Unusual and creative marketing tactics can set you apart from the competition. Here are some unique steps CRSs are taking to make sure they stand out from the crowd.
By Daniel Rome Levine
Take your hat off to CRS Sandra Nickel for coming up with a creative marketing tactic that has her top of mind for people buying and selling homes in Montgomery, Alabama.
Nickel is better known around town as the Hat Lady. It’s a moniker she came up with 33 years ago when she was struggling to make her start in real estate. On the verge of giving up after a year full of disappointments, she was knocking on doors introducing herself to strangers on a 9 degree January day when a man asked her inside and, without warning, placed a brown-tweed fedora on her head to help her keep warm.
She wore the hat the rest of that day and winter and was astounded at how many people commented on it. Before long, people were calling her office asking for “the woman in the hat.”
Nickel, who worked in marketing and advertising before real estate, knew exactly what to do next. It was all about the hat. “Once I found my gimmick, my shtick, my marketing background kicked in,” she says.
She bought a toll-free number, (800) HAT-LADY, created a hat logo, put her picture (wearing her hat, of course) on her business card, and later, with the advent of the Internet, created a hatteam.com website. She also drives a PT Cruiser wrapped with a vinyl decal displaying three of her hat logos, slogan, company name, Sandra Nickel Hat Team, REALTORS® and phone number.
Sandra Nickel, CRS, Montgomery, Alabama, leveraged her background in marketing and advertising to distinguish herself from the competition by becoming known as the Hat Lady. Her hat logos and other company branding are prominently displayed on her PT Cruiser.
“You will get absolutely nowhere in sales by blending in,” says Nickel. “Being different is what its all about.”
Employing unusual marketing tactics can be an effective way to set yourself apart from the competition and establish a unique and enduring brand. “Doing something irreverent or out of the box to get people to notice you and your brand can be very effective,” says Keith Fletcher, founder and president of Fletch Creative, an Atlanta marketing firm specializing in brand identity. “As the famous Apple slogan said, ‘Think Different.'”
MARKETING – SANTA STYLE
What better man to get people’s attention than Santa Claus. That’s what Mike Parker, CRS, was thinking when he organized and hosted his first “Family Day with Santa” party 25 years ago featuring Old Saint Nick. Parker, a senior vice president with Huff Realty, in Florence, Kentucky, just outside Cincinnati, still holds the free party at a local golf club every November, just before Thanksgiving. Most years, about 150 families attend.
Parker’s timing is smart. He knows people love sending out Christmas cards with photos of their children on them, and what better way to help them, and himself, than by having the picture show the kids sitting on Santa’s lap at his holiday party. He even has a professional photographer on hand to snap the shots. In addition to sending people complimentary hard copies of the photos, Parker emails them electronic files of the photos along with a quick question: “Are you thinking of buying or selling a home or getting a CMA (competitive market analysis)?”
Parker spends $5,000 on the event and says it results in about $40,000 in business.
Gee Dunsten, a CRS certified instructor and REALTOR® with Long and Foster Real Estate in Ocean City, Maryland, helped produce a seven-minute video for his website last summer promoting the benefits of living in the Ocean City area and introducing potential newcomers to the area. “It cost us $2,500 to make and we are having phenomenal success with it,” he says. “It makes us distinctive and it shows we care about our community. It’s been a real game changer.”
FISHING FOR CLIENTS
In Morehead City, North Carolina, Linda Rike, CRS, of Linda Rike Real Estate, has also found that linking herself with a popular local event can be an effective marketing tool.
Morehead City and the surrounding coastline is a prime destination for fishing enthusiasts, and one of the biggest sport-fishing events in the country, the Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament, is held there every year. The event draws an international crowd of as many as 5,000 people for a week of fishing and related events.
For the last 18 years, Rike has been the tournament’s sole real estate sponsor and it has proven a highly effective way of reeling in new business. “I get calls all the time from people saying, “The reason I called you is because you sponsor the Big Rock,'” says Rike. Being a sponsor means her name and logo, a marlin leaping between her first and last name, are featured on the sleeve of the official tournament T-shirt, one of the most popular items sold at the event and on the tournament website.
Rike invests between $12,000 and $14,000 a year to be the event’s exclusive real estate sponsor and says it results in at least $60,000 a year in business. “I’m really gung ho about being part of this event,” says Rike, “especially because the organizers give a lot of money to charity and I feel like I’m giving back to the community.”
For more tips, check out the CRS bundle of three eLearning marketing courses.
