of which real estate agent is selling the property; it was me. And so what I’m getting at is right now, being able to sell a home quickly is not a thing. That value proposition is not a reason why somebody should choose you, right? Because it is kind of a known fact that houses are selling quickly right now. That is not a differentiator, right? So this isn’t back in 2010 when things were taking a while to sell; things would lag on the market. So that is when it is a good idea to talk about selling a home quickly when the homes aren’t selling quickly. Okay. But if I’m being marketed too, when you are in your marketing are marketing to people about the speed of a sale, have a home that gives you that does not provide a reason to choose you because that is what people think is happening, no matter what. Okay. So your marketing needs to be talking about things that actually differentiate you, not things that will happen, kind of no matter what. Okay. So I already know homes are selling quickly in my neighborhood. That is not a value proposition for me to choose one particular agent over another right now in this market. Because as a consumer, right, I’m putting my shoes in a consumer’s hand right now, and kind of what are they thinking? What are they feeling right? If I wasn’t a real estate agent, I’d still know that homes were selling quickly because it was all over the news. It’s like every time I turn on the radio, that’s what they’re talking about. Right? And so, in my mind, as a consumer, any agent can sell a house quickly right now. That is not a value to me. Heck, I may even think as a consumer that if I wanted to sell my house myself, that I could do so quickly because there are so many buyers wanting to buy a new neighborhood, right? So right now, in today’s market, selling a home fast is not a value proposition. It should not be in your marketing because that is not a differentiator. It is not what gives somebody a reason to choose you. So I’d recommend stopping using that in your real estate marketing and only use that marketing when homes aren’t selling fast, and it’s a buyer’s market. When things linger on the market, then I will be much more likely to kind of set up when somebody says, I sold this in a day, or I sold it in three days. Right? So speed will get the attention of a Seller when homes are sitting on the market longer. But that is not what’s happening today. So save that marketing message for those days, which they’re bound to come back around again. So this is why I’m saying you need to pivot your marketing message based on what is happening in the real world right now. Okay. So the marketing messages that worked you know, five, 10 years ago, isn’t going to work right now because it’s a different market. So you and your marketing, what you want to do, the goal of the marketing is not just to let people know that you’re out. They’re not to just let no people that you let people know that you’re like everybody else. And you can do what anybody else could do. That is not the point of marketing. I mean, yes, you could do it, but that is going to be expensive. You’re not going to get a lot of response, and you’re not going to get a good return on your investment. So you need to find a reason for whoever your marketing to, whether it’s a buyer or seller, to choose you among all their other options. Which includes but is not limited to every other real estate agent, right town, right? Every other real estate in your office, they could sell to their friends without an agent. They could sell to an online buyer or take an instant offer online, or remember, their other options include sitting, staying, put and doing nothing at all, which is where a lot of sellers are making their decisions right now. They’re saying it is too competitive out there. If I sell my house, I can’t figure out how I would find a place to go. Because I’m being told that homes are selling so fast. And so for so much higher, then the reason I’m not going to sell my house, just because I’m not worried about, and this is actually true for me, right? Like I actually want to sell my house or thinking about perhaps selling my house. So that’s one reason why kind of, you know, other than the fact that I teach marketing to real estate agents for a living that I had to analyze marketing than I receive. But it’s also because I’m like, “Ooh, who’s doing good marketing.” I love to engage with them. Right?. But my worry as a seller, and the worry that I hear from clients and the worry that I hear across the board from the sellers, is the reason they’re not moving forward right now is they’re like, well, where the heck am I going to go? Because it’s so competitive out there. So sure, I could sell my house today in one day, three days, whatever days, you know, this marketing postcard said, but my problem, the reason I’m not selling, even though I want to, because I don’t know how to figure out where I’m going to go. And so, if that is my problem right now, my problem is not how quickly I can sell a house. It’s actually the opposite. It’s how quickly can I sell my house? Well, that’s great. But then I need to quickly and in a guaranteed way find a new house to actually move to. So until I can figure that I got out and not moving, that’s what sellers are thinking. So then, if speed is the thing. If selling a home fast is nothing to be marketing about right now, then what should your marketing be about? Well, it depends on you, somewhat on the neighborhood that you are targeting, but this is where I think the fun is in marketing. You’ve got to start by putting yourself in the shoes of whoever you’re talking to. Right? Pretend in this case, because it’s marketing that I received in the mail. So I’m going to use us as a mailing example. I’ve got to start by putting myself in the shoes and asking if there was someone in this neighborhood who wanted to sell their home