Marketing to consumers in the housing industry is a unique challenge. Not only do you have the normal demand to gain or retain the attention of the audience, but you also need to stay within the lanes of fair housing, state and national compliance regulations.
Here is a little food for thought as you navigate the unknown waters of effective marketing plans for now or for the future.
1. Do create a cohesive, clear brand identity
Creating a central color theme for your marketing helps pull digital and print advertising together for the consumer.
Unpopular opinion: Beware the “girl boss” or “hustle guru” overlays to your brand as it adds one more layer of emotion and call to action that the consumer has to understand.
You have seconds to catch their attention. How much information are you trying to pack into those seconds? What is the most important message?
2. Don’t skimp on professional photography
Don’t cut corners on listing presentations because of quick turnarounds. The most beautiful advertising elements you can give to your marketing team is quality photography and video.
Premium photography looks great in print, on your website and on your social media accounts. Quality photography can tell the story of your business better than any meme you upload for a laugh.
3. Don’t sit on the sidelines
The only way for your audience to get to know your personality is for you to be involved in the copy and presentation of your marketing.
Get off the sidelines, and offer your voice and ideas. Canned content will only take your content so far. Go the extra mile and carve out time for your marketing team to share your ideas and comment on content together.
4. Do pay close attention to analytics
Get up to speed with the distribution metrics and advertising budgets for today’s digital platforms. Do not rely on budgeting information that you read online five years ago. Ask for examples of how to improve your results, and be willing to try new things.
The content you created last week could potentially perform differently this week. Stay involved in your insights. Check digital insights when you run snail mail campaigns to measure impact. Review the traffic to your personal website. Take time to get into the weeds of the numbers behind your marketing to get better results.
5. Do stay above the fray
Marketing and public relations go hand and hand, but they often are two different workflows. The agent and broker are the first lines of defense when it comes to personal reputation management.
The Code of Ethics provides clear direction and guidance of what is expected of agents, but it is up to agents to stay above the fray personally and professionally.
Make sure your marketing team has written instructions about the content that they create, and make sure to regularly review your personal interactions online. It’s been said too many times before, but it’s worth being said one more time. Every text message, voicemail, picture, social media post, etc. could one day need to be explained in court.
Wrapping up
There are three major themes that you will need to consider with your team to prepare for the near future. How inflation is going to impact the budget, evolving consumer behavior to market conditions, and how to best adapt to SEO and social media algorithm changes.
Listen to your team about their challenges, and get involved. If you are concerned about the rising costs of advertising, make sure that you are following up.
Finally, invest in a database that the marketing team can connect their results into. Many agents have leads and interactions in several different locations, so it’s hard to gain a clear picture of marketing effectiveness. Accountability will be key to audience retention in the coming months. Are you ready to make the change?
By day, Rachael Hite helps agents develop their business. By night, she’s tweeting and blogging. Feel free to tweet her @rachaelhite.
