Can real estate consumers tell what you do best? They better

I recently wrote about the importance of your real estate marketing having a Unique Sales Proposition. A core offering that stands out above everything else you do in real estate. So now what?

Now that you have determined your USP, how do you promote your USP? How do consumers know what you specialize in, what makes your services better for them then others? How do you draw their attention to what makes your particular service offering?

It is important that your USP dominate your online and print marketing. Too often people try to accomplish too much with a marketing piece, leaving the consumer wondering which of the many things you are promoting you are truly great at.

In Your Print Marketing

Yes even in print. Let’s say you send out a 500 postcard mail drop for a recently sold property. At best what can you hope for? A percentage of people will notice a home sold in their area and with any luck they will notice you sold it. Of course your card will be mixed in with a dozen other just sold mailers from other Realtors that week too.

So really how does this help you stand out? Unless you are clearly out listing, out selling and out mailing your peers in a particular area you don’t stand out, you are just one of many.

But what if you offer something unique on your post cards? What if you explain the benefit of your search tools, the reasons why a consumers benefits from using it? Highlight one of the unique ways you market homes and the results it creates?

Something quick, bold and clear that can communicate in a split second your card is worth giving more time. Something that encourages consumers to explore your offerings deeper. Something giving consumers more then glancing at your postcard hoping they notice your name and that you sold a property. Just sold cards can have their place and if you can inspire consumers to take further action that can lead to repeat visits to your site the card has become at least twice as effective. You have further exposed them to your brand leveraging the effort and costs of that one simple postcard. If even a handful of those 500 post cards lead to registration for your search tool or become regular blog readers then you have been successful in creating a far longer touch then a one time mail drop. You will have cultivated a self nurturing lead that very likely will grow into a client.

On Your Real Estate Website

What about visitors who arrive directly to your site?

Understand a website needs hierarchy, plain and simple something has to be the king of the castle and having a queen and even a prince is beneficial.

It is extremely important to understand the goal of the home page is to get people off the home page and quickly. It is virtually impossible to solve any visitors needs on your home page beyond escorting them to the page that will. That is why you have all those other pages, they serve visitors and solve their problems. Its all about getting people to those pages and solving their problem, not making them muddle around a congested home page with dozens of options for the visitor to sift through.

Your USP needs to dominate your home page along with highlighting other key pages of your site. Not all pages and options, you need to actually make a choice. By you doing so you make it easier for visitors to make a choice.

If I asked you to list the top three actions you’d like visitors to your site to take would the importance of those items be obvious if I was looking at your home page? Is your site designed to ensure visitors quickly see these core ingredients? Is it obvious a click will solve their problem? Will how these options are presented on your site inspire consumers to explore them?

How do you do this? Traditional navigation can only get you so far. Hoping visitors search through your menu or the internal links in your body text or sidebar to find the most important parts of your site is wasting the sought after consumer visit. There are numerous ways you can use visuals and text to not only guide visitors to the key pages of your site but also ensure they get there quickly.

The space above the fold needs to be dedicated to your core offering or offerings.

Odds are the body of your website above the fold is filled with content, possibly bad content but that is a story for another day. Ok even if it isn’t bad visitors don’t want to come your site and have to read text to find out if your site solves their problem. Smack them in the face with what your site does for them and why they should check it out. Then place your body content.

You can use large visuals combined with text to draw their attention to these items. Use of images or icons that imply what visitors will find and draw their attention, from there the text can further explain what clicking through will do for them. There are endless ways to do this, but you can see a few examples below.

As you can see the visual catches your eye, hints at the topic and is supplemented with clear well written text both explaining what clicking will get the visitor and why they will want to click.

Now you’re USP is your hardest worker (after you), keep with it and you will see the results. As with any real estate marketing consistent monitored action over a period of time is the key to success. Don’t be a rush to abandon your efforts if the results don’t come quickly. At the same time pay close attention to your campaign and look for areas of improvement.