7 Reasons You Shouldn’t Read this Post…

Seriously, you don’t want to read this post.  Your marketing is just fine.  You keep knocking on doors, cold calling, sending out postcards with recipes and football schedules.  You’ll do just fine in real estate.  After all, what’s worked for real estate marketing in the past will continue to work, albeit at a progressively lower success rate.

Technology is changing your customer, and your customer will change your company.

Let’s face facts:

• Al Gore invented the internet  😉
• Real estate information, once loose on the internet, can be found everywhere (and for free!);
• The once iron fist of listing information that agents’ held is pretty rusty, and extremely porous;
• No matter what real estate agents think, access to information creates a smarter consumer;
• The real estate industry is undergoing it’s greatest change in a very short period of time;

If “your customer will change your company,” then knowing the trends of today’s consumers will help you adjust to their needs and desires down the road.  But, again, your 3 by 5 postcards featuring you, your dog and the illusory statements of “the best real estate service” in your marketplace will get you a few appointments.  So, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…

Trends, Statistics & Consumer Behavior

The Counterintuitive CEO, George F. Colony, has a great summary of his company’s most recent survey on consumer behavior.  Instead of me rehashing his words, check out the “super-condensed summary” with “what it means (WIM)” points for you to consider:

1. The 2009 customer is unrecognizable from the 1999 customer. What it means (WIM) to you: If your business looks the same now as it did in 1999, you are risking irrelevancy.
2. Consumers in every age group are quickly moving from offline channels to online. WIM: If your marketing department is filled with people that still over-emphasize TV or magazine advertising rather than a more balanced approach to the customer, you’re wasting your money. [emphasis added]
3. Americans spend 8 hours per week with old media (TV, newspapers) and 8 hours per week with new media (Internet). WIM: spending on your Web site and new media advertising should be comparable to your old media spend.
4. 25% of households have digital video recorders — devices like Tivo that let TV watchers record shows and fast forward over ads. WIM: you’re probably over-paying for TV ads.
5. 88% of people under the age of 40 are regular Internet users — at home and at work. WIM: while all of your customers are changing, your future customers (young people) are changing even faster. Moving slowly now will inhibit market share and new customer acquisition over the next ten years. [emphasis added]
6. Half of all Americans research products online before buying. WIM: your customers are ever smarter about what they purchase. All the more reason to treat them like partners and enlist them to help you design your next product. [emphasis added]
7. Half of all U.S. adults play computer games. WIM: begin to use this medium, as IBM has done, as a training medium for your workforce.

My realm has been real estate for some time.  Real estate marketing has become an extreme interest of mine in the last few years.  The main reason for the foray into real estate marketing has been the National Association of Realtor’s own studies showing the increasing number of consumers utilizing the real estate tools and resources available on the internet.

Technology is changing your customer, and your customer will change your company.

Finding my consumer changed how I do business.