Real Clues

[RealClues] #334: The Seven Steps of an Effective Marketing Campaign

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New for July 16-31, 2008, at www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com (See Featured Products for detailed descriptions)
Six Tried and True Prospecting Strategies
Build Your Business on the Best
Taming Your Inner Gremlin: Eliminate Negative Self Talk
How's the Energy in Your Home? How to Create a Supportive Environment

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Table of Contents
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1. CoachingClues: The Seven Steps of an Effective Marketing Campaign
2. Welcome Notes: Even More Turbulent Times Ahead?
3. Reprise: The Lead Generation Shoot Out
4. Create a Better Life: Four Strategies to Reduce Your Stress
5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg): Good News about Days on Market, Fewer Foreclosures, and much more
6. Luxury Clues: Quintess in Tuscany Rocks, Italian Cooking School, And You Thought Gas in the U.S. Was High!
7. Featured Products:
*Free Coaching Session
*What's New at ListenandLearnRealEstate.com for July 16-31, 2008
8. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching
9. Give Us Your Feedback on this Newsletter
10. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe

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1. CoachingClues: The Seven Steps of an Effective Marketing Campaign
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Most real estate agents advertise, but very few have effective marketing campaigns. Do you know the difference?

Jennifer Cummings is America's leading real estate marketing coach. She helped Christina Martinez, America's top-producing real estate agent, increase her commission earnings from $4 million to $7 million in only seven months. What's the secret to her success--marketing rather than advertising.

According to Jennifer, most real estate agents advertise, but very few know how to market. "Advertising" creates attention and promotes an image or brand. "Marketing," in contrast, compels someone to buy. Marketing is the number one way to build your business. An effective marketing campaign has seven steps.

1. Practice "Potato Chip Marketing"
Jennifer calls this "give-to-get marketing." Imagine that you are on a reality show. To win $100,000, you must persuade 20 squirrels to eat out of your hand. Your only tool is a bag of potato chips. You are taken to a park where you must stay within 100 feet of a park bench. How would attract the squirrels? You certainly wouldn't run out and say, "Here squirrels, come get these potato chips!" That would scare them off. Instead, you would lay out a sequential trail of potato chips to attract them to where you were sitting. They will come to you only when they feel it is safe and that they can trust you.

Today's clients seek relationship and trust. They want to "try before they buy." Potato chip marketing is about uncovering their needs, building trusting relationships, and providing service before expecting people to do business with you.

2. Target market
When you ask most agents who their clients are, their response is, "Anyone who wants to buy or sell a home." In contrast, effective marketing always targets a specific group. Your message must match the audience. For example, if you were marketing a luxury penthouse, your message would be quite different from the message for first time buyers.

The next step is to decide what medium you will use. Will it be a postcard, print ad, or a web marketing piece? You must also decide the purpose of your piece as well as the message you want to send. Will you offer a special report or a checklist of pitfalls to avoid? To obtain the information, do they leave a message on your 800 number or can they download the item from your website?

3. Research your target market's wants and needs
To generate leads, you must know what makes your target market tick. Search for commonalities. Make it about them. This means doing your research before you begin your marketing campaign. For example, are members of your target market concerned about schools, down payment, or neighborhood safety? As you go through this process, keep in mind that you're not in the real estate business; you are in the problem solving business. The better you are at solving problems and at providing value, the better your business will be.

4. Develop a hook
A "hook" is a headline or hot button. Because we're constantly bombarded with advertising, it's important to cut through the clutter. You only have one or two seconds to grab your reader's attention. The Reticular Activating System (RAS) is the brain's screening mechanism for what receives attention. While your subconscious can process up to a billion bits of information, you can only consciously pay attention to about 15 bits. A great hook cuts through the clutter and captures their attention. Some examples are, "Save up to $100,000 on Your Next Mortgage!" or "Avoid the Seven Most Expensive Mistakes Sellers Make."

5. Keep them reading
If the piece is about you, readers will toss it. Instead, engage them in "coffee talk." This means to write the way that you speak. Aim for the seventh grade level. "Coffee talk" copy is salesmanship in print. It's about your customers and speaks to them in an easy, conversational tone.

6. Layout to stand out
"Legibility" refers to the "quality of print that can be easily read." "Readability" refers to the "quality of language that makes it easy to understand." Use short paragraphs, bullet points, headlines, and sub headlines to keep the eye engaged.

7. You must have a call to action
What differentiates advertising from marketing is a call to action. Prospects are begging to be lead! Remember, they want to try before they buy. On the other hand, they don't want to talk to you. Make it safe for them to contact you by creating a free hotline where they can order a special report or a checklist that will help them with their sale or purchase. You can also make the same offer on-line.

Ultimately, service is at the heart of attraction. We are paid according to the value we give. Get excited about creating value for your clients and being the resource to solve their problems. When you approach your business with a give-to-get mindset, you'll never want for business.

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2. Welcome Notes
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Welcome to our new subscribers this week. Each week RealClues provides you with great strategies to improve both your business and your life. If you find this issue of RealClues helpful, take a moment to hit the "forward" button and send it to another friend in the business.

