How to attract real estate clients you love to work with

How to attract real estate clients you love to work with by creating client avatars.

Working with real estate clients you love to work with creates longevity in this business as well as consistent income. Knowing who your target audience is the first setp to creating a successful real estate marketing plan. Creating a real estate client avatar is how you will know who your target audience is and how to market effectively to them.

What is a real estate client avatar?

A real estate client Avatar or “customer” Avatar is essentially a profile of the perfect customer or client you would want to work with over and over again. When you understand who your ideal customer is, what they look like, their habits, interests, challenges, aspirations, in fact everything about them, you'll be much more effective in marketing to them.

Why is this important for my real estate business?

Broad targeting is one of the major marketing mistakes which result in real estate agents trying to attract everyone and ending up attracting nobody. It also results in increased adspend and mismanaged time and energy.

You can effectively and masterfully sell anything, especially housing and loans if you understand these 3 major things:

  • Know who your ideal customer/audience is
  • Know where they are
  • Know what kind of challenges they face

Trying to speak everyone’s language actually results in you connecting with LESS people. The better you know your prospective real estate clients, the better your results you will see in a shorter amount of time. 

This is an exercise that requires you to write down the answers to these questions in order for you to get a clear picture on who your ideal real estate client really is.

Things to avoid when doing this exercise:

  • Don’t be vague - Getting lazy with this exercise will lead to poor results. Take your time. Spend a day or so jotting down the answers to the questions below if you need to. Doing the exercise just to do it is just a waste of time for you. Be specific and honest about your answers. It’s not a competition and no one gets graded on their answers. This is a learning tool for you to better understand how to market to your ideal real estate client in the most efficient way possible.
  • Don’t ignore your own data - Take a look at your past clients. Who was truly a pleasure to work with. Did they leave you a great review or send you referrals? What areas do you love working in? What types of homes do you love selling? If you are new to the business and haven’t sold a home yet, you can still answer these questions to build your real estate marketing efforts around your ideal client. 

Don’t base your answers off of commissions you want to earn. Base it off of people you want to work with and the commissions will follow. 

EXAMPLE of what NOT to do: I love working with first time buyers because it makes me feel good when I give them the keys to their first home. BUT I’m going to write in answers for working with luxury home clients because the commissions are bigger even though I don’t like those types of clients.

Trying to market to real estate clients you don’t necessarily like working with will have negative results.

  • Don’t do it alone - Do this exercise with a colleague, a spouse, or a friend that knows you well. You may be surprised with the blindspots and prejudices you have that have prevented or may prevent you from reaching your ideal audience. Be open minded to criticism and ideas.

Here are 10 key questions to ask yourself in order to create an ideal real estate client avatar:

  • Age – What is the age range of the clients you like working with and also connect the best with?

Why this is important - Knowing the age range of your ideal client will help you market to them on platforms they frequent in ways they like.

  • Location – Where does your ideal client want to live? 

Why this is important - Keeping your target market within a 30 minute radius of where you reside or where you want to sell homes the most will help you become a local area expert. This also helps you design marketing materials with images that look familiar to them. 

  • Education – Is your ideal client in an executive position? Are they in the medical field? Did they enter the workforce straight out of high school?  

Why this is important - Understanding someone’s intellect will help you communicate with them effectively. How do they process information? Do they want statistics and models to make a buying decision?

  • Income – What is the income range for your ideal real estate client? 

Why this is important - Knowing how much your ideal client makes helps you design marketing materials that resonate with them because you're putting homes in front of them that they can afford. Or your value proposition will fit into their budget.

  • Occupation – Do they have a stressful or high demand job and therefore will be receptive to a service oriented heavy value proposition? Do they work a lower stress 9-5 job and are looking for incentives to help them make a purchase/sale make sense for them?

Why this is important - Understanding what your customers do for a living can help you fine tune your messaging and your value proposition.

  • Interests – Consider everything from hobbies and leisure activities, what they watch on TV, what they like to eat, what music they listen to – anything that can get you closer to them.

Why this is important - Knowing your ideal clients interests allows you to talk to your customers in a language they understand, using references that will resonate strongly with them. This also helps with where and how you market to them. 

  • Motivations – What makes your ideal real estate client get out of bed in the morning? Do they like the finer things in life? Do they like to live simply? Understanding what drives them, their values and goals will help you align your offering with these aspirations.

Why this is important - Knowing what motivates your client helps you with designing images and messages that will resonate with them. Even an image of something they like within your marketing materials can cause them to pay attention, stop a scroll, read the full message you're putting in front of them, etc.

  • Challenges – What are the challenges they face with regards to buying or selling? Identifying the challenges (pain points) they face will help you design a solutions based message to them that resonates.

Why this is important - Your ideal client wants to know that you can solve their challenge. Addressing their pain points and how you can help will cause them to take action with you.

