Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: It’s About Time

As a luxury real estate marketing professional do you find yourself repeating the universal mantra, “I don’t have enough time”? It is amazing that in the age of rapidly evolving technology designed to save and maximize your time that so many people are time starved. For instance, you can have groceries delivered via an online order, and you can cook a meal in a matter of minutes using a microwave or a convection oven. These are just some of the time saving devices in our homes. Yet, so many still complain about the scarcity of time.

There is an overabundance of time management gurus, books, seminars and self help systems ready to help your solve your time starvation problem; if you only had time to do it. Saying “I don’t have enough time” is a nice way of saying, “I don’t want to do this”, or “I do not want to go there”, or “I don’t want to take the time to listen”. The more one says it, the more it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

The feeling that there is a scarcity of time explains the unreturned phone call, the forgotten appointment, and the lack of follow through. It explains multi-tasking while driving or eating. It explains stress. It explains self-neglect as well as neglect of others. In a business situation, it becomes a double edge sword. So many agents look and act like the rabbit in Alice in Wonderland, who repeats over and over, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!” If you are running around like the rabbit your clients or potential clients may be asking themselves if you will have time for them.

Does this sound like you? Read our next post to discover what to do to gain an abundance of time!

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form    in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Are You the Wallflower of Social Networks?

As a Luxury Real Estate Marketing professional, here is onene way to approach professional networking.  Look at it as a great big party or mixer, where you have the opportunity to network with everyone there. At a party if you don’t make the effort to meet people or reach out, you might as well be a wallflower and blend in to the wallpaper. The Internet makes it easy because you don’t have to dress for the party, and geographic distances are irrelevant. However, the Internet cannot create relationships. You have to do that, either by sending them an email or picking up the phone.

Walflower

Social networks are not about how many people you have in your network. It is how many you can actually engage in conversation in a meaningful way. How many people in your network actually want to know what you are doing in between emails and phone calls? That is another means of measuring the effectiveness of your network.

Marketing is about relationships. Relationships create opportunities to expand your sphere of influence and friendships. Relationships take time, and it is time well spent. The old adage “it’s who you know” still applies in the age of technology and web-based social networks.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form    in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Does Your Quilt of Contacts Have a Common Thread?

Old Amsterdam quilt pattern

No doubt, most of you in the luxury real estate arena are aware of the rushing rivers of social networks. You may already be a member of several networks for business, for friendships or for special interests.

Joining a network to share your photos of family with other members of your clan is fun and a great way to stay in touch. Special interest networks such as handicraft networks are very successful, because the members are bound by a similar passion. They communicate regularly with each other and know each others’ expertise. They even buy each others’ work or supplies. They are a resource for each other. Like the family, they stay in touch and participate in each other’s endeavors with the common bond of their interest in handicrafts.

Professional social networks should be looked at in terms of building common bonds. It is like creating a quilt with a  common thread or pattern. It is easier to introduce yourself to others who share your values and interests. However, if you do not make an effort to reach out and actually meet other people the usefulness of the networks will be minimal. Yes, that’s right! You may actually need to pick up the phone and give someone in your network a call.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: You Say Cheese, They Say Fromage!

If you are out to dinner at a fine restaurant with an important client, it is a good idea as a luxury real estate marketing professional, to know your cheeses. Here is some background information that is valuable to know.

Although the United States is the largest producer of cheese it is a marginal exporter. While ranking third in production, France is the largest exporter of cheeses. The most revered cheese makers are the French. The impact of French cheese is evident when you read the following quotes.

 "A country producing almost 360 different types of cheese cannot die." Winston Churchill, June 1940

 "How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?" Charles de Gaulle, 1960

 "A meal without cheese is a beautiful woman with an eye missing". Brillat Savarin, epicure and gastronome from his book The Physiology of Taste 1825.

Currently France makes over 1000 types of cheeses, and recently revived a cheese that hasn’t been made for over 200 years. Recently Fromage de Clon, also known as the cheese of popes and kings has reappeared thanks to the diligence of a historian Jerome Dupasquier who found a recipe in a dusty box. “The taste is nutty and sweet with a tang of saffron, and eating it is like listening to Vivaldi on a Stradivarius,” according to Gourmet Magazine. “It is can be ordered directly from the cheese maker in France, the Perrigots located in the village of Drom.

