Real Estate Advertising Mistakes to Avoid

Don’t be yourself; everyone else is available.

Josh has started his job as a realtor and is intently monitoring how others are working in the market. He is following precisely in their footsteps and setting his marketing strategy to match the work of established realtors in the area he is working.

He has forgotten, or perhaps never learned, that his best asset in real estate marketing is his uniqueness. Someone needs to remind him of Oscar Wilde’s saying, “Be yourself; everyone else is taken.” He needs to be his one-of-a-kind self to stand out, bring himself into his job and make it personal and humane. Only this way can he build a solid foundation for his career.

Lie if you can remember everything.

Andrea wants to stand out in the market, so she brags about the sales she has made and not made equally. When writing the ad for a listing, she exaggerates the features of the property and uses staging to cover the flaws. She is constantly under massive pressure to keep up with these deceptions and justify them when confronted by prospects.

If only someone were there to remind her of Mark Twain’s imparted wisdom that “if you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” That way, she could have put all her energy towards promoting her marketing and establishing an honorable reputation for herself as a realtor.

Behave however pleases you; people will forget.

Sam has worked as a realtor for a couple of years and has closed on several luxury estates. Lately, he has been looking down on everyone and does not respond to each inquiry on his social media. Also, Sam is condescending toward his colleagues and makes fun of their modest listings and closings. His social media platform is mostly about how good a closer he is, accompanied by large portraits of himself.

Someone needs to remind him of what Maya Angelo had learned: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Remembering that will assist him in taking advantage of his expertise while establishing and keeping his network.

Go with amateurs; it’s cost-effective.

Daniel has purchased the new iPhone and captures all her listing photos herself. She has never been trained as a photographer and does not have the time or interest to study tips on real estate photography. Before, she used to ask her nephew, who had just bought his first camera, to take listing photos. He would do that for one-tenth of a professional real estate photographer’s fee.

For her logo design, she asked a friend who was familiar with design software to make hers. She has saved a lot through that, yet she wonders why her ads don’t get viewed that much and why they don’t stand out.

She is now a clear example of Red Adair’s statement, “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.” She is losing in a market that is all about quality images. She should be reminded that owning even the best camera doesn’t compensate for the expertise required to capture engaging listing images.

People will find you, even if they can’t find you on Google.

Brian is a friendly person who has worked as an agent for a decade. He is rather old-fashioned and doesn’t spend much time preparing content for his website and being active on social platforms. His site holds only basic information on the area he works and his contact information.

Recently, he feels even though he has had a successful career, he has trouble getting new leads and making new connections. He has forgotten to keep up with search engine optimizing strategies and to enlist other content materials apart from his listings. He never heard Jimmy Wales saying, “if it isn’t on Google, it doesn’t exist.”

Don’t plan; market at the moment.

From the beginning, Duke has gone with his gut regarding his marketing efforts. He does not budget for advertising and spends abundantly on the spot. Duke is marketing on multiple social media and cannot catch up with all of them. Since he does not have a Customer relationship management (CRM) strategy, he can’t keep up with his generated network.

He needs to be reminded of the imparted wisdom from Alan Lakein, that “planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” By structuring a marketing plan and sticking to it, he can reduce his advertising budget and make it efficient.

There is no harm in excessive social media activity.

As a real estate agent, Sarah has always tried to keep up with social media platforms. She has an account on all of them and spends hours keeping up regardless of the audience. Every aspect of her personal and professional life is echoed in her online presence. Still, she is not making headways compared to her colleagues, who spend less time on selected platforms.

Sarah’s heart is in the right place, but, as Victor Hugo said delicately, “To put everything in balance is good; to put everything in harmony is better.” Picking suitable social media for real estate marketing should be a well-thought-out decision. The platforms must combine with her goals and the targeted audience she has in mind; otherwise, Sarah will not see much ROI from her social media marketing.

You don’t have to care; just show that you are knowledgeable.

