Ryan here: my very first job out of post secondary was a co-op position at the one of the largest North American advertising agencies, Young and Rubicam (Y&R). Think of Mad Men of the late 1990’s, with beer carts, ping pong tables and client parties. Like most ad agencies, there were mergers and acquisitions. As a result, I eventually ended up at BBDO in both Toronto and Vancouver. I had the opportunity to work on accounts like Telus, Taco Bell, Moosehead Beer and many other great brands.

After that, I moved into marketing roles at Indigo Bookstores Head Office, A&P (now Metro Grocery stores). It was a combination of utilizing prior advertising skills, while developing sales skills. This allowed me to sell new programs and ideas- many which worked, but also many that failed!

My last corporate stop was in sales at Kimberly-Clark and Nestle. I ended my corporate career on a high after managing years of succesful sales teams. This included calling on the countrys largest retailer, Loblaws and Shoppers Drug Mart.

Like many things, in the moment you don’t realize what skills you’re learning or what experience you’re gaining. Those realizations come after the fact in most cases when you can re-apply the learned skills in new roles or jobs.

Real estate marketing: looking in from the outside

I actually got my real estate license in 2015, but didn’t do much with it. The plan was always to slowly wade into the real estate role to get an idea of how it worked. I could do this without fully committing. If I didn’t think it was going to work out- I would just let my license expire and stay the corporate course.

What I realized was that real estate in Guelph (and not exclusive to Guelph, but most any other city as well) was that marketing was relatively consistent. And by consistent I don’t mean bad. Consistency has it’s place- but sometimes it’s rooted in convenience or lack of creativity. In that, much of the marketing is done without any regard for whether it actually produced results. Because of course, that was the goal of marketing- to produce results, clients and ultimately a sale.

Coming from a corporate job I had a different skillset and experience

Again- not that it was any better or worse, it was just different. “Fresh eyes on the industry” you could say. But I felt that much of the skills I had picked up along my sales journey (particularly at Nestle where it was very entrepreneurial), would be useful.

I thought that our market was missing what I could provide: a market authority. Someone who could come in and act as a leader within the market. After all, it’s exactly what I had been doing for 10 years prior. For the sake of space I won’t bore you with the specific activities/ tactics I used, but feel free to email for more info.

So, here are my first 3 tips for anyone who is looking at high level ways to improve your real estate agent marketing:

1. Marketing 101: the USP

I read a book recently called “The 1 pg Marketing Plan” by Allan Dib. Well, I didn’t read it, I listed to it on Audible, but that’s not the point. Chapter 2 talks about developing a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This was something that wasn’t new to me, I had developed USP’s for 20 years. This was before going full time into real estate. But, it was something that sorely lacked in real estate itself.

A USP is something that makes you stand out from the crowd- what makes you different. Marketing with things like “free home evaluations” or “exceptional service” or “passionate about real estate” could be claimed by anyone. It doesn’t mean anything.

Think about your hobbies and skillset. What do you like to do that could help you stand out? What skills has someone told you that you have? Example: you’re a skilled chef and a real estate agent, maybe you could create a niche of the “cooking realtor”? Maybe you’re very analytical and could provide insights that would appeal to data geeks? Your USP doesn’t have to be specific to real estate, but it’s something that sets you apart. From there, it could guide your marketing.

2. Don’t be afraid to fail. Because, no one else cares

Early in my career, at every single annual Performance Evaluation, I would get the same feedback. My boss would say “you have great ideas, but you don’t bring them forward”. The reason was because I was afraid of the feedback, or because I thought someone would think it was a terrible idea.

So, I started bringing forward my ideas (which was terrifying at the time) and guess what? Nothing happened! In fact, many people were supportive of my ideas and embraced them. And when that started to happen, I did it more often. And then, people started asking for my ideas proactively. They were almost disappointed when I DIDN’T have an idea.

Because real estate is so public facing, so many people feel that they can’t show failures. But the reality is that the public doesn’t care as much about you as they think. They have their own problems to deal with besides judging you. It’s mostly a you problem.

Failures have led to some of my biggest successes in my career and I have no problem failing. At least I tried and I likely learned a valuable lesson along the way. In fact, some of my failures have created my biggest successes.

Afraid of recording yourself on video?

Do it. Afraid of it not being perfect? No one cares, and in fact your audience would likely embrace it more.

Afraid of public giving real estate advice for fear of people correcting you? In 6 years, that’s never happened to me. Other realtors don’t care about your videos, they care about their own videos. I’d encourage anyone to risk it, and put themselves out there.

3. Create a plan and be consistent

I met a real estate agent once who told me that he spent $20 on Facebook ads. When they didn’t get a new client as a result, he stopped doing it. True story.

I also met a real estate agent who had a bus bench ad. This was a single location- and didn’t get any calls. So they stopped it because it was a waste of $200/ month.

Both of these were predictable failures. And I hope, like in my #2 point above, that they learned something from this failure. They should have learned that a single advertising element, without a plan is destined to fail.

Before I went full time in real estate, this stood out to me the most. Real estate agents like to look at advertising in an unusual way. If I spend $5, I want to earn $10 from it with a month. And if I don’t, it failed and I need to move on.

Marketing, like many things in life is about consistency. It’s also about diversification. If you choose to do marketing as a realtor, you need to have a plan and execute against it. This means through thick and thin. Sometimes, some marketing elements take time to kick in and consumers need to see you time and time again. As a result, you will earn their trust and so that they can remember you. A $20 Facebook campaign will never achieve that.

Have questions about real estate marketing?

Get in touch with Beth and Ryan Waller for more info