To get acquainted with some of the world’s best cheeses find a cheese shop in town and taste some new cheeses. Plan a cheese party and have a tasting with friends. Or, visit the imported cheese section at a grocery store and invest in a half-dozen cheeses that you have not yet tried. Then, go to Google and look them up. You never know when this information will come in handy.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use the form in the left column.

Luxury Marketing Essentials: Creating Buzz

Titanium fighter motorcycle

Understanding the concept of buzz marketing in luxury real estate marketing is important. Buzz marketing is a way of getting media attention by orchestrating an event that is unusual in nature and results in people talking. It can be less expensive than traditional advertising. Buzz generates word-of- mouth advertising. Here are some fun examples of buzz marketing:

Every Christmas Neiman Marcus reveals the fantasy gifts. This year’s gifts selection runs the gamut from a backyard golf course custom designed by Jack Nicklaus, a 35 year collection of every 45 RPM records listed o the Billboard Top 100 through the end of 1990, a titanium fighter motorcycle or a shootout session with the Harlem Globetrotters.

In 2007, Harrods department store in London, hired a live Egyptian cobra to guard a pair of ruby-sapphire and diamond encrusted sandals valued at over $100,000. This also was a great promotion for the shoe designer Rene Caovilla, who is now on par with Manolo Blahnik and other famed shoe designers.

Popular talk show hosts such as Oprah, and Ellen give away the book or CD of an author or musician on the show. Martha Stewart also gives gifts and food to taste on her show. On a plane out of Burbank, we watched a couple of gals who had been to the Ellen show regale others with the gifts they received.

Savvy wedding planners and caterers always have some favor for the guests that create buzz, so that you are bound to ask who did that. This buzz effect reflects well both on the party giver and the planner.

One of the fruit and vegetable stands at our local Farmer’s market created a beautiful table with the bounty of the local harvest. Everyone gathered around and called their friends to come see it as well as the local paper.

Buzz does not have to cost a lot of money. Take a lesson from bees: You can attract more business with honey- the sweet smell of successful buzz!

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: The Closing Gift-Who Gets It?

Go shopping at Harrod's in London

Many agents who are involved in the business of luxury real estate marketing feel that they have to bow and scrape to the wealthy. They have to serve them and anticipate their every need, so that the potential client will like them. They even send them gifts after meeting them for the first time in hopes of doing business with them. If this is the way you love being treated, if it feels good, by all means do it for your clients. Keep in mind that these are the types of clients that you will consistently attract, the ones who will feel most comfortable with you.

However, here is another approach to working with the wealthy that you might consider. A very successful agent in Silicon Valley does not give closing gifts. She gets them spontaneously from her clients. Her stance is that her service is invaluable, her knowledge of the luxury market impeccable. She has an impressive roster of clients who praise her expertise and prowess. These are the clients she consistently attracts. She is a player on equal footing with her clients who are more like partners in the process of selling or buying a home.

Find your approach, express it clearly and you will attract the very ones you would like to work with. Either way be sure to gift yourself when you close a transaction!

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: What’s In It For Me/What’s In it For You?

Toscanini

In order to stand out from the crowd, luxury real estate marketing professionals should be able to immediately answer the question "what’s in it for me?", from the perspective of your target market. As a consumer you chose the products and services that suit your needs and your desires. Every product and every service is trying to answer that question for their target market. They answer it visually with graphics and design, and they answer it in terms of benefits and incentives.

Before you can answer for your clients, you need to answer the question “what is in it for you?", the luxury real estate marketing professional. Commission aside, what is it about your business that you love doing? What makes your heart sing? Take a moment to be selfish and analyze what you are most comfortable with.

Marketing essentially is the matching and orchestration of self-interests. Know your self-interest. Know your clients’ self-interest. Only then can you become an expert marketer and matchmaker who seeks solutions that simultaneously satisfies all parties. Everyone can get what they want. It’s all about orchestrating matches.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: The Spirit of Innovation in Marketing

Be innovative with your marketing! Luxury real estate marketing professionals should look outside the world of real estate for inspiration. Here is an example of three co-marketers who partnered in a very innovative way: The Sundance Channel, Grey Goose Vodka and Conde Nast Magazines. Together they created an outstanding TV show called Iconoclasts which reflects the brand values that all three companies share in common.

