Make Your Marketing Count

When it comes to running and marketing your business, make it count! There are so many free and easy resources that you can utilize until you are ready to invest more. Professional photography is HUGE and an absolute must. We lay out some helpful suggestions and tips on aligning your business when you're starting your real estate career and then how to continue as you grow! 

Transcript

Hey, everybody. Welcome to today's episode of Haller Hour. And again, with this season, we're kind of more focused on real estate in general. We did a lot of like personal and lifestyle the first season, so you can kind of like get to know us, but we are diving deep into all things real estate.

And season two. And today we want to talk about the importance of professional marketing in your business. You have to treat it like a business. You have to spend the money, whether it's you taking X amount of proceeds out of your check to go towards marketing each month to kind of break it down or having your set, you know, goals with, Hey, these are the three sections of this year that I really want to put.

my strengths and my marketing into in my business. Um, however, that might look for you, but we, and we always on the Haller team have been so strong with professional marketing to include videography. Professional photography and mailers and how has that worked for our business is what we're gonna talk about it's I mean I think in Neal's opinion to to stand out in a crowd it's really not that hard Because there are so many people that are doing the bare minimum when it comes to projecting their business. And I was just showing a house yesterday, and the pictures were horrible online. They make a difference.

A huge difference. Like, we didn't even want to go see the house. They sent it to me, and I was like, and they're like, well, it has the two living spaces like I wanted it. It has the sunroom. Um, and I said, okay, but the pictures were terrible. Like, steady iPhone pictures. And the house is gorgeous. Gorgeous.

And all I wanna do is be like, do you know how bad your pictures look online? You know, to that seller. Everyone has an iPhone. So you know, you have, if we are gonna be the professionals, you have to take it up a notch and you have to do more. Mm-Hmm. than the cell phone. You can't just do the standard No.

That everybody else has. No. And the pictures, the buyer's first impression of the homes. Yeah. Mm-Hmm. . So, I mean, you need something to draw them in and make them really wanna come in. See it in person. Absolutely. And they're paying you a lot of money to list your house and to do it well. And I feel like a lot of agents go with their guns blazing to these, you know, listing appointments.

I'm going to do this, this, this, this, this. And they always over promise and under deliver. And that is what we do not want to do. We want to promise and then over deliver, um, with that. But when it comes to this, like, it's just not that hard. Get a photographer that you love, that you jive with, Christina Elmore has started and she will finish with us.

Absolutely. She is wonderful. We trust her. She is a part of our brand. And she can go into that house and know exactly what it takes, like, hey, let's move this chair over here. Let's move this out of the way. And she's just awesome. And we trust her with our listings. And in return, our sellers trust us with how we're protecting and marketing and taking care of their listings in return.

And then kind of what goes hand in hand too is the professional videos with that. Um, I have not done videos forever. So in starting because they are a little bit more expensive when you think about that. So how much would you say the photography runs per house? Um, They consistently go up, but I mean they're kind of based on square footage, so you're looking from 250 to 350 for a normal home, and then obviously if you're listing a 5, 000 square foot house, it's going to be a different kind of level when you get up there, but When it comes to that, that is a small investment when you think about what it goes in to take to sell that house.

So at the end of the day, can you spend 350 to sell this house? Yes, you can. And if you don't, you might not need to be here. But, um, when it comes to videos, it's going to be about 500. You know, and that's in our market here in middle Georgia. Um, I know that's probably chump change to some people in bigger markets, but, um.

When you do that and some of that the benefits of that is like drone footage Um, the virtual tours and high quality videos that if we're, you know, being a military town Yeah, you have a lot of everything. Yeah buyers that never get to see the home in person. Oh, yeah That helps a lot if you're not ever gonna see it in in person well Tell Matterport is for the people that don't know so Matterport is mapping the house.

So it's like a virtual tour where you can go in and click and  it's like you're walking through the home. So it's like a 3D image. It's awesome. It's really cool. You feel like you're kind of in the house and that in the imaging and the quality of it is awesome And you can click on a room and it zooms in in that room And you can just feel like you can walk in and drag it and span around Yes, so we obviously don't do that on every listing, but if we have a more luxury listing here Absolutely, that's a must.

so Photos, videos, using the same kind of branding when you do that. So professional headshots. And this is always super funny because we'll, we'll see like a business card of somebody shown house or realtor that like, we've talked to her over the phone, but never met. And I would like walk right past her, never knowing that that is who that girl was, right?

