If it’s true that our goal is about causing a memorable experience that’s worth telling your friends about and worth having over and over again (preferably for years on end) then we should be looking at who’s achieving that rare level of consumer attention and then holding on to it over the long haul.

I don’t believe that a better example can be found than the Days of Our Lives.

For over 38 years now ‘Days’ has maintained an iron grip on millions of viewer’s weekdays – five days a week.  If they miss it, they record it and watch it the next day lest they miss a critical twist or turn. The converted presumably talk about it over dinner with their families and on the phone to far-away relatives.

Of course, with such a long run ‘Days’ must lose a significant number of viewers to defectors (to other daytime shows), people’s schedule changes, and of course death. They lose their actors, writers, and directors to the very same forces. So everything’s changing – the consumer, the product, the times. And of course ‘Days’ has had its ups and downs – from being the number one daytime show to near-cancellation several times. But we must agree that the level of devotion to that brand over such a long period is something to which we all aspire.

So what is it that keeps viewers so rapt over the course of decades, generation after generation? I submit that it’s simply that viewers quickly develop a personal connection with the characters. We identify with their trials and tribulations, with their loves and losses, with their smallness and transformations. There are characters we love and characters we hate – or rather love to hate – and we’re engaged by our own emotional journeys.

For decades, we’re aghast at the manipulative sisters-in-law and thrilled with daring of cheating husbands and business leaders. Depending on our estimation of our own moral history, we judge or excuse the character’s personal flaws and failings. We organize our own view of ourselves around their powerful, yet pedestrian stories. Our own story is experienced alongside and in relation to the one we see on T.V.

Get Naked

As marketers, how can we engage our customers like this? After all, we’re not T.V. writers, or actors! And we’re selling widgets that aren’t nearly as sexy as Hope or Shawn!

Blogging is clearly a beginning. We’re seeing a lengthening toe of personality beginning to come out from behind the corporate veil. But the vast majority of company blogs today are mainly just dozens of versions of the sales-pitch done in casual, everyman language. If we see anything personal, it’s a family vacation shot or a baby picture that feel like a premeditated shot at giving us warm-fuzzies. We may like our own kids, and thus have a flicker of identification with our hosts. But there are a lot of parents out there, and your kids aren’t going to hold my attention for long.

What attracts and holds attention are our authentic stories. It’s not the pretty parts, but the nasty parts that we appreciate.  It’s the struggle, the embarrassment, the failure, and the drama that makes us squirm – and pay attention.

Why is Donald Trump famous? There are plenty of successful real estate investors out there, but Trump has bad hair, went broke, had a nasty divorce, got a trophy wife, and has a massive ego – all of which we love and hate and understand about him. The other real estate investors all did that stuff, too… but they hide it. Trump has made all those things his calling cards. They mystify us and keep us talking and watching.

We’re all striving to create richer relationships with our customers and clients. We want to engage them with our brands, and keep them coming back for more. But no matter what we sell, our customers ‘get it’ pretty quick. We run out of new stuff to say. Pretty soon, we begin to try to ‘connect’ with press releases and new ad campaigns.

But what’s interesting to people, in the long run, is people. It’s identifying with our dreams, successes, failures, and striving. Our stories. And, as entrepreneurs, we’re hardly lacking in this kind of material.

We just need to have the guts to show it.

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Note that this post is my entry into SVAMA’s Marketing Thought Publishing Contest, and has also been posted to their blog.

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What systems do I need to create?
How shall those systems work together?
Where do I start?

We start simply. An overview of the main processes that make up most businesses might look like this:

This cycle is both a representation of the lifecycle of a typical client, as well as a sort of list of the processes that need to be managed.

Starting at the top, what is your process for generating inquiries? What marketing systems do you have in place? How well do they work? Could they be improved? Could they be added to? Should some be cut?

Measuring the effectiveness of your systems is important, and in marketing we measure things like ‘cost per lead’, ‘conversion rate’, and so on. Depending on the volume of inquiries you’re getting and how much you’re spending on marketing each month, it may also make sense to track inquiries by source so you know if your magazine ad, for example, is performing well enough to keep it in the mix.