Sundance is the producer of Iconoclasts, which was initially a six episode documentary series, featuring the visionaries in the world of celebrity. According to their website, the Sundance Channel “ is the television destination for independent-minded viewers seeking something different. Bold, uncompromising and irreverent, Sundance Channel offers audiences a diverse and engaging selection of films, documentaries, and original programs, all unedited and commercial free” The shows reflect the overall Sundance mission of “encouraging artistic freedom of expression.” The first episode of the new season will feature Desmond Tutu and Richard Bramson paired up to profile each other.

With Iconoclasts, Grey Goose Entertainment, a division of Grey Goose Vodka, came up with an innovative way to market themselves to their loyal clientele and also gain new customers. Here is how Monsell Darville, VP-group director of Grey Goose Entertainment explains it. “We were approached by Sundance Channel and Conde Nast Media Group to become a co-production partner on Iconoclasts. At that time we were looking to step away from the traditional and into the innovative. We also felt the need to give back to a great many individuals who support us so resolutely. We realized that not only by participating in this project, but also similar future projects, we could do both.”

Conde Nast Media is a division of Conde Nast Magazines. Condé Nast Media Group is the corporate sales and marketing arm of the company. Condé Nast is known for their marketing strategy which is focused on magazines catering to a particular interest, such as Vogue for fashion, Architectural Digest for home, and Gourmet for food enthusiast. This category is also known as lifestyle magazines. They publicized the Iconoclasts series in all their magazines.

All three brands were aligned in their brand message and their brand values. Those core values include independent thinking and a luxury lifestyle. This degree of alignment was the recipe for a critically acclaimed TV series. How can you co-market with compatible, non-competitive brands in your marketplace?

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: The Luxury of Loyalty

Photo by Orchi of Cattleya Orchid

Loyalty is a byproduct of high trust relationships. The dictionary defines loyalty as faithful to a person, a cause, an ideal, a custom, an institution, or a product. In the business of maintaining and serving the luxury real estate market it is important to engender loyalty in your relationships with your clients, because it is a formidable source of word-of-mouth marketing, i.e. referrals. If you value loyalty, having a loyal client base can be developed in this way: Be loyal!

• Develop consistency in your follow-through
• Do what you say you are going to do
• Stay true to your principles such as working with people you like
• Give your clients the best care, before, during and after the close of escrow
• Stay in touch, remember birthdays, anniversaries and their children’s names. It is easy to do that when you like them.

Loyalty is in and of itself a luxury because it is so satisfying when a client stays true to you. If loyalty seems like a rarity to you, practice it more often yourself. Champion the products and services that you value the most. Let other service professionals know that you appreciate them by sending them referrals, and a gift such as flowers.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Marketing Essentials: A Salute to Adventurers

Like Christopher Columbus whose day we celebrate today across America, luxury real estate marketing experts take on an adventure each time they position a magnificent home to sell in their marketplace. Luxury homes are as unique as the owners who occupy them. It is important to determine what segment of the luxury market would appreciate this home, both in your marketplace and internationally. The sizzle to sell here is the adventure that can be had by living in this location, because the sense of adventure and discovery is an important lure with deep psychological implications for the buyer.

Luxury homes situated in a second home market should be marketed to reflect the adventurous aspects and specific advantages of their surroundings. Learn from the m arketers of luxury condo hotels in your area who appeal to an international clientele. Apply their marketing strategies. They understand the emotional reasons why buyers are attracted to your area. They have spent quite a bit on market research. Besides the sumptuous accommodations and setting, they sell the dream and the experience of the locale. They are engaging the customer’s sense of the story they will tell when they come home from their vacation. Their marketing story includes off-the-beaten-track experiences, best restaurants, secret adventures, romantic rendez- vous and art exhibits. A pied-a-terre in New York and a ski in/ski out home in Aspen appeal to the adventure of discovering new worlds.

How will you position your next listing as the adventure to own? By the way, Columbus’s legacy as the discoverer of the new world is not accurate according to historians. What is accurate is that he was the person who brought attention to America. As historian Martin Dugard, explains, “Columbus’ claim to fame isn’t that he got there first; it’s that he stayed.”

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: What Color is Your Lobster

Legend has it that the prison fare on the Eastern seaboard in the 1800’s was lobster, because it was plentiful and cheap. Prisoners begged the warden for a change of menu. Today, lobster is a luxury and is considered a delicacy. The perception has changed and it is usually one of the most expensive items on a menu. Here is some social currency on the subject of lobsters that you can share, as a luxury real estate marketing professional, when you take a client out to lunch or dinner. 

