These latest marketing strategies are paying off | Private Equity Weekly

it is Marketing and Branding Month Here in Inman. As we enter the competitive spring selling season, let’s take a look at some of the proven strategies and cutting-edge innovations that are closing deals in today’s market.We will also recognize industry marketing and brand leaders through Inman Marketing All-Star Award.

In 2023, there were 1.6 million real estate agents and only 4.1 million transactions, compared with 5 million sales in 2022 and more than 6 million in 2021. With interest rates and inflation showing no signs of easing anytime soon, what about an easy-to-use strategy with proven results in today’s tough market? Jimmy Mackin, co-founder and CEO of Curaytor, has the answers you need to succeed.

Curaytor is a marketing and strategy firm that works with 600 of the country’s top teams and had sales of approximately $25 billion last year. As CEO, Mackin has the unique opportunity to understand what everyone is doing in their markets, synthesize that information, and develop strategies, software and services to help Curaytor customers achieve better results.

“A lot of agents are feeling a little unprepared at the moment because they’ve been chasing a lot of business, but if you lead with value, you can attract clients instead of chasing them,” McGinn said.

How today’s market is similar and different from the Great Recession

During the Great Recession, we experienced the Global Financial Crisis and the Subprime Crisis, which left many people underwater (i.e. owing more debt than their homes were worth). Things are much different than they are today due to tighter lending standards and recent price increases.

Today’s market is like the Great Recession and competition is fierce.

As former RE/MAX CEO Nick Bailey said, “Today’s agents are going from burnout to bankruptcy.” McGinn attributes this to an overly competitive environment.

Curaytor 2023 Year-End Survey Results

At the end of 2023, Curaytor conducted a survey of customers and found that more than 90% of customers were optimistic about 2024 and looked forward to an interest rate cut in 2024. Interest rates are currently not expected to fall until May or June at the earliest.

“A lot of brokers are stuck waiting for the market to step in and save them,” McGinn said. “My philosophy is if you wait for interest rates or inflation to come down, you’re already dead in this market.”

Using 5D to drive home sales

McGinn urges agents to take responsibility for their own success and focus on the “five D’s,” the milestone life events that drive real estate transactions no matter how the market changes.

Rev Real Estate School goes a step further and identifies the “9 D’s” that drive sales, which can help you determine where you should be prospecting. (The asterisk indicates traditional “5D.”)

1. Diamond (Marriage)*
2. Diapers (household size changes)*
3. Degree (graduate from college, medical school, law school, etc.)*
4. Downsizing (seniors selling after kids move out)*
5. die*
6. Trash can (the owner is renovating it)
7. Hardship (unemployment, financial hardship, medical expenses, etc.)
8. Desk: (job changes, promotions, transfers, longer commutes)
9. Dog: (a new dog brings to mind a yard and being close to a park)

How to position and take advantage of market opportunities

In today’s market, McGinn says, you have to be customer-centric, develop a habit of doing revenue-generating activities every day, and take advantage of what he calls “marketable moments.”

Here are the steps to follow:

• Start with a contact database of your clients, territories, and social media contacts. Your goal is to send at least one detailed CMA to one of them every day.
• Don’t settle for sending a regular CMA like most agencies do. McGinn agrees with me that you should provide an “equity report,” or as I like to call it, an equity check.This includes your regular CMA as well as those from NARRPR.com.
• As for who to send it to, look for past clients, members of your niche, or people who live in the area where your farm is located and have experienced a significant jump in net worth over the past five or more years. McGinn calls the situation a “marketable moment.”

Assume that a past client’s home has increased in value by $250,000 over the past five years. Here is an example script that McGinn recommends you use on social media:

I just did a professional value report (equity check) for one of my clients and they were shocked by the results because they had acquired $250,000 in equity over the past five years.

Since it has been a while since you have had a professional home value report done for your property, please send me a DM (direct message) or leave a comment below. I’d love to prepare one for you today.

This approach often elicits responses from people who want to know the value of their home.

Using Instagram’s “Cheat” Codes

“One of the Instagram cheat codes is to use Instagram polls,” McGinn said. To apply this strategy to your business, use the same method above along with the following script:

I just did an equity report for a client of mine who had acquired $250,000 in equity over the past five years. Would you like a report on your home?

When someone responds to the poll, “I can just slide into their DM (direct message) and talk to them to get their address and then prepare a report for their property,” McGinn said.