Responding to inquiries is a critical area for most businesses, and where we make or break the success of our marketing efforts. Are we responding in a way that is similar to the way our competators do? Are we distinguishing ourselves from the pack? Are we demonstrating the caliber of service that we provide, or just promising what we will do (like everyone else does)? Are we articulating the tangible (money, time) value that our clients can expect from doing business with us?

I’m not going to go through the whole circle here, but I hope the idea is clear: Start with a customer life-cycle, and then look at how you plan to knock the sox off your clients every single step of the way.

Once you have an outline of your basic systems you have a distinct advantage over seat-of-the-pants-ers: you can go to work on improving each system bit-by-bit.  When you’re just trying to juggle your business, it’s never really clear how to make progress. But when you have a map, you can see what areas of your business are most critical, most in need of improvement, and most likely to have an impact on your bottom line.

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Find it here.

In it, I argue that whatever business we think we’re in, we’re not.  We’re all actually in marketing, and that understanding leads us to all kinds of new insights and benefits.  The article’s called ‘Donald Trump is in Real Estate. You’re in Marketing.’

Check it out.

The previous post, which I forgot to mention here, was about authenticity in marketing.  Called Authenticity is the New Black, it was about the advantages of ‘being yourself’ in your marketing. Was inspired by several front-page magazine articles on authenticity recently, and wrote out one of them in Fast Company’s May issue.

Check ‘em out, and while you’re there subscribe to the Vine.  It’s a great community with strong writers and ideas.

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But I submit that the cost of being a fireperson is far greater than we typically recognize, and that there is an enormous opportunity available to those who, as Michael Gerber says, will focus their best efforts ‘working ON their business, not IN it.’

As entrepreneurs, it’s our job not just to get the job done but to build a system that gets the job done. When we focus on building a system, we become true business owners… not just employees in our own business. When we’ve got a system that works all kinds of new opportunities are available.

First, we see opportunities to replace ourselves. When we’re putting out fires, everything needs OUR attention. An assistant can’t put out the fires as well as we can. They can’t have those critical phone conversations, and can’t make meaningful decisions on their own. They can’t even deal with the mundane paperwork, because everything situation is unique and requires our decision-making.

But when we’ve got a system that works, we find that there are all kinds of processes that can be handled by others. When there’s a process, assistants know the answers and can handle the calls. They know what needs to happen next, and can manage the paperwork.

The miracle is that you get to spend more time doing your highest-value work, which can be dealing face-to-face with clients, creating a new marketing program, or building systems in other parts of your business.

Another major benefit of systematizing is scalability. That is, when you’re putting out fires, there’s only so much you can manage. When you have a system in place you can take on more business and manage it effectively.  The best systems can manage an infinite amount of business! You’ll know, for example, that one assistant can manage five transactions at a time. When you’re at that level, you know it’s time to hire and train someone else… which is done systematically.

There are many more advantages of working ON your business, as opposed to IN it. You can begin to automate repetitive processes like marketing and lead management. You’ll find that there are less peaks and valleys in your business, and that you’ll see them coming.

But there are two last points about creating systems that are serious biggies.

One is that what you can systematize, you can measure. And what you can measure, you can improve. In time, your job becomes the constant improvement of the various aspects of your business. You’ll ponder and solve questions like “How can I improve the experience my clients have during the negotiation process?” or “How can I increase my close percentage from 50% to 70%?” Like a mechanic fiddling with wrenches in the garage, you’ll constantly see ways of improving every process that makes up your business.

Finally (for now!), when you’ve got a system that works you’ve got something of real value. That is, you can sell it. Many Realtors hope that at the end of their careers, they’ll have something that they can sell to fatten their retirement, but for most this is an illusion. A list of past-clients isn’t worth a lot. Even a brand name is tough to sell, particularly when it’s so closely associated with an individual (that’s quitting).