but wasn’t putting their home on the market. What is holding them back? What is stopping them? Okay. So that’s always the first question you really want to ask. You want to make sure that you know who you’re talking to you, and I want to be clear who you are talking to. You are not trying to convince somebody to sell a house who doesn’t want to move. That’s not what we’re talking about. What we’re talking about are the people who actually want to move but feel like they can’t, and something is stopping them. Okay? So in my mind Market right now, one of the things that are stopping many sellers from putting their home on the market is being worried about where and, and how they are going to find their next house. So if I Was marketing To a neighborhood full of smaller homes, which is my neighborhood full of people who are most likely moving to a larger house, with more space, a bigger yard, that kind of thing. Then I would put myself in their shoes, and I would say, well, if somebody wanted to move, why aren’t they moving? Is it because they’re worried about this market and how are they gonna find the new house? If I was a real estate agent, sending a postcard to my neighborhood, a neighborhood full of these kinds of other people, then I would be talking about a couple things. So This is where you’ve really got to dig in to get a response from your marketing. Don’t just do marketing and saying like, Oh, I sold a house or just sold. Nobody cares because they can see that on any website. What they care about is why can’t I move? How are you going to fix the problem of why I haven’t moved forward? That’s how you get responses from your marketing. And so I’m just going to give you a couple of examples of things that I will stop most sellers. So in this particular market, it’s like, where am I going to go? I can’t seem to find a house that I like that’s on the market long enough. All of a sudden, it’s gone because things that are selling so quickly. I already know that. So if I was marketing to this neighborhood or a neighborhood where I knew people had to move, even though I was marketing to sellers, if I understood that their problem was, where are you going to go? My marketing would be talking about How do I solve that problem for them? So, for example, and I talked a little bit about this last week, your marketing could talk about all the ways that you find homes for your buyers off-market. In addition to all the ways that you look on the MLS, like they can, and like every other real estate agent can, you could talk about your three-step system for finding homes off-market and have them call you if you’ve been looking to move, but are worried because you can’t find a house or because they’re selling too quickly, I may be able to solve that problem for you. I have access to off-market properties. And I have a proactive way, three things that I do to find off-market properties for my buyers. Call me if you want to sell your home but are worried about where you’re going to go. That kind of marketing is how you get direct responses. Another kind of marketing that might speak to this type of audience, and this is something where again, you know, you should plan on not just sending one thing out. It’s very, very rare that you’re going to send one thing out and get a response and get a client, right? A lot of times, it’s that you have to keep going. And this is especially with mailing or postcard campaigns. And I’m talking about mailing a postcard campaign because I received this marketing by a postcard. It’s not because I think it’s the best way to do it. It’s because I’m just trying to explain a piece of marketing that I received and how I would change it to actually get a response. Okay. And so the other thing I would talk about and marketing right now, like if we’re going to go through the trouble to do the postcard, and you’re gonna go to the trouble to put something together, why don’t you put something together that’s actually going to get a response. That’s kind of what I’m advocating for. And so the other thing I might talk about is having a pool of ready, willing, and fully approved buyers that I have access to who are willing to work with you, the seller’s on your timeframe so that you have enough time to find the perfect home. Okay. Now, in this particular marketing, you know, we all have offices full of, you know, we’re constantly hearing buyer needs, the buyer needs, your needs… and so on. And oftentimes, you have buyers that would buy in that neighborhood that you’re marketing to. And so, you know, you don’t want to say this if it’s not true, but ideally, and most likely it is true in this day and age because somebody’s in your office has a buyer need that fits the description of the houses that you’re marketing to. And / or maybe you even you have a buyer, but I wouldn’t recommend blending. The point is, is there are buyers out there who are willing to work with a seller on their timeframe and give them enough time to find a home. They are right now in this market. And so you could talk about that. These are just a few examples of other messages that would work in this market. Another example. So, the way into your marketing messaging is often, you know, what is the problem? What obstacle are they having? Why are they not moving forward? But another, because it doesn’t always have to be about a problem, could also be about making a dream come true. You know, if a seller was like, I would love it. If you know, these are the kinds of things that can create marketing messages. So one of those examples is what stops people from selling their home is the process of having to fix it up. And a lot of times it has to do with like, if I’m buying and selling at the same time, how am I also supposed to pay to fix up the bathroom or fix, you know, this or that, and by a new house and everything like, that’s a lot of expenses, you know? So