Read time: 4 minutes
A lot of agents that I meet with don’t focus on a core patch or farm area, they’ll “sell anywhere!”. And I can’t argue with that – commission is commission after all!
My interest isn’t where you sell property – it’s how you can sell more of it.
Having one area of focus enables you as the agent to build your brand credibly by repeatedly marketing to the same clients, proving that you are the area expert and the best choice when they want to sell. It’s hard to be credible with marketing saying you’re the best around if your sales are spread over a 20km radius and you don’t know everything about the suburb – which you just can’t possibly know about a multitude of suburbs. It’s hard to be credible as ‘the expert’ if the owner knows more about the area than you.
If we are consistently approaching our marketing with the layered marketing approach and speaking to clients across multiple avenues we are not only keeping our brand at top of mind, with a quality message we are also proving to them that we are the real estate expert and the best agent in their area.
You might have heard that statistically, it takes 7 to 12 “touches” to make an impact with a potential client. We are fortunate that we know where our clients live so we can quite easily create an environment where they are receiving 7 to 12 ‘touches’ from us consistently. What we don’t know however is when they will need us. The only way to overcome this is by being consistent with our marketing and communication plan. It’s no good to anyone if we complete 7 – 12 touches this quarter and then stop as they won’t remember who we are or know that we’re an option when they are ready.
The reason it’s relevant to us as agents is that it’s much much easier to implement a layered marketing approach when you’re operating in a specific geographic area.
For example, it makes it easier to send reports as you only need to generate one or two depending on how many areas you look after. It’s easier and more cost-efficient for delivering DL’s to one suburb than to a whole region. For Sale and Sold Signboards, billboards and bus stops in an area will be viewed by people who live there, they’ll drive past them. The only marketing that isn’t covered is digital – and you can retarget these people through Facebook and e-newsletters by importing your database of clients so they’re seeing you there too!!
All of these marketing avenues work so perfectly with your personal communication including phone calls, sms, door-knocking and email communication. The layered approach makes your brand: your face and name – familiar and recognisable with clients before you speak with them and cements you as the expert. So when you do pick up the phone to talk to clients they already have a sense of who you are and know that you’re their agent. Without this familiarity, it puts you on the back foot straight away as you have to explain yourself, who you are and why you’re contacting them. And when you go in for listings and have to fight to win against every other local agent – this is evidence that you haven’t done the work beforehand to build trust in your capabilities.
Of course, having a core area doesn’t mean you can’t sell out of that area… You’re a gun! You can sell anywhere!
Different types of marketing you could include in your layered approach:
- DL letterbox drops
- Direct mail letters
- Signboards
- Bus Stops
- Billboards
- Newspaper ads
- Social media marketing
- E-newsletters
- Text messaging
- Phone calls
- Sponsoring local clubs
- The list goes on!
If you’d like to learn more about this and how to choose an area to work in, watch our webinar episode here.
Good luck out there! And remember to listen out for that not yet, as it may mean, sometime soon.
