Effective advertising not only brings in sales, but it also adds to your face to face effectiveness. When meeting a perspective client the meetings tend to go a lot smoother if they recognize you form your advertising campaign. There is an assumption by many potential clients that you must be one of the more effective agents in your community if you have a strong ad presence. Perception is everything in sales and marketing.
Along with my other advertising I leased signs in the two largest shopping centers in our town. Since putting up the signs my face and name recognition has improved tremendously. My slogan has been a big winner for me. I meet people daily who will reference my slogan. "Not Just Another Pretty Face"
One afternoon I got a phone call from a teenager who was with a group standing in front of the theaters. He called to verify I was Daniel's dad. While looking at my sign they told my son, that is not your dad. That guy is a rich dude. So to settle the argument they called the number on the sign and asked if Daniel was my son.
I get stopped regularly by students at my youngest son's school who want to meet me. They see my signs and picture in the papers and believe I must be a celebrity.
In February I wrote a blog post: I Was Asked for My Autograph Today
The point here is that when we are marketing we are looking for two things:
- Name and face recognition (an introduction)
- Leads and sales (the phone ringing)
To achieve those goals we must find ways to stand out in the crowd and we must be consistent.
New agents starting out leave marketing out of their business plan. That is a giant mistake. Marketing is critical in every business, especially when you are trying to build a client base.
There are some inexpensive things you can do:
- Signs/ magnets on your vehicles. (I said vehicles; my wife has them on her car also)
- Real estate shirts or name tags (I wear mine 7 days a week)
- Sale and open house signs with your pictures on them
- Fridge magnets (the business card that doesn't get tossed out)
- Business cards (color with your picture)
- Give your cards and magnets to friends and family and ask them to give them out to friends, relatives and co-workers.
Feel free to add marketing ideas to this list.
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have them along with the stuff I added since.
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;)
