What is the best way to market in a fiercely competitive industry?
I have a real estate business. What are the best ways of marketing it? Mainstream advertising, online media, social media, event, direct marketing or canvassing promotion at public venues?
Expert Answers
Sort by Date
Sort by Votes
Oct 10, 2014
For Real Estate I believe it is personal Networking and personally communicating your "Value" as a knowledgeable professional. All the choices you list can be productive if they distinguish you from the herd of other real estate people.
Oct 9, 2014
Trust and experience will make you a reliable person in the market , whoever may be your competitor. Always be genuine to your customers in terms of money and profession.
Oct 9, 2014
The "best" way to market depends on the particular market you are targeting at a particular time. Markets are fickle nowadays. Some markets value speed more than anything. Work fast and assure quick response and follow-up. Others value trust. Give them reason to trust you into making a decision for them. This can be tricky as not everyone trusts for the same reason. It all boils down to knowing your market well enough so you can make an appropriate choice of medium for a well-designed message, delivered at the right moment (and place).
Oct 8, 2014
By providing the very best service in your area, so that your satisfied customers become your main marketing agents through their feedbacks and referals.
Oct 8, 2014
Dont market aggressively- focus on soft selling and building relationships-
Focus on deliverables- once you have a reputation for effective delivery, word of mouth publicity will do the trick
Be ethical in your orientation- do not over promise and under deliver.
Oct 8, 2014
Most customers are inundated with products and solutions, but they need real insights into several issues:
1. Use cases in their industry for your solution
2. Business and revenue models
3. Rollout deployment costs and ROI
If you can answer these questions, you'll immediately get invitations to present to the company's decisionmakers.
Oct 8, 2014
A lot of what has been stated here is good advice. You need to distinguish yourself from the competition. Create as unique a value proposition as possible. Few people do what they say they are going to do. Good service and good execution of your promises will speak for your business and you. Relationships build a business. Nothing fancy. People buy from people they trust. People buy from companies they trust. People trust people and companies that deliver. Word of mouth moves based in experience and social proof. Don't ignore your competition. Learn from your competition. Partner with your competition where appropriate. Set yourself apart. Steal market share one inch at a time thru solid relationships.
Oct 8, 2014
It looks like to cater to both commercial and residential. These two are different on how you promote/market them and gain customers Most social media sites are great for residential buyers but for your commercial buyers you have to be mindful on what social media sites you use. Go towards avenues that are targeted at businesses i.e, networking events, Linkedin, and industry events. But in both cases it is very important to know what your competition is doing and differentiate yourself from them. Be unique in your offerings that will get the attention over your competition.
Oct 8, 2014
First, always ask yourself what does my competition look like? What do they do to make them standout? Compare their value proposition to yours. If there something that they offer they you do not?
Oct 9, 2014
we offer better service than they do, but they are in the industry long before we ventured, so they are established
Oct 7, 2014
All that you mentioned can be effective. You have to make a difference to stand out. We can help you by creating stylish website so that potential clients will be knowledgeable of the nature of your business and everything that you offer. We may add up compelling videos so that you may explain your business in just 60 seconds or we can design good logo for you to have your own business identity.
Oct 7, 2014
[one factor] By showing number of satisfied clients to new ones you can gain trust.
Oct 7, 2014
Fiercely!!!
In reality the same as any other.
Figure out your place in the market and market accordingly. Are you trading on price or quality. If you trade on quality, define what makes you different from the competition, (not just we offer great customer service, because everybody says that). Find or create the one thing that you do that your competitors don't. eg. "We offer a fully vetted list of trades people that we can depend on to prepare your property for sale or letting. This way we can get you the best price for your property". This way you are adding value to the customer offering. You can charge a fair price as you are offering more for the money. (Obviously that is a very quick example. You may think of some better ways to add perceived value. If all you competitors provide a list of trades, but you tell your customer about it up front, you are perceived to be adding value.
