How Realtors Can Tailor Their Marketing for Buyers vs. Sellers

Maybe you’re usually a listing agent.

Or maybe you typically work with buyers.

OR, maybe like so many working agents, you’ll take whatever comes your way. Sellers, buyers, who cares; business is business, and income is income.

When it comes to marketing, however, you should be choosier.

Buyers and sellers have different needs. Try to market to both groups at the same time, and your message won’t resonate strongly with either.

By shifting your marketing efforts to focus on just sellers or just buyers, you’ll increase your odds of success.

Curious about how to sell yourself as an expert realtor for ONE of the groups? Read on to learn how to create specific marketing for buyers and sellers.

1. Tailor Your Facebook Ads to Buyers OR Sellers

If you’ve read our guide on advanced strategies for Facebook Ads, you already know about the ability of Facebook Ads to target niche audiences and why it’s key for real estate agents.

If you’re going to sell yourself as a buyer’s agent or as a listing agent, you need to target accordingly.

To target buyers:

Decide on the kind of buyer you want to go after. First-time buyers, retirees, investment property buyers, young families, etc.

Within Facebook’s Power Editor, select your targeting options according to your buyer type. Get creative. Here are examples of what that could look like for first-timers and retirees:

 

• First-time buyers: aged 25 to 35; engaged (relationship status); undergrad years (demographics>education); weddings (interests>family and relationships)
• Retirees: aged 55 to 70; married (relationship status); retired (demographics)

 

Targeting will work wonders, but your Facebook Ads will need to speak the language of your niche.

For first-time buyers, consider copy and images about a first home, making memories, a big step, etc.

For retirees, you’ll want to think about messaging that covers things like the start of a new chapter, time to kick back, and so on.

To target sellers:

It’s harder to select targeting options for sellers, unless you want a specific kind of seller, such as those with luxury homes, downtown condos, or cottages. If that’s the case, use targeting selections that best describe your niche.

Otherwise, it comes down to the content of your ad and your use of custom and lookalike audiences (again, you’ll find super helpful information in our guide to advanced Facebook Ad strategies for realtors).

Your ad’s content can speak to your track record, your expertise, your ability to get top dollar, your knowledge of hungry buyers, and other similar factors that help you stand out. And by using your existing databases and targeting similar people on Facebook, your ad will fall into the newsfeeds of those who are much more likely to need your services.

2. Split Up Your Newsletters

If your website has a form to collect sign-ups for an e-newsletter, make sure it includes a question like this: “Currently, are you more interested in buying or selling?” The form-filler can choose between buying, selling, and a third option, such as “I’m not sure” or “Both.”

This question provides you with valuable data that you can use to segment your database — an incredibly helpful asset for the aforementioned Facebook Ads, but also for your newsletter.

Using your segmented database, you can send two distinct newsletters; one for prospective and current sellers, and one for prospective, current and past buyers.

The distinction means you can create a newsletter that’s customized for the needs of that particular audience. For example, a seller doesn’t need to see hot new listings or hear about a new first-time buyer’s credit, but a buyer does.

If you plan on marketing yourself as either a buyer’s agent or a seller’s agent for the long haul, then focus on creating one awesome newsletter for your chosen audience.

3. Revisit Postcards

are still a marketing winner. Mostly because:

• Snail mail is a shadow of what it used to be. Less competition = better visibility.

 

AND

• Paper mail has more permanence than email, which is deleted at the tap of a button. Before discarding a piece of paper mail, the recipient has to look at it first. Opportunity!

 

Your postcard campaign should steer away from targeting both buyers or sellers, no matter your end game. It’s too much to achieve on one small piece of paper. Choose a niche, and create a postcard for them. You can always branch out to different audiences with future campaigns.

4. Overhaul Your Website

Your real estate agent website is likely going to be the first stop for all your leads — buyers AND sellers. So why do so many realtor websites seem to prioritize buyers only?

“Find your dream home” and “Hot listings” often take up prime real estate (sorry, we couldn’t help it) on the homepage, while calls-to-action for sellers get buried elsewhere.

Your website, but especially your homepage, should be optimized for the kind of client you want to pursue. If you’re primarily going after buyers, then YES, put the content they need front and centre.

But if sellers are your goal, then break free from the traditional realtor website and replace “Find your dream home” with something more enticing — like, “Sell your home by Christmas” or “Find out what price I’ll sell your house for.”

If you want to commit to only pursuing sellers or buyers, then the rest of your website should follow suit, including the copy on all other pages, your calls-to-action, and your realtor blog posts.

Wait, Should I Permanently Focus on One or the Other?

The short answer: only if you want to.

If you’ve found that prospecting to only buyers or only sellers is proving to be way more fruitful, then why not stick with it?

Otherwise, continue to sell to both buyers and sellers — just not with the same tactics, and not at the same time.

Tell us: do you market yourself exclusively as a buyer’s agent or as a seller’s agent?

 

 

 

Last Updated on July 12, 2024 by myRealPage