You need a personal brochure to give to prospects and send to friends. The style variations are many, but use full color. The general appearance of your brochure says something about you, just as does the car you drive. Of course, the brochure will show your name, your photograph, your company name, and your main phone number. Try to use only one phone number. You are in a better position to choose a number rather than hoping your prospective clients will guess which one of four or five numbers to use. They are sure to find four or five numbers more confusing than impressive. You might also detail your accomplishments. Those with too voluminous a list of accomplishments must limit their brochure to truly major triumphs or risk excessive verbosity.
Those without accomplishments can philosophize on their personal style of real estate, their caring ways, or offer some other subjective dialogue. Include a brief personal statement or letter to your clients-to-be describing your method of operation and how it benefits them. Remember that they do not care what you have done or what you will do unless it relates directly to their agenda. Maximize the “personal-ness” of your brochure: No one is hiring real estate agents; they are hiring people who can handle real estate. Do not forget the old adage “less is more” meaning in this instance that the fewer words you use to convey your idea, the more effective a brochure you will produce. You might include testimonials. They can be powerful, especially if you can attribute them to your past clients. And it is twenty times more effective to have someone else brag about you. Again, pay special attention to the overall appearance of the brochure but do not agonize over the words: You really need a brochure, but no one will ever read your words.
You might wonder whether you should develop a logo, an image, a design, or a trademark that people would immediately associate with your “brand” of real estate. In a very few cases, when a name itself suggests an unmistakable picture, such as a first name of Rose or a last name of North, a logo might be appropriate. (But pass on the personal logo idea if your name is John.) Otherwise, skip the entire idea: It merely adds clutter to your marketing effort and dilutes the focus of your program. Do not delude yourself into thinking you are General Motors or IBM. Save your time and money: Dealing with the Trademark Office can be excruciating. The most appropriate logo for most of us is our photo. Get a good one in full color with direct eye contact.
It is time that we each have a presence on the World Wide Web (www). Simple web pages are readily available from many sources, including many brokers and realtor.com at a reasonable cost. More elaborate sites with multiple pages can be an important addition to your marketing arsenal. Conduct some research (surf the web) on what other agents are doing. Visit www.davidr.net and several other sites of agents in your area. Your web site is your on-line brochure.
Review the suggestions above concerning your personal brochure when you are designing your web presence. Also include some real estate information that buyers and sellers will find helpful. Your web address should be as short and simple as possible. There are two ways to use your web site. You can hire professionals to improve your ranking on important search engines so that your information appears near the top of the list in random searches. This can cost hundreds of dollars monthly. A more conservative approach is for you to publicize the site to your friends and prospective clients directly: Be sure that your web address appears on all your promotional materials.
In any event, develop a slogan, seven words or less, that captures the essence of your real estate practice, your credo. Use the slogan on your personal brochure, on your web site, on your business card, and on every piece of correspondence that you send.
When you’re done preparing your marketing material, consider the following: Once upon a time, there was a truly great real estate agent: Licensed as a broker, a CRS (Certified Residential Specialist), a GRI (Graduate of the Realtors Institute), a MVP (Most Valuable Player), with lots of experience, lots of sales awards, and lots of client appreciation. Smart as a whip, Mensa qualified, out in front of the crowd. This agent wrote real estate books, front page articles for major newspapers, and lectured buyers, sellers, and agents. And this agent appeared on local and national TV programs as a recognized expert.
In short, the epitome of the better mouse trap. And what do you think happened? In a very short time, nearly all the buyers and sellers in this agent’s market area were lining up, begging to become this agent’s clients. Unfortunately, there was very little business left for the other 6,999 agents in this particular market area and most of them were forced to find alternative employment. Meanwhile, the perfect agent, unable to handle all the business, was forced to turn many prospective clients away.
Make sense? A true story? Guess what: Save your time and energy if you think being the perfect agent is your key to success. Learning your business and becoming an expert is certainly worth pursuing so that you can serve your client’s best interests, as well as for your personal satisfaction. But if you think that achieving a high measure of success, expertise, or recognition will, in itself, cause clients to line up at your door, you will be sorely disappointed. There are effective ways to have clients line up at your door, but there is no magic in technical expertise or any other specific virtue. Attempting to bring your stellar accomplishments to the attention of your public-in-waiting via newspaper, radio, or TV advertising will meet with a hearty “Ho-hum.” Being great and advertising it does not work.
Why is this, you ask? The answer lies in the fact that we are seen by most people as a commodity: Each as indistinguishable as grains of sand on the beach. Most of our public does not even look for differences. Many see us as a necessary evil: The monopolizers of the MLS. The simple truth is that people are all different, and no agent is right for absolutely everyone, despite accomplishments, level of expertise, winning personality, or any other factor, even with the best self-marketing materials. The corollary of this axiom is that almost any agent, even the most inept among us, is right for someone. So smile, your next listing is lurking right around the corner.
