Real Estate Marketing

Real estate or immovable property is a legal term (in some jurisdictions) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings. Real estate (immovable property) is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (also sometimes called chattel or personalty). However, for technical purposes, some people prefer to distinguish real estate, referring to the land and fixtures themselves, from real property, referring to ownership rights over real estate.

The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.

In law, the word real means relating to a thing (from Latin res/rei, thing), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between [real property] (land and anything affixed to it) and [personal property] (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference was between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, which a person would retain title to. (The word is not derived from the notion of land having historically been "royal" property. The word royal — and its Castilian cognate real — come from the related Latin word rex-regis, meaning king.)

Five Fundamentals of Real Estate Marketing

Your real estate marketing program needs certain ingredients in order to succeed. Chief among them — research, focus, testing, honesty and enthusiasm.

Fundamentals of research

Effective marketing demands thorough research, and the more of it the better. In fact, I would rank research as one of the top-three factors of successful real estate marketing.

Before you can write a brochure to inform your audience ... before you can write an advertisement to persuade your audience ... before you can write Web content to educate your audience ... you have to know everything about your audience.
You have to know what their days are like, how they define success, what they worry about. Everything. Only then can you begin to communicate to them effectively.

Fundamentals of focus

In real estate marketing, seduction lurks around every corner. New ideas emerge during a prolonged campaign. Distractions and side doors present themselves. “This is old,” you might think. “I need to shake things up a little.”
Focus and consistency bring benefits over the long haul, but it takes patience. An ad-testing program, for example, could take several months to start producing valuable insight. It takes steady measurement. It takes long-term vision. It takes focus.

Fundamentals of testing

Eugene Schwartz, author of Breakthrough Advertising, said it best: “There are no answers in direct mail except test answers. You donÂ’t know whether something will work until you test it. And you cannot predict test results based on past experience.”
What he meant was this. You can take an offer that has worked for somebody else in your industry, apply it to your audience, and have it flop.

Sure, there are “best practices” you can start with. And you can learn a lot from the successes and failures of other marketers. But to get the best possible ROI on your marketing investment, there is no substitute for testing.
Think of it this way. Best practices will put you ahead of 75% of your competition. Testing will help you surpass the other 25%.

Fundamentals of honesty

If you say “free,” it better be free — with no strings attached. If you say “number one real estate company on the east coast” ... you better be number one in some legitimate way.
Deceit and trickery only work the first time around.

Fundamentals of enthusiasm

Have you ever read an ad, article or website and found yourself thinking, “Boy, this writer doesn't even care.”?
If your designer, copywriter, webmaster — or anyone else involved with your marketing — lacks enthusiasm for a particular project, the project has already failed.

A wise marketing manager knows this and will take the necessary steps to inspire his or her team. All this being said, it always helps to have a superior or service. But that's another topic entirely.