Real Estate Marketing past clients vs new clients

Knowing the difference between the two will help your marketing become truly awesome!

Time and time again, in every conversation I’ve had with Real Estate Agents and Loan Officers, they all say the same thing almost verbatim. “…most if not all of my business comes from referrals.” However, when I ask what real estate marketing is being done, the answer is also pretty common and most say the same thing. “Oh, I do all kinds of stuff” If I dare ask an alarming question like “well, like what?” And they’ll typically say, “Oh, I call them, I send emails,  you know, different stuff”

I’m still not clear what they’re doing and after a few moments, there’s a lull in the conversation. This is where it can get uncomfortable and I’ve seen people get irritated over the truth that they’re not really sure what they should be doing. Naturally, it’s time to save face and not look or feel like they don’t know what they’re supposed to do. Truth be told, “most if not all” doesn’t mean lots and the reality is no one really gets the referrals they should be getting and real estate marketing is the problem either because there’s none or something that’s not really designed for past clients and generating referrals.

There are several, so-called real estate marketing as well as mortgage marketing companies that will gladly sell their wares to anyone who’ll buy them. Many mortgage marketing and real estate marketing campaigns will go through some form of scripted presentation with technical terms and concepts that sound great and will work miraculously if you just trust the salesperson. Sadly, this rarely shows results and the referrals just don’t seem to come as promised.

The NAR has some interesting data on past clients and is worth looking at however, it doesn’t really explain how to do it so we’re going to give you some things to think about. If you have questions and want to talk about how these concepts are impacting your referrals and market growth, schedule a call and we can look at your particular situation.

In the scenarios mentioned above, I mentioned how the conversation can go stale, this is partly due to a healthy ego and the natural urge to save face. This is totally understandable and I talk more about that here.

I’ll keep this brief. You can buy all manner of marketing programs that will offer campaigns that can sell anything under the sun and do it for you with marketing automation. We’re Infusionsoft Certified Partners and we use marketing automation all the time. The reason we don’t sell it to Loan Officers and Real Estate Agents is, IT DOESN’T WORK! Not for referrals and past clients. That’s a good handful of reasons why but the most important reason is.

PAST CLIENTS DON’T HAVE A BUYER’S JOURNEY!  To learn more play this short video that describes EXACTLY what the buyer’s journey is and why it’s so vitally important that you understand it.

If you are spending time and effort to “market” to your clients whether you’re an Agent, Loan Officer, or both, it’s only common sense to do it so you don’t drive people away. What’s worse and far easier to do is to have your past client forget about you. This happens so often and is the number one killer of referrals.

You need to stop trying to sell homes to people that just bought a home, you need to stop marketing your loan clients as if a new program or interest rate is going to entice them to get another loan because we all know that unless they’re flipping houses, they’re not buying/selling/refinancing two weeks, two months or even two years after this deal has just closed. To assume they have an interest in the industry, Fannie, Freddie, The Fed, The Rates, farm reports, etc., is a complete waste of your time and marketing dollars.

You’ve developed a relationship with every single client you work with. However, they don’t wake up in the morning as a REA or a Loan Officer and just don’t have the same interest in it that you do. This is why the buyer’s journey is so important to understand on a basic level. They don’t have a need for a solution to a problem they don’t have. Remember, you already solved the problem they did have. They needed a new home, they needed a loan and they love you for helping. Meanwhile, you send them things that they no longer relate to, if you send them anything at all. We can fix that problem and a marketing newsletter is what you need to be sending. Personalized in a way that doesn’t have you coming across as a salesperson begging for referrals yet creating them with ease and convenience. This is what all of our clients experience and you can see for yourself. See what our clients say.

Getting more referrals is a lot easier than many realize and this is all we do here at Exodus. We’d love to do it for you too!