if I was marketing to a neighborhood like mine, where many older homes likely need work, I’d include information about how I have a licensed crew of pretty inexpensive contractors and how I kind of handle it for them. So hand me the keys. I’ll take care of it. And you don’t even have to pay for the improvements until settlement. So that Is an example of a dream come true for somebody that, you know, I often will pay for repairs for my clients. I do have a pretty inexpensive crew who can do things cheaper than a seller probably could hire somebody on their own. And especially in my market, it’s really expensive right now to get any renovation work done, and they have a big waitlist. So people are like, well, how am I supposed to time all of this? Right. So a dream come true might be, let me handle it. Now, you know, the other piece of this that I’ve been reading a lot of articles recently are all the real estate disruptors quote, unquote, Right? They will have the instant offer buyers. There are buyers out there who offer pads. There are all these other options other than the traditional real estate model. And whether we like it or not as a real estate industry, these are now also our competitors. And so our marketing has to speak to why somebody should choose us truly, like why somebody should choose a real estate agent at all and why they should choose a particular real estate agent, in this case, you, at all. And you also can’t ignore what the other options are. And these are other options. But the problem is, if you think about what’s missing from each of these kinds of new disruptors marketing is their saying that they can sell, they can buy your home instantly, which I do actually think is a very good value proposition when the market is not so hot, right? It’s pretty easy to sell a house quickly right now, as I said earlier, but none of these disruptors can, can say that they can sell the house for the most money possible. Right? I buyers, they’re buying a little under market, you know, instant offers there probably a little under market. They are not touting the fact that you can buy your home for the most money possible. And so I actually think this is a great marketing message too, to talk about, like, I call it out. You have a ton of options out there, but the one that really matters most in this market is capitalizing on one of the hottest seller’s market that we’ve had in years. And so the most important thing you as a seller should be focused on is capitalizing on this and getting the very, most of for their home, the highest profit possible for your home in this, you know, as Warren Buffett says, sell high, buy low it’s time to sell high. So have you been thinking about selling for a while? There is a very specific plan that I have, and this is not just marketing. These are the things that you have to create in your business that you feel confident about. You know, I have a four-step system that makes sure that you are getting the most money for your home. It starts with prepping your home and making sure that we’re finding the perfect balance of not spending too much on repairs but spending exactly where we should be so that we open up your home, so it becomes a hot product. It’s the house that everybody wants. So that’s step one in my process. And step two is pricing correctly. And then, step three is the part that the buyers can’t do, it’s giving it full market exposure. Okay. So I truly believe that that is the path to selling the house for the most money possible because we are in fact a market. And so if you have a product that the market wants and you create a product, the market ones with little things like paint, you price it correctly, and you give it a full exposure. That is how you make sure that a house sells for the most money possible. Okay. So that is the kind of thing that you want to be talking about in your marketing, Not focused on speed of the transaction. Sure. These I buyers and things they can, they can, the speed and convenience is kind of their reason to choose them. So you need to be talking about something else, not speed and convenience, high profits out of your house, or anything else that you can think of it. This was the first thing that came to my mind. Okay. So those are just examples of the marketing that you could be doing for your sellers. So when it comes to marketing to sellers, which we all want right now, what listings are, is what you want right now. So don’t focus your listing marketing on the time it took to sell a home, save that for the win. The market actually is harder to sell a house instead, focus on what sellers want right now. And here are just a few ideas I came up with. You might have others that you come up with. Talk about how you solve whatever problem that is in their way again. And you’re talking to people and not trying to convince people to move that don’t want to move. You’re trying to help remove obstacles from the people who want to move forward but think they can’t. Okay. Talk about how you create an ease, getting the house ready to sell, and how you can handle that for them. And this is a marketing message that would work exceptionally well for absentee owners. So landlord’s that kind of thing. If you’re marketing to those people who don’t live in the property, they want to be hands-off nine times out of 10, and they want high profits too if they’re investors. So talk about that with them. Say, “You don’t have to even come here.” I can handle it all for you. All I needed is the keys. You can talk about how easy it is to sell a house. Call it out. Like right now in this market, it’s easy to sell a house. Anyone can sell a house, but selling it for the highest profit possible takes the expert. You know, and this is how I would talk. You know, it takes an expert who’s done this for over 18 years in my case. And I have a step-by-step plan to make sure