I also mentioned the challenge real estate agents have distinguishing themselves from every other real estate agent in the market.

Can you relate?

For most in the sales professions — including mortgage brokers, financial planners, car salespersons, real estate agents, etc. — positioning and differentiation are challenges…..and so is patience.

I think one of the biggest issues people in sales have with their marketing is lack of consistency.  A case in point is that in the last 6 months, I’ve received maybe 20 different mailings from real estate agents in the form of “personal” letters and postcards.

And that was from 20 different agents!  Do you think I remember the name of any of them?

Gary Keller in The Millionaire Real Estate Agent quoted NAR statistics that basically boiled down to the fact that in the mind of buyers and sellers, they only have room for one or two real estate agents.  This means that your goal is to be number 1 (preferably) or number 2 in the minds of your potential clients, or else you’re out of the running.

How do you do this?  Well, not by sending a postcard once every 6 months!

A couple of years ago, I sent out three postcards (the same, identical postcard) to a targeted list, spaced out over a period of about 10 weeks.  Just 2 days after the third mailing, a woman phoned me excited that she just received my postcard, it was just exactly what she needed, and inquired why hadn’t I sent the postcard sooner.

The truth is that I had sent her the very same postcard twice before — and she probably gave it at least a cursory glance both of those previous times — but it was only the third time that she had actually taken notice and read it carefully.

Whatever lead-generation and marketing strategies real estate agents are using, the key to occupying the first or second spots in the minds of consumers is developing and implementing a solid system or frequent and consistent contact.

People are so bombarded with junk and offers and mailings, it really takes more than what you probably are doing to encourage your ideal clients to remember and think of you when they are ready in the sales cycle to buy.  When they’re ready, you want them to buy from you!

On the matter of systematic marketing, Gary Keller introduces “overkill” as the approach real estate agents should take.  “Why?  Because no matter how much frequent and systematic lead generation is emphasized, most real estate agents still tend to underdo it.”

Does this describe you?  If so, it may be a key reason why your marketing — however polished and targeted and magnetic it may be — may not be producing the results you desire.

Any relationship takes time and effort and consistent follow-up.  RISMedia posted an article last summer that addresses this, and it concludes with 5 ways to develop a marketing relationship with clients.

(The tips are courtesy of Simon Payne, marketing expert and creator of ReadyToGoNewsletters.com, designed and marketed to/for real estate agents.)

They are:

1. Develop a way of communicating regularly with people, using print newsletters, e-mail newsletters, postcards or greetings cards. Write and design communication devices yourself, or choose an off-the-shelf product.
2. Make sure to provide valuable, interesting and entertaining information to prove your expertise and to be of genuine service to your clients and prospects. Beware of cookie-cutter newsletters that don’t allow you to customize the content. To build a genuine relationship with your farm you need to provide relevant, personal information to your readers.
3. Communicate on a regular basis-at least every month-in order to build and maintain that relationship. People have short memories, so it’s important to have a continual presence in clients’ lives to maintain a strong connection with them.
4. Be aware that building relationships with householders in your farm and with clients is a long-term project — keep communicating with them on a regular basis for months and years to get the best results.
5. Understand that marketing is an investment, not a cost. If, for example, you close just one transaction per year as a result of your newsletter program you will have paid for it many times over.

It’s a great program because has built into it focus, direction, accountability, and constant feedback.  It’s brilliant that it offers a program that is only 28 days, because the mind tends to go into overwhelm whenever it’s subjected to change or something new.  Twenty-eight days is a nice bite-sized, manageable chunk.

C. J. defines marketing as “telling people what you do . . . over and over.”

I believe that’s true, but if you simply tell people what you do — no matter how many times you tell them — without a sense of targeting their specific needs, wants and desires in their specific language, you might as well be talking into the wind.

They float right over their head into the atmosphere.

What is needed is both consistency in telling them your message and using language that attracts and draws them to you, that magnetizes them to you as the obvious, most compelling choice.

If you’ve clearly defined your ideal client and target market, you are miles ahead of the majority of independent sales professionals who somehow believe everyone is their client.  So, if you’ve done this piece, congratulations!

The kicker is that you’re not quite home free just yet!

