Real Estate Marketing Strategies for the New Economy

There's no doubt that 2009 will be an interesting year for the real estate industry. The economy is still on shaky ground, buyers are having a hard time getting financing, and foreclosures continue at record numbers across the United States.

The question is, how do you plan to adjust your real estate marketing strategy to reflect this new economy we are facing? And beyond that, how will you adjust your business as a whole?

These are tough questions, but they are questions you must start asking yourself. I've spoken to a few agents already who are making some serious changes to their real estate marketing strategies in order to survive and thrive in 2009. It's beyond the scope and possibility of this blog to offer specific advice on marketing strategy -- that's something you must develop for yourself. But I can tell you this.

In the near future, those real estate agents who take an educational approach to their marketing are going to get the biggest share of business in their market areas. It's not enough anymore to say: "I'm an agent in your area and I can help you. Give me a call." Actually, that was never a good marketing strategy, but it's even weaker in the new economy. Home buyers and sellers have more questions today than ever before. So if you want to sustain your real estate marketing program in that kind of environment, you have to adjust the strategies you use.

For example, home buyers today have a lot of questions about financing -- more so than in the past. They have heard about people making mortgage mistakes and getting foreclosed on. And they know it's harder to get approved for a mortgage loan these days. So the best real estate marketing strategies are those that address these burning questions.

Where Marketing Strategy Meets Education

There are plenty of ways to take an educational approach to your real estate marketing program. Here are a few off the top of my head.

• Put on a home buyer seminar in your city. Give it a modern angle and theme, such as "Buying a Home in the New Economy." Promote it like crazy, and try to get your local news to cover it (the economy is a hot topic for them too). Attract enough people to your educational seminar, and you'll get some clients out of it.
• You could even take a "virtual" approach to the seminar marketing strategy above by using a service like WebEx MeetMeNow
  
• Another strategy you can use: Create a buyer's guide to the new economy (an e-book available on your website). Explain the importance of good credit, choosing the right kind of mortgage, etc. Position it properly from a value standpoint, and people will email you for a free copy.

These are just a few ideas off the top of my head. You get the idea, and the idea is that you can get more business in a troubled economy by educating potential clients about it. It's the kind of real estate marketing strategy that can help you survive -- and perhaps even in thrive -- in a down market.