that you are getting the highest profit possible, easy to sell a house quickly. That’s not what you should be focused on. Where you should be focused on is capitalizing on this market and selling at as high a price as possible. If you are going to sell some of the most money possible, that is a powerful marketing message. Okay. And one that’s really important right now to use because people think they can do it without an Agent. They think it’s easy, right? And, and it is so your value proposition needs to be that you’re actually adding value, which is in the form of profits to them. Okay. There are a ton more out, there are many of which are students have come up with, but I don’t want to share here because they are so brilliant and have thought of it. And that is what we talk about in our community all the time. So if you are a student listening, there are many, many other great options that you can hear about on our weekly calls. Or you can watch the replays because the stuff that our students have come up with and their market is so, so good. But this is the type of thing I wanted to share this outside of our community, of our student community, because this is the type of thinking that when applied correctly to your marketing has sellers or buyers, we haven’t even applied it to buyers yet, choosing you versus all other options out there. And all of those other options out there include all the other agents, right? Things like avoiding agents entirely, either selling it themselves. Or through those I buyers instant offers or feeling stuck. And like, they can’t do anything at all. So they don’t, they don’t even reach out because they don’t think that you can solve their problem or make their dream come true right now, doing nothing at all is what a lot of sellers are choosing to do. ’cause they think its too hard to find a new house. Okay. So I’m focusing on the listing conversation for two reasons. One, it’s because I think with most real estate agents you want right now are listings. And two, it’s because, again, I’m kind of critiquing a piece of marketing that came to me, but you could apply the same thought process, the same thinking to buyers. If you wanted buyers to come to you, okay? I want you to see how to do this in your business. I don’t want you to, just to take exactly what I’m telling you to do, right? I want you to actually have to think through what’s happening in your market, who you want to be talking to, which clients you want to attract. And I want you to apply the same thinking that I’m going through here and the same process to your market, which might be very different than the market that I’ve described or that I’m in. So now that you know what to say, right? That’s step one. Like who am I talking to? What is actually going to get them in motion again? Not convincing people who don’t want to move the people you’re talking to want to move. They just think there are other options or believe they can’t. So after you figure out what to say, then the question becomes WHERE to say it. How did you find people who want what your offering? Okay. So this is kind of marketing 101. Step one is you need to offer something people actually want. And the examples I’ve given above, or just the beginning of the conversation, right? Step two is you need to find people who want what your offering. And this is where I see agents get tripped up all the time. That is how you get clients coming to you. That is simple. It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s simple. Give some, give offers something that people actually want. That’s different. It gives them the reason to choose YOU has to be something that they truly want and then find people who work that I tell them about it. And as I always say, you can only market to two sets of people, people, you know, and people you don’t know. And it’s always easier to start with people, you know, just because it’s less noise, you have to break through to get the attention that you need for them to under even see there, your offer or see what your offering to them. So start with people, you know, then move on to people you don’t know. So how do you start with people? You know, it’s two places and you guys have heard me talk about this so many times on the podcast. So I’m just going to quickly go, it’s two places. To your website, and it’s your weekly or every other week email to people, you know, it’s not a newsletter. It’s something that actually is of value to people every single week or every other week—kind of like this podcast. Hopefully, you see it as valuable. At least that’s my intention, right? So if you’ve listened to this podcast for more than one week, I am also doing the things that I’m telling you to do in your business. Not necessarily a podcast, but you have to share something on a weekly basis over and over again. So that people feel like they know you, they trust you. They understand you. You can demonstrate that you can actually help them. And so in this weekly email, it can be anything from your DIY quarantine home renovation projects that maybe inspire them to how greening your home can help them save money to the out of the box. Ways that you’re helping people get a home in this crazy market. Those are just three examples of content that I would be talking about in this month coming up in April because it’s also earth day in April, right? So the two places to start are on your website and in your weekly emails to people, you know? So I have done a ton of episodes about that. I’m not going to go into depth here, but there are episodes that you can listen to for free. And then this is all we talk about how to do those two things in Agent Grad School. And if the last year has taught us anything, it’s that you have to be taking your marketing online or face-to-face marketing is out. The networking is out the door. Knocking is out online marketing as in. And