REALTORS® need to understand the consumers journey and develop strategies to help them connect.
by Frank Serio, CRS
As real estate professionals, we need to move beyond basic targeting, tracking and demographic segmentation to drive deeper into our understanding of customer expectations. The goal must be to engage with customers and clients to deliver valuable personal experiences throughout the consumers journey in the buying and selling process.
Today it is more important than ever for real estate agents to better understand that consumer journey, and learn what customers look for as they make decisions about the agent they hire and the home they buy or sell.
Many real estate agents may need to develop a new mindset and create new strategies to help them engage with consumers. NARs 2014 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers finds that consumers work with the first agent they stumble upon 67 percent of the time. Todays REALTOR® must find a way to be that agent. Heres how:
- Focus your message on what makes you relevant to the consumer. Agents need to know their clients wants and needs and deliver information that is important to them.
- Make visiting your website a habit. Agents must give their consumers reasons to return to their website by featuring relevant information for buyers and sellers.
- Think like a consumer. By looking at the buying/selling process through the eyes of the consumer, a REALTORS® marketing becomes more relevant and fosters engagement with the consumer.
- Relevance-based marketing. Agents must offer information the consumer wants or needs and then create Calls to Action. This helps the consumer get the information they need, and it helps the agent learn the customers level of engagement to begin a dialogue.
- Participate in community or topic-based forums. Share community events and happenings. Keep your local area updated on zoning changes and current events. Be the local expert.
- Encourage sharing. Make yourself a platform for your community to share ideas, tips, checklists, recipes, do-it-yourself ideas and more.
- Be hyper local. This isnt your grandparents hyper-local, when they knew everyone in town and heard all the gossip. Todays agents need local knowledge they can share on a global scale through both social media and word of mouth.
- Its all about action! Agents who manage to deliver relevant information consistently will have success engaging with consumers. Its like the line in the film Field of Dreams: If you build it, they will come!
Understanding the consumers anticipated expectations and having information available when the consumer wants it will provide successful REALTORS® with a consistent flow of business. In short: do less selling and more engaging.
Frank Serio, CRS, is a Certified CRS Instructor and broker/owner of RE/MAX By the Sea in Bethany Beach, Delaware. He can be reached by email or his website.