But a proven, profitable system for generating clients, serving clients excellently, and managing happy and productive employees is like gold and is exactly what business-buyers are looking for.

Of course, building systems takes time. It’s work. But it’s what we’re up to as entrepreneurs, and it’s the best work we can do.

I’ll write more about process as a competitive advantage, as a marketing advantage, and more in blogs to come.

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You have an opinion about the news. It’s time to buy, it’s time to sell, it’s all hog wash, it’s not in our area, it’s only the sub-prime market that’s affected… I don’t know what your thoughts are on the subject, but my bet is that you’ve got some.

Your clients/sphere/farm/prospects may have heard the news. If they have, they may have an opinion or they may wonder what it means to them.

Here’s the deal: You are their real estate professional advisor. It’s your responsibility, and a serious marketing opportunity, to deliver this news to everyone you can and to comment about it.

You’ve all had the marketing mandate rammed down your throat hundreds of times from marketing coaches and managers – deliver items and content of value to your herd. Everyone agrees it’s a good idea, but then decides to deliver recipes or impersonal pitches that are meaningless to the recipient and only serve to position you as ‘just another salesperson’.

This is an opportunity. It doesn’t matter that the news is good or bad. It matters that it affects everyone who owns or is thinking of buying property.

Here’s what I suggest:

1.Find a newspaper article from yesterday’s paper (if you can’t find an actual paper, just print out this businessweek article. But a real paper is better.)

2. Photocopy it.

3. Write on it: “Thought you’d be interested in this…”

4. Handwrite, on another sheet, your succinct thoughts on the subject. How does this affect your area, your niche, your clients?

5. Fax these two sheets to everyone you know that owns or is thinking of buying.

This is real marketing. You are powerfully positioning yourself as a trusted advisor (you’re not hiding the bad news, you’re bringing it!) and someone who’s really thinking about your client’s best interest as you go through your day. The actual newspaper is important; it lets your recipients know that you were thinking about them as you read your paper in the morning.

When the stock market crashes, I get a personal call from my broker (hopefully letting me know everything’s ok.) When a law is changed that affects my business, I want a personal call from my lawyer (though I probably don’t get it – his mistake.) Likewise, when a major news event occurs in the real estate industry, I want to know that I have someone looking out for me.

Last note: if you don’t have fax numbers, get them for next time.  This time, take that photocopy, pop a sticky note on it with the ‘I thought you’d be interested in this…” and stuff that and your brief handwritten thoughts (photocopied is fine) into a real envelope and mail it.

This is what we mean when we say ‘deliver valuable content’. Have your clients in mind and opportunities like this will begin to show up everywhere!

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Businesses don’t win because they’re cheaper.  In fact, ‘cheap’ is a far harder road to travel in business; you have to sell more than the high-end guys, and someone always comes along who’s willing to go out of business faster than you.

Besides, the fact is that consumers aren’t cheap.  It only takes a moment of reflection to see the vast and rising tide of spending on luxury goods and services.  From super-luxury spas and cosmetic dentistry, to designer jeans and celebrity mace the high-end is becoming mainstream.

Then why are discounters taking business from full-service agents?  Here’s the top three reasons:

1. Discounter’s value proposition is crystal clear.

“We’re cheaper.”  That’s not hard to understand. 

When consumers have no other means of determining value, they will choose based on price. That is, if your value proposition isn’t absolutely clear to consumers you will lose.

Here’s an exercise: ask your best friend why they would recommend you and your services to their loved ones.  Is their answer compelling? (hint: ‘you’re a good guy’ is not.) If your own best friend isn’t completely clear about your value proposition, how do you expect consumers to choose you?

2. Discounter’s marketing hammers their message home.

They don’t send out postcards with gardening tips or recipes. They’re not talking about their integrity and experience and how their going to ‘go the extra mile’.

They’re talking about cheap. They’re pounding their specific value into the minds of consumers with every communication.  Their business card says it, their postcard says it, their ads say it.  They tell you at parties.

It’s a cohesive campaign wrapped around a dead simple value proposition.

