Every day a real estate agent receives several marketing attempts from loan officers. In fact, this information comes in a steady, unrelenting stream. It is no wonder agents have become adept at tuning out the static of these marketing attempts. Your challenge is to find a way to differentiate yourself from all the buzz of other loan officers. You do so by establishing your marketing position. Your marketing position is what defines your business. Take a moment to browse your competition websites. Does their marketing position look identical to yours? If it were not for their logo on the top of the page, could it basically be your website? If the answer is yes, your marketing position is too close to that of your competition. You are competing with them for a place in your prospects mind, and chances are you are not winning the battle for first place. Take a look at your business and what can you offer that nobody else is doing? If you feel stymied by how you could possible differentiate yourself from your competition, think about a couple of examples of businesses that have done a remarkable job of creating a marketing position. Federal Express is a great example. They started a business with a position no other shipper occupied. They advertised was when it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight, they were there to do it. Dominoes Pizza started their business by emphasizing that they would delivery a pizza within 30 minutes of the order, or the pizza was free. Southwest Airlines have marketed themselves as the low-fare airline. What special skill or niche could you develop and use in your marketing materials and what can you use to set yourself apart from your competition? When your services are similar to another loan officer, real estate agents will look for ways to differentiate. The more your services are scrutinized for differences, the more important it is to give details about how you are different. You need to accentuate those details. Prices and rates are not necessarily the kind of difference that gets you noticed. In fact, most often it merely gets you into a bidding war. You should instead find an unexplored niche and specialize your services around it. You can develop a unique niche within a product line like HUD, ARMs or Jumbo Loan expert. You can develop a niche around details of the process for example, loan approvals within an hour (or less), loans that close 5 days ahead of COE, daily email updates to agents. You can position yourself around gender, ethnicity, geography or another demographic, specializing in exclusively serving the Hispanic community, single professionals, Town & Country Ranch, etc. Spend some time thinking about what makes you and your business unique and then market to that position. |
