1.  Facebook is where it’s at.  If you’re not on there yet, what are you waiting for?

2.  Email marketing works best when you target your niche.  Broadcast emails hit everyone; niches pinpoint your perfect client.

3.  Craigslist is hot for real estate.  Advertise there and see!

4.  Print marketing is still relevant.  Emptier mailboxes this year meant your piece got more impact than ever before.

5.  Cutting your marketing budget will cut down your number of new clients.

6.  Clean up your contact database and treat it like gold.  Once it’s cleaned up, keep it current and up-to-date.

7.  Learn all you can about mobile marketing.  Sign up for other companies’ mobile offers and study their successes and failures.

8.  Ask for referrals.  Provide the best customer service to ensure clients talk (well) about you everywhere they go — especially online!

9.  Start texting if you haven’t already.  Understand that the youngest home buyers (and sellers) often prefer texting to other forms of communication.

10.  Engage.  Online and off line.  Be accessible, honest and open with home buyers and sellers.

Now that 2010 is almost over, what marketing tips would you add?  What have you learned about marketing in 2010?

What does this mean for you?

Grandparents may or may not be in the market to sell or buy a home themselves…BUT their children and adult grandchildren are more likely to be looking to buy or sell a home–with their parents’/grandparents’ help.

Why target grandparents?

Grandparents today are more likely to be better off financially than their children or grandchildren. This means that grandparents are often able to provide monetary gifts for down payments on homes, making them a prime contact to get them into the mode of thinking about helping their children and/or grandchildren purchase a  home.  They may even be in a position to outright buy a home for their child or grandchildren — for example, purchasing a condo for a grandchild going away to college.

The key to capturing the attention of grandparents is NOT reminding them of their age.  Try an ageless approach staying away from images of “mature adults.”

To get the best return on your marketing dollars, the grandparents you target need to live in an area where they are more likely to live in close proximity to their children or grandchildren — thus being able to give you their home buying business directly.

What has been your experience targeting grandparents in your local market?

A group to watch right now is the tween/teen (ages 8 to 18) market.  This group already has a huge influence on what their family purchases and have a significant amount of disposable income.

Flash forward a short 10 years to 2020.

These same tweens will be in the desirable and much-marketed to age group of 18 to 28.  This is a segment to be watched.  According to Kaiser Family Foundation’s research in 2009 entitled Generation M2 Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-year-olds:

This age group uses electronics, on average, for 53 hours per week.  And, because they are often multi-tasking (video games while texting, surfing the Internet while watching TV, etc.) they are actually managing to access about 10 hours and 45 minutes of media into the 7 hours and 38 minutes per day that they are using electronics.

• 32% of their time is spent watching TV
• 25% of their time is spent on a computer
• 20% on a mobile device
• 6% on a radio
• 6% with print media (like magazines, newspapers, etc.)
• 5% on a console video game
• 4% in movie theaters
• 3% with CDs

Other interesting takeaways include:

• This age groups spends about two hours a day with media on a mobile device such as a cell phone.
• They spend about an hour per day online viewing television or music content that many older demographics use a television or radio to view.
• Cell phones are used less frequently for conversations than accessing media.
• In their bedroom, over 70% of this age group has a television while about 33% have a computer with access to the Internet.
• Heaviest media users are those ages 11 to 14, African-American and Hispanic youths.

The message to take away from this is that in 10 years, the media mix is going to be heavily targeted toward these online media.  If you want to reach the next big wave of first-time home buyers, you’re going to have to be tech savvy.

Will you be prepared to target the 18-28 age group in the next decade?

Part counselor and part real estate professional, offering services to owners in financial turmoil can be rewarding for the seller in terms of providing them with hope to resolve their predicament and beneficial for you in terms of increased business in the long term.

To be able to service this niche market, you need to be informed and educated on the pre-foreclosure process so that you can pass along the relevant information to the homeowner, address their questions, and explain the how to effectively short sell their home.

If you are seeking to reach those homeowners who are in foreclosure, behind on their mortgage payments and finding no way out of their unmanageable monthly payments, you can be their go-to resource.

Promote your experience and availability. Discuss short sales on your website and blog, social media sites, mailings, phone calls, conversations, where ever it could lead to helping someone. Explain the steps of foreclosure. Point out sources of loan modification. Remind prospects that you can help them…if they contact you to discuss their situation in a timely manner. Remind them that all inquiries are confidential.

After researching through your local government sources, consider canvassing neighborhoods especially hard hit. It may be that there are more distressed homeowners who are unable to realize the severity of their predicament and you can provide them with options that they didn’t know that they had.