3. Discounters have an enemy.

Buying is an emotional process. Buyers, no matter what they’re buying, choose with their hearts and then justify the decision with their minds.

‘Having a common enemy’ is a classic and powerful emotional tool. Their enemy is you, and the message is ‘they are gouging’.  That’s pretty easy to get worked up about.  Particularly when so few full-service agents are clearly articulating what it is, specifically, that makes their service worth every penny.

Discounters win not because they/re cheap, but because they mount an effective campaign that drills a specific value message into the hearts and minds of consumers.

What is your specific, tangible value? Do your prospects understand it?

Perhaps more importantly, are your past clients and members of your sphere of influence completely clear about the value you offer?  After all, it’s tough to deliver a powerful referral when ‘she’s a nice lady’ is the best they can muster…

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I’ve discovered in recent minutes that this phrase is not, in fact, the Hippocratic Oath or even a part of it. It is, though, a principal precept taught to all medical students and since I’ve associated it with Hippocrates my whole life (haven’t you?) I’m running with it.

It is so insanely easy to blow money while marketing your business, it’s scary. Almost all of us in business know this from still-tender experiences of zero return on our [insert marketing spend here]. To ‘do no harm’ to our wallets would be good enough reason to swear an oath.

But the money wasted isn’t the only cost of bad marketing choices, and it’s the deeper consequences that are more serious.

John Jantsch surprised me in his just-released book ‘Duct Tape Marketing’. A solid mid-westerner with a blue collar image and simple, down-to-earth advice (check out that title!). John is not the guy I’d expect to write a chapter on ‘The Power of Positive Expectancy’. Maybe since Oprah’s done ‘The Secret’ this sort of thinking has gone mainstream, or maybe John’s just a bit more cutting-edge than he lets on.

John says that if you know your marketing is going to make the phone ring – it will.

I don’t know why what he says it true, but I’m pretty certain it is. It could be that there’s actually some kind of cosmic law at work, like ‘The Secrets’ Law of Attraction.

Or I’ve imagined that perhaps we’re all just a little smarter on the inside than we give ourselves credit for. That is, we know when we’re making a good marketing decision on a deep level, and so we’re confident about it. When we respond to a cold-caller hawking ‘top search engine positioning,’ maybe we have a little gut feeling that our ‘investment’ is less than rock-solid. No surprise then that it doesn’t work out.

Whatever the cause/effect situation happens to be, I’m convinced that what Jantsch calls ‘positive expectancy’ is a powerful force for success – or for failure.

And this takes us back to Hippocrates. Many agents have subtly given up on marketing. Or they’ve given up on Internet marketing. And it’s easy to see why – every dollar they spend wasted, over and over again. Not only do they wound their pocketbook, but slowly, a belief is created:

“The Internet doesn’t work.”
“Postcards don’t work.”
“Advertising doesn’t work.”
“Nothing works.”

Often, this kind of thinking isn’t conscious or overt. But there’s a frustration and throwing-up-of-hands towards the whole process that really stops the kind of thinking and innovation required to create a message and a process of delivering it that’s effective.

It’s too bad, because all businesses are fundamentally marketing businesses. To ignore marketing is a mistake. To simply follow what everyone else is doing only serves to tell the marketplace that you’re no different - a recipe for disappointing results.

The solution? ‘First, do no harm.’

There’s a ton to say about how to avoid wasting money on marketing, and we’ll get to it in coming posts. But for now, let’s agree that trying to convert total strangers into clients is the black-diamond slopes of marketing. It’s the hardest thing you can try to do.

So, start with the low-hanging fruit: the people who already know and trust you. Create a compelling message that demonstrates your unique value, and deliver it to your sphere in a systematic and provocative way. Build on small successes, and take on the greater challenges over time.

In coming installments, we’ll talk about things like how to create that compelling message and how to avoid getting burned online, from SEO and Adwords to web sites and e-mail. It’s not as hard as you may have come to believe.

Tags: real+estate+marketing, SEO, the+secret, law+of+attraction

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