Lobster shells are usually a blend of three colors, red yellow and blue. One in two million lobsters is blue because it produce extra protein due to a genetic anomaly. One is 30 million lobsters are yellow. An half yellow, half brown lobster resides in an oceanarium in Maine. One in 100 million lobsters is albino. An albino lobsters is known as a crystal lobster. The European lobster has a blue tipped tail and legs, and some have variegated coloring. 

The West Coast is home to the Spiny Lobster, also known as langouste or rock lobster. Unlike their Maine cousins (considered to be true lobsters) they do not have claws. In our area, the central California Coast, the lobster season is between October and March. The meat is very sweet and they are absolutely delicious! The sea birds agree, as we often see discarded lobster shells on the beach this time of the year.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: The Avocado Festival

Sunset on Carpinteria beach

Luxury real estate marketing professionals can learn about differentiation by observing how cities bring attention to themselves. This supports local business and tourism and can benefit local charities.  It is also a potential opportunity to make your brand known by sponsoring an event which is congruent with your style.  Here is an example.

Carpinteria, our home town, is a small California central coast city in Santa Barbara County.  It is known for its avocado ranches, orchid nurseries, organic produce, flower growing fields and polo fields.  It was named by the Spanish as “carpentry shop” because the Chumash Indian tribe made canoes on the beach and used the naturally occurring surface tar to seal their boats.

Carpinteria hosts an annual Avocado Festival on the first weekend in October.  It attracts a worldwide audience of avocado growers and lovers because Santa Barbara County is the third largest producer of avocados in North America.  The three day event features live music, food, recipes and contests.   It usually draws over 100,000 people.  This event is sponsored by local businesses who are promoting themselves as well as a good cause.

What is in going on in your town, city, or neighborhood that you can support? How about starting something new?

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Achieving Momentum-Part 5

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about the principle of the flywheel to describe the inflection point when a company gains momentum, then acceleration followed by a sudden burst of velocity that leads to the achievement of stratospheric results. There is an important lesson here about momentum for luxury real estate marketing professionals that can be applied to building a thriving practice in any economic condition.

Mr. Collins describes the nature of an actual flywheel as a “massive metal disk mounted horizontally on an axle, about 30 feet in diameter, 2 feet thick, and weighing about 5,000 pounds.” By consistently moving the wheel forward incrementaly, gravity eventually takes over, creates a momentum, and the wheel begins to spin on its own.

To build a strong momentum and eventually gain (or regain) velocity in your luxury real estate practice stay on track by consistently promoting. Experiment with various promotional methods until you discover what works best. Discard what does not work. Then keep on repeating what works. Become like a monorail on a single track to success, building speed through consistency.

Here are three ways to build momentum and velocity.

Consistently stay in touch with your contacts. When was the last time you sent out an email to your database, took a friend out to lunch, or remembered someone’s birthday?

Keep track of your results from various promotional vehicles. Become discerning when it comes to selecting advertising venues, direct mail campaigns, internet marketing methods or other promotional means. Compare and measure their effectiveness.

Leverage your time and your money. Co-market with other agents. Co-advertise with compatible non-competitive professionals like lenders.

Consistency in promotion is your sure route to building momentum and velocity in your luxury real estate marketing practice. How can you be more consistent in your promotion?

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials:Achieving Momentum-- Part 4

If you discover that you are losing momentum in your luxury real estate marketing practice, do not panic! Don't get derailed. Just re-invent yourself and change tracks.

Look around for new opportunities. You may discover that you need to make some fundamental changes in your normal operating procedures in order to take advantage of new opportunities, gain traction and build a new head of steam.

Here are three areas to consider to get yourself on track :

Retool

One example of retooling is developing a better website that captures buyer leads more effectively

Re-position

You may need to learn additional skills or acquire additional specialized knowledge to work with clients that heretofore you have not worked with, such as investors, or second home buyers. Then, reposition yourself as a specialist in a new niche.

Reformulate-Re-focus

You may need to temporarily focus more on buyer vs. specializing in listing properties that languish on the market.

Once you have retooled, repositioned (yourself or your company) and reformulated the focus of your practice you then need to PROMOTE like crazy! Promotion begets new momentum of productivity.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Achieving Momentum Part 3

Are you currently inspired by your work as a luxury real estate marketing professional? Do you wake up in the morning eager to go to work? Do you love what you are doing? Are you feeling steady progress in achieving your goals, despite economic conditions?

