Content(less) Marketing Advice

A well-known publisher in the real estate industry (no names please!) just published a very visible article submitted by a contributing editor.  The purpose of the article was to give state-of-the-industry practical tips for creating and maintaining client loyalty.  In other words, how can you really get your client’s attention?  Sounds good, right?

Post-closing marketing to homeowner clients is a very important subject.  Unfortunately I think there are more questions than there are good answers.  For decades many real estate professionals sent Happy Birthday postcards and Christmas cookie recipes at holiday time via snail mail.  At best, some professionals sent a regional newsletter showing county or state trends and a market forecast that always seemed to be optimistic.  Not exactly targeted content.  You won’t be surprised to hear that, over the years, this has proven to be ineffective.  So much so that many Realtors stopped mailing their clients and gave up hope on maintaining close contact.

Along comes the Internet and email (years ago, now) which makes contacting anyone as easy as clicking the mouse.  With all the data now at our fingertips (Google, Zillow, etc…) one would expect real estate agents to up their games to send informative, “breaking news” style information to their clients about the red-hot real estate activity on their street and important updates about their home and mortgage.  These highly targeted market intelligence communications would go out four to six times per year, for as long as the client owns his or her home.   Unfortunately, this isn’t happening…not even close.  Last week my Realtor sent me an email with the riveting subject line “Happy anniversary on the purchase of your home.” 

Back to that article promising help and a “wow” experience.  Unfortunately…that promise wasn’t kept. The author recommended, among other very generic suggestions, the real estate professional conduct “homeowner checkups,” quarterly check-in calls, and finally….drumroll please…wait for it…Happy Birthday and home purchase anniversary cards!  Can you feel the excitement?    Sadly, in thirty years it would appear we’ve made no progress when it comes to effective marketing.

13% of all Realtors never get a repeat transaction. 60% get very few, and this is one of the primary reasons why.  The industry would be much better off if it followed the Golden Rule of Post-closing Marketing:  Never send your client a single thing that you wouldn’t want them to send to you.