For Agents

3 Reasons Realtors Need to Stop Marketing to Everyone

June 11, 2021

Mass marketing is a thing of the past. Advertisements used to be one-size-fits-all. Many of us grew up in mass marketing: the same advertisement played across all TV stations, the same billboards for the entire city, the same radio stations, and magazines.

Mass marketing is what we grew up with, so it is how we market.

Have you posted an advertisement on Facebook? Have you cold-called friends, neighbors, or leads with the same message? Have you sent out flyers and direct mail to thousands of people with no response?

If you’re like most people, these methods are ineffective and usually a waste of time.

The hard truth is that there are 1.46 Million other people who can offer a very similar service as you. 1,460,000. They took the same classes. They read the same news articles and books. They sent out the same advertisements, cold calls, and flyers.

Of course, some advertisements, cold calls, and flyers work. Otherwise, realtors wouldn’t continue to pile their time and money into them. However, these methods are relied on by the average realtor. This means that they yield average results, to maintain an average salary.

While that may be enough for some realtors, we are guessing that you want to beat the status quo. That's probably why you chose to read this article: to improve and grow.

As a real estate agent, you are a marketer. You are creating value for your clients by assisting them through the long and complicated home buying process. Based on a poll from 2018, 40% of new buyers said buying a home was the most stressful experience of their lives.

Finding the right home, mortgage approval, making an offer, renegotiating, appraisals, inspections, renegotiating again, then finally closing. If the stress of closing on a home is not enough, the buyers then have to move and pay off their mortgage for the next 30 years.

As a realtor, your job is to take care of their problems and decrease their stress.

The real estate transaction is extremely complicated, and people want someone who they know and trust to walk them through it. It is common knowledge that people prefer to work with their friends or acquaintances.

When a boss searches for a new hire, they typically start by looking through their connections or asking current employees for recommendations. Real estate works the same way. When searching for a realtor, a potential client turns to friends, and friends of friends.

Referrals are a powerful tool. It's why companies share glowing reviews from satisfied customers. It's human nature to trust others, especially our friends and family. But hey, we don’t need to tell you this - you work in real estate.

How many of your clients come from referrals or your network? Now, how many of your clients come from social media, advertisements, and cold calls?

So many real estate agents follow the newest, shiniest way to gain leads or promote themselves. Facebook makes it so easy to get yourself in front of people. I mean, what realtor wouldn’t pay $1,000 to put their face in front of over 200,000 people?

But those 200,000 people aren’t your people. They already know someone who works in real estate that they turn to. Yes, you can advertise and see results. But if you focus on expanding your network, you will see much better results.

Let’s let the data speak for itself. Here is a graph that shows the relationship between years worked in real estate and median salary.

A graph showing a realtor's annual income based on the number of years of experience.

The longer you work in real estate, the more money you’ll make. This is not because agents have more time to advertise, it’s because agents who stay in the game for 20+ years have a massive network of connections who trust them.

More people turn to them for advice. More people who know they are real estate agents. More clients turned friends who recommend them to others. More time to build lasting, meaningful relationships.

It's time to stop wasting time. Ryan Serhant, an esteemed real estate agent in NYC says

“Every day you have 1,440 minutes. Minutes are your dollars. Invest your time wisely.”

Instead of wasting time and money to make thousands of people hear your name one time, put your energy into making a few people hear your name hundreds of times.

Your time is valuable. Pick your people, and make sure that you are the first person they think of when they hear the word “realtor”. Building meaningful connections with your network will lead you to success.

To sum it up: three reasons you need to stop selling to everyone

  1. You are wasting time and energy on inefficient methods.
  2. People enjoy working with their friends, not just anyone.
  3. Real estate is a marathon, connections take time.

It's easy to get caught up in the allure of mass marketing and social media. It is much more meaningful to connect with one person every week for 10 minutes than connect with thousands of people for only a few seconds.

If you disagree: tell us, what was the last advertisement you saw? The last TV commercial? The last spam email?

People have adapted to tune out all of the noise and focus on what matters. Don’t let your time be spent creating the noise. Otherwise, you are wasting your time. Stop selling to everyone, start focusing on meaningful connections.