Stand out from the crowd

Unique marketing tactics get people to notice and remember you. And guess who they will call when they’re ready to buy or sell?

by Dan Rafter   Like most real estate agents, Marlene Grindinger wants her name to be the first that potential clients think of when they’re ready to buy or sell a house. But one thing sets Grindinger apart from many of her fellow agents: She’s willing to go beyond traditional marketing strategies to accomplish this goal.

That’s why Grindinger, an agent with RE/MAX Cross Country in Lewisville, drives a red, white, and blue car decked out with an American flag and a bald eagle. It’s also why she’s made her dog Baby, a white Bichon Frise, her marketing partner. Baby graces Grindinger’s Web site, billboards, and business cards.

One other thing: Grindinger goes solely by "Marlene" in her promotional materials. "Marlene" is easy to remember. "Grindinger" is not.

Some agents may consider some of Grindinger’s marketing methods a bit hokey, but few would argue with the results. Consider one recent morning when Grindinger was out walking Baby. A runner jogged past her and yelled, "Is that you, Marlene?"

After Grindinger replied that she was indeed the famous home-selling Marlene, the jogger added, "How many houses has that dog sold for you?"

Additional evidence for the success of her methods comes in the form of people who call Grindinger without having to look up her telephone number. They know it by heart from seeing her billboards or car every day.

"I remember when I first came out with my car," says Grindinger. "I had some agents tell me they thought it was a little too much. Then I had some customers sit in it, and they told me it was great. That’s when I knew I was on the right track."

You can go too far

Agents hoping to make an impression among potential clients can learn a lot from pros like Grindinger. But as powerful as unique marketing strategies may be, they can also prove risky. It is possible for agents to go overboard with their marketing and unintentionally convince buyers and sellers that they are flakes instead of highly trained professionals. Then there’s the matter of making sure an agent’s personality fits with her marketing. Those agents who promote themselves in a manner that makes them appear happy-go-lucky better not be "all business, all the time" when clients come calling.

Daryl Logullo, a marketing consultant and owner of Vero Beach, Florida-based Strategic Impact, says there is one key when searching for a catchy marketing slogan or strategy: Agents must learn to balance the cute with the professional. This way, agents can create attention-getting campaigns without turning off potential clients.

Of course, this can be a fine line. Logullo’s company has created some unique marketing campaigns for REALTORS®. He advised one agent to enclose an Alka-Seltzer tablet in her direct mail. The letter that went along with the tablet read: "Getting headaches and heartburn because your house won’t sell? Hi, I’m (agent’s name), and I’ve sent you the enclosed Alka-Seltzer for relief. But if you’re looking for stronger relief, like qualified buyers and a quicker contract, I can help you." This campaign is clever, but it’s not silly.

Ann Clarke, another marketing professional and the owner of Masonville, Colorado-based Gr8 Ideas at Work, advises agents to avoid certain types of humor in their marketing campaigns. She calls it "guy humor"–material that is a bit raunchy or off-color–and says it tends to turn off many potential customers–especially women. She also advises agents to stay away from joking about religion, sex, or politics in their advertising. Agents who aren’t sure if their campaign’s humor is too over the top should bounce their ideas off several peers and friends before spending money on marketing.

"If it’s not something you’d be comfortable with your mom seeing, don’t do it," she says.

Match your marketing to your mindset

Clarke does recommend that agents inject their own personality into their campaigns. "I’ve spent 22 years nagging people to put a little personality in their marketing," says Clarke. "Research shows that people do business with people they know or people they feel they want to know."

The key for agents is to develop marketing campaigns with which they are comfortable. For example, agents who are active supporters of groups such as Habitat for Humanity should make that known in their marketing efforts, perhaps mentioning in their ads that they will donate a certain percentage of each of their closings to the charity. Agents with large families might include photos of their children and grandchildren in their promotional materials.

"People who have never met you need to feel that there is something about you they know and like," says Clarke. "You have to do something that separates you from the other 999 REALTORS® out there. You have to build a bridge with people."

Sometimes, it’s the highly unusual campaigns that pay off the most. "So many things that seem hokey actually work in marketing," says Linda Brakeall, a suburban Chicago marketing professional and author. "These campaigns strike people as funny or they remind them of something they loved as a kid. When you trigger those emotions, you sometimes hit a home run."

For instance, Brakeall points to a Chicago-area REALTOR® who sent her clients a card showing her in a series of pictures spanning her two decades in the business. The caption at the bottom of the card read: "More wrinkles on my face, and fewer in your transactions."

Playing the name game pays off

When looking for a unique marketing hook, some real estate agents turn to what seems like an obvious source: their names. When Joe Provenzano, a real estate agent with RE/MAX Fry Road in the Houston suburb of Katy, entered the business in 1978, he knew he had a problem. His last name was too long and too difficult to remember.

Fortunately, he had a solution. Right around 1990, he began referring to himself as "Joe Pro," a name that’s not only easy to remember but one that has a habit of sticking in the minds of potential customers.

Provenzano’s logo, which prominently features "Joe Pro," is on his business cards, his Web sites, and all of his marketing materials. "It has definitely helped me," he says. "Very few people these days call me Joe. Generally, they call me Joe Pro. It’s become one word to most people."

Provenzano says his marketing gimmick works because it seems so natural. It’s not a stretch to go from "Joe Provenzano" to "Joe Pro."

The best nicknames come about naturally. There’s Jennie Ling, for example, better known to consumers as Jennie "Real Estate" Ling.

