Never stop evaluating your marketing.
Without sounding too much like a survey, always ask buyers a couple of questions about your marketing when they call for the first time. Where did they see the listing they are calling about? Were the pictures clear and sharp? If you have the time and the caller doesn’t seem rushed, you can always ask a few more questions later. A leading statement such as, “I just started using a new photographer. Can you tell me what you liked and disliked about the photos posted on the listing? Did the photos encourage you to give me a call to see the home in person? Be sure to keep notes. Knowing how buyers are finding your listings and what prompted them to call or send an email enquiry tells you a lot about where to beef up your advertising and how effective the advertising you are doing is working.
Your marketing is not just about home sales. You are marketing yourself with every listing you have. Find out from clients why they listed with you each and every time. Keep a spreadsheet or a simple piece of paper with their reasons that they signed with you rather than another agent. If the photos compelled the seller to list with you and the buyer to make initial contact, you may want to notate the doublet.
Advertising is part of being in and growing a business. To maximize the work that your advertising dollars are doing requires keeping written records of each time you can correlate a customer to a specific campaign. As a real estate professional, you get bombarded daily with all sorts of sure-fire lead generation systems, the same system that made the advertiser X millions of dollars on their very first day, that can be had for the low price of $$$ if you act right away. A microscopically few of them might even work, but you won’t know if they work any better than sending post cards to every address in a zip code unless you keep track.
©2015, Kenneth Brown. All rights reserved.