Blog Series, Part 1: Got A Niche?

Real estate is your business, so let’s not detract from your ability to buy and sell any kind of home. However, if you have found a certain specialty, use it to your advantage in your marketing. Finding a focus will help prospective clients find more confidence in your ability. The obvious choice would be to focus on a certain geographical location, but try narrow it down even further to vacation properties, first time homebuyers, or condominiums for example. Maybe you are a “jack of all trades” but if you have honed in on closing all the deals on condo living, then emphasize that (and if you live in an urban hub, it might be a bigger niche than it sounds).Not only will this help you find more focus in your business but it will help direct your marketing into whatever direction suits you. Incorporate this niche into your image, and use it for your future branding. This can include developing a slogan, if you so choose to use one, which features your specialty at the forefront. Maybe don’t go as cheesy as calling yourself the “Condo Closer King” but something along the lines of “…specializing in condominiums” will let condo-seekers know that you have a special ability to find and close those deals at the snap of a finger. This helps homebuyers have confidence in your ability to serve them best; give them a good reason to choose you over your competitors. It also allows you to better find the particular image you’re looking for. Don’t close off a large chunk of opportunities either; ensure you have a decent balance of honing in on certain clients without shutting out others.So let’s assume you’ve developed your image in your head and you have a specialty in mind. Ideally speaking you already have or are looking into marketing yourself. This task becomes so much easier once you’ve found a focus as it will help you and the company you’ve hired come up with logos, a website, social media, and photographs. If you’re one of the few who can hone in on the luxury home market and be successful, then definitely put that out there.Once you’ve developed your image, it also prevents you from throwing away precious marketing spending on trying to reach the broadest audience possible. Not only do you do this, but you also contain the amount of competitors by narrowing your market. Finding and focusing on a niche really does help keep marketing costs down and many competitors at bay. We’re not saying you can’t be as successful pursuing the entire real estate market, that’s what most realtors do. Essentially our point is if you go that route, it’s easy to become ‘just another realtor.’Stay tuned for the next addition to this series next week!Photo courtesy of badcomputer