Or, are you frustrated, angry, fearful or even depressed because your sales momentum has slowed down? Could this be clouding your perception of the abundance of opportunities that still exist, right here, right now?

If you really do love what you are doing, the only thing that can get you down is a feeling of powerlessness, the lack of power to control the flow of new business. In Part 1 of this series we defined momentum as the power to increase the flow of business at an ever-growing pace. Understanding how to increase momentum in your practice in any economic condition is therefore paramount to your happiness in your job.

The first thing you need to understand is that the market has not come to a complete standstill. Perhaps the waves of business are not as big, but there still is  a plentitude of smaller waves, i.e., there is still activity in your marketplace. You just need to capture a larger share of the existing activity and enjoy that ride.

However, to be able to perceive the abundance of opportunity that is right under your nose you may need to give yourself an attitude adjustment.

Here is how to start:

• Take stock of your accomplishments.
• Take time to appreciate yourself and others more.
• Ask yourself, “What is perfect about my present situation?”

Now, take a look around and see if you can spot some new opportunities through which you can build a new momentum of business. Catch a new wave of momentum and ride it.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Achieving Momentum Part 2

Momentum is the power to increase the flow of business in your luxury real estate marketing practice. What is the mindset that creates momentum? The answer is threefold:

1.  Alignment and Focus

Personal alignment occurs when you want something and you are clear about why you want it. You are also clear that you are setting out to achieve your goal for your own sake and not to please others. Team alignment occurs when there is a mutuality of interests, i.e., when the goal serves the self-interest of each team member. When there is alignment  and single-minded focus your goals become magnets that pull you toward accomplishment which is the sensation of forward  movement and momentum.

Think of the extensive alignment and focus that was required to produce the opening ceremonies of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Everything seemed to flow flawlessly and effortlessly. Spectacular displays of well orchestrated teamwork created a tremendous opportunity for Chinese self-promotion. Promotion is the act of furthering the growth or development of something which builds its momentum. A tremendous amount of momentum in positive public relations was gained by China because they hosted the games.

2.  Inspiration vs. Motivation

You know you are aligned with you are inspired to take action, when the very thought of taking action thrills you. If you feel like you need to motivate yourself to achieve your goal you are not aligned. Gaining and sustaining momentum can be gut-wrenching if you are trying to motivate yourself in the absence of inspired action.

3.  Pride of Ownership vs. Accountability

If you feel like you need to hold yourself accountable for your goal you are not aligned. When you have pride of ownership you naturally want to take care of your enterprise and consistently keep it in good condition which adds to the momentum of your success.

The combination of personal and team alignment, inspired action and pride of ownership is the mindset that gives you access to momentum. This is the power to steadily increase the flow of business in your luxury real estate marketing practice.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Achieving Momentum Part 1

Momentum is the capacity for progressive development. In your luxury real estate marketing practice momentum it is the power to increase the flow of business at an ever-growing pace. The sensation of momentum can be exhilarating. But, it is the feeling of control over the volume of business you attract that feels the best. How can you achieve this control? That is the subject of this blog series on momentum.

Clues for creating momentum can readily be found in sports. The famous basketball announcer for the Los Angeles Lakers, Chick Hearn, referred to a phenomenon that he called “Mr. Momentum” He observed that, at times ,a team would ride the wave of consistently outscoring their opponent. Then, suddenly, Mr. Momentum would shift and the same phenomenon was experienced by the opposing team. In each case, he was referring to a stretch of time in which everything was “clicking”, all gears were in mesh, the teamwork was impeccable and results were consistent.

A specific example of momentum in basketball occurred in the 2007-2008 season. The Houston Rockets experienced a 22 game winning streak, which was the second longest streak in NBA history. What was most remarkable about this achievement was that it was accomplished without Yao Ming, the famous Chinese center, playing in the last 10 games of the streak. This was the first season for Rick Adelman, their head coach. Certainly Rick brought a different mindset to the team which became evident.

Mindset has everything to do with momentum. Players have described stretches of time where they could do nothing wrong. One player said that he experienced stretches of time when the diameter of the basket was as big as a lake; every ball thrown in the general direction of the basket went in. Clearly, this was an altered state of mind.

