In today’s digital eon, securing attractive print ads and posting detailed listings on MLS databases is rarely – if seldom – enough when it comes to real estate marketing. Customers demand much more than one-size-fit-all services, including generic social media promotions. Buyers look for personalized offers that fit their needs and budgets; sellers want to target only those who can afford to clinch the deal; and both seek guidance in navigating the real estate market. For agents, sorting through the complexities of disparate marketing strategies and utilizing the latest technologies to meet the expectations of their clients is not always easy or feasible.
Haute Residence talked to Isaac Klein, a Florida-based real estate broker with extensive marketing expertise, about the craft of reaching the right audience, at the right time, through the right medium.
How is real estate marketing different from any other type of product/service marketing?
There are many similarities, but some of the key differences are: reaching a niche audiences to buy or list properties within specific demographics. With real estate marketing you want to reach an audience that has an intent to purchase or sell property. Also with real estate, you need to be patient. Other industries and verticals are products and services that people might impulsively buy or use more regularly, real estate transactions are rare in a person’s life, so it’s important to know when to reach audiences.
You use advanced data targeted marketing. What is it and what does it involve?
Advanced data targeting is the ability to reach precise audiences using combinations of filters to pin point just those who you wish to reach. Advertising a $5-million property to a $500,000 buyer has little purpose and is inefficient.
Without the data filters it would not be cost effective to run these campaigns. Broad-based internet ads have little to no results, the key to using these channels effectively is to reach the precise audience one wants to reach, so that the cost is effective in achieving the result.
How does marketing at SipKlein, your independent boutique real estate brokerage, differs from that of a larger realty?
The marketing performed by SipKlein is one of kind, there is nothing quite like it. SipKlein uses many different online and offline channels to reach buyers of high end properties. Typical franchise brands that we see in every city across America actually do very little to market the client’s home. They are not creating data targeting marketing campaigns getting clients homes in front of niche buyers globally the way we can.
The typical franchise agency, whether it’s considered very upscale or standard, will market that property within their existing network of clients. They do this through brochures and magazines that go to their current mailing lists. There is one problem – that existing network might only cover 5% of the real estate market. Our targeting reaches 99% of the active real estate customers.
You were the CEO of an Internet marketing firm. What techniques from that endeavor translate into your current work?
As CEO of NGM Media, I had founded and managed several very popular websites. I have since sold these assets with my most notable site reaching over 7 million customers in the career vertical. More than servicing local clients, we managed these web assets and developed new internet marketing technologies relating to tracking, email and network marketing. Growing a website to 7 million customers requires a lot of marketing across many channels, similar, but different from real estate. The principles are the same and some of the tools are the same, it’s the execution and targeting that is the biggest difference.
What are some of the biggest mistakes you see in real estate marketing committed by realties and agents?
The biggest mistake is the lack of internet marketing. Agents think posting a listing on their personal Facebook is internet marketing – not even close. Agents need a professional business page for their real estate brand, and then they need to use that account to effectively (hint: the ad manager) to market the property, but these are not easy skills to acquire – I was trained directly by Facebook and Google for years because of our generous spending budgets giving me a unfair advantage with these tools.
How do you see the future of real estate marketing?
I see more agents learning the advanced techniques I have acquired over 10 years in Internet marketing professionally. The biggest change will not be how agents market, but how they can provide more value to their clientele since most customers are online finding the properties they want to see. Agents should focus on selling more than just the homes they list, but also on themselves, their brand and by providing resources to clients they might not already have.
Isaac Klein is the exclusive agent representing the Coastal Balm Beach and Balm Beach Island, Florida real estate market as a member of the Haute Residence Real Estate Network. View all of his listings here.