Ling earned her nickname by selling loads of real estate year after year. She has been a top-producing agent for all of her 32 years in real estate and has continued that success at Virginia Cook, REALTORS®, working from the company’s Park Cities office. Having earned her nickname, Ling isn’t afraid to use it as a marketing tool. She even has a plaque in her office that refers to her in this way.

Just how completely has Ling’s nickname stuck in the minds of potential customers? She has become so well known in the business that a Cadillac dealership has featured her as a satisfied customer in many of its television and radio commercials. The company’s owners know that Ling is a local celebrity; if Jennie likes their cars, others who want to emulate her success will like them as well.

Ling, though, never could have earned her moniker if she didn’t have two things: talent and dedication. Her advice to other REALTORS® seeking a marketing hook is simple: Concentrate on doing the best job possible for clients. Only after they have proven themselves as top-notch agents will they be able to call themselves something like Jennie "Real Estate" Ling without blushing.

"I’m always there for my clients and easy to get in touch with. I am one of the few agents I know who has both her home telephone number and cell number on her business card," says Ling. "I’ve had people tell me that when they were deciding whether or not to put their house on the market, that everywhere they went they saw my car–every time they were in a group and talked about real estate, my name came up. Those people give me their listings because I’m always there. I work all the time. That’s more important than the Cadillac commercials or the nickname."

A woman of many hats

Susanne Forbes Dicker owns more than 600 hats. Not surprisingly, she is known as the Dallas Hat Lady. A REALTOR® with Keller Williams Realty’s Preston Road office in Dallas, Dicker has gone by that moniker since 1978, when she left the world of retail and entered the home-selling business.

And Dicker is not at all shy about promoting herself. Her phone number uses numbers that spell out H-A-T-S. The first part of her e-mail address is "sfdhatlady." Even her custom license plate has the letters H-A-T on it.

"My hats have served me well," she says. "They are my trademark." Of course, Dicker is not the only hat lady in real estate. She’s discovered a REALTOR® in Florida, for instance, who calls herself the Florida Hat Lady. Because titles cannot be copyrighted, this is no surprise. The number of hat ladies out there doesn’t bother Dicker, who says that when buyers and sellers in her market hear the words "hat lady" they instantly think of her.

To prove this, Dicker points to a trip she took five years ago. As she sat atop a camel in Israel, wearing, of course, one of her trademark hats, a couple looked at her and asked, "You wouldn’t be the Hat Lady from Dallas, would you?"

Not any agent can simply buy a few dozen hats and call herself the Hat Lady. This marketing device works well for Dicker because she has the personality to pull it off, wearing even the most flamboyant of hats without a worry. Dicker, though, wouldn’t advise agents who are more conservative or laid-back to try the same thing.

"You have to be able to wear the hat, not have it wear you," she says. Dicker is also careful not to go too far with her hats. She wants potential clients to remember her, but she also wants them to know that she is a professional. When she is working with a more-conservative client she wears subtle hats. This all seems to be working for Dicker. Last year, she was the ninth-best producer in the United States with Keller Williams.

It’s not just for the low end of the market

Obviously, marketing methods such as Dicker’s are not suitable for all agents. Some customers prefer that their REALTORS® be serious folks who market themselves in a serious way. But officials at Virginia Cook, REALTORS® say that unique marketing is becoming more of a necessity in today’s competitive real estate market.

Virginia Cook pros pride themselves on their fully staffed marketing department–one that creates professional brochures, pamphlets, and a wide variety of other marketing materials. This department even creates water bottles with labels that display photos of home listings and pop-up greeting cards designed specifically for each holiday.

"We have certainly become known for our marketing," says Hillyer Lang, vice president of marketing with Virginia Cook. "Many of the REALTORS® who have joined our firm have said that they came to us because of the marketing support we are able to give them and their clients."

Marketing experts have another surprising message: Attention-getting marketing strategies tend to work in all markets–even in luxury homes.

Clarke, for instance, once worked with a real estate team who specialized in high-end properties. During the years this team worked with Clarke, they appeared in one ad while wearing leather biker outfits. The caption read: "We’re hog wild to sell real estate." For another ad, after returning from a real estate convention, the women photographed themselves holding dumbbells in an area gym. This time the caption read: "Just back from convention and we’re
all pumped up about selling your home."

"The thing is, people like humor. They like to laugh, no matter what kind of home they are selling," Clarke says. "If you can get someone to laugh, they’ll tend to remember you."

There was one important factor in the women’s marketing, though. No matter how off-the-wall their ads seemed, they were always professionally photographed and presented. For high-end properties, she says, that is a must.

Agents should also follow another important rule when mulling offbeat marketing campaigns: It’s crucial to know the target audience. For instance, when an agent advertises in a magazine geared toward young professionals, he should present himself differently than he would if he were running an ad in the senior citizen’s section of their local newspaper.

"The thing about real estate is that people only need an agent when they are selling or buying a home. They don’t think about agents when they’re not doing that," says Gayle Marco, associate professor of marketing at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh. "That means you as a REALTOR® really have to keep your target audience in mind when you advertise. You don’t want to miss that audience and have them go with another agent."

Marco recommends that REALTORS® targeting senior citizens, for example, advertise in a way that conveys compassion and trustworthiness. Agents seeking this market might run ads or cable television spots showing them with their children or grandchildren.

Finally, Marco has one more piece of advice: Agents shouldn’t grab onto a gimmick just because it is catchy or flashy. Any advertising gimmick should relate directly to the field of real estate. "It has to relate to what you do," Marco says. "Otherwise it doesn’t mean anything to the consumer."

Photo © PictureQuest.

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