Target Marketing & Niche Marketing
I t 16’ad 90sa e opr i s m l e aat ko n s nh 90s n 17’l g croao e p yd t i nw a e r tn o cc mass marketing. In other words, they used different media to reach millions of potential customers and offered a broad based marketing campaign to appeal to the consumers. This worked for decades but more and more companies, and real estate professionals have now turned to a relatively new concept called target marketing. Target marketing uses a strategy of targeting smaller groups of people, linked by some unique characteristics and focusing a specialized marketing campaign to win the customer. For instance, a computer manufacturer that produces a new hard drive may want to target consumers who already owns a computer and needs to upgrade their equipment. They may develop a brochure that focuses on the high cost of new computers and the relatively inexpensive cost of purchasing their product. In addition they could contact a computer magazine and purchase a mailing list of potential customers who already own computers that are compatible to their new equipment. Then they could mail the brochure and within a couple of weeks follow up with telephone canvassing. Ism ot totsuneour efforts in our business by using broad t i pr nnto qadr ’ a marketing plans. The new focus in real estate is niche marketing. Identify some group that you want to target and tailor a special marketing plan around this niche. You will find that consumers will respond far faster and far more frequently. You could develop your targets around a demographic group of people for instance firemen, hospital workers, or people with VA loans. Agents that attempt to be all things to all people will not be competitive in the digital century. Because consumers are becoming much more sophisticated they simply demand more of the salesperson. An agent that tries to be effective specializing in ranches, low income housing, commercial and business opportunities, and bare land will not be able to adequately keep up with all of the changes that are taking place in each market segment. They will inevitably be outclassed by someone who creates a unique niche to the specific market segment and does nothing else.
In every professional occupation, specialization or building specific niches has created new opportunities. Look at physicians, in the past each town had one doctor he or she was called a general practitioner. They would be all things to the townspeople shifting from surgeon, to a pediatrician, to delivering a baby, maybe all in one day. But over time as more technology, and techniques were developed it became increasingly impossible for one person to possess all of the information to successfully treat each problem. The general practitioners were forced to refer some of their patients to specialists. Some may have fought the trend, but the decision was soon removed from them. The patients made the choice. Given a choice between a specialist and a general practitioner, if someone had an identifiable problem they simply chose to go directly to the specialist. The results: Doctors who chose to specialize made far more money then general practitioners, patients with a specific problem receive better treatment, and breakthroughs in technology and treatment techniques occur more frequently because of specialization. How does this affect you? The future of real estate is clear. The agent of the next century will not sell all types of property. In order to be successful they will choose one aspect of the market and create a specialization around the niche. Agent’who can recognize this trend now can shift their business s towards specialization and position their micro-company for the inevitable. People measure the value of any service by using this formula: PB V=---PP V = The value of your service measured by whether your product or service iw r m rt h / rhnt cso m nyt ee ot ri . s ot oeo i h t is ot f oe, m ,f r o rk h m e a ’ i f , s PB = Perceived benefit, is the benefit of your product or service that the prospect perceives to be of value to them. Each prospect is unique, one may value one service or product higher than another or they may perceive it as being of no value.
PP = Perceived price, is the true cost of your product or service to the popc Is o j th dlrot eas ia o e t tt pr p o rset t nt st o acs bcuetl r a soh e et n .’ u e l , s le e c i of your clients. They may assign some risk to using your product, or the cost of time, and effort of using your service may represent a cost. Sales are made and closed when the perceived benefits out-weigh the perceived price. Specialization increases the value of your perceived benefits to the consumer because the consumer perceives your knowledge of the market area to be more accurate.
Consistency of Target
O c w hv et lhd o ea em re tg a e ism ot to ne e ae s b se sm t gt a t o o f r t i pr nt ai r ks t,’ a not only be consistent in our prospecting efforts but we also need to be consistent in who we are contacting. What we are trying to accomplish is to have people think of you when they are considering a real estate change. If we only contact them once a year we can never have the top of mind awareness that is critical to our success. Your marketing message should hit at least 6-9 times a year to create impact.
Consistency of Message
Not only should we prospect daily, use a system, and keep hitting the same group 6-9 times a year we also need to have a consistent message. In other w rsyu edo ae t m t tushog yu m ren. t l e od,o ne thv ah eh rn t uh or a t g Isi e a r ki ’ k hitting a nail on the head with a hammer. The system and the plan are the hammer, the nail is the message that we are pounding into the prospect. The more times we hit it, the more impact we have. If we switch nails or messages we have to start all over again, pounding that nail. This does not mean we are going to repeat ourselves, it simply means that if we have been focusing on a personal service theme for several months, and t n e udn s iho I t b gsR ao it n, m yae h w sdel wt t“ m h i et el rno ”i a t e y c ’ e g t w t k more time to see results. Identify what you want to convey and make a plan about how you will best accomplish the theme.