What is the difference between lead generation and brand advertising?

Today, we're going to get right to it. What is the difference between lead generation and brand advertising? Which one are you doing or maybe both, and which one should you be doing? Are you doing the right thing right now?

To put it simply, lead generation is gathering an audience that is interested in what you are providing, in this instance, selling or buying houses. Brand advertising is a longer-term form of advertising.

This is where you establish a connection with those leads and build strong, long term relationships with them over time.

Think of it this way: if you're going to put on a concert, you've got to make sure the stadium is full. Lead generation is getting people to come once, and brand advertising is getting people to come to your concert every time.

Should I Be Doing Brand Advertising?

Many times people get the wrong understanding of brand advertising. They look at businesses in general and think, "Well this is what Coca-Cola does, so that's what I should be doing too."

However, what many people forget is that Coca-Cola has millions and millions of dollars to invest in brand advertising. They can afford to make million-dollar advertising mistakes.

People think, "I'm going to run this thing, and then the phone's going to ring off the hook".

It does not. It takes years to develop your brand marketing completely.

But the cool thing I found when I did this is I had lead generation and my ISA calling on behalf of Mike Oddo, leads would be like, "Oh, the guaranteed sale guy". That's when you have good brand advertisement.

The cool thing about the brand is nobody can take it away from you.

As an agent, you have a brand, and it may not be one that you want. If you're not purposeful in thinking through what you want to be there, it might turn out to be something you never wanted.

Brand advertising goes hand in hand with lead generation. You have to fill the stadium with people, but you also have to make sure the people want to come back. In order for them to show up, they have to have a good idea of who you are and think highly of you.

You're putting yourself in the position of if they need real estate information, they come to you. That's part of a branded campaign, right? That's part of your branding.

Okay, so should I start right away?

The answer to this is...maybe.

It depends on what stage in your real estate business you're in. You should always be taking steps to develop your brand identity and advertisements. However, it may not be the best place to start if you're new to real estate.

You have to consider your brand in your lead generation and how you want people to feel about you.

We always suggest having something else make those calls, but the lead gen first. Then branding with those people who have identified themselves second.

That's the key. That's the goal, and that's how you build your brand as you just naturally sell real estate.

You sell real estate. Focus on that first, on getting the deals and the conversions. You focus on getting the leads, and then you build your brand with those people.

Then those people who have sold through you, you want to make sure that you have a mechanism in place to turn them into repeat and referral customers and make them into what we call raving fans. So if somebody's asking about real estate, they're going to be like, "Hey, I had a really good experience with this person".

It's much cheaper to brand yourself with the leads that you've always generated than to an entire city or suburb.

Why Shouldn't I Do Brand Advertisement Like Coca-Cola?

Coke, Budweiser, all these people, they're not trying to get people to drink soda for the first time. They're trying to take a repeat customer that is constantly making decisions whenever they want a drink.

Those leads are regular shoppers of soda or beer, and they are trying to get them to pick them versus their competitor. They can see that impact in their overall sales, not in new clients.

Real estate's different because when you go to select soda, there's really not that many different brands to choose from. It's a daily decision for some people. Whereas with real estate, there are hundreds of other agents that you have to compete with.

Another big part of it is the hungry audience. You go to a fast-food joint. They got the menu board. You're already there to eat, so now you just go to choose between. You already made the choice to come to that particular restaurant.

Whereas, in real estate, the customer doesn't know their level of hunger for the most part unless they're in a desperate spot.

They might not know what their home might be worth right now.

A buyer might not understand what game they're in at this point with multiple offers, making sure they're preapproved beforehand. They're kind of getting an appetite, but they need somebody to guide them like, "Hey, really, I think this is what you need to be doing in order to get through the finish line".

It's not that they don't know what they need. It's just they don't know what they need, and when they need it, and who to get it from.

USP (Unique Selling Positions)

Unique Selling Positions or USP's are vital to the brand advertisement. Instead of a tagline like everything I touch turns to sold, it should be something that gives the consumer a specific benefit, the biggest promise that you can make and actually keep.

Has to be in terms of what they want.

For example, Dominos Pizza. Their unique selling position isn't the fresh ingredients, the amount of time that they take to make a pizza, the dough is made from scratch, all of the things that have to go into that pie.

They're just giving the people what they want, hot, fresh, to your door in 30 minutes or it's free, right? That was their USP. What's hot, fresh, and to your door? Well, pizza, obviously. Was it good pizza? Well, why don't you try it? It takes 30 minutes. I mean they try it.

So, what do your leads want?

Well, if they're looking to buy, they want to find as many homes that match they're looking for, and they want to obviously get the best deal. They want to beat other buyers to the hottest listing. They want to get the best price.

If they're looking to sell, they want it fast with the least amount of hassle and for the most amount of money for them.

Lead Generation

In real estate lead generation, you are compelling the leads to take an action in a process that they otherwise wouldn't have.

If you've done lead generation, and you have a database, it doesn't need to be 200,000 people plus. It can be a thousand, a couple thousand, or a couple hundred.

It doesn't matter, but the only way that it's only as valuable to you as how much you communicate with it.

If you do not communicate with your list, you should look at it like your list, your baby. If you do not communicate with your leads on a regular basis, you have completely missed the mark.

Start immediately communicating. Start off by writing an email or a message or a text to your leads. You can send something like this:

Did you know that last week, 7 houses sold for 25% more than their purchase price?? I couldn't believe that when I saw it! Most of these houses were on the market for less than 2 days and sold for way more than they had expected!

If you're thinking about selling, now is the time to do it!

If you want to know how much you could get for your house in today's market, I can give you an up-to-minute idea of what it would sell for. It has likely dramatically increased in the last 30 to 60 days.

If you're interested, give me a call back at (800) 123-4567.

You should send a message like that to every single person in your database. Then send a follow-up email afterward to say, "Hey, I didn't know if you saw this, but really important. If you were ever thinking about it, you should do this".

Why? Because it will do two things:

• One, it's communication with the leads that you've spent money and time on and putting your name out there.
• Two, it's letting them know information like that will also lift your brand because you're positioning yourself as the expert in your field.

The goal is to connect with your leads and show them that you an expert in your field. Then, you will be the person a lead can look to for help in their buying or selling process.

Wrapping Up

If you'd like some help with lead generation and brand advertising, that's what we do here at Market Maker. We do all those things we're talking about for you. Go to marketmakercall.com, check it out, see if your territory is available. If your area's available it is exclusive of one agent per zip code. Marketmakercall.com.

As we always say at Market Maker, you are always just one preposition appointment away.