Just because you have to stay dated. So if you go from a brunette. Or up to date, if you go from brunette to blonde, you got to do another picture, you know, because people need to be familiar with who you are in your brand so that when they see that, you know, you can do some fun headshots and like have maybe three different ones that you use, but only use those.

Um, and we have some... We have some fun pictures too, you know, that we'll throw in there just for if it's a closing or something exciting happening, but use the same photos. So when somebody passes that sign, sees you online, they're like, Oh, that's her. So it's just, it's a consistent brand across all avenues.

Um, and when you're working with these professionals, like Christina, and then Chris Clark does all of our videography. and I do videos with them every month as well. He knows me. I know him. He knows how I talk. He knows what makes me comfortable, what gets me out of my box. And so he's almost like a consultant and so is Christina.

So whenever you learn them, they learn you, you can brainstorm and they can take your business up to the next level too. They know how to put you in your best light. Absolutely. Yeah, and I feel like too, like there's never any um, Surprises with Christina like I can send her to a client's home And I know that she's gonna have the same conversation with them that I've had with them absolutely as far as things go and so that consistency again is so key to Showing your listing in the right light, but also your people trust you.

Yes, so And so not just building that trust with your seller and building the trust of the buyer too. So if buyers, you know, are all the time on Zillow, Realtor. com, you can kind of create a presence for yourself. And before they even see your name, they're like, Oh. That's Ashley's listing. Just because of the consistency, the wording in your descriptions, the quality of the photos in your descriptions, and always having a video that goes along with that in most cases, um, it just kind of sets you up on that different level of you're building trust and credibility in that brand with sellers, with buyers, and with other people in the industry too.

Because I can tell you that there's some here that I can see a picture and I'm like, That's her listing right there. I don't even have to look it up. And I know that that house is going to be in awesome condition. I know that the sellers have already had a chit chat about what to expect and having realistic expectations and what they should do and shouldn't do when it comes to repairs where you don't want to be that other agent in the market that's like, oh my gosh.

Every time I show one of her listings, it's awful. It smells. It's never in great condition. There's false information online. They've never even stepped in the home. No, and you just showed one. No, you just showed one. Oh, it was horrible building reputation matters and you know us as agents remember that we remember What your listings look like and that you know You want other agents to be excited listing. Absolutely. Right. And I was setting, I showed buyers last night and I was setting up the showings. Only two were occupied. And so I tried to call, didn't answer. And I texted, Hey, this is Ashley with Golden Key. May I please show da, da, da. And all she said was yes.

There was no, Absolutely. Thank you so much for wanting to show my property. Please don't miss XYZ. Information, yeah. I would love any kind of feedback, positive and negative, on this property. Let me know how I can help you. So when I got that yes, you know, because right now, if somebody offers to our listing, I'm like, Absolutely!

Please let me know if there's anything I can do. Do you want me to come with you? Like, you know, it's just, it, it does set you as an elevated real estate agent, realtor in this industry. If you just like that. That would have taken her 20 more words to say something nice versus just a straight yes. And little stuff like that makes the biggest difference.

Between sellers, buyers, and fellow realtors, and yourself and your business, and differentiating yourself versus, we had a CE and, you know, he's like, all these realtors are putting just sold, just listed, just sold, and we have to. But when we do a just sold that say, hey, You know, this is a background story of these sellers or these buyers.

They were in this home for 35 years. They raised four children here. Do the story versus putting all the glory on you. It's not about us. It is about our client and treating them with respect. And they're the hero of the story. And I loved. That we learned that, um, Ty Anderson with Third Day. He was, um, the instructor for this course.

And it just kind of changed all your perspective about, let me not say, I'm ranked XYZ in MLS. It's fine to share volume and give credit to, I didn't give this volume without my amazing clients and sellers and buyers and team members. You know, like. But don't put all the focus and the glory on you because it ain't about you.