Exploration around newly listed areas

Here’s a slightly different version of the above script that you can use when looping around a new inventory. Mackin recommends pulling the names of 100 homeowners near your new listing who have owned homes for at least seven years and contacting them via email using the message below.

I just completed an equity report for one of your neighbors. They have received $250,000 in equity over the past five years. If it’s been a while since you’ve had a professional look at your equity, give me a call or text. This is my number: (###-###-####).

Then, print 100 of these letters and mail them to all 100 people.

“This is what a hyper-personalized marketing campaign targeting these people looks like,” McGinn said. “But don’t stop there. Expand this idea to your Facebook profile, your Instagram profile, and your farm to maximize the value of this very simple strategy.”

The biggest listing attraction experiment in real estate history

In the fourth quarter of 2023, McGinn and Tom Ferry made a plan called “Make $100,000 in 100 Days.” Some 2,400 agents agreed to participate and implement their ideas. Their experiments turned out to be a major success.

• Agents participating in the program recorded 18,000 listings in the fourth quarter of 2023, generating $7.5 billion in business.
• Agents are coached to start a marketing campaign to create a conversation, as shown in the example above.
• Optimizing your strategy around “D”-focused conversations means you’ll be talking to people who have to move and care less about inventory, inflation or interest rates.
• One of the big takeaways from this research is that 11 real estate-related conversations are equivalent to 1 customer.

ZMA strategy

Mackin said their research found another tactic that generated 1,000 listings for the 2,400 agents in the study. Their “ZMA strategy is a lightweight version of the CMA strategy above.”

Here’s how it works:

• Go to your database and find the address of one of your customers.
• Using your phone, pull up the Zestimate for the property on Zillow.
• Take a screenshot of Zestimate.

To start a conversation with your customers, text them and say:

I viewed your property on Zillow earlier today. I decided to check out your Zestimate. They estimate the value of your property (Zestimate value). I have my opinions, but would love to hear your thoughts.

because new Federal Communications Commission Rules It has become more difficult for brands and companies to reach consumers without their consent due to regulations limiting contact without written consent and the popular trend of artificial intelligence voice calls impersonating others.

“We need to inject more fun and creativity into our conversations with customers,” McGinn said. “I know I sound old-school on this, but if you focus on providing value to consumers rather than tricking and baiting them, you’ll attract people instead of chasing them.”

vicious circle

Whether you are a new broker or a 40-year veteran, there is a pattern that consistently causes large swings in production and hurts your broker’s success. Most spend more time on lead generation when agents are new or need more leads to fill their pipeline. The problem is that when they get busy, they reduce their lead generation activities, resulting in a drop in production.

To avoid a vicious cycle of large swings in production, Mackin recommends that you consistently apply the CMA and ZMA methods above and discuss the value of your property with at least one person every day.

Let them see you sweat

McGinn believes the biggest marketing and messaging mistake we make in real estate is telling everyone it’s easy. The result is that consumers believe agents are overpaid.

“We in real estate have the worst public relations people on the planet because we have a lot of people who work really hard and they get lumped in with people who have nothing to do. If we can’t solve this problem ourselves, we can’t expect other people to solve it That question,” McGinn said.

“If you think all agents are the same, that means you’ve never worked with a great agent.”

Instead of posting a picture of a happy family in front of the house and saying they are new homeowners, you need to slow down and describe everything needed to close the deal. McGinn provides the following examples of what to say:

I have been working with these clients for eight months. We visited 21 properties, went through seven bidding wars, and had two deals fall through, but we ended up buying them their dream home.

“I think agents are doing themselves a huge disservice by not showing they sweat,” McGinn said. “On the seller’s side, talk about the money you invested in the property, talk about the process you followed to prepare consumers to negotiate with buyers, talk about inspections, staging and marketing. Show the work you’re doing, not just you The results achieved.”

“Every agent should do the following: Get Google reviews, share success story videos online, and create case studies outlining your efforts to sell a property,” McGinn says. “This should be on every agent’s radar SOP (Standard Operating Procedure).”

McGinn also recommends sharing the institutional knowledge you have in your head with your client and consumer base. Showcase your expertise because today’s consumers don’t want to work with amateurs – these days, only professionals.

McGinn’s final suggestion

McGinn’s final piece of advice comes from J.D. Rockefeller: “Action solves everything.”

“Stop waiting for interest rates and inflation to come down. Take action, start more conversations, and you’ll book more appointments and get more clients,” McGinn said.

“Get off the sidelines, be in the game, and have the mindset that action solves everything.”