What, then, is the mindset that creates momentum, the power to increase the flow of business in your luxury real estate marketing practice? Stay tuned to the next post for the answer!

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Pull, Don’t Push

As a luxury real estate marketing professional you should understand the difference between push and pull strategies. The perfume industry often relies on pushing their product by spraying approaching customers and insisting that they smell the new fragrances. Magazine ads soaked in fragrances can be annoying, especially if you are allergic to perfume. This is another example of a push marketing strategy.

When a customer asks for an item, he or she is pulling that item towards themselves. It is a subtler form of marketing, and one that works well with luxury marketing. The concept of scarcity, limited production and exclusivity becomes the pull strategy. Marketing the perfume essence in a limited edition crystal bottle signed by Lalique or Baccarat makes it a pull strategy.

In marketing yourself in the luxury real estate arena, it is important that your strategy has a pull nature. Bragging about your accomplishments is definitely a push strategy and a turn off.

One of the best ways to create pull is to be involved in your community and responding to its needs. Two of our lender clients regularly sponsor educational projects for the kids in their community in honor of their wives who were formerly teachers. They believe in education, and they spend part of their marketing dollars to further their community. People needing loans are drawn or pulled towards them, and regularly refer them. When considering a sponsorship as a pull strategy, it is important that you are aligned to the cause and it is something you believe in.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials: Enough Twittering. Go out to Lunch!

Painting by Boris Kustodiev, Restaurant in Moscow 1916

Technology makes it easy to stay in touch via email and social media networks. However, it is also important to keep the human element alive; such as a phone call, snail mail and even getting together. Isn’t it time to revive the old fashioned ways of networking?

It is much more fun to actually meet people face to face than to look at their picture in Linked In or Plaxo, or even by webcam. You can start by calling them and finding out what they are up to, instead of reading about it in their Twitter. That’s right! Startle them with that question! Remember when actual contact lead to all sorts of great adventures and friendships?

One of our friends in luxury real estate has a simple solution that keeps increasing her business. She regularly invites several clients to lunch. The idea is to get together and enjoy each other’s company, and catch up. She picks a restaurant with ambience such as by the waterfront, in a secluded garden, or in a gallery setting. She feels the location creates the atmosphere in which to take time and enjoy each other’s company. In the process of having a good time, she usually ends up with several leads, which eventually lead to closed deals.

Review your data base. Who will you steal them away from their computer and invite somewhere special for lunch?

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.

Luxury Real Estate Marketing Essentials:Is it Time to Re-invent Yourself? Part 1

In challenging economic times for luxury real estate marketing professionals, it is often discovered that your old success formulas are no longer working. For many, facing this brutal fact plus realizing that there is a pressing need for change is the toughest part of all. However, welcoming change and going through the process of re-inventing yourself can be one of life’s most exhilarating and rewarding experiences even though it can be painful at first.

Here are the steps involved in starting the process of re-inventing yourself:

1. Look for Evidence of Good News! Champion those people who are succeeding despite the economic news. Forget being jealous. Find out what they are doing right. For example, in Beverly Hills, the famous William Morris Talent Agency buildings recently sold for a record price per square foot with foreign financing.
2. Give Yourself an Attitude Adjustment . Be Kind to Yourself. The process begins by accepting your circumstances and even more importantly by accepting yourself, fully. You must completely factor out of the equation what other people might be thinking about you. Stop judging yourself by other’s standards. Your business is none of their business.
3. Mind Your Own Business, Literally! Avoid the temptation to compare yourself with others. No one can really know what you are going through. Only by being kind to yourself and minding your own business can you clearly perceive the opportunities to reinvent yourself.
4. Pick Yourself Up. Brush Yourself Off. Start All Over Again. When you were a kid and you were learning to walk, then fell that is exactly what you did. Remember?
5. Stay Positive. Use any excuse in the book to feel good. Staying positive in difficult times IS the way out.
6. Hang out with Upbeat, Optimistic People. Seek out positive news and positive people as much as possible.
7. Discover Where the New Opportunities Are.  Except in extreme emergencies, business does not come to a complete standstill. Repeatedly ask yourself and others, “where are the opportunities?”
8. Acquire Some New Skills. Take some classes. Learn more about your market. With a little bit of focused attention you can learn some new skills that can make all of the difference in the world. For, example you may want to learn about 1031 Exchanges that do not necessarily require new financing.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing. Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.