Next figure out how to message that so it is attractive for you customer,. How you want to word the added value to make sure they hear the message you want them to hear.
With regards to which route to market you take, I would take a suck them and see approach. The most effective marketing campaigns use a mixture of marketing tools.
There are some basic "rules" to follow. Figure out who you best customers are, find out where they hang out and target them with your message. Maybe property sellers are taking advice from financial advisors or accountants. Why not host an event and invite fa's and accountants along to learn about your offering.
Find out where your potential customers gather or do business. Maybe property maintenance companies, or management companies. Build relationships with these people. They will know who is selling long before the seller decides on a real estate agent. Get them to refer to you.
I think you get the point. Get somebody else to send customers to you, then half the work is already done.
Advertising is very useful too. A campaign will incorporate a number of different types of advertising. Two things to take into account. Advertising rarely has an instant effect. It takes time to get the brand into peoples minds and then you have to be there when they decide they want to sell a property.
The average return on direct marketing is 1%, unless it is very specifically targeted and followed up with two phone calls.
Events and promotions have limitations also. Online and social media have similar issue in that you need to tell a lot of people about you and your offering in order to reach a few who may need you. They may be free but they do take a time commitment. I would outsource this to a company who specialize in this sort of marketing.
In summary, because all of these elements bring something to the table, (in my experience, the business relationship type of approach is by far the most successful and you should be able to find a local business group that actively help to grow reciprocal business relationships), there are reasons to use them all. The most important thing to ensure is that you track each campaign that you enter into to see what works best for your business, in your town, with the local publications, broadcasters, networking groups, public venues, demographic, competition and for your particular business. Every business will achieve a different result.
What doesn't work now may well work in 6 months or a year. Your company could be in a different situation in a year so a different approach my work better.
Track, measure and repeat what works - and good luck.
Oct 7, 2014
It depends on your objectives, your target audience, the range and scope of your business, the amount of money you want to allocate, and so on. If you are a local business and want to attract customers from a defined local geography, it would be most effective if you used media that targets that geography, for example, local newspapers, events, mail drops, partnering with local businesses, yellow pages etc. You can use Google to do geographic targeting as well. You can join local groups that would give your business exposure to your target market.
Oct 6, 2014
The best way to market in a competitive industry is not to worry about the competition but to focus on what you need to do. Yes it is important to see what others in the industry are doing and of course you can learn from your observations.
-What am I doing, what am I not doing and why?
-What makes me different?
-What are they doing, what are they not doing and why?
Aside from that you may hear people say its about who you know but I say "It is about who you know and what you do with it." Get out there and meet people that has always worked the best for me when people can put a face to a name it works best.
Oct 7, 2014
I completely agree with Jesus. The only thing I would suggest above this but very much in line, is to use word of mouth.
If you have existing and past clients that are happy with the service you provided, ask them to recommend you.
You can even give them a 'thank you' present if their recommendation turns into a new client.
Oct 6, 2014
Differentiate yourself from the competition. We help people do this through publishing articles, press releases, interviews, videos, podcasts and books and then making those books best-sellers. The body of work we present on your behalf clearly establishes you as an expert in your field. You are written ABOUT by others instead of having to blow your own horn.
Oct 5, 2014
Before I can answer you question, I'd love to learn a little more about you:
* Are you based in a large metro area or other setting?
* What marketing techniques are most effective right now for getting listings? For closing sales?
* To what extent, if any, do you have existing marketing resources such an e-mail mailing list or postcards?
* Do you know how much you're ready to spend, over what period? (e.g. $10,000 for Q1 2015)
Please share whatever you wish and then I'll offer some suggestions.
Best regards,
Anne Zieger
Oct 9, 2014
> yes, we are working in a large metro area
> online property portals are bester
> emails are sent to enquirers and word of mouth referrals, no bulk mailing
> $6000 for the current quarter ending december
Yes, we are working on offering insights and effecting bigger transparency in the industry.