It may sound a little odd to compare retail sales to home sales but there is much that realtors can learn from luxury retailers. When you think about the most successful brands like Apple and Tiffany’s, they follow the same key principles that should be applied when marketing a home.
They carefully prepare and package their product to make it look flawless. They conduct market analysis to truly understand whom their product will appeal to the most. They craft marketing messages that will appeal most to that audience. They understand the value of professional photography to showcase their product. And then they invest in extensive marketing activities to announce the product to the world.
These key tenets of retail marketing can and should be applied to marketing a home.
Preparing a product. The listing agent should work closely with the homeowner, home stager, and any necessary contractors to help coordinate what is needed to get the home ready for sale. Just like selling an iPad or Tiffany diamond, the product (in this case, the house) should be carefully prepared to look its very best before it goes on the market. This can include everything from remedying any outstanding maintenance issues to conducting an in-depth home cleaning to painting, making small upgrades, and staging the home. At the end of this process, the home should look “magazine ready” and be very inviting to potential buyers.
Creating targeted marketing campaigns. Realtors should be creating targeted marketing campaigns for the homes they sell, just like luxury retailers do for the products they sell. Selling a home involves much more that putting it in the MLS. Today’s realtors have access to a wealth of market data to help them understand who the home they’re selling will appeal to the most. Oddly, however, it’s more common to see very generic, mass marketing done to sell real estate.
As any marketing professional will tell you, this is not very effective. Realtors should be investing the time to truly understand who the home is most likely to appeal to, ensuring they have the means to reach that critical audience, and crafting marketing campaigns that will resonate most with their desired audience.
Taking professional photography. Just like luxury retailers, realtors need to invest in professional photography to showcase the product they are selling. I’m actually quite amazed by how many homes for sale are marketed online with less-than-ideal photography. This is a disservice to the homeowner.
When home buyers are shopping for a home online, they only spend a few moments glancing at each home. If the photos don’t capture their attention they will quickly move on to the next home.
If you are interviewing realtors, ask to see samples of how they have marketed other properties to ensure that they are doing a beautiful job in doing so. Also, verify that they will hire a professional to photograph your home. They will have the proper equipment and skill to make your home show its very best.
Launching a product. Unfortunately, it’s common for real estate agents to simply list a home in the MLS, put up a sign in the yard, and send out some postcards to market the home. If time goes by they might spend money on an ad or additional campaign, but they do these things in dribs and drabs.
It would be much better to learn from how luxury retailers introduce a product to the market. Retailers invest in a wide array of marketing activities all at once to launch their product. This way they get the maximum number of buyers excited about the product all at the same time. This approach would serve real estate agents well when they are introducing a home to the market.
Real estate agents who invest in this approach will be helping their clients to sell their home quickly for the highest value.
Reprinted from my MetroWest Daily News column in Metrowest Homes, a real estate resource for residents of Dover, Holliston, Hopkinton, Sherborn, Southborough, Sudbury, Wayland, Westborough, Weston & beyond.