Yeah. It's about the people that you serve, the community that you serve. So if you kind of flip the script and target your marketing based upon how can this be beneficial to the person that sees this, reads this, or hears this, it's going to set your career. Um, business that leads inbounds from where it is right now.

Absolutely. So do y'all have any other feedback to come into that? I kind of like cut you off when you were talking about that house that I walked into. It was not what I was expecting because I, you know, you have, like I said, we're talking about reputations of, um, certain agents and when you walk in, you expect a certain quality, but when you walk in, it was, it was very clear that it was a flip and it was not.

It was one of those where, band aids, band aids, band aids everywhere, like it was like putting on, paint on, you know, perfume on a pig or something. I like perfume on a pig. It was like putting perfume on a pig, like it was beautiful if your buyer was looking at it and they're like, and they didn't really look at like corners or like door frames and all that and they weren't worried about that.

I mean it would have been awful for someone who hadn't seen it in person, like you have to. To see it in person. So, but that's where we come in as buyers agents as we're those, you know, next pair of eyes After you know the buyers to say hey, did you look at this over here? You know, I don't know how many times I've said Um, this isn't we're not buying this one.

I mean literally just a point where you're like that. I'm not comfortable It's a first time buyer, you know if you're experiencing a you know, if you're working with a buyer that has the funds and they're like look You know, I'm gonna rip it up anyway. Right. That's a different situation. Like you said, when you're working with that first time home buyer, they're looking at, oh my gosh, it's pretty.

Let's do it. But it's like, do you see that? Do you smell that? Do you hear that? You know, and, and I think. Melissa hit a good point, too, that the, the agent that had these two listings that were both terrible, she has a very huge presence here, and a very professional presence here. And so you automatically think and feel that you can trust going into her property.

And so I think it was a little discouraging. It was. I was very surprised. That, and then it comes to find out that she hadn't even stepped foot in that house. Mm hmm. And so y'all, please, side note, if you're gonna list a house, Look at it. Yeah, please, you know, at least put a big toe in the front door, you know Something so you can smell it.

You can see it. You can know what you're working with and I mean if you can't even do that Why the heck are you trying to list a house? Cuz that is the biggest disturbance you answer questions at home if you, you know, haven't even been in it? Yeah, and then you look. I mean, honestly. I mean, at the seller's disclosure, and I mean, there's a reason why agents don't sign a seller's disclosure.

It is strictly a document between the seller and between the buyer. But, if we are walking through a house and we kind of notice stuff, we're going to go look at that. And guess what? That house didn't have a single thing on that seller's disclosure. That we could have been like, okay, so that's a red flag right there.

Okay. If this is just what we can see, then what is unseen? And at the end of the day, it's completely up to the buyer. We will sell you whatever you want to buy. But our job is when you work with us, we're going to advocate for you and the stuff that you might not see. Um, it might not even know to ask. So there's a kind of a lot of ins and outs.

That can go into this and I feel like we can talk about this for another 30 minutes. But um, professional marketing, professional videography, professional branding, and if you do videography and photography, that is in turn going to create your brand and just be consistent. And that is always the thing that just being candid that we struggle with, you know, it might be a really rough, busy season of life.

Just because life. Right. Just because life and mom, momming and life, you know, and when the market's super busy, like through this pandemic, we didn't have the time to sit down and be like, okay, what's our marketing goal? Like we were just flying by the seat of our pants, trying to get everything done. Now we have time to invest.

And I think that that is something that doesn't need to be a negotiable in your business. You know, no matter how busy you are, just create out and be consistent. And that's gonna, yeah. Take your business to the next level that you're hoping for versus if you're great for one week. That's awesome No one's gonna care unless you're doing it every single week of the year But and we kind of love to hear from y'all to you So like if there's something that you integrate into your business That we kind of didn't talk over or stuff that you have found that I set your business apart.

I'd love to know. Yes But um, we hope y'all enjoyed this. We're trying to keep them a little shorter sweeter and this year and helpful And kind of be a resource to you as a realtor in this market with us. So  📍 until next time, cheers y'all. Cheers.