Pensacola Real Estate Agent Marketi...

Pensacola Real Estate Agent Marketing Plan to Maximize Buyer Awareness

newspaperThis past week I was at a listing meeting with some potential clients that was going pretty well. The clients seemed to understand the system that I teach on how a property can get the most money in the shortest amount of time. Currently the Pensacola Real Estate market has picked up and of course we are in the Spring season so this should be a good time if you are wanting to move. Then Kevin (The Husband) asked a question. “Shane when will we see the property in the Sunday paper”? I knew we might be in for an interesting conversation when I said “YOU WON’T”.

You are hiring me, or any Pensacola Real Estate agent for that matter, to market your property for the highest possible viewers. My main job is to get as many eyeballs on the property (THAT ARE LOOKING FOR PROPERTY) as possible. The newspaper has the lowest amount of viewers and sometimes cost as much or even more than some online outlets. The National Association of Realtors conducted a study based on 2014 sales data that showed how the majority of buyers found the property.

  • NARInformation sources used in home search:
    • Real estate agent: 89%
    • Yard sign: 51%
    • Mobile of tablet website or application: 45%
    • Open house: 45%
    • Mobile or tablet search engine: 42%
    • Print newspaper advertisement: 23%

After explaining all of this to Kevin he seemed stuck on the point that I was missing potential buyers by not running an ad in the paper. Although this is a true statement, we have a particular budget for marketing of each property. Does it make sense to spend that budget on a possible 23% or to run a Facebook ad targeted to agents whom I know work the area? This raises awareness of the property to those agents and as we see 89% of the time it’s the agent that finds the property for the buyer.

ztI could also ensure that we are online in all the places that buyers are going. Of course it’s mobile, but do you have a special on Zillow? Do we have a special on Trulia or Realtor.com? Remember earlier my job is to place your property where the buyers are looking for them. If we run in a Sunday paper, the property will be showcased once. The other outlets will showcase for months and when the buyer is ready.  They may be in Hawaii and not even receive the paper. Or they may not pick up a paper rather search the internet for what they are looking for.

In today’s Pensacola real estate environment it makes much more business sense on both the part of the agent, and the seller to know where the buyers are and maximize exposure in these places.  I mention a lot of this in our podcast Episode 9. If you would like to listen to the full episode, CLICK HERE.

There was a time when putting the property in the Sunday paper was the best use of time and resources. In my opinion (and the data seems to be backing it up) that time has gone.