There’s a well-known proverb that says, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It’s a great proverb because it accurately describes the work needed to be successful in real estate.
All too often, real estate professionals invest in “big bang” marketing: They spend heavily on billboards and bus benches but all they are really doing is spending a lot of money on a “big bang” message – a message that briefly flashes their name and number in front of everyone, regardless of interest. While these marketing messages work well in conjunction with other types of marketing, they lose their return on investment significantly in the way they are currently used. In the journey of a thousand miles, these “big bang” marketing techniques are supposed to be giant leaps but often fall flat.
Instead, real estate professionals should take small steps with drip marketing. Unlike the flashy and expensive marketing mentioned above, drip marketing provides credible, consistent, and high-impact marketing to a select group of people. The key here is consistency. By staying in touch regularly with a group of qualified contacts, the real estate professional will dramatically increase the likelihood of a sale to that contact (or a referral from that contact).
This consistent, targeted marketing is called “drip marketing” because it reminds that drops of water, dripping repeatedly over a period of time, can wear a hole through stone! That’s right: soft, pliable, wet, gentle water can cut a hole through a stone thanks to consistent, targeted dripping. Your drip marketing can have the same effect: When you target a specific audience and you use consistent marketing “dripping” into their lives regularly, you will lock your name in their minds and cut through the clutter of their lives. When they are ready to buy or sell their home, you’ll be the only name on their minds.
So, why do real estate professionals frequently choose the “big bang” method over drip marketing? There’s one simple reason: The misconception of audience. The big, flashy marketing via bus benches and billboards might expose their message to thousands (whereas a drip marketing campaign like regular monthly postcards might expose their message to hundreds) so it seems like a better marketing investment. But that is a misconception; real estate professionals aren’t comparing apples to apples. The big audience from “big bang” marketing is a very broad audience made up of anyone and everyone who happens to be driving by: They might see the message once; they might see it regularly; they might be looking to buy or sell; they might not be. In reality, real estate professionals using these big, flashy messages are reaching are far smaller audience of qualified buyers, and these professionals are using a far less effective method to do so.
Drip marketing, on the other hand, reaches a smaller, targeted audience in the most effective way possible: with consistency. That’s because it takes at least 7 “impressions” for a contact to remember the professional’s name.
Every “drip” of a drip marketing campaign is a single step in a journey of a thousand miles. As a real estate professional, are you using drip marketing effectively to generate business? It’s a more effective and cost-efficient way to market!
