MARKETING
MARKET RESEARCH
advertising media, you need to do your homework. If you are a local real estate investor marketing on a local level, then it will be a little easier than if your marketing strategy requires re- gional or national exposure. Here are five words to remember: “Thank goodness for the internet!” When I first started out in this industry, there was no inter- net to use for research. Now, take advantage of it! Look at all the parties you are targeting with your marketing message and also look at the media across which your message will be dis- tributed. Your message and brand need to align on both sides of that equation. For example, Fannie Mae has been featured on Think Realty Radio. If your consumer is a consumer who is also a target for Fannie Mae, you can piggyback off that infor- mation. Think Fannie Mae has a lot of resources to investigate which media venues are best for their message? You bet! Now you can leverage those resources to your own purposes. You can use this much more broadly as well. One of the things I always ask when I’m doing a needs analysis is, “Who is your com- petition? Why do people choose them instead of you?” Look at whether they have a really good product, a really good message, or some other advantage, and be really honest with yourself. Keeping with the turnkey provider example, if you find that your competi- tion is just running away from you, look to see where their reach is better. Is it their offer? Is it the services they provide leading up to or after purchase? Know why people are going to your compe- tition and if it has to do with their message, their marketing, or their product offer. If you’re still struggling with this part, take a step back. Think about buying a car. Why did you buy your car from one dealership instead of another? What made you cross the street? It could have been brand loyalty. It could have been price. It could have been se- lection. All of those things influence your target market’s decisions and should influence what you offer and how you offer it. DON’T BE AFRAID TO BE DIFFERENT It may sound like a needs analysis is designed to make you sound like your competition. That is not the point at all! A needs analysis is intended to help you refine your process and product, but also to help your marketing professionals represent you in a unique, compelling way. Everyone has something special and valuable to offer. Figuring out how to convey that is the key to effective, productive, profitable marketing. •
The TruthAbout Effective Marketing in Real Estate THE RIGHT RESEARCH WILL REVOLUTIONIZE YOUR MARKETING RETURNS.
The point of that needs analysis is simple: to make sure that where you are buying reaches your potential customer. However, two sec- ondary (but extremely important) concerns should be knowing exact- ly who that potential customer is and what you want to say to them. For example, if you are a real estate investor who sells turnkey rental properties, you would want to take a minute to think about where your potential customers might live. In a lot of cases, turnkey investors do not live in the same market where their turnkey rentals are located. That means that if you have turnkey properties for sale in Birmingham, Alabama, youmight be selling those properties to investors in California, New England, or anywhere else in the country. You are likely going to want to look at national or regional advertising options rather than extremely local options, but you also need to make sure that your national advertiser is reaching your target market, which is probably an individual rather than a corporate entity. For example, many print magazines that are distributed nationally target high-end, multi-million-dollar com- panies. Those multi-million-dollar companies are probably not your target market. You want a national print magazine reaching an individual investor, and you need to be able to convey that need to the people with whom you discuss that need.
by Teresa Stanton
S
o many real estate investors try to do all of their marketing organically because they have no idea how accessible really far-reaching advertising avenues really are to them. Radio, newspaper, television, digital media, and print all feel out of reach to many investors, but advertising across these venues can actually be far more effective and within reach than you realize. In many hot, popular real estate mar- kets, you can run a cohesive, pervasive advertising campaign for just a few thousand dollars, even on a national level. It’s all about knowing what you want, how to ask for it, and what to do with that exposure once you get it. For more than 30 years, I have told clients considering local or national advertising with any medium that they must conduct some internal and external analysis before making marketing decisions. This is called a needs analysis, and it is
NEEDSANALYSIS: A formal process focused on how a product addresses certain needs. Marketers use needs analyses to better gauge the marketability of a product or service to the target consumer.
integral to two vitally important things: 1 Understanding what you actually need from your marketing dollars 2 The ability to accurately convey to others what you need
Teresa Stanton is the national sales manager at Think Realty. She has more than two decades of experience in marketing in all types of media. Reach her for a consultation at tstanton@thinkrealty.com.
OPTIMIZING YOUR ODDS IN ADVERTISING When you are developing a marketing campaign using
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