Let us know how you are finding distressed prospects and working the distressed market to help homeowners in trouble.

Tied directly to Dan’s presentation on the value of niche marketing for short sale listings, is his new e-book SHORT SALE MARKETING: How To Beat Your Competition To Short Sale Listings.  This e-book exclusively for real estate rainmakers takes the first comprehensive look at the offline and online worlds of short sale marketing.  Dan demystifies short sale marketing and details the proven strategies of cross-linked marketing, social media marketing, Craigslist campaigns and multi-channel marketing with practical and proven methods that have spelled success and profitability for top short sale specialists.

Short Sale Marketing illustrates that real estate rainmakers who are able to take full advantage of one of today’s hottest markets — and who know what works and what doesn’t work — are a step above and a step ahead of their competition.  The key is knowing how to bring in more leads and more short sale listings while spending less time and less money.

For a limited time, new subscribers to Gooder Group’s RAINMAKER NICHE SITES for Short Sale Sellers get a free copy of the e-book with their initial set-up. The e-book can also be purchased for $69.95 by contacting Gooder Group.

Let us know how you are capturing short sale sellers in your market.

Use code 2525 to sign up; if your registration is rejected, that demo time slot is filled so please select another time.

Did you know? 

• Foreclosures are expected to go up 10% in 2010 to nearly 2 million…the highest annual total in history…according to Moody’s Economy.com.
• Millions of ARMs will reset this year, creating a new wave of foreclosures to crest in late 2010 and spill over into 2011.
• Nationwide foreclosure rate won’t peak until after unemployment goes down, perhaps late 2010 or 2011, NAR economists predict.
• Short sales and deeds in lieu will reach 490,000 this year nationwide, up from 313,000 in 2009, according to Moody’s estimates.

Gooder Group guarantees you’ll take away at least 3 new ideas for today’s short sale market that will dramatically improve your productivity and produce more money for your business.

RSVP today and let us know how you will start targeting short sales in your market.

The Direct Marketing Association has identified in their research that the older segments of society are more likely to read and respond to direct mail more than any other age group.  And, because of the many choices people have in every area of their life in terms of entertainment, food, transportation and services, many home buyers and home sellers are open to trying new brands — which means that they may be primed to use a new real estate professional when it comes time to buy or sell a home and welcome an introduction to your services.  (A note for another time is to discuss how to garner home sellers’ and buyers’ loyalty since they are so apt to flit from brand to brand (or agent to agent) at every home buying and selling opportunity.)

The bottom line is that if your niche marketing identifies a mature population segment, be sure to incorporate direct mail into your marketing efforts with this niche.  It’s a proven way to reach this group effectively and efficiently. 

Do you target older populations in your area?  What has been the most effective way to communicate with this group to win over their business?

On Wednesday I discussed finding that special group of people (your niche) who are most likely to be ready to sell (and probably buy too) or just buy would require lots of research and leg work.  You’re looking for exact names who are being targeted for a reason (likely to move due to life stage or age of home, etc.).  You don’t want your marketing piece to be addressed to “Happy Homeowner” or “Current Resident.” 

Once you complete the task of finding that group of people and getting their exact names, the next important step is making sure you are sending them a relevant message.  You want to make sure that when you are targeting a special group, you’re giving them a special message with a specific call to action. 

• First-time buyers have special needs. 
• First-time sellers need a little more guidance than repeat sellers.
• Short sale sellers need as much assistance as they can get.

When you choose a niche, you need to be the expert in that niche and showcase your knowledge.  Make sure your marketing is working in tandem with your goals.

What niches have you discovered and how are you making your message relevant to your targeted group?

These are great broad strokes defining your market.  Niche marketing is taking it a bit deeper and pinpointing exactly who it is (maybe not by name, but close!) that is ready to buy or sell.

Very specific examples include:

• All the homeowners on several streets in a specific neighborhood who have owned their homes for 20 years or more.
• The parents of kids who are the youngest in the family graduating from the local high school.
• Families in month-to-month apartments in your area who have relocated to the area for employment.

These are very specific niches with the potential business.  Getting this information isn’t easy, but the work involved, if you are able to pick these specific people out of a mailing/contact list could prove to be very lucrative for you. 

Let us know how you are defining your niches and how you find those in the niches you define.

To start your week off, here are some helpful blog posts to give you some background and guidance to start your niche marketing plan.

How To Get Started

Why Specialists are Always Paid More than Generalists

When Is a Niche Not a Niche?

Trending Topics: Niche Marketing

Let us know what other questions you might have about niche marketing. We’re here to help you find your niche and discover new business!