How Profiling Your Clients Can Turn Into More Listings & More Sales

Every real estate agent wants more listings and more sales, but sometimes the most difficult part of achieving these twin goals is finding the right kind of people quickly and easily.

So I’m going to share a solution with you that you might not have run across before.

Firstly, the key element to finding people quickly and easily is via advertising.

It’s the most reliable, controllable method of getting in front of prospects quickly, without cold calling or asking for referrals.

HOWEVER, the real secret you might not have run across before is to only advertise to people who are most likely to be good prospective clients for you.

Most real estate agencies use what I call the “shotgun” approach to advertising. They put their ads up on portal sites, maybe out there in print, radio, letterbox drop – even TV – and of course, they always try to get referrals.

Now that we’re in 2015 (and beyond), what you might not know is that a lot of online advertising (the most popular form to promote real estate) allows you to tighten up the focus on who you show your ads to, so that ONLY the highest quality prospects see them.

When you go for the “shotgun” approach, you’re just blasting your ads out there for anyone and everyone to see, and you keep your fingers crossed that the right people will see them and contact you.

And, that’s fine. It often works.

BUT… you also pay a LOT more for broadcasting a wide net, because most advertising is charged based on the number of eyeballs that see it. The bigger the audience that sees you ads, the more expensive the advertising is.

The question to ask yourself is: How many eyeballs am I paying to show my ads to, that will NEVER be even a warm candidate for my listing, let alone a hot prospect?

Example #1: If you’re selling a typical $500K property in the ‘burbs, do you think unemployed people are a warm or hot prospect for it? Of course not. If they don’t have a regular income, chances of them getting financing (or having the cash) to buy the house are pretty well non-existent.

Example #2: What about if you are selling a 1 bedroom apartment. Mum, Dad, 2 kids and a dog are not likely to be buyers (except for investment purposes, maybe) because they won’t all fit in the single bedroom, regardless of how low the price is and/or how luxe the apartment is.

Since every property you sell will likely suit a slightly different buyer, one of the KEY elements to successful, cost-effective advertising is to target your ads to the right kind of buyer.

One of my very favourite online ad networks that allows me to do this is Facebook.

Unlike Google, where people search for a specific solution (ex: homes for sale in Duncraig, apartments Perth, etc.), Facebook ads are targeted based around the demographic and psychographic characteristics of people.

In Facebook’s eyes, demographics are fairly typical items such as age, gender, geographic location, relationship status, education, work, financial, home, parental status, generation, even life events such as newly weds, upcoming birthday, etc.

This means you can be very specific about showing your ads just to those most likely to be candidates to buy that specific property.

If you are selling a larger multi-bedroom house in the suburbs, you could choose to only show your ads to people who are married (or defacto) with several children. If it’s the aforementioned 1 bedroom apartment, you’d likely target people (single or a couple) with no children, etc.

There are LOTS of other options to choose from with demographic targeting, including peoples’ net worth, job title, employer and so forth.

Moving on to psychographic targeting, you can then control which people see your ads, based on their hobbies, interests, past purchase behaviour or intent.

So, as an example, if you are selling a property near a golf course, you could use psychographic targeting to show your ads to golf players, and mention the nearby golf course in your ads.

Or if you were selling an eco-friendly house with solar panels on the roof and a battery storage system to store excess solar energy for evening use, you could target your ads to someone who is interested in solar power, renewable energy sources, green homes/living, etc.

Lastly, if a lot of your prospects & clients work in a particular industry (ex: Mining, Engineering, etc.), you can also target your ads to show to employees of specific big companies in that space. Or you can target specific job titles (such as Engineer, Doctor, Lawyer, etc.) to get in front of your ideal prospects.

Can you now see the benefits of using demographic and psychographic targeting with your Facebook ads?

It not only allows you to reduce the wastage factor of “shotgunning” your ads to anyone and everyone (thereby reducing your ad costs) but it also improves the chances you’ll get warm to hot leads enquiring (and ultimately buying) because the property appeals to their own circumstances.

So, the next step in this process is to begin PROFILING your clients & prospective clients.

Work out what demographic and/or psychographic factors they have in common. Whether they are mostly married with 2-3 children, aged between 35 to 49, work in sales or management roles, are golf nuts, etc.

When you have a clearer idea of what kinds of people most commonly buy from you, you have a good starting place with which to begin targeting your ads.

If you sell Multi-million dollar properties, chances are your typical buyer might be older (more financially successful), work in a management role or even own their own business. They are unlikely to be 18-25 year old university students who rent a basic home. You can better target these kind of people once you know their profile in more depth.

Start looking more deeply at the characteristics of people who come to see your listings. Ask a few more questions to find out some details about them. Take notes, compile the data and build a profile of your typical &/or ideal client. Once you have a clearer idea of the various “personas” you work with, you can start targeting ads with higher accuracy.

As we already mentioned, it also helps to think more carefully about the properties you are selling, and who they are most likely to appeal to. Then your ads can be targeted much more closely to the kinds of buyers who might best like this kind of property.

Lastly, by combining all 3 options – demographic, psychographic & property-type targeting together, you could show ads to the very hottest prospects, and ensure those in the middle or the top of the sales funnel don’t even get to see your ads.

So, get out there and start profiling your current clients, prospective clients and properties, and then run some test ad campaigns on Facebook to see if you can bring in the buyers quickly and easily, all without having to do any cold calling or asking for referrals.

Free Real Estate Client Attraction Blueprint

If you’re spending $500+/month on real estate advertising (this can include your portal listings, letterbox drops, etc.) and you’d like to dramatically increase your leads, sales & ROI, then you’ll want to take advantage of one of my FREE 30-minute strategy sessions to help you improve the results from your marketing.

Whether you’re an agent or principal, I’ll work with you to design a custom Client Attraction blueprint, help you identify the perfect target market for prospective buyers, and show you how to maximise your marketing results.

My promise to you is that by the time we get done with this fast-paced session, you will walk away with 3 actionable strategies for you to get more listings and more buyers… without the need to spend a fortune on wasteful advertising.

There are two ways to success in the real estate market. Outspend the competition or be smarter than the competition. In this call, I will share with you how to be smarter.

Plus, if you’re not thoroughly convinced the custom marketing blueprint I’ll provide will significantly improve your current advertising results – even if you NEVER choose to work with me to implement it – just let me know before we finish our call and I’ll happily donate $30 to the charity of your choice! (Of course, you’ll get a copy of the receipt)

By the way, there’s no cost to you for this strategy call.

Obviously I provide online Marketing services for real estate businesses, and if you see some value in the free help I give you, there’s a good possibility you might want to work with me to improve your lead generation results. And if you choose not to, that’s equally fine.

But… before you go any further, you need to know that I can’t help everybody.

I can only be of benefit to agents or agencies that currently advertise or market online or offline. You need to already be spending at least $500+ a month in advertising costs and – ideally – have your own operational website that can be updated with new content as needed.

If you don’t do much or any advertising, I won’t be able to help you.

So, if you meet my criteria AND would like to take advantage of a free 30 minute Strategy Call, simply click the link below. You’ll see a form with a few questions about your current marketing program and what you are looking to accomplish, as well as some contact details. Choose a day and time from my calendar to speak with me, and we’ll get together on a skype call to go over your situation and goals.

Lastly, when my schedule fills up, that’s it! So, if you meet the criteria AND are serious about wanting to take what you’ve learned from my blog post and develop a blueprint to increase the effectiveness of your advertising and marketing, then get started by clicking the link below.

Click here to request a FREE 30 Minute Marketing Strategy Call

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