Real Estate Marketing Done Right

Welcome to our Real Estate Marketing Done Right podcast. In this episode of the Better Decisions podcast, we speak with Jesse Stein, a successful marketeer and tech entrepreneur. Jesse has been extremely successful in the digital marketing domain and is currently running the company Audience.Co. David and Jesse discuss the importance of sophisticated, value-adding real estate marketing and what it takes to stand out.

CHAPTERS of real estate done right: 00:00 intro 01:00: About Jesse and his early beginnings as a marketeer 06:15 Handwritten Notes and the Start of ‘Audience’ 11:45: Integrating the different parts of Marketing and Sharing Valuable Information 17:30: Add value even when you leave money on the table 22:00: The Fortune is in the follow-up 33:15: Real Estate Marketing is now more important than ever, what are the key elements? 37:50: People consume content in different ways 38:30: Marketing is more than promoting your product 39:55: Pay attention to the dashboard and measure your marketing 42:05: Where to start as a beginner? 50:45 The First principles of doing Internet Marketing Right: Don’t be a pioneer 

About Audience

Audience is a service that allows businesses to send out ‘handwritten’ notes to 1000s of addresses. Audience owns several robots that create ‘handwritten’ notes.  The notes can have a picture on the front, and a QR code can be added to provide the receiver with additional information. It is an excellent marketing strategy, that allows you to send a unique message to consumers.

Handwritten notes are authentic and personal, and everyone loves to receive them. The only challenge is that you cannot write 100s of notes yourself. With Audience, you can choose between several handwritings (male or female), and Audience uses the right character length. While emails and other marketing material are often lost or deleted, handwritten notes have a high open rate and are kept by the receiver for a longer time. Moreover, it takes away the friction of a follow-up.

Real Estate Marketing Done Right: Reaching your Audience More than Once with the Right Message

The goals of a good marketing strategy are to be useful and to become a trusted advisor. It is about educating, helping and advising. Marketing is more than just a trick. You are not tricking anyone with your handwritten notes. You do not want to trick them into thinking you wrote 1000s of letters. It is about elevating yourself and sending your sincere and legitimate message to the right people.  The goal is to help the client and to build expertise and authority. Only by doing this do you gain trust. If you want to do well in the Miami real estate market, you need to truly understand the market and you need to come up with sophisticated marketing. 

When consumers read articles that are not just about promoting a property, but instead add value, they will start trusting you more. When your ads are not about a new home for sale but a market report or a whole set of insightful articles to choose from, you gain trust. Everyone can get a listing, but not everyone can give you valuable insights.

Good Information is more important than a quick sale

This is a business of adding value. There are many directions to take, but you need to find a combination of how to reach people and add value. We can all have one sale and get a quick commission check. But if you are in this business for the long run, you need to elevate the value-adding process above the quick gain. In the real estate industry, many peers only talk positively about the market. The reality is that at some points in time some product is not suitable for certain types of buyers and as a trusted advisor, you need to tell your audience about this even if it means leaving money on the table. I sometimes advise my buyers against an investment when this is not in line with their strategy or expected timelines. I will tell them when it is better to wait with purchasing. Yes, I lost money, but the people came back because they trust me and now are reaping the benefits of this.

The Fortune is in the Follow Up

It is so easy and often said, but just 15% of agents do this. You spend lots of time on a report and send it out. And then what? You focus on the people who open it, but what about those who did not open your email? Only 15% of agents follow up, and this is so important. The average consumer needs 15 to 20 contacts per year to engage. So if you send one email and never follow up, you will lose that buyer or seller to the person who does follow up. Follow up several times in different ways: email, phone calls, notes. It might be a frustrating process, but remember you are in this for the long run. The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.

Real Estate Marketing Done Right: Tips to Start your Digital Real Estate Marketing

The best advice for new agents is to become a trusted advisor. Do not just publish random articles, but investigate the market. Analyze the market beyond a simple google search and answer questions that people might have. If you want to focus on Miami Beach, find out what keywords people are looking for. There are tools to find keywords, but you can also use Google. Below every Google search, Google will show you related search results and questions. This is what people are looking for and the answers you want to provide to your market.

Join different groups, answer online questions, and maybe create and answer your questions on sites like Quora.com. Do not try to be a pioneer. You do not necessarily need to be unique, you need to be more consistent and build upon what others are doing. You can reverse engineer successful peers or marketers in your industry and follow in their footsteps. When it comes to online marketing, remember that search engines like Google look at whether your content gives its readers what they want. If visitors stay on your site, the search engine will award your site and increase its ranking.

There is no secret sauce. It is all about hard, and consistent work. Become an expert, help people with useful information and reach out to your audience. Call them, email them, use a CRM system and make sure you are on different social media. You should ensure your content is seen, and remember that not everyone uses the same media. Some prefer email, others prefer Instagram or Youtube. It is essential that people see you in different places and start realizing you have value to add.

Real Estate Marketing Done Right: Measure your Marketing

Pay attention to the numbers. How much return do you get from your actions? Is your marketing working, or should you focus on other forms of marketing? Keep track of what you are doing and what kind of contact gets the most traction from the market.

Home buyers or homeowners, when you hire an agent, he should show you what he is doing. Real Estate is a big asset class, but we do not have Bloomberg terminals or other platforms like banks or financial institutions have. While there is a lot of money at stake, agents’ only requirement is a 63-hour training. From that moment onwards it us up to them how they grow or learn. Therefore it is essential to hire the right real estate agent to sell or buy a property. Ask your agent what he is doing to sell your home, what message they are using, and what platforms they are using.

Miami is not a market that attracts merely local buyers. Miami is a global city appealing to investors from all over the globe. If your realtor has no website or one that does not rank with the major search engines, how will anyone ever find your listing?