Adam is an established realtor with a reputation for knowing every news about the market. His website and social media are filled solely with information about the real estate market. However, he is not eager to walk his clients through every step of a buy or sale. He prefers if they trust him that he knows what he is doing. He believes that showing emotions in business is a weakness.

What if Theodore Roosevelt had told him, “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” Perhaps he would have started looking at the humane side of property transactions and how it is affected by different emotions. Knowing that aspect, he could have shown his caring alongside informative data. That would have been reflected in his attitude, and he would have made a lasting impression as a trustworthy expert.

Lost a lead? It’s gone; never look back.

Amy has a thorough marketing plan and manages her lead with CRM. Suppose a prospect drops from her website or social media. In that case, she feels incompetent and puts more effort into creating practical material to attract new leads and keep the ones she has. What’s missing from her marketing plan is a retargeting strategy. In her mind, a lost lead is lost forever, and it’s best not to waste energy on it.

The lost particle in Amy’s understanding is the nature of the property purchase: it’s a rather long game. People take their time and go back and forth because it’s a big decision, and a lot is at stake. They want to make sure they’re making the right choice. Because of that, Amy should abide by what Audrey Hepburn stated: “People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed.”

Amy can take advantage of remarketing tags and campaigns offered on most social platforms. This way, her brand can announce its presence when a prospect is still in the decision-making process.

Never follow up; it’s a waste of time.

Jason uses multiple advertising methods, from online to offline. He puts the same number on all his ads; When it comes to his prospects, he never reaches out and waits for them to come forward. And after the sale is finalized, he never keeps in touch with his old clients. In his words: why waste time on follow-ups when you can use that time and energy to make new connections, create content and generate leads?

Faced with this attitude, Michelle Moore would have told him that “not following up with your prospects is the same as filling up your bathtub without first putting the stopper in the drain.” Jason’s marketing strategy requires a follow-up tag on every aspect: using customized phone numbers to assess the advertising method’s effectiveness, reaching prospects and answering their potential questions and offering assistance, and staying in touch with clients since they are the best source for new leads.

CTA? Nah, no one cares about these details.

When it comes to advertising her business, Beth is on top of everything. She takes advantage of all platforms and wisely puts 10 percent of her commissions into marketing. However, her ROI from all these advertisements is not what it’s supposed to be.

If she had consulted a marketing expert, they would have pointed out the importance of a call to action in all her marketing efforts. She has been reluctant to implement that and believes her prospects are responsible for their actions. Of course, people know what to do, but guiding them in their journey as prospects is an obligation. Attending to details like CTA is crucial; as Winfried Georg Sebald has put it eloquently, “Tiny details imperceptible to us decide everything.”

Don’t set any goals; keep on going.

Patrick has been in the real estate business for a couple of years now; he has a mediocre status among the realtors in his work area. He does the job and puts efforts towards advertising, but all his marketing seems like patchwork that does not match. If you ask him for tips to become a successful realtor, he can’t give you any pointers.

The fear of failure and not sensing the necessity of planning led Patrick to indecision. He can’t assess his progress because there is no gauge. It won’t be possible to see if he is going in the right direction since he never set one. That is why he feels like a failure; in Earl Nightingale’s words, “people with goals succeed because they know where they’re going.”

Patrick needs to remember that if he aims at nothing, he hits nothing. Setting measurable goals should be his priority in defining his career path. After that, he can structure a marketing strategy to achieve set objectives.

Conclusion

Together we reviewed common mistakes to avoid in real estate advertising. Of course, there are other mistakes, and if we unleash our judgmental evil twin, we can spot it all around us. Our chances in the face of the inevitability of mistakes depend on two factors:

How good a cheater we are regarding other people’s mistakes.

How good our memory is when it comes to our own mistakes.

If these two factors function properly, every day is a chance to go out there and try a new real estate advertising method and make brand-new mistakes!