Market Your Business Like You'd Market Your Home
Real estate and the process of buying or selling a home has always been of interest to me. There’s something powerful about real estate; virtually no other transaction in someone’s life impacts it quite like buying or selling a home. For the buyer, a new home goes beyond the price tag; it involves new memories, a safe place for children, a launchpad for a new business, and thousands of other possibilities. For the seller, it may mean a new adventure finding a bigger or better home for a family, or the thrill of relocating to another city or state. No matter the reason, real estate transactions are rife with emotions. Brands can learn about their marketing plan if they think about promoting their business and products as if they would market their home. Today, I’ll dive into three reasons why brands can learn from marketing real estate.
Emotion: Virtually everyone reading this blog has engaged with real estate transactions in their history. You may be a renter who reviewed apartment listings online or bought and sold property yourself. In any marketing piece, real estate transactions seek to solicit emotion from the audience by posting photos that you can engage with. Areas such as kitchens, living rooms, and backyards all receive plenty of attention in a listing, encouraging you to envision yourself grilling on the deck or hosting a party in the main area. Now, imagine the average marketing piece you see for businesses today. Often, they solely focus on the features of a product or the price - or perhaps the customer service. Some correctly focus on the benefit to the consumer, but often marketing pieces fall very short to solicit any sort of emotion. Imagine if a real estate only focused on the price of the home, or only talked about the HVAC system. Those listings do exist, but most buyers believe something is wrong with the property. Tying this to a marketing plan, create content that engages with your consumer base, which can be as simple as buying a nicer camera and posting photos of your staff & favorite customers online. Having your marketing plan engage with your customer base and build trust is a key measure for marketing growth.
Value: In buying decisions, there’s no doubt that a consumer will weigh the value of the home, both in future property value and in other components (future property value, stable place to raise a family, cost savings vs. rent, etc). What is key, however, is that these consumers don’t make the decision until after they have had an emotional pull to the property. People buy a home with their hearts and emotions first, and rationale second. In marketing a property to get a buyer through the door, the value of the home can be driven home to the consumer. This is where features and pricing of the home make sense to include, and often will help a buyer be swayed to buy the home. In marketing plans, providing the value to the consumer is key to sway their decision to buy your product, but in my view, only after you have made an emotional connection with your marketing. An example of this may be a video about the need to keep your house warm in the winter and the need to help those who can’t pay for heating stay safe…and then share your product details at the end.
“Puffing:” This is an odd term, to be sure. Puffing in the real estate industry means to exaggerate (but not misrepresent) facts on a home. So long as it’s not taken to an extreme, such as lying about features of a home or intentionally misrepresenting the property, puffing is considered an opinion of the real estate agent. Puffing can help to build up the value of the home, showcasing the best features of the property while not highlighting some of the downsides. Brands can do the same here, although this can toe a line of what is best. As an example, using a stock photo of the outside of a beautiful restaurant to encourage people to visit is a bad experience if they arrive and it is a run-down place. Similarly, being too honest about the shortfalls of your business can be seen as just as much of a problem. Showcase the best part of your product, your business, and your staff to engage with your audience, without disregarding the reality of your business.
Marketing a business can be a tricky endeavor, but thinking of your brand like marketing a home will guide you to a heart of a consumer. Clients look daily to engage with brands and to read content related to your service, so provide them with what they need to make the best decision - lest the visit your competitor with a better site.