Residential Real EstateMarketing Strategies From Attila The Hun
Ruthless, aggressive, calculating, fierce … Attila the Hun earned the moniker, "Scourge of God."
While most people see Attila as being just a ferocious warrior, the lesser known side of him shows us that he was also a great king, possessing effective leadership abilities and management skills. During his reign he was able to transform the nomadic Huns into a sedentary empire. He amassed great riches for the Huns and had a very prosperous reign. In many European cultures today, Attila the Hun is honored as a hero.
What lessons are to be learned from Attila the Hun relative to marketing? Plenty … marketing today is all about branding one"s self so that you stand out from the crowd. It"s about being unique and refusing to be ignored. Aggressiveness has everything to do with not letting the ball drop, ever.
Doing what we always did will yield us what we always got. How often have we heard it said, "If it works, why change it?" That"s not Attila thinking. Attila would say, "Sacred cows make the best burgers." Greatness has everything to do with looking for unique and imaginative ways to reinvent ourselves in order to stretch the boundaries of achievement. Are you looking for unique ways to shake up your promotional materials so that you leave a lasting impression? Attila has been known for 1500 years. Will you last from one promo campaign to the next?
Fierce is not a word that one hears often when it comes to devising an effective marketing strategy. Perhaps that was an oversight. One needs fierce commitment to consistency to achieve results. Webster describes fierce as wild, rough, severe and intense. Do you have a fierce commitment to your goals? Do you have a fierce desire for achievement? Is your marketing plan supporting your commitment? If you cannot answer affirmatively to these three questions you may be too wishy-washy relative to making it in a market that has peaked. This is not the time for complacency. It is the time to conquer enemies.
"Who" are the enemies of real estate? Low consumer confidence, economic doldrums, high unemployment, questionable interest rates, buyer reluctance, sellers with 6-months-ago expectations, big budget deficits and fear! These are worthy opponents ready to pull out all the stops to make listing and selling real estate more challenging than it has been in several years. This is not an environment for anyone who lacks fierce resolve!
Get yourself known and recognized within your community. Be certain that you are associated in the minds of your prospects with excellence, wisdom, integrity and professionalism. Look at the marketing messages that you are delivering to ensure that they are relative and here-and-now. Offer not just information but knowledge (one is actionable and the other is not.) Don"t allow the ball to drop over the "holidays." What you do (or don"t do) now will impact the success of your first quarter.
Adopt The Hun"s unwavering vision. He created his plan, made certain he had the resources to carry it out and then went at it with dogged determination. Everyone knows Huns don"t whine … neither should you!