Shelley Zavitz - Marketing That Moves People: How Real Estate Agents Can Build a Brand, Find Fans, Land Leads, and Communicate Convincingly

Marketing That Moves People

How real estate agents can build a brand, find fans, land leads, and communicate convincingly (with a little help from the world of music)

Shelley Zavitz

Contents

About the Author

Shelley Zavitz is a successful real estate agent working in Portland, Oregon. With an award-winning background in commercial copywriting and brand building (including working for Virgin Radio), Shelley started relatively late in real estate. But by applying her extensive branding experienceas well as learning the ropes the hard wayshe has become a dramatic success story.

Knowing how hard and confusing it can be for those just starting out in real estate to actually turn their license into a profitable business, Shelley is dedicated to helping others successfully make the same journey she did. Her first book was the bestselling Your First 365 Days in Real Estate (Harriman House, 2019).

Born in Canada, Shelley lives in Portland with her family.

Introduction:
Singing for
Your Supper

I t never goes away. From the moment you are licensed as a Realtor to the moment you retire, the challenge of marketing must be faced.

What to do, what to say, how to say it, who to say it towhen and whereits not easy

Most people in real estate struggle with it. After all, we are real estate agents: we sell homes. Theres no reason selling our services should come naturally. Often it is something weve never given much thought toand then we beat ourselves up for not being able to do it flawlessly. Its no wonder we dont have any idea where to start.

So we try to take shortcuts.

A popular one is the purchase of leads. A lot of agents spend monstrous sums of money buying these up so that they have a huge list of people to contactonly to realize, too late, that just a random number of them are interested in what they have to say.

And now these agents have no budget to invest in things that might actually deliver.

I have some pretty sour news for you: there are no shortcuts in real estate marketing. Internet leads arent even really leadstheyre just scraped data. And that scraping might not have been very careful. You have no idea about these peoples motivations. Who knows if youll connect with them? Their level of engagement could be anywhere from kicking tires to red-hot ready. Sure, theres a chance you could convert on warmer leads, but why waste time and money playing lucky dip?

If your real estate business is properly positioned in your marketplace, and you do the exercises in this book consistently, you wont need to take expensive shortcuts that rarely work. Youll be able to connect with your clients like never before and elevate your brand to new heights.

Your leads will even come to you.

Holy camole, is that a thing? Yes, it is! You can stop the lead-gen bleed and keep your Benjamins in your pocket (or invest them back in your business) if you use just a few proven marketing fundamentals. And your leads will come to you.

In 2020, during a pandemic, with a transaction coordinator and not one purchased internet lead, I was able to gross over $350,000 in commissions. No major overhead, no mega team, no crazy slogan, no glitz, no glamour, no hidden talent, and no different from you.

For the four years leading up to this extraordinary year, I followed the exact path outlined in this book.

Marketing is difficult and requires self-awareness. There is no easy mode. Thats one thing you can take to the bank: easy means expensive. I dont know about you, but Id like to keep the money I earn inside my business.

Finding your marketing rhythm

Its easy to become confused about what actions will have the most impact with your marketing. There is so much information out there for real estate agentslots of it contradictory, or not really related to our careers or the issues we face.

I was confused and lost once, too, and know how it feels. And I know what it takes to get past it. Thats why Ive written this book.

Ultimately its simple. Youve got to find your marketing rhythm.

This book is written for any entrepreneurial real estate agent who wants to do that.

I use the term rhythm deliberatelybecause marketing, done right, has a momentum of its own. And also because I spent the first decade of my career in radio advertising, which gave me a front-row seat on the music industry and pop culture. And it was as I wrestled with the challenge of marketing back in those days that I began to realize: the best marketing teachers I had ever encountered werent advertising experts or sales specialists, they were musicians. They were popstars. They were rockers.

They were bona fide global superstars.

These guys and gals mastered the marketing fundamentals better than anyone, and they did so with style. I picked up a huge amount of guidance in my time in radio advertising from themand their marketing mastery went on to help me throughout my career in real estate. And since the fundamentals are what we needand learning from those with style is more fun and memorable than learning from textbooksIve decided to draw on the world of music throughout this book to help teach you what you need to be a real estate success.

Buckle up! I have some very cool tales to tell you about legendary bands and musicians from different eras and diverse genressome that missed the mark entirely and some that implemented the marketing fundamentals till their fans sang their praises like songbirds.

And that is ultimately what we need to do as real estate agents facing our own marketing challenges. Were singing our songand if we do it the right way, well have fans who want to join in and sing our song for us.

Shall we begin?

Chapter 1 :
Running With Scissors

Or, How I Learned the Marketing Ropes
the Hard Way

I t made sense to meit was a joke, I said as three faces looked down at me. They were backlit by harsh office lights, and the seat I was in was getting hotter by the second.

A joke?

Yes, I

Let me read to you what this listener said about that ad you wrote, Shelley, said the program director. He picked up the printout. The creative director in the doorway crossed his arms. The work was piling up on his desk. He didnt have time for this.

I had been in the radio business for about nine months at this point, fresh from college where I had studied advertising and communications. I was a spry 20-something junior copywriter, walking to work in cheap heels past the Jaguars and BMWs in the parking lot of the radio station. I was broker than broke.

And I had just messed up my first real break.

I had been given the task of writing an ad for a pet food store: Kens Pet Depot. (One of our most loyal advertisers, the program director had said.) The radio salesperson who had Kens Pet Depot for a client was one of the three figures glaring at me right now in what might as well have been the smallest office space on the planet.

The job had called for wit. My idea had been to do a take on the famous Saturday Night Live skits Deep Thoughts by Jack Handeyabsurd reflections on life delivered with all the solemnity of a mountain-top philosopher over lilting keyboards and babbling mountain brooks. (E.g. I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate And I can picture us attacking that world, because theyd never expect it.)

I was going to highlight some of the weird and wonderful things your pet might be thinkingto share what your dog or cat or bird might say about everyday situations if only they had a human voice.