When you work with your favorite real estate clients you make more money.
Why?
- Because you’re happier.
- Because you have more enthusiasm.
- Because your attitude draws more clients to you.
- Because you’re more knowledgeable.
- Because your expertise helps you close more transactions.
- Because you’ll receive more referrals and repeat clients.
What are you doing to attract more of your favorite clients? (Also known as your niche clients.)
Here are some suggestions…
The first and most important step is to become the expert they want and need.
If your territory is a geographic area or a type of property, such as condos, multi-family homes, equestrian properties, farmland, or waterfront, learn
all you can about the issues concerning that location or kind of property.
If you are a listing agent focused instead on the people in specific situations, learn all you can about the issues that are causing them to sell. This could be divorce, corporate or military relocation, inheritance, downsizing, upsizing, moving to be closer to loved ones, or even financial distress. If there are rules and regulations surrounding their situations, you need to know what they are and how to deal with them.
If you are a buyer’s agent, you should know about current loan programs. If you love working with first time buyers, you should also know all about down payment assistance programs.
Next, you have three tasks:
- Get busy prospecting.
- Become “the answer” to AI inquiries.
- Connect with your favorite clients in person.
Prospecting…
Direct mail has been a tried-and-true prospecting method for decades. It has survived the arrival of fax machines, email, websites, social media, and now AI.
So let’s start there.
Some will tell you that people today don’t read their postal mail, but that’s not true. (They just hope it is true because they want an excuse not to pay for postage!)
The truth is, “Real mail” has become a rarity, so people do read it. Surprisingly, surveys found that the group who is most fond of postal mail and the most apt to share it with others is millennials.
Chat GPT gave me these direct mail statistics:
- 35-50% of recipients engage with or open direct mail, depending upon format and industry.
- Only 20-30% of emails are opened – depending again upon industry and prior engagement.
- 90% of millennials believe that direct mail marketing is more reliable than email and 24% are likely to share it with other people.
- The response rate for direct mail is up to nine times higher than that of email.
One more note to remember: direct mail works best when it launches a digital conversation rather than trying to do everything itself.
So instead of simply inviting readers to visit your website, give them an easy next step – watch a short video, download a neighborhood guide, request a home valuation, or read a relevant article (that serves to demonstrate your expertise).
Your direct mail should lead recipients directly to web pages that describe your specialties, your service area, your experience, and the unique value you bring. Never make a visitor hunt for the information that led them to click on your link.
Why does direct mail still work in an AI world?
For starters, it helps you become noticed. Consider a homeowner receiving a postcard of letter from you, reading it, and leaving it on their desk or kitchen counter. Because they have been thinking of buying or selling, they glance at it now and then over the next few days.
A week later they ask ChagtGPT to recommend an agent who serves their niche in their community. Your website is one of the names that comes up. They go there first because they recognize your name. Since your website interested AI, it will probably interest that visitor as well!
The direct mail you sent reinforces the AI recommendation.
Remember that marketing is cumulative, and remember that direct mail, websites, and AI all work together even better than each of them works alone.
What about email? It does cost far less!
Email is fine for people who have opted in to hear from you. It’s just not an efficient way to connect with people who don’t know you or anything about you.
Use continuity campaigns to stay in regular contact with those people until they either become clients or ask you to discontinue. After they’ve become some of your favorite clients, add them to a different email list and stay in touch forever. They will be a valuable source of referrals and repeat business.
Visit my prospecting letters page. With more than 40
If you don’t know what to say when prospecting to your favorite real estate clients…
sets of letters for different properties or situations, you’ll likely find what you need. But if not, let me know. I can always add a new set.
And now… becoming the answer to AI inquiries.
Becoming the answer is a multi-part project that often begins with your website, simply because your website should be the hub or your real estate marketing efforts.
You do need a niche or niches – or at the very least, a geographic territory that becomes your niche and the focus of your marketing.
Please don’t let FOMO (fear of missing out) prevent you from making this choice. Read more here.
Why? Because AI is not going to find or recommend a generalist.
- Add pages filled with useful information for people in your niche.
- Add community pages that demonstrate your local knowledge.
- Make sure your location is highly visible, so readers (including AI) know where you work.
- Have your bio re-written to focus on your niche. Instead of mentioning it once, let other details in your bio lead back to it.
- Create capture boxes for your website (and social media pages) that offer special reports of value to people in your niche. Use email to connect with consumers who have opted-in to hear from you!
- Blog like crazy! Blog on your own website – and on sites where your clients and future clients gather.
Use your blog to inform readers about anything and everything of interest to your favorite real estate clients.
It might feel like you can’t possibly think of something to say every day, but you can if you try. 
And if you get stuck now and then, you can fill in with some of my pre-written blog posts.
Sit down and make a list of things to write about. Include real estate and real estate related topics, of course. Your goal is to promote yourself as “the” agent to call when a buyer or seller is interested in your niche.
But don’t limit yourself to them. On days when you can’t think of a topic, refer back to your list.
- If you’re writing about your community, include news about local non-profits and volunteer opportunities. Write about your favorite stores or restaurants. Inform your readers about school and other community events. Is there a Holiday Bazaar coming up? Write about it!
- If waterfront is your niche, share a story about something that happened when you were out on the water, or give advance notice of a fishing tournament.
- If equestrian communities are your niche, write about a recent horse show, or one that’s coming soon. Or perhaps give your critique of the riding trails.
- Are your favorite real estate clients golfers? Then write about an upcoming tournament, improvements to a local course, or events at a club house.
Back to the real estate topics…
- Divorce and probate clients need to follow some guidelines that you can provide in your blog.
- First time buyers have a lot to consider. Offer them some guidance by way of your blog posts.
- Waterfront buyers need to know about regulations regarding land use.
- Condo buyers need to be aware of homeowners associations.
- Future home sellers also have a lot to consider. Write posts that help them avoid the biggest mistakes people make when listing a home.
Both AI and your favorite real estate clients want to know more…
- They’re interested in your reputation, so include a page of testimonials, then toss a few of the best into your bio and other web pages.
- If you’ve earned certifications, include them – along with the reasons why you took those classes.
- If you’ve won sales awards, mention them.
Connect with your favorite real estate clients in person!
If your niche is a territory, attend the yard sales, stop for lunch at a neighborhood cafe, shop in local stores, and attend school sports events. Depending upon the area, you might attend local planning & zoning or City Council meetings or join the Chamber of Commerce or a service group. You could volunteer with a cause you believe in. (For me it was dog rescue.)
Have you considered the ways you can also be visible in your niches?
If you sell waterfront homes, visit the marinas and stores that serve those homeowners. Talk to the proprietors. Leave your brochures. Ask permission to post a flyer about a home you have listed.
If you sell equestrian properties, visit tack shops and feed stores, and do the same. If you sell
farm land, see where area farmers congregate and be visible there.
If your niche is historic homes, seek out the stores that sell merchandise those homeowners need to bring older homes back to their glory days. In addition to getting acquainted and making yourself known as a real estate agent who cares about historic homes, learn restoration tips you can share on your blog.
If you enjoy helping seniors relocate, offer to speak at senior centers and even at service club meetings. Rotary, Elks Club, and other organizations are always looking for guest speakers.
And of course, do cultivate relationships with attorneys who assist with divorce, probate, bankruptcy, estate planning, etc.
Two final words about serving your favorite real estate clients:
Focusing your marketing on them means you’ll attract more of them. It does not mean that you can’t assist other clients. So don’t worry about missing out.
Never let your past clients forget about you! Stay in touch and keep receiving those ever-so-welcome referrals!
