It's the first week of the New Year and the world hasn't stopped to take some time out for the holidays. That means lots of junk mail of all the big stores promoting boxing week sales hence the word week and not day! Does Canada post ever take time off? With all the flyers pouring in every day- it does make for some reading material with my morning coffee and as fast as I go through the junk-the junk gets thrown right where it belongs, in the trash.
Lately I have been receiving an abundance of flyers from local Toronto Realtors; I guess they want to get a head start in the New Year. All these advertisements from real estate agents makes me wonder if this form of marketing is a dying breed or is the agent that insists on this type of marketing the dying breed? I believe it's both. When will most agents begin to understand that spamming people’s mailbox is not an effective way to get their message across? Most likely- never Traditional real estate coaches in the industry that only care about their own bottom line believe that teaching how to sell a house and generate a lead continue to push this form of marketing is the only way to promote yourself. The funny thing is that most of these so called coaches never made a living in selling anything let alone a property. But hey all the power to them for convincing Realtors that their strategies work and that they should be paid thousands to share these secrets with them.
The marketplace has grown to a new era in which the consumer has the power to research on its own time and find not only products more effectively but also services as well. The Internet has made all this possible with the combination of social media sites like You Tube and Twitter, the consumer controls when and what type of marketing they are open to. Realtors can really harness and take advantage the Internet has to offer, instead most of them run away from it like it was the plague.
Watch this video below as I believe this is the future of real estate marketing and I'm curious to know what you think about it. The video was shot in Australia by two Realtors who are thinking outside the box and in my opinion its genius marketing.
Now that you have watched this video let me say that I don't think Toronto as a marketplace is ready just yet for this type of video, I'm sure there would be many types of groups that would be infuriated with the idea of selling sex with real estate and the message would be lost. Cities like LA and Miami, this type of video would definitely benefit home sellers there, all you need is an agent that is willing to take that step and dish out $30,000 or so dollars for that type of video production.
Other methods that Realtors should employ is writing articles like this on and let the consumer get to know the Realtor for their abilities through not only the level of expertise that they have but also through the opinions that they share with others. You Tube is also a great way as it helps consumers put a face to the name and allows people to know who you are and get a hold of your personality plus so much more, it allows people to engage with the Realtor in a less formal way which always helps with putting the guard down. You Tube also helps the consumer understand how the Realtor will be marketing their home to a vast audience instead of just doing an open house for all their nosy neighbors to come out and see.
Social media is also huge and the power that it possess if done right will benefit both the consumer and the Realtor, Facebook and Twitter is a great way to promote your blogs and engage with consumers. This new era of doing business is our future and the quicker we grasp this form of marketing, well let's just say that the Realtors that don't change their ways then they will be looking for another type of employment quicker than they could imagine. Heck maybe these types of Realtors can start another real estate coaching program.
This is why Re/Max Toronto agents are a cut above the rest, we have the tools and understand the latest trends, joining Re/Max was the best decision I made.