Focus your marketing campaigns by finding your niche. After all you wouldn't go to a tax lawyer when you need a real estate lawyer to write a deed. So why be an "everything" agent when you can carve out your piece of the market to dominate. Wouldn't it be great if anytime someone thought of luxury homes yours was the first name that came to mind? Or you were known as the area condo expert? You can come up with a lot of examples for any area of what makes it special. Creating specialized web site is so easy today you can target any market you choose.

Every area is different but some of my favorite niches are:

Babies- Area newspapers will tell you when a new little one has come into the world. A small amount of research through anywho.com or whitepages.com will give you the address of the new family. I have had great luck sending out a congratulations card with the simple hand written message "Congratulations on the new addition to your family! If you have too many feet for your square footage give me a call!" Many hospitals give gift baskets to new mothers - create a gift for that basket with your contact information that will be useful - think pacifier, bottle, baby's first bank shaped like a house, onesie - the list goes on and on.

Vacation Home Owners - Or Second Home Owners. These clients are often out of touch with what is going on around their other home. Market reports of what has sold, pictures of their home off season, information about area services are especially welcome. It takes a lot of research and you must update the list regularly because they can sell their vacation home and yet you are still sending items to where they live full time.

Horse Properties - Or expand to farms. A special clientele in need of large acreage. Sponsor a horse show at your county fair, provide a gift brush or curry comb with your name on it, keep trail information on your web site, advertise in specialty magazines. Run the theme through all of your advertising. Before you start make sure your area had enough need for this niche. You might want to think of it as a side niche with great potential.

Condos- Kinda of a no-brainer. Lots of owners in a concentrated location. Why not create a neighborhood specific web site with calendar that the residents can add information to. Post the condo docs, meeting minutes, announcements and financails in pdf on the site. Or offer to organize, advertise and host a neighborhood yard sale. See if you can attend the Board of Director's meetings. Add their neighborhood to localism.com with lots of pictures. Target your marketing to what is going on in their specific location.

Renters - Convert them to home buyers with mailings letting them know what it costs to own a home in your area. Send them listings with the breakdown of what it will take to live in this home and what the tax benefits of home ownership are. Particularly effective when you can show them homes that will cost them less overall per month when you add in the tax benefits. Lots of potential buyers in a cluster is the way to look at it. Takes longer to cultivate. Two ways to go - mailing to "Resident" or go the extra mile to determine the renters name. Offer them a Home Buyers Seminar.

Seniors- Get your designation as a Senior Real Estate Specialist SRES. Host a seminar series targeted to seniors with topics like Reverse Mortgages, Bathroom Safety, Home Security, Assisted Living vs. Nursing Homes, Trusts, Joint Ownership and Life Estates - How to Plan for the Future. Target a marketing campaign to lawyers who specialize in trusts and probate. Takes quite a bit of research but one way to start is to research out deeds in your area that have been held for 30 or more years. So if it is now 2008 look for purchases made in 1978 plus or minus.

We started with Babies and ended with Seniors - and everything in between. Remember put everyone into your contact data base. One contact isn't enough - you have to get your name in front of the potential client at least 8 times before it will register. Don't give up after a few tries - plan out a year in advance and stay dedicated.

(c) Shannon Aldrich 2008