Great Property Marketing Requires Sacrifice

How do you craft a compelling marketing message that draws the perfect buyers to your listings? It’s all about the principle of sacrifice, said Laurie Moore-Moore, founder of the Institute for Luxury Home Marketing, based in Dallas.

“Don’t waste your time bringing in people who won’t buy the house,” Moore-Moore told REALTORS® on Friday during a session on how to develop a successful marketing plan for luxury properties at the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® Conference in New Orleans. “Sacrifice those people and focus on the ones who will buy.”

For example, if you’re struggling to get offers on a beautiful home because it has a miniscule backyard, create a message that targets the small pool of buyers who would see that negative feature as a selling point. The headline to use in your marketing messages: “Backyard Removed for Your Convenience.”

Or, if you can’t seem to find any positives for a condo that’s just like all the others in the building, only it looks out onto a brick wall rather than the city skyline, try a headline like “Willing to Trade View for Value?”

“Target the prospects for whom view is not an issue,” Moore-Moore said. “Sometimes the negative is your best hook—it becomes the reason to buy.”  

Moore-Moore emphasized the importance of writing an interesting and descriptive headline that’s used in your printed marketing materials, your social networking communications, and possibly even on your For Sale signs. (Tip: Never use the property address as the headline!)

Once you draw the prospects in with a great headline, follow up with a story that defines the home’s lifestyle and calls out the most unique aspects of the home.  

“Recognize that marketing is storytelling,” Moore-Moore said. “Ask yourself: What is different about the house that competitive homes can’t say? You have to find that special story.”

—Kelly Quigley, REALTOR® Magazine