Marketing Maestro: February 2008

Seth Godin is a great thinker and one of my virtual mentors through his books and blogs.  He had a great post about a recent presentation he gave to a group of real estate agents.  He told the crowd to stop selling real estate.  You should read the blog to get the full story but I think everyone on Active Rain probably falls into what he referred to as Plan B.  As agents and brokers you are already selling real estate differently then the majority of real estate professionals and understand the value of educating people.  

Here are a few of the Seth's points:

• Become the Best in the World at what you do
• Micro specialize since you can't be the best in the world at everything
• Build permission with your clients
• Communicate with your clients post sale and keep them informed (think repeat business down the road and word of mouth) but make sure you provide information your clients want.
• Stop doing business as usual the times have changed.

Enjoy Seth's post and good luck becoming the best in the world.  If you are blogging in AR my guess is you probably are already on your way.

I finally put up my first video on You Tube.

This video was recorded by Donald Trump when we launched Trump University. I have a lot of friend who upload all sort of videos to help grow their business and to get themselves some publicity. I figured it was about time to upload a video and to see what happens. We are going to upload a few more over the next few weeks to see if we can use video to market our business. One of our videos will have the goal of getting video responses and hopefully creating a viral/word of mouth marketing effort.

Has anyone in AR used video to market themselves, a business or a property?

What have your experiences been with video marketing? Is there a return on your invested time?

Today Rex Whisman named me the Brand Champion of the Day on his blog.  It is an honor to be recognized by a peer and I encourage you to read Rex's blog.  He covers branding with some interesting angles. 

It is great to be the Brand Champion of the Day but the job of brand champion is an ongoing role.   This is also not a job for just one person and I share the responsibility with everyone at TrumpU.  When you are building a brand make sure every employee in your company feels as if they are brand champions.

Do you think it is easier or more difficult to be a brand champion of an established brand or one that is still being developed?

Maybe Disney holds the ‘magic’ behind the genius of Hannah Montana but whoever thought of the latest marketing has done an incredible job.  What is so great about the marketing and what does it have in common with Real Estate Marketing?  Here is what Hannah Montana has done:   

1. I don’t know of anyone previously releasing a movie of their concert tour especially while still touring. Just think of the increased reach Hannah has created. How many more tickets is she going to sell to concerts and now movies because of this release? I suspect this is a huge financial win all around.
2. The news of the movie was spread via word of mouth and tickets were sold out almost a month in advance in some areas. I guess it helps that the fans are primarily 6-12 year old girls...but I know some mothers chatting about the movie and making sure they and their friends purchased tickets in advance so that they don't upset their girls.
3. Only in theaters for one week. She created scarcity for something that normally is very scalable.

1. Marketing properties requires that you think about and look for alternative ways to communicate your services.
2. Word of Mouth can drive your business. Think about what is worth talking about. Do you have customers/clients who want to talk about your business? Spread news for you? Do you have a great property to sell?
   
3. Create scarcity of your product. Real Estate by its nature is scarce but can you build on that scarcity? Sometimes scarcity can help create some buzz in the process.
4. Creating a brand pays off. Like it or not Hannah Montana has a brand that resonates with her target market and delivers what her fans want. Are you branding your business to best serve your clients?