Do you have a marketing campaign for your business? If not, use today's column as a starting place. Also, we have two DVD's Jennifer did at our conference that discuss Potato Chip Marketing (http://www.realestatecoach.com/training/potato_chip.html) in detail as well as how to have a "R.I.C.H. Life." Jennifer charges almost $20,000 for her coaching services and as a favor to me, she has generously agreed to share this information with you, are valued readers and clients.

For the last nine months, I have been beating the drum about being positive about the market. There is good news out there now on a variety of fronts, but I'm not going to sugarcoat this issue. Lending standards are about to get much tougher, especially if Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae start having problems. The Feds are not going to let them go under, but today they indicated they are no longer willing to bail out any other lenders. Bottom line, we still have turbulent times ahead.

What can you do to be prepared? The most important step that you can take right now is to invest in your personal training. Please don't put this off. Agents who are strong negotiators are doing well in this market. If you want to increase your skills, our Listen and Learn Real Estate (http://listenandlearnrealestate.com/) program is the best way to get extensive training for less than a $1.00 per day. The current library has over 60 different podcasts with eight new podcasts every month. Make a commitment to sign up for one month for $29.95 and do at least one session per day for the next month. Invest in you--it's the smartest move that you can make.

Make it a great week.

Bernice Ross, MCC, and Byron Van Arsdale, MCC
www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.RossdalePress.com, www.ConferenceCallTraining.com, and www.TeleconferenceLine.com

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3. Reprise: The Lead Generation Shoot Out
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Are you struggling to obtain leads in today's market? Would you like to tap into web leads but don't know the best way to do it? If so, check out this article that first ran in 2007 to learn more.

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4. Create a Better Life: Four Strategies to Reduce Your Stress
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If you're feeling stressed out by the market and by the constant time crunch we all face, it's time to shift gears and dump the stress that you are experiencing. If you want to dump the stress, click here (http://www.realestatecoach.com/articles_archive/art200705-reduce-stress.html) to learn how.

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5. Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg)
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Foreclosure numbers improve, spring sales numbers are up, and many markets are improving. Buyers seem to be realizing that interest rates have hit bottom and are on their way up. If you need good news now, tune in to hear this week's Positive News for Positive Realtors(reg)

http://listenandlearnrealestate.com/news.html

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6. LuxuryClues.com
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*Quintess in Tuscany Rocks
*Tips from Italian Cooking School
*And You Thought Gas in the U.S. Was High!

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7. Featured Products: Complimentary Coaching Session &
What's New at Listen & Learn Real Estate
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Are you struggling to control your time? If so, a coach can help you grow your business and still have time for a life. For a complimentary coaching session with a member of our coaching team, please email us at, information@RealEstateCoach.com. Coaching gave me my life back--isn't it time to reclaim yours?

**New at www.ListenandLearnRealEstate.com Eight new audio broadcast training modules EVERY month for only $29.97 per month or $147.00 for six months. Here's what's new for July 16-31, 2008:

*Six Tried and True Prospecting Strategies
If you want six strategies that really work, check out our tips on the best strategies for prospecting expired listings, FSBOs, past clients, and door knocking. Best of all, this session gives you the BEST possible closing gift that will not only generate more business for you, it's also 100 percent deductible.

*Build Your Business on the Best
The "best" business strategy for growing your business is based upon what you do well. This session provides you with four proven coaching strategies to grow your business now.

*Taming Your Inner Gremlin: Eliminate Negative Self Talk
Often times the biggest obstacle to your success is your own negative thoughts. Edgar Allen Poe called these self destructive thoughts and urges the "imp of the perverse." Richard Carson calls this beast a "gremlin." This session shows you how to rid yourself of negative self talk while also giving you three proven strategies for "taming your gremlin."

How's the Energy in Your Home: How to Create a Supportive Environment
With all the challenges you face daily as an agent, you need a place where you can retreat from the stress and renew your energy. Different rooms in your home have different energies. This session tells you how to identify the energy in each area of your home as well as how to create your own escape from today's hectic lifestyle.

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8. Increase Your Production with Personal Coaching
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Looking for a well-trained coach who knows the real estate business? Our coaching team can help you increase your production and make your dreams come true. Send an e-mail to Shane@RealEstateCoach.com and we'll help find the right coach for you.

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9. Give Us Your Feedback On This Newsletter
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We want your feedback-to share your thoughts and suggestions, please e-mail us at Shane@RealEstateCoach.com.

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10. How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe
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Visit our Web site, http://www.RealEstateCoach.com to subscribe/unsubscribe to RealClues.

Copyright (c) 1996-2008, RealEstateCoach.com and Teleclass4U.com, LLC. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute RealClues as long as this copyright notice and full information about contacting the contributors to this newsletter is attached.

Contributors to this newsletter:
Bernice Ross, MCC, and Byron Van Arsdale, MCC, Owners, www.RealEstateCoach.com, www.LuxuryClues.com, www.ConferenceCallTraining.com; www.RossdalePress.com; and www.TeleconferenceLine.com
Shane Bowlin, REC General Manager

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