Marketing – Karen's Perspective

Should You Be Marketing to Women?

According to the State of the Nations 2009 Housing report, “social and economic trends have given women a more powerful presence in housing markets. Between 1980 and 2000, the number of households headed by unmarried women increased by almost 10 million.”

Interestingly, single female buyers accounted for nearly twice as large a share as single male buyers for both first-time buyers (24 and 12 percent) and repeat buyers (17 and 9 percent).
Twenty percent of recent home buyers were single females, and 10 percent were single males.

11 / 09 / 2011
No Comments

Unique Ways to Sell a Home

Ferdinand Cheval Palace - France

In case you haven’t noticed, there are a lot of homes for sale right now. How are you going to get yours noticed? How are you going to get yours sold?

In today’s market, it will take more than painting the walls and trimming the bushes to get noticed, to stand out, to make your home memorable. Dropping the price is something everyone’s doing. What can you do that other sellers aren’t? What can you add that’s different?

Here are some ideas I’ve tried:

11 / 03 / 2011
6 Comments

Do Your Customers Trust Your Brand?

I’m off to pick up my new car. It’s 2000 miles away. I’m buying a used (2004) BMW sight unseen.

I asked my husband, “am I crazy? I haven’t seen it or driven it. Plus, it’s a convertible and I’ve never driven a convertible before.”

His answer was short and sweet, “you trust the brand.”

Yes, I do. I have a BMW that I absolutely love. I’ve driven it for eight years with no problems. Tune-ups and tires – that’s it. I definitely trust the brand.

Do your customers trust yours? It certainly got me thinking about our customers – our buyers, sellers and employees.

Who are your customers? What have you done for them lately? What do you do for them consistently?

Do your customers trust your brand? Do you give them reason to?

09 / 28 / 2011
No Comments

Marketing

36 Ways to Find Leads

Meeting

Here’s a list we shared in a power point during one of our coaching trainings. What can you add?

Other Investors                            Mortgage Brokers
Real Estate Agents                   Private Money Lenders
Mentors                  Newspaper Ads
Websites                                         Internet

09 / 12 / 2011
No Comments

How Much Should You Spend on Marketing?

billboard

Anyone can open a business but, if you want customers, you’d better be marketing.

The million dollar questions are: how much should you be spending and what’s the most effective way to market?

How to market depends largely upon which audience you want to reach. The over 70 crowd may not be using the internet as much as you think and, if your target audience is 18-25, you’d better be on Twitter.

But for the majority in the middle, a “layered” approach is what we use. By “layered,” I mean that we use lots of different media. First, of course, we’re online. We have websites, I blog, I write online articles for ActiveRain and Ezine. These are what get you higher in Google rankings so clients find you when they search online.

09 / 06 / 2011
No Comments

Cold Calling vs. Direct Mail Marketing

Cold Calling

Cold calling is a marketing technique where you approach the client or prospect, usually on the phone or now through email, without them expecting to hear from you.

With cold calling, you get a lot of “no”s, you get hung up on, you’re interrupting people’s pattern and their day, they’re annoyed by you. Sometimes, you call that lonely person who wants to talk on and on about what’s going on in their life. It’s always good to be a help to others, but this may not be the highest and best use of your time.

Running in a hamster wheel is a great comparison to cold calling. As long as you’re prospecting, making outbound phone calls, approaching prospects, you’re generating business. When you step off the wheel, your business stops.

Direct Mail Marketing

08 / 17 / 2011
No Comments

Marketing

Let’s Go Girls..

daffodils

According to the National Association of Realtors, in 2010, single women made up 20 percent of all home buyers while single men accounted for only 12 percent.

The Joint Center for Housing Studies listed the three main reasons single women are buying homes in record numbers as: to relocate closer to a job or family; because they need more space; and, the number 1 reason is that nurturing female instinct, a strong desire to nest.

Women are a force in the workplace and make better salaries than previous generations. They understand the need for creating their own security and, divorce rates being what they are, no longer sit back hoping someone else will provide for themselves, their children and their future.

Later in their careers, divorced women and female retirees are downsizing on their own.

When buying or selling, the fact that single women account for one fifth of all buyers is a valuable number to have. In sales, it is critical to know your target audience and craft your product to meet their needs. Have you noticed automobiles with flower holders built into the dash? The automotive industry studies who their buyers are and so should you.

Armed with this knowledge, how will you market and stage your properties differently?

07 / 14 / 2011
No Comments

Do you use social media?

Facebook is the New AOL

I recently went to a Social Media event in Knoxville, Tennessee. At that event, I was thrilled to meet Jay Baer, one of the foremost Social media strategy consultants, a coach and speaker. Jay is the man behind ConvinceandConvert.com. If you don’t follow him yet, sign up now.

This post is largely taken (with his permission) from his presentation in Knoxville.

Starting in 1992, America Online (AOL) spent more than $300 million sending floppy disks and later CDs to U.S. households, to entice citizens to sign up for their dial-up Internet connection service. (Don’t we all remember getting those disks? My boys used them as tiny frisbees and loved to find ways to break them..)

At one point during that period, more than 50% of all CDs created in the world were for this AOL campaign, and the company spent an eye-popping 10% of lifetime customer value (LTV) on customer acquisition – $35 for each new customer worth an average of $350.

05 / 27 / 2011
No Comments

Online Marketing

What do you use to get the word out? There are so many free ways to market your “for sale” properties or to find properties in any area of the country.

The above ad is one of our listings that I just entered through Postlets.com.

What online sites do you use?