During slow market conditions the prevailing advice for us business owners is to “economize your business.”
At the surface level, this makes sense, right? Unfortunately, too many agents mis-interpret this advice and end up costing themselves more than they need to – it can even cost them their real estate career.
Savvy agents don’t think of economizing as slashing budgets, instead they make sure their marketing is going to get them the biggest bang for their buck.
Now, we could go down a tangent here and relate this to scarcity mindset versus abundance mindset, or reactive versus proactive but let’s stay away from ideologies and look at practical business sense.
Practical Business Sense
Your business is fueled by sales. Clearly, sales profits are the only true objective measure for business success. Without them, you don’t have a business you have a hobby. And as you know, marketing creates sales.
Those that mis-interpret “economize your business” to mean “slash your budgets” are going to be in a world of hurt.
Sure, you may have a full pipeline of prospects today but if you slash your marketing – the one thing that fills your pipeline – you’re going to run dry in about 3 months time and you will not have a sustainable business. Bye-bye real estate, hello retail sales.
How To Really “Economize”
First off, it’s important to recognize that there are two types of marketing – expensive and inexpensive. Savvy agents know that expensive marketing doesn’t cover the investment they’ve made, while inexpensive pays rich returns.
See, economizing has nothing to do with cost but everything to do with results. This is why it’s so important to track your sources of business.
Here are a few tips to follow:
- Test your investment – before rolling out a large scale campaign, conduct a small test so you can track the results to see if a larger campaign is even worthwhile.
- Focus on the past – stay in touch with past clients since they already have expressed their trust and faith in you. They’re in prime positions to give referrals and may even be ready to become repeat clients.
- Commit to a plan – the bane of many businesses is trying to do a little of this and a little of that. In the end, there’s no major impact. Commit to a focused plan and stick to it.
- Create timeless marketing – many agents waste money on marketing that must continually be updated and re-created. Make your marketing timeless. For example, rather than being in business for 7 years, say that you’ve been in business since 2001.
- Target wisely – don’t waste precious time and resources on folks not likely to buy from you. Instead, turn your efforts to your most likely prospects and profitable clients.
- Hire a pro – amateur marketing is an invitation to disaster. To get the biggest results it makes sense to hire a designer/copywriter/consultant to create a powerful template, then produce new materials following the same format.
Obviously, these tips are timeless and should be followed in both boom and down markets.
Here’s the thing: marketing creates sales and you need to market smart in order to survive.
Yes, economize your business – demand a return for your investments. But don’t start slashing the budget to that which fuels your business.
If you don’t invest in smart marketing today, you’ll have less to invest tomorrow.
What are you doing to “economize” and get the biggest bang for your marketing dollar?
