Making an emotional connection to begin a relationship with your prospects is necessary for getting new clients. It's what personal marketing is all about. If this were not true, those Sunday newspaper ads with your company name, photos of homes and agents' head shots would keep the phone ringing at least all day Monday, if not throughout the week.
By far, the best way to connect emotionally with prospects AND help them remember you is to use your personal brochure or Web site's "About" page to tell them a story. A story grabs attention and keeps prospects engaged. Plus, stories have the uncanny ability to fly under prospects' sales radar and deliver your message straight to their hearts.
See which of the following examples engages your interest ...
- Example #1 - Story-based information delivery
Marcie's love for sales began one fateful Saturday when she was just a sixth-grader growing up in the small town of Mason, Alabama. Marcie's parents owned the local drug store where her father was pharmacist and her mother was the store's only clerk. The drug store soda fountain was a popular hangout for local teens, and Marcie's big brother worked part-time as soda jerk. It was the middle of flu season. Both Marcie's mother and brother were sick, so Marcie had to help out. "I'd never had as much fun as I did that Saturday morning selling cherry Cokes and making change," she said. "And since that day, the thrill of making sales has never left me. Only now my passion is for selling real estate instead of cherry Cokes."
- Example #2 - Fact-based information delivery
Marcie grew up in the small town of Mason, Alabama. Her parents owned the local drug store where her father was pharmacist, her mother the clerk and her brother the soda jerk. Occasionally, Marcie had to help out. This was the beginning of her love for sales.
Which example do you think you'd be more likely to remember next week?
Now, if that were your story and ...
Your prospect grew up in the era of the 1950 and 1960's drug store soda fountain, the story in example #1 triggers a wealth of memories connected to all kinds of emotion within him.
And even if the prospect is younger, movies like The Last Picture Show and the TV series Happy Days and The Wonder Years are such a part of our shared culture and the American psyche, that the story in #1 still has the power to trigger a younger person's emotion-filled memories.
Maybe your story would be about your love for fishing ...
Or maybe it's about the fun you have gardening with your daughter ...
Or coaching Little League.
It doesn't have to relate to sales.
But whatever it is, my point is that stories paint vivid pictures in prospects' minds, and these pictures conjure up memories, which are tied to emotions.
And therein lies your story's power to make emotional connections with your prospects.
What story can YOU share in your personal brochure that would get you out from behind the Realtor® mask and show prospects you're real?
Writing for your success,
Kay Steele Faulk
The Real Estate Copywriter
P.S. If you'd like to WRITE YOUR OWN COPY for a new personal
brochure or your Web site's "About" page, I've created a GUIDE
to help you out.
It's entitled "A Copywriter's Guide for Real Estate Professionals - How to Write & Lay Out Your Own Personal Brochure." Check it out at www.RealEstatePersonalBrochure.com.
If you found this post helpful, you may like "What is a Personal Brochure and Why Should You Care?"
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Kay Steele Faulk, The Real Estate Copywriter
Specializing in Real Estate Sales Letters and Real Estate Personal Brochures
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In the Heart of the Mississippi River Delta ~ Lake Village, Arkansas
Direct 870-265-9897 | Cell 870-265-6266 | Email kfaulk@InHouseWriter.com
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