It seems a day doesn’t go by that a real estate agent doesn’t ask me, “does target marketing really work“? Then they follow that question with a statement of fear by saying, how can I succeed unless my website targets, first-time buyers, luxury buyers, condo buyers, relo buyers, lakefront property buyers and the list goes on and on! My first reply is “absolutely“, target marketing most definitely works! Then I say, don’t let your fear prevent you from experiencing success. The smart ones then say “if target marketing works – prove it“. I love it when they challenge me with questions and comments like that.
Unrelated to Real Estate Marketing – But it’s a Terrific Example!
Most of us have seen the billboard in San Francisco (see photo below) several years back that Google used to
“target” smart programmers for a position at Googleland. How much more targeted can you get? Talk about having your message tailored and focused at a very select group of highly skilled programmers. According to previous post in the blogosphere, all prospective Google job wannabes had to do was write a program, solve the problem and go to the website and upload the solution. If you provided the correct answer and you were instantly hired by Google. Ladies and gentlemen, that’s a excellent example of target marketing!
One More Lesson from the Google Billboard
Notice the job applicants were driven to a WEBSITE! Hello real estate professionals – you should be doing the same thing. If you are using other media to get the eyes and ears of consumers, be sure you’re using the same concept to “drive” your prospects to your website and to your blog with your print media and podcast.
Now For Examples of Successful Targeted Websites and Blogs
This is way too easy! These Dakno clients have a firm grasp of niche marketing and they set an excellent example for others to follow. Take a look:
CONDO MARKET
First up is the South Beach real estate condo agent extraordinaire – Kevin Tomlinson and his South Beach real estate website and blog. Years in the making, Kevin’s website and his blog work in unison to propel him to page #1 search results for his highly competitive luxury condo real estate market in South Beach and Miami Beach. Oh by the way – while Kevin has taken a bit of a hiatus of late – this guy is a blogging machine!
Another agent who knows a thing or two about real estate target marketing is Betty Cutler-Favier. Take a look at this Telluride Luxury Condo website and you will quickly recognize the core concepts to target marketing. Betty’s site uses proper imagery and rock-solid content filled with outstanding keywords to embrace her Telluride Luxury condo market. Because Betty understands the importance of blogging, she is learning the ropes of posting her own content at her Telluride Condo Hotline Specialist Active Rain blog before she launches into deeper waters with her own blog provided by Dakno.
Land and Ranch Market
Even agency website owners understand the importance of target marketing. Take a look at the Sheridan real estate website owned by Bruce Garber. Bruce and his outstanding team of Century 21 BHJ Sheridan real estate agents really know how to turn up the heat on the Sheridan, WY Land and Ranch side of the business. If you own a real estate blog and you are experiencing a bad case of writers block, Bruce and his team has devised outstanding strategies to engage the community to help maintain his Sheridan Blog. Using target marketing is a trait Century 21 BHJ understands and embraces. This is what makes this agency a formidable force to be reckoned with in the Sheridan real estate market. If you’re wondering where Bruce’s website sits with Google for the search term Sheridan land and ranches, try page 1, position #1!
Farm and Estate Market
Successful Brian Chase with The Chase Team Online in the Charlottesville real estate market is another real estate professional who understands the value of target marketing. Brian provides his Charlottesville buyers with a predefined Albemarle County farms and estates property search and his Charlottesville/Albemarle County Real Estate Blog. Sitting in position #4 on page 1 for the search term Charlottesville farms and estates, no doubt, Brian and his marketing partner have the top rung of page 1 search results square in the SEO cross-hair!
Small Town Market
Targeting a small defined geographic area is an excellent choice on so many levels. Remember, from a search engine optimization perspective, targeting a small town search term is an easier hill to climb than targeting a large region with huge search results. Kate and Tony Thomas first started a with great domain name with NewAlbanyOhio.com. This successful husband and wife real estate agent team are traditional top performers and their classically designed New Albany real estate website is also highly functional. Perform a Google search and you’ll see Kate and Tony’s website traditionally sitting atop page #1! Combined with their New Albany Real Estate Blog, these seasoned New Albany real estate agents are wisely using all the online tools to maximize their target marketing strategy.