  • Purpose - Why is your ideal client buying or selling? Life events such as death, divorce, relocation, expanding family, empty nesters, etc. Are they building wealth through real estate, supplementing retirement income with rental properties, building a short term rental investment portfolio? Are they simply looking for stability for their family or to have a place they can call their own?  

Why this is important - Knowing why they are buying or selling helps you develop the correct marketing message that will cause them to take an action with you.

  • Shopping habits – What products or services does your ideal client buy and why? Are they a Costco shopper or an Aldi regular? What kind of car do they drive? Where do they go on vacation? How often do they move?

Why this is important - Knowing these things about your ideal client will help you connect with them by sharing similar interests and placing marketing materials in front of them in the right places and right times.

With a detailed ideal real estate client avatar in place, you can create an effective real estate marketing plan and focus your marketing budget in the right places. 

Instead of talking to ‘anyone’ you can start addressing ‘someone’. You’ll be able to talk to them in a language they understand, using platforms that they frequent, and address their pain points more effectively.

My ideal real estate client avatar is complete. Now what?

After you complete your ideal real estate client Avatar, it’s time to adjust your marketing messages, materials, and methods of reaching your new audience.

Start gathering and creating materials that address your ideal clients pain points and how you are going to solve them. 

  • Presentations in digital likes slides, video, images for social media posting
  • Presentations in print format like PDF’s for “leave behind” material
  • Images for social media posting or print ads

Be sure to incorporate images in your materials that resonate with your ideal clients: 

  • Age
  • Location
  • Income range
  • Occupation
  • Interests
  • Motivations

Example: Your ideal real estate client is a retiree or semi-retiree looking to downsize or 55+ housing in Palm Springs area.

  • DON'T add images to your materials of large houses with pine trees for landscaping and kids playing in the background.
  • DO add images of properly aged people in the images and smaller simple homes or condos with palm trees, golf courses, or desert mountains in the background 

Example: Your ideal real estate client is a young single entrepreneur who eats out every night, likes golfing, and wants lots of amenities but low maintenance housing.

  • DON'T add images to your materials of happy married couples with kids or suburban tract housing with large yards.
  • DO add images of sleek bachelor pads or high-rise condo living in a downtown area (views of golf courses or as secondary photos could be a bonus) with lot’s of energy and nightlife portrayed in the images.

Example: Your ideal real estate client lives in a coastal area, works in the medical field making a healthy 6 figure income and is looking to build a real estate portfolio that is easy to maintain.

  • DON'T add images of high maintenance housing with large yards, lot’s of landscaping, in areas they might be unfamiliar with.
  • DO add images of housing that look easy to maintain or well maintained multiplex. Add bullet points of information regarding special financing they could qualify for and average CAP rates. 

You may want to create multiple versions of the same materials with alternate images. This is especially true for your social media images. This will keep your marketing images fresh and you will begin to see which images get the best interactions.

Once your materials are done, it’s time to get them in front of your audience and into their hands.

  • 3-4 Social media posts per week rotating images in your posts. Use relevant hashtags.
  • Scheduled and promoted live events where you pose a pain point question to your targeted audience and offer to answer their questions live. Partnering up with a lender to answer questions or share knowledge about special financing they may qualify for is ideal.
  • Share links to articles or images that resonate with your targeted audience. Not just real estate related. But their “industry” or likes and desires related articles and images. Offer opinions or discussion points or even just ask questions to try and solicit answers from them to get conversations going. 
  • Join online groups (Facebook, Linkedin) and engage in conversation. Just don’t sit on the sidelines watching conversations.
  • Join networking groups or events where your ideal client will be. Engage with them.
  • Drop-bys at workplaces where your ideal clients might be. Coffee on Fridays. Pastries on Fridays. Be sure to leave drop by materials here and there as well as high quality business cards.
  • Sponsor or volunteer at events where your ideal clients might be. 
  • Mailers, postcards, door knockers, etc. are great for some demographics and areas. Use these if you think they will resonate with your ideal client. 

ALWAYS have a CTA (Call To Action) on your print material! 

  • QR code for free downloads or direct to a landing page with more info and lead tracking.
  • “Text” to call autoresponders for more info
  • 800 numbers with free recordings of information
  • Invites to scheduled live info events Online (Facebook Live or Zoom)
  • Web addresses with direct info on the landing page.

These are just a few ways to start reaching your ideal real estate clients. Check out our YouTube channel for past webinars on lead generation to get more ideas or for a deeper dive into these and other methods we have covered previously.

Focusing on your ideal real estate client stretches your marketing dollars and enables you to use your creative marketing materials over and over again which helps you develop and deliver a great overall presentation.

The biggest bonus is that you will be working with real estate clients you love to work with which leads to longevity in the business, a feeling of gratification from the work you do, and consistent income through repeat business and referrals.

 

Want to learn more about Rise Realty and how we help real estate agents create sustainable careers? 

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