 | | Marketing your brokerage Coordinating Company and Salesperson Marketing | | ||
|  Setting Marketing Strategies Analyzing the Business Climate Creating Your Market Identity Planning Your Advertising Coordinating Company and Salesperson Marketing Developing Public Relations Strategies Enhancing Customer Service | In Real Life: Creating A Consistent Image Standardization is the key to the consistent, professional image of Weichert, REALTORS®, says Nancy Zaslowe, broker/manager of the company’s Ft. Lee, N.J., office. Under the supervision of dedicated technician/designer Michaela Ugurlayan, each associate at Ft. Lee makes a monthly selection from among the hundreds of marketing postcards specifically designed for the company’s I-Mail program. Each card gives the option of a custom message and practitioner photo on one side and set promotional copy and the company logo on the other. The company also maintains the agents’ mailing lists for them so the entire personal promotion process is quick and painless. “All associates have to do is pick out the card and write a check to get their personal promotion out,” says Zaslowe. “I came to this office seven years ago as a salesperson, and once a month we all had to scramble to create a personal promotional piece. Each piece was different—they looked different and were vastly different in quality, depending on the writing and graphics skills of each practitioner. Now we have a consistent, company-wide look that still puts the focus on the associate.” The same level of quality and consistency carries over to the company’s other marketing materials. Listing materials are standardized, and personal information is put in place for salespeople by the marketing department. All salespeople are encouraged to use REALTOR.com and Weichert.com Web sites so that looks and navigation are consistent for Internet consumers. While some brokers may wonder how difficult it is to achieve such a high level of consistency and image control, the goal doesn’t have to be unattainable, Zaslowe says. “Our office works as a team; if salespeople don’t want to join that team, that’s their choice.” It’s not for everyone, she acknowledges, but with sales ahead of last year by 38 percent, the team they join is certainly a winning one. Advanced: Get Your Own Show Combine institutional and specific property advertising with a televised “home showcase.” Buy a 30-minute block of television time on a Sunday afternoon, creating a “buyer showcase” of homes your company has for sale. A spokesperson can introduce the company and briefly talk about its services and customer benefits. Then the show can shift to short videos of the company’s individual listings. Salespeople can pay a fee equal to the cost per minute of the broadcast for each of their listings that is featured. —Bill Barrett, CRS, Managing Your Advertising Campaign, Real Estate Business, Summer 1993 TIP: Be sure to get a videotape of the complete show and make copies for salespeople to use as selling and listing tools. 5 Company Ad Guidelines for Salespeople Both your company and your sales associates will benefit if the advertising message you use is consistent. Guidelines are a way to help ensure this will occur. 1. Determine what colors and in what configurations the company’s logo can be used in promotions. 2. Require that sales associates include the company name, address, phone, and e-mail address in all advertising. 3. Set specific deadlines for submitting property information and photos that will be promoted in company display ads. 4. Establish Internet policies that show salespeople how company material and listings should be posted on their individual sites. 5. Train all salespeople in fair advertising practices and review promotional materials to ensure that they meet these standards. 5 Reasons to Centralize Advertising Creating an in-house advertising agency or contracting with a freelance designer to produce ads for the company and for sales associates at a favorable rate is a great way ensure that salespeople and brokerage ads complement each other. Michelle Ball, vice president of advertising and corporate development for Long and Foster Real Estate Inc. in Fairfax, Va., explains why this industry leader has created an in-house agency. In addition to developing and placing newspaper, radio, and television advertising for the company, Ball and her staff create more than 250 preprinted marketing pieces for salespeople at the 187-office brokerage. However, says Ball, even a smaller company can gain cost savings and higher quality through centralization. 1. Purchasing and placing all company ads usually gets you better rates based on quantity and frequency discounts. 2. Creating an in-house agency that supplies final ad film or files can earn you “commissionable” rates, a standard 15 percent discount on all ad placements. 3. Using corporate graphic standards and predesigned, customizable templates for newspaper ads help ensure a more consistent, higher quality product, thus protecting the company’s brand identity. 4. Printing all materials with an established pool of printers, each specializing in particular types of materials yields better pricing. 5. Producing copy in-house helps ensure that the company’s message and marketing themes are used consistently and again protects brand identity. Developing Public Relations Strategies > | |