If you are interested in achieving market leadership in your local marketplace think of yourself more like a celebrity and think of your luxury or other real estate marketing business more like a media. It may seem like a big stretch, but those who make this shift in thinking will be the big winners for years to come.
Create a plan to parlay your reputation and personal brand into celebrity status. Here are the three keys to the plan:
- Develop a celebrity/media mindset
- Build your audience, consistently
- Gain and maintain visibility
Your Mindset: You need to think of your business not only as luxury or other real estate marketing practice, but also as a media with your brand as the star. This is not about pretentiousness; it is about becoming a savvy marketing expert. How can you expect to win trophy and otherwise listings if you cannot demonstrate to the sellers, through your personal marketing, that you are the superior choice over your competition?
Instead of being what we call a “transaction engineer”, you must become a marketing company who also processes transactions professionally. This is the metamorphosis that most agents are unwilling to do, which is why it represents such an outstanding opportunity for you, if you do it right. High net worth clients expect you to have integrity, local market knowledge and excellent negotiating skills, just like your closest competitors. But, how will you stand out from the pack? How will you gain top of mind/celebrity status? Those are the questions!
Your Audience: The best way we have found to quickly increase your sphere of influence and leverage your personal brand is through a buzz-worthy blog. Blogging is a vehicle for self-publishing. As your own media, you do not need to answer to an editor. It puts you in control and enables you to capitalize on the primary promise of social media: rapidly amassing a sizable audience of raving fans.
Do not forget to include print marketing, postcards as part of your visibility. When your sellers insist on print advertising look at it as an opportunity to promote your brand. One of our clients bought the cover page of a magazine, and her seller was so delighted that she took magazines to other sellers in her community to show what “her” agent had done…The return on investment to our client was 5 new listings in the community.
Your Visibility: Managing your reputation, maintaining your star power, and staying visible in your marketplace are essentials. When you achieve high visibility you put yourself in position to parlay your celebrity status into additional revenue streams.
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