The Most Overlooked Marketing Tool

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Sharon Van Poperin
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I’ll be starting a quarterly feature on the Builder Guide entitled, “Marketing and Design 101.” My goal is to have these serve as a refresher or a checklist of sorts to help you get the most out of your printed marketing pieces and online presence.

Business card example

Gottscho-Schleisner Collection (Library of Congress)

Let’s start with the most basic tool of all–the humble, or not-so-humble when we get done with it, business card. Your business card may be the first impression your prospect has of your business. Here are a few do’s and don’t’s to consider the next time you need to print more cards.

Do’s

  1. Use a good, solid paper, and consider an aqueous coating on the front, leaving the back a matte finish for notes. It’s worth the investment for two reasons. It will hold up to wear, and it will send the right message. Think of a business card like a handshake. Do soft handshakes instill confidence?
  2. Write our your URL’s, because you don’t want to make people work to find your pages. (Facebook URL, LinkedIn URL, Blog URL)
  3. Have a QR code to your website or Facebook page in addition to writing it out. This is another example of making things easy for people.
  4. If you use your picture on your card, have a current one from the past five years or so, not a Glamour Shot from 1988, please. You know who you are.
  5. Use both sides. Seems simple enough, but your logo, contact information, picture, social media information and QR code just won’t fit nicely all on one side. Trust me on this.

Don’t’s

  1. Don’t get too funky with the size. I love the creative cards I see once in a while, but I err on the side of practicality. If the person you give your card to still keeps cards in a file, a larger one in particular won’t fit in the little sleeve and into the circular file you will go.
  2. Don’t overload each side with too much information. This will make the type small and the card hard to read and use. The same goes for the font you choose. Make sure it’s legible at each size of type.
  3. Don’t get the free cards from a certain online printer. Those will carry that printer’s web address, which will make you look unprofessional and cheap.
  4. Don’t put a tip calculator or other gimmick on the back of your card. Yes, it may be helpful, but you’re wasting valuable real estate, pun intended.
  5. Don’t print color on one side and black and white on the back. Present a unified image.

A well-designed card has the power to get you noticed. It’s an integral part of your overall branding. What do you consider as important elements to have on a business card?

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New School and Old School Equal Success

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Sharon Van Poperin
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Let me share an anecdotal story with you. Before I go into the office each morning, I take our chocolate Lab for a walk. On one of our regular routes, I’ve passed by this particular house that has been for sale for months. MONTHS. Now, San Antonio is one of, if not the, healthiest real estate markets in the country, so maybe the owners have purple carpet, and that’s why it hasn’t sold. The house in question has been for sale with the same agent for a good nine months, at least.

Pick a method, any method

The agent in question has used different marketing techniques with their yard sign. Here’s a timeline of what I’ve observed:

  • First, the agent had a sign rider with a QR code and a number to text for more information.
  • Those went away, and out came the color flyers.
  • Now, the agent has black and white flyers with no QR code.

Raises some questions

Observing this timeline made me think about the strategy of this agent and the effectiveness of these various techniques.

  • Were the QR codes not resulting in traffic to the embedded link?
  • Was that link a very distinct one, where traffic would be easy to quantify, i.e., a landing page on the agent’s own website, rather than the Realtor.com listing?
  • Was no one texting for more information?
  • Why not employ multiple tactics—QR code, texting, flyers?

I stepped back, as well, and looked at the issue from a prospect’s point of view. Would I want to text a real estate agent I don’t know for more information, where my phone number would be captured, and all of a sudden I’ve opted into someone’s list? I personally wouldn’t do that. I’d probably scan a QR code or take a flyer and look it up on Realtor.com. Or, if in a hurry, I’d take down the address and look it up online.

Playing to the crowd

Have you made it easy for various types of prospects to find information about your listing? There is innovative technology coming out almost everyday, it seems, but are you staking your success on one type of marketing, i.e., ignoring the offline component? People gather and absorb information in different ways via different means. If you are relying only on QR codes and texting, you may be alienating buyers who would have picked up a flyer, and vice-versa.