Target – Target – Target!
So if you’re still wondering what it takes to enjoy success with your online and offline marketing strategies, I recommend you follow the lead of these successful agents and target – target – target!
Now it’s time for you to offer your questions and comments.
Until next time,
Bobby
P.S. Ok, I admit it, this post is filled with a shameful amount of “link love“. It’s just a small way to say thanks to our clients for their long standing relationship with us! Happy Kevin?
Hey Dakno!
I’m back! Just posted. I’m back! I’m back.
Happy!
Glad to see you’re back!
I think this post is right on “target”. It seems it’s much easier to be successful getting a lot of a little rather than a little of a lot.
Great post! Love it.
We’ve built a scalable brokerage model based entirely on target marketing through a network of hyper-local blogs across the US (rolling out this year). We’re looking for agents & brokers that “get it” to partner with us. If you love tarket marketing, check out Diamond Dwellings Realty
Brad – Totally agree!
Matt – Appreciate you stopping by to read and comment.
I totally agree with you as I have a target site and blog. The site was successful so I wanted to keep my lead so I started a blog about a year ago after the Active Rain exposure.
How often I’ve heard agents ask, “Does this (fill in the blank)marketing work? The fact is, whether it’s direct marketing, cold-calling, web marketing, etc., ALL marketing works! No, I’m not kidding, ’cause it’s true. The simplest(and silliest)example I know of this is the following marketing “plan”: Take a rock, go outside and throw it as hard as you can, and wherever it lands, look for the closest human being to the rock, then walk up to them and introduce yourself to them and ask, “Are you in the market to buy or sell a home in the near future”? If they say no, pick up the rock and throw it again and repeat the process. It may take a while, but EVENTUALLY you’ll find someone who says YES! You could also go to the mall and yell the same message and eventually get results. Now, I wouldn’t recommend that you go about marketing yourself this way, but it DOES WORK. Some real estate trainers actually get paid to “teach” this particular strategy: after all, it’s just a “numbers game”, right? “Target” Marketing” (like all marketing) DOES work, especially because it provides a smaller “funnel” of propects with similar demographic or psychographic profiles to target… smaller funnel easier target. But I’ve seen large funnel, much less targeted real estate marketing that IS successful as well… You’ll just spend MORE time and MORE money because of not differentiating yourself from the crowd… AND you’ll have to do more work and smarter work to attract those “less than quality” propects with your follow-up marketing (i.e., PAY someone else to throw the rock for you, THEN, have them offer a rebate when they finally talk to someone 😉 I know an agent who has over 10,000 people in her database; she doesn’t target at all but does do a TON of business. I guess it comes down to efficiency and bang for your time and resources buck… BTW, can anyone direct me to what they feel is a TARGETED 1st Time Homebuyer site(s) that actually gets business?? I’d love to see someone doing this target market justice that makes money doing it.
Hi Greg, I equate the rock throwing exercise to “interruption marketing”. My suggestion is to “show value” first. Give away free advice and then ask for the business. How you “ask for the business” should very depending on the environment. If you are at a chamber meet and greet event and you throw “your rock” and ask are you or do you know of someone who needs to buy or sell real estate? As you know you be prepared to receive a “cold shoulder” and many strange looks. If you ask me, I suggest you drop your rocks and get into the conversation, “conversational marketing” that is.
Next topic, does target marketing work? Ask Kevin (Mr. South Beach Condo Guy) Tomlinson. Ask My First Cleveland Home agent Keith Ramach of Westerville, OH. Then ask Phoenix Waterfront Property Pro Gordon Baker. There you have it, a condo target market, a FTHB target market and a Waterfront property specialist. Check those target market pros out.