Five Common Property Marketing Mistakes

---

When you're selling big, expensive and complex products, the sale rarely happens in a single conversation. It's particularly true today with international real estate, where sales cycles have turned into long, on-going and often drawn-out conversations.

Making a personal connection and earning trust is a key strategy of any good sales representative or team. But the one-on-one conversations can't be your only interactions. You need to extend that personal connection to your overall marketing messages and materials as well.

As marketing continues to shift from mass to niche channels, it's become dramatically more specific and personalized. Just like you, your prospects are inundated with too much information. Sad but true, our target customers rarely care what we have to say. So we have to care about what interests them.

This is about getting prospects into your sales funnel and moving them through it.
It's about sending the right message and being there when they're most receptive to receiving it. 

In a multi-networked world, this is easier said than done. But if you're still relying on traditional mass marketing vehicles to attract and close property buyers, you're likely still committing at least one of these mistakes.

1. You talk to them like they're all alike. They expect you to know better.

Demographics matter. They're just not enough. When you begin a conversation based upon zip codes, age ranges, incomes and gender, you probably haven't said anything that really connects with and engages your target. You might as well be cold-calling them during dinner. But if you come at them based around a personal passion, interest, project or a shared relationship, then they have a reason to look up and respond. In a niche marketplace, you need to be having niche conversations - a lot of them.

2. You try talking to them when they're busy. They want to talk with you at their whim.

Timing your message correctly has always involved a degree of art and luck. With today's overflowing inboxes, mailboxes and newsfeeds, it's extremely tricky to schedule delivery of your message. But it's also easier than ever to make sure that when your prospect goes looking, they find you at the top of their list. This means optimizing your website for Google and other search engines and buying keywords on Google Adwords. And yes, it means that social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn matter, a lot. Don't use them? You're losing sales to your competitors.
 
3. You make it hard for them to see what others say. And they wonder why.
 
When you're focused on selling, it's all-too-easy to wear blinders and block out all the low-hanging information online - even when it's just a few screen taps away. You can't control everything that's said about you online, but you can manage it and steer that conversation. Complimentary and competitive data and opinions have never been easier for buyers to find with so little effort. Your customers are researching you online and in social media, and if you're not part of that conversation, they'll wonder why. 

4. You don't give them time to get to know you, and show that you're getting to know them.
 
We all want to advance prospects through the sales funnel and convert them into buyers. But, few people are pleased when they feel like they're being converted into a sale. Instead, a real courtship needs to ensue. Agents and salespeople have known this for ages, but today's marketing communications must reflect this too. Buyers expect organizations as a whole to understand them better, demonstrate consistency, and softly contribute evidence that supports its message. These minor points of interaction build trust over time. Remember, you're having a lot of niche conversations concurrently. These conversations will not be all the same, but they must all be consistent with themselves and the overall message.

5. You were kind of hoping that a good campaign would compensate for a lackluster offer.

Connecting on a personal level, being available, offering up content and information, and showing up consistently won't help you much if your property, product or listing is ill-conceived. Buyers do connect based on affinities and interests and they respond to reliability and affirmation. But the details of the property and complex purchase still matter. Price, location, quality, and amenities count. At a time when market insights, opinions, and pricing data are more transparent than ever, it's critical that the fundamentals of your property are in order.

Solutions and Answers

Broadly stated, the solution to this shifting marketplace is simple. You must become skilled at niche marketing, allowing your mixed marketing messages to work together and complement each other like a sales team.

Over the coming weeks and months this column will delve into specific problems, opportunities, scenarios, examples, trends and information that relate to selling property, places, and big ticket items, in general. Much of it will be about online marketing, but definitely not all of it. We'll look at product development, branding, social media, Google and search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), and more niche messaging options.

Chip Rankin is president and founder of Placemaker Media, which is designed to help companies, developers, hotels and destinations use social media and online tools to build deep ties with their most profitable customers.