In the third edition of the book Understanding and Managing Diversity, there’s a section devoted to the subject of Generational Diversity.  “For the first time in history,” it reveals, “four distinctively diverse generations are employed in our workforce:  veterans, baby boomers, Gen Xers, and Gen Yers.”

This presents us entrepreneurs with a special challenge when marketing our products and services.

Brian Clark of Copyblogger fame suggests in the guest article (written by James Chartrand), Are You Talkin’ to My Generation? that we may be focusing on the right target market, but inadvertently turning them off by the tone, feeling and word choice we use in our marketing.

For example, says Clark,

“Gen X might like friendly, slightly cocky content. The Silent Generation may prefer a professional, authoritative tone. Baby Boomers may like a site that stimulates thoughts of self-gratification and leisure. Gen Y might be searching for what’s cool and trendy.

Each generation has a core set of values that define the group as a whole . . .”

He then goes on to give specific ways to match what you say and how you say it with what’s in the minds of the consumer of the particular generation you’re targeting.

Very interesting, don’t you think?

How will you use this information to improve your marketing?

Even in a so-called slow or down economy, however, people are still buying houses.  The question is whether they are buying from you.  If you and your message look and sound like that of every other agent and their message, the answer to that question is probably in the negative.

I recently referred to Marc Davison, co-founder of 1000 Watt Consulting, and once again, he steps up to the plate to ask the following series of pointed questions (in his blog post on Capturing and communicating the essence of your company) designed to assess the status of your ads and marketing materials.

How would you answer?

How well do you advertise your company brand? Are you interchangeable with your competition? Does your brand statement have meaning or is it platitudinous vapor like “First Class Service, First Class Results”, “Making your real estate dreams come true”, or “We hold the key to your new home” — in other words, language used by hundreds of other companies that contain little in the way of true meaning?

Flip through your local paper. Scroll through your company website. Check what you have against others. Are you interchangeable? Could your brand just as easily be confused with others?

If the answer is “yes,” you’re suffering from just-like-every-other-agent-in-the-business syndrome.

Fortunately all is not lost.

First, of course, you need to identify who your ideal customer is and find out what they want.  (Anyone else ready to throw up their cookies the next time a real estate agent says their perfect client is anyone who is in the market to buy or sell a home?)  This takes a bit of work, but the guys at 1000wattblog.com offer a great place to start.

Check out the short 1-minute video they created and watch it over and over until you get it.  (I’ve been referring back to the video for over a year, and I’m apparently not the only one.  It’s been viewed over 11,000 times since the beginning of January 2008.)

At least as interesting as the video are all of the comments on the blog entry!

You’ve viewed the video by now, haven’t you?  So, now that you have your ideal client clearly identified, now what?

Marc Davison says to stop whatever you’re doing in your marketing right now and answer these questions:

Imagine you are the client. Ask yourself these questions:

• What would arouse your interest?
• What would engage your desire?
• What would conjure up a sense of excitement about the process?
• What would serve to define and differentiate your company’s brand?
• What would activate you to go to the next step and make contact?

Get to it so you can stop sucking and start selling (magnetically, of course)!

(By the way, Marc, thanks for the great content.  It clearly has relevance and longevity.)

Just about 2 years ago, however, the billionaire Bill Gates predicted that “Yellow Page usage amongst people in their, say below 50, will drop to near zero over the next five years.”

The truth value of that statement is yet to be seen, but in this Age of the Internet, a compelling online presence is essential for the real estate agent (and for entrepreneurs of every stripe, for that matter).

Why?

Prospective clients expect it.  In fact, they often will pre-screen businesses on the web before (or instead of) they call.  I know this, but I still am amazed every time I speak with a client-to-be or a new prospect or referral partner when they tell me they found me on the web.  Not only that, they tell me everything about me!

Market Hardware’s Fall 2007 edition of their small business newsletter, Web Insider, offered four main reasons potential clients do this.

1. They want to know if you’re credible.  Are you established?  Will you be around for the long haul?  Do you have references or testimonials?
2. They want information.  Can you answer my questions?  Are you an expert in your field?  What do you offer in the way of relevant information that I cannot easily access on my own or obtain from someone else?
3. They want to communicate.  How do I get in touch with you?  Do you have multiple ways I can contact you?
4. They want convenience.  Can I check out your business on my own terms, when I want?

How does your web site stack up to expectations?  Are you giving your customers what they want?