Real Estate Marketing Methods – passive and active

Have you stopped to think about the difference between passive and active real estate marketing methods?

What IS the difference between the two? After all, every method requires you to take some action.

Passive real estate marketing methods include activities such as:

• Placing a sign in front of house or property.
• Putting an ad in a newspaper or magazine.
• Entering information in MLS and then pushing it out to other real estate portals on the Internet.
• Showcasing your listings on Facebook and other social media sites.
• Blogging – either about your listings or your service.
• Hosting open houses

Obviously, passive real estate marketing methods take some effort, but they’re less scary. You don’t have to put yourself “out there,” where you might come face to face with rejection.

Instead, you sit back and hope that a buyer or seller contacts you.

Some agents do that. In fact, I’ve known a few who stopped after placing a sign and entering the information for MLS. They were the same ones who sat in the office gossiping and whining about having no money. Every now and then, floor day gave them a listing or a buyer.

What are active real estate marketing methods?

They’re the ones in which you choose who will receive your message – often presented in person. You’re probably good at some of them and shy completely away from others. Some of these would be:

• Formal networking – attending events for the purpose of meeting new people.
• Casual networking – taking the opportunity to speak with people you meet at social or sporting events, while in line at the store, while sitting in waiting rooms, while volunteering, etc.
• Cold calling
• Door knocking
• Prospecting by postal mail
• Prospecting via email to leads gathered from your own website’s capture boxes
• Following up on leads gathered or purchased
• Contacting FSBO’s and those with expired listings
• Staying in touch with past clients – via phone, mail, email, and in-person visits
• Hosting events / parties for past clients

Naturally, there’s a some cross-over between active and passive methods.

Many feel that blogging is scary and risks rejection. You also have to do it consistently if you want it to work, so they would consider it active marketing. However, you aren’t coming in direct contact with your readers. (Unless they love what you wrote and contact you!)

You could also say that prospecting is passive, since you don’t come face to face with people who either read or reject your messages. However, you choose who will receive those messages and how often they’ll hear from you.

Conducting an open house is active in that you’re there, talking with people, yet passive because you place ads and hope someone shows up. You make it more active by sending invitations to the neighborhood and to specific buyers or buyers agents.

Can you succeed in real estate with only passive methods?

Plenty of people try, and I suppose they could be successful if they worked in an area where no agents bothered with active marketing.

But if there’s competition, I don’t think so.

You probably don’t and won’t participate in all of the active marketing methods. For instance, I know successful agents who never make a cold call or knock on strangers’ doors.

However, if you want success, I think you need to choose a few active real estate marketing methods and do them consistently.

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

“The Universe feeds all the birds in the world, but what it does not do is drop the food in their nests. You want something? Go get it!”
― Clyde Lee Dennis

“The successful person makes a habit of doing what the failing person doesn’t like to do.”

~ Thomas Alva Edison

“That which we persist in doing becomes easier – not that the nature of the task has changed,
but our ability to do has increased.”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Home for sale image courtesy of Stuart Miles @ freedigitalphotos.net
Woman on the phone Image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net