Marketing a Home in the 21st Century (part1)
Posted by Scott Norris on Wed, May 19, 2010 @ 09:32 AM
Buy now, I have hopefully demonstrated that home marketing today is all about the internet. In truth, the internet is just the medium that has allowed a broader form of marketing to take root - the notion of inbound marketing.
The best way to define inbound marketing is to define it's opposite - outbound marketing, also known as interruption based marketing. Outbound marketing includes avenues like direct mail, TV/radio advertising, newspaper, telemarketing, and more recently email. Your first clue that outbound marketing is dead should be the huge industry that has arisen to "protect" us from receiving the messages of outbound marketers. We now have Tivo that filters TV ads, Sirious subscriber-paid radio that eliminates most radio ads, do-not-call lists and caller id keep telemarketers off of us, and spam filters galore to keep email manageable. You can also read specific newspaper and magazine articles online and bypass all these ads.
Outbound marketing today costs a fortune and is ineffective because people go out of their way to avoid it. And when you do reach someone, they resent the fact that you found them.
Inbound marketing is based on the idea that people like to feel empowered. They like to shop and buy, not be sold to. They want to do their own research and seek advice when necessary, and then only of people they trust. The internet is what has finally given the consumer this power and has given rise to inbound marketing.
It really isn't much of change. In any marketing, you try to get your message in front of your target customer. The only caveat is now get it front of your target audience in a place where they want to see it. Yes, your customers still watch TV, still listen to radio, still read newspapers, own phones, and have email accounts, but they are going to take extraordinary measures to make sure your message doesn't get through. So why bother. Put it where they will look for it - where they want to find it.
The trouble with approach when it comes to selling real estate is that it is very passive compared to say, the 1990's approach to home marketing. Sellers that haven't sold a home in a while usually think that their agent isn't doing anything because today's marketing techniques are not "in your face" like the 1990's and earlier.
To see what your agent has done, you have to go looking for it, much like a buyer would. You aren't going to be able to pick up the newspaper every week and see an ad for your home. There won't be an open house at your home every weekend, if ever. Instead, you are going to have to rely on stats - things like page views, clicks, emails sent, emails opened, etc as proof that the marketing strategy is working.