Commandment #1 Do NOT Target Clients with Information they Don't Want!
We have all been exposed to marketing efforts and sales pitches from the time we could read an or listed to a TV commercial during Saturday morning cartoons.
New books are published each year about how to market or sell homes. How to get more listings. Free home buyer leads. Free seller leads of people ready to list their home for sale. Free websites that will convert every person that comes to your website. Yup we know the hype. Most of it is just marketing to separate you from your hard earned commission dollars.
We have our own Realtor ethics as a minimum guide. But what about a marketing guide or ethics well there are
some mandated guides and then there are the Modern Day Ten Commandments. None of us think we are the typical agent
or broker. We are all special, in our own way we are. However we all have the same bottom line goals. Run a business a profitable as possible. Real Estate is a business and the better you do at listing and selling the better your bottom line if you maintain your overheads (costs) within acceptable margins of profitability for you.
I smiled when I read commandment #1 "Thou Shalt NOT target customers with information they don't want!" I don't think any of us look at our email in-box and say that's great stuff everything I received is just what I was hoping to find. I filter my in-box, I put sites on a black list, target emails with certain phases to go into the spam folders and of course my junk mail isn't anything a scrap dealer would give me a dime to have.
The spam laws are not what you may think. That will be another post. You can do some very odd things for awhile...but not forever! The biggest issue is why do spammy hit and miss marketing to your reputation and image? You spend so much time getting and creating an online presence to waste it with poorly conceived and ill guided marketing methods. The few leads capture with these methods are probably not who you really wanted and responded for the wrong real estate services anyway. I get at least 25 calls a week for rental help. So I am building a rental site for local companies to post their rental vacancies for free! Why? Goodwill and possible conversion of renters to buyers. Do you think I might have a side column that offers "Free Evaluations" to convert a Renter to a Home Owner using a local lender?
Targeting the right clients for the right services changes your conversion rates. It also makes future clients happy to see something they can use when it hits their in-box.
I will be publishing a commandment a day for the next 10 days. See if you are following the "Ten Commandments of Real Estate Marketing" I will provide a link to Augustine Fou who wrote an article for traditional online marketeers without the real estate specific issues addressed.
Do you get useless emails you don't want?
Commandment #2 Be Truthful With Clients and Published Articles
Commandment #3 Respect Your Clients
Commandment #4 Make it Easy For People to Find YOU
Commandment #5 Be Useful Provide Services Your Clients Want
Commandment #6 Make it Easy For Clients, Friends and Relatives to Refer You
Commandment #7 Listen to Clients
Commandment #8 Review and Optimize Websites and Blogs
Commandment #9 Review Your Marketing and Presentation Methods
Commandment #10 Do Not Brand Yourself Twice, Once is Enough