An integrated marketing solution will cover your bases and give you multiple touch points to reach interested buyers. How has your traffic with QR codes and texting been?

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What Can You Say in 3 Seconds?

Posted on January 19, 2012 by Sharon Van Poperin
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While signs may seem simple to design, coming up with an effective message that will hold up to a passing motorist or a distracted shopper is much more difficult that one might imagine. Conventional marketing wisdom says that your signage has at most only three seconds to make an impression on the viewer. Here are some ideas to keep in mind when designing signage.

Keep it simple

Since the person viewing your signage will do so quickly and in the midst of other distractions, design your sign with a view to keeping it at the conceptual level. What aspect about your company will give someone the core idea behind your brand? Is there a particular image combined with a memorable phrase that will catch someone’s attention and conceptually reinforce your company’s image? Keeping it simple with a unified design will make more of an instant impression than making your viewer work to read something, which they won’t do anyway. Picture, headline, who you are—that’s it.

Sans-serif font

A sans-serif is a font that doesn’t have any detailing on the end of the letters (serif: example vs. sans-serif: example). A sans-serif font is easier to read quickly. Using a sans-serif font in a large size relative to the size of the sign will enhance readability, especially at longer distances as your viewer approaches the sign.

Minimal amount of text

Someone driving by on the highway will not have the time to read, much less write down or punch in, your company’s phone number, exact physical address or the 20 ways your product can help them. A powerful headline will grab their attention. Your web address will communicate how they can reach you without cluttering the available space with information that is not readily used.

Color

A sharp color contrast will enhance your sign’s noticeability. The color scheme needs to be the same or blend with your company branding or a particular campaign, but try to use a color combination that will stand out from the sign’s surroundings. A light blue billboard may blend into the sky on a sunny day.

Think of the last time you noticed a billboard. The message was probably fairly simple, and the billboard had some unique, especially creative element that made it jump out. What’s the quick message you want to send about your company? There can be power in simplicity.

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Quantity vs. Quality in Social Media

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Sharon Van Poperin
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Using social media effectively allows your to remain top of mind with those who are interested in what you do. In turn, people often think that having a magical number of “likes” or “follows” means that they are “doing the social media” well, but are you reaching who is really interested in what you have to say? Like in all interpersonal communications, the more meaningful relationships you have are fewer in number than your acquaintances. Seems simple, but in the race to use social media, people have forgotten what “friending” really involves.

Understanding your audience to ensure quality

There are those who advocate a single social media presence, i.e., merging your personal life with your professional life, and others who ascribe to keeping them separate. I am in the latter group. It’s a matter of audience and what information that audience is looking for. Do your clients care about what you and your husband ate for dinner last night? If someone decides to like a Realtor’s Facebook fan page, chances are they fall into one or more of the following categories:

  • They are interested enough in your services to maybe use them at some point.
  • They are interested in the area you serve and want information about that area, specific neighborhoods, etc.
  • They have questions about the current real estate market.
  • You are a personal friend already, and they are being nice by liking your page. And personal friends will likely need a Realtor at some point.

The audience for a business has different expectations than a personal friend. In my business, for example, my blog posts, Facebook fan page updates, Twitter feed, etc. largely highlight helpful tips on marketing or design, because my audience is business owners and marketing professionals, and I want to provide information they can use. My Facebooking about rooting for the Detroit Lions in the playoffs Saturday night does not help that audience in what they do for a living. Your business’ friends are different from your personal friends.

Can your business have 1,000 true friends?

Yes and no. Having thousands of followers doesn’t necessarily equate to generating business. Are the right people following you? Do you have former clients and true prospects (not every person you meet) interested in your social media and blog posts, in addition to your personal sphere of influence? Focus on building an online presence of substance, no matter how big or small that number is right now. Providing helpful information and your own views on current trends will build the trust your true followers have in you.

Who in the industry can you reach out to?

Think about how you can use social media to build alliances with other Realtors and industry service providers. Gradually developing relationships online and off with your industry colleagues may lead to referrals and make it easier to do business, providing better service to your clients and consistently “wowing” them, which they will hopefully share on social media.

How have you used social media successfully to build relationships?

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