so that is why even before the pandemic since I started online marketing for my business in 2005, I have been advocating for getting your marketing online. That is where your buyers and sellers are. That’s where your marketing needs to be. So it’s your website and your weekly email to start. So once you get that down, then you find people you don’t already know. And the class is a classic example is in the example that you think fits here with this conversation because it’s what happens is when the inspired this episode is pick a neighborhood and start sending them snail mail. Okay? But not just any stamp mail, direct response marketing that presents how you solve their problem or make their ideal scenario come true. And you keep doing that until you find somebody who needs what you’re offering right now. So if you aren’t getting the response that you want, it’s always one of three things. You’re either not offering something compelling enough. You’re not offering it to the right people or you’re not offering it to enough people that you have found somebody who needs what you’re offering right now. Okay? That’s what marketing comes down to. That’s what getting a response comes down to from your marketing is having a compelling message and giving it to people and getting it in front of people who need that, who need what you’re offering right now. That’s, that’s the basics. And so your marketing message. What you say is your answer to why somebody should choose you versus all. There are other options, including them feeling stuck and doing nothing at all. So for many buyers and sellers right now, that’s how they’re feeling. They’re feeling stuck. And many others are feeling like they don’t get why they need to pay thousands of dollars in commission to get their houses sold. And that is why these distractors, they call themselves the disrupters or whatever. I call them distractors because many people are feeling like they don’t need to pay thousands of dollars in commission to get their house sold and their right. They don’t. So you have to make it about something else, make it about how you add value to their bottom line by you being involved in selling their house for them, that they are going to get a higher profit. And if you don’t know how to do that as an agent, that is your function. As the agent, you have to learn how to do that. As an agent, there is a step-by-step process to do that. So my hope and intention for this episode is that you understand that you have to change your marketing. So you can cut through the noise and really drill into why somebody should choose you. And that that messaging has to be different than it was even a year ago. It is a highly competitive market. And your sellers, in this case, is mainly what we’re talking about here. Your sellers are being told that they can do all sorts of other options, and they’re right. So you have to give them a reason to choose you. And these are just some examples of how you go about doing that. And I hope this has helped you to start thinking differently about your marketing and also how important it is to find ways and reasons for somebody to choose you. It truly is how you get clients coming to you. So if you like this episode, please leave a review wherever you’re listening and what I really want to know. And your review is how did you apply what you learned to your real estate business? Once a month, I pick a review and I share it with our listeners to inspire them, to apply the concepts in this podcast that you’re getting for free. I want to hear how you’re applying the concepts that you’re learning in this podcast into your real estate business. And if I pick your review, I send you an Agent Grad School prize pack. And so, I love that you are a listener, but more than anything, I don’t want you to be a passive listener. I want you to apply what you’re learning here. I want you to get new results in your business, and I want you to tell us about it. So please leave a review wherever you’re listening. And then the last thing heads up next week is our monthly inner circle only email. So we’re skipping a podcast episode. I skip podcast episodes the last week of every month, and I send out an inner circle, only email. I share a lot with the inner circle that I don’t share anywhere else. And in particular, that last week of the month, every single month, I send an email that I don’t share anywhere else with our inner circle. So if you aren’t part of the inner circle yet, it’s totally free to sign up. And it’s the extra stuff that I can’t really talk about here, or it doesn’t really fit in this dynamic. So if you haven’t joined yet, you totally should. It’s like the secret speakeasy where all of the cool kids hang out together. I’m just kidding. But instead of a low light, low lit bar, where at a safe distance behind the computer screen, but join us today. And don’t miss next week’s email go to http://www.AgentGradSchool.com/innercircle. And that way you don’t miss next week’s content. I hope it helps you. So I will see you next time on another episode of Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent. Thanks for being here. Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Remember, change happens when you take action. So apply what you learned today to your own real estate business. If this episode has helped you subscribe, leave a review and share it with all your real estate agent friends, and as always, if you want even more great resources to create the real estate business you’ve always wanted and have the life you want outside your business to head over to Agent Grad School dot com and sign up for the free weekly trainings, you’ll get free classes, discounts, and other goodies that only go out to real estate agents on that email list. See you next week right here on Confessions of a Top Producing Real Estate Agent, The Agent Grad School Podcast.