Target your real estate ads - Are you talking to me?

Tim Cronin, Published: Fri 19th May, 2017

When it comes to marketing a property, the key is always to generate as much interest as possible from ‘genuine buyers’ – people who are a) currently looking for just the type of property you’re selling, and b) have a realistic chance of being able to afford to buy it.

To ensure you spend the bulk of your time talking to real purchasers – as opposed to wasting your time with tyre-kickers – you need to make sure your marketing efforts speak to the right people. And to do that you need to understand who your audience really is.

To figure out who you should be talking to you really need to consider two things –

  • The property’s main selling points. This will impact the key messages you use in your marketing content.
  • The price bracket. This will impact the tone of voice you use.

In most cases the first point will be reasonably straight forward. A large home in good school zones is probably going to appeal to families, so you’d emphasise things like the number of bedrooms, the versatile living areas, the size of the section and the quality of the location.

On the flip side, the buyer of an inner city apartment is likely to be an investor, a downsizer or a young professional. Here you’d focus on the convenience of the location, the easy-care nature of the property, and possibly the rental returns it could generate.

For most agents, determining these core characteristics will be a walk in the park.

Things become a little trickier when we start to look at tone of voice and the language you use.

Of course we want to paint every property we market in the best light possible. But talk a property up too much and you’ll end up wasting hours dealing with buyers who aren’t ever going to put in an offer.

And you’ll also put your credibility at risk. No-one wants to be the ‘agent who cried Wolf’, which is why it’s so important to choose your language carefully.

Let’s say you’re marketing a mid-level home that has an updated kitchen – a modern kitchen with new appliances etc, but not the kind of thing you’re going to find featured in House & Garden any time soon.

A phrase like ‘the stunning kitchen is an exercise in excellence’ is only going to leave prospective purchasers feeling disappointed when they view the property. And that sense of disappointment when they view the kitchen could be all it takes to taint their opinion of the entire property.

It’s also likely to discourage the audience you should be connecting with from even visiting your open homes.

Yes, we want to get every last dollar out of our buyers. But if you over-sell the features you run the risk of scaring off the real buyers on the right rung of the property ladder, and disappointing those on the next rung up. And before you can get ‘every last dollar’, you’ve got to get A dollar – if you haven’t connected with the RIGHT audience you run the risk of having no bidders or receiving no offers.

The balancing act.

Of course, quality and style are relative. What’s ‘ab fab’ to one buyer will be ‘ho-hum’ to another, and vice versa. And for those on the lower rungs of the ladder, any property is likely to feel like a mansion!

That’s why it’s important to find the right balance, using language that’s honest but still inspirational. So our updated kitchen with the new appliances might not be ‘stunning’, but it could still be ‘a wonderful space that’s sure to act as the hub of the home’.

Without over-selling it, this statement still paints a picture of a great space; an area that will act as the scene for many happy memories for years to come. Which is exactly what those young couples looking to embark on their journey up the property ladder are looking for.

What’s the take-out from all of this? You can still inspire – with thoughts of memories to be made and potential to be realised – without feeling like you have to create a silk purse from a sow’s ear!

Most of this Is pretty basic stuff. But, if nothing else, hopefully there are some cues in here that will help keep your ads on track, and make the writing process that little bit easier.

Cheers,

Tim & Jarrad.


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