More than your pictures and illustrations in your catalog, your catalog copy is one of the most significant elements in your marketing collateral.
Copywriting is basically an art form that lets you communicate your message to convince your target readers to do your bidding. And this is not an easy task. Mastering the art of persuasion involves creating descriptive copy that allows your audience to see, feel, taste, hear, and smell your products through your words.
As your target readers don’t experience all these activities in your catalog in reality, you need to provide the sensory experience through your text. Your words should be able to fill that gap between your prospective clients and your product.
It’s not a new concept actually – copywriting as a sensory activity. If you think about it, it’s always part of having to convince your target readers to see your products the way you see them.
And mere words just don’t work. You need effective descriptions to make your audience really understand your product. Effective descriptions are what draw your clients to the situation even if they are not there.
For your real estate catalogs, you don’t just write how many units you have in your condominium, or how many rooms and bathrooms each unit has. Your descriptive copy should be able to use words that actually transport your client from his dreary place to a place where the breeze is blowing in his cheeks and the warm sun waking him up in the morning.
Can you feel the cool breeze kissing your cheeks? Can you smell the newly cut grass from your lawn? Does it paint a pretty picture for you?
How about “sun-dappled terraces”, “authentic hand woven hammock that cradles you while you sleep”, “sunning in your tree-shaded veranda”…these are examples of how you can infuse your catalogs with effective descriptions to make your real estate business more appealing.
I can’t say it enough. Writing descriptive words that appeal to the senses is essential to having an effective custom catalog for your business.
Your clients can’t see, feel, hear, smell or even taste what you have. The next best thing is to provide them a clear illustration that will attract their senses so that they’ll want to purchase from you.
When you write your custom catalog copy, choose the most suitable feeling and focus on those senses. If you’re into real estate then obviously you need to target on the sights and feelings.
The main thing here is to help your readers see, feel, hear, smell, and taste your product that is not there in front of them. Let them experience what you yourself have experienced with your product. When you have great copywriting for your catalogs, then that’s the time that you will truly get the most out of your real estate catalogs.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Real Estate Email Marketing Maximizes Your Exposur
There's little doubt that the U.S. real estate market is undergoing a profound transformation. After several years of freewheeling lending practices and unsurpassed increases in home valuations, the real estate market is undergoing a major correction. Home values are dropping in many areas around the country, and some homeowners are facing an impending uptick in their adjustable rate mortgage payments, placing them in an untenable position.
In short, it's a volatile market. Lenders are tightening the criteria for mortgages, and the window for subprime lending is closing. Some homeowners who are holding subprime mortgages are facing foreclosures, while others are trying to sell their homes before they find themselves in a negative equity situation. As a result, real estate professionals, investors, and home sellers are scrambling to gain an edge in a competitive marketplace.
Real Estate Marketing
Long gone are the days when traditional methods of real estate marketing are sufficient to move properties. A sign on the lawn, a Multiple Listing Service listing, and an open house still have their place, but they comprise only one facet of an effective real estate marketing campaign.
Just as in most other areas of business, the Internet is playing a crucial role in real estate. Online listings of homes for rent, homes for sale, and foreclosures draw an increasing number of buyers and investors. Photographs and video are increasingly being used to whet the appetites of potential buyers. Still, online listings and multimedia presentations are relatively passive forms of marketing in this competitive era. Those who are on the cutting edge are utilizing the Internet to their best advantage, and taking strategies from the playbooks of those in other fields.
Email Marketing as a "Push" Strategy
If drawing potential real estate buyers to an online listing is a "pull" strategy, then real estate email marketing is a "push" strategy - one that makes sense in today's marketplace. After all, retailers and e-tailers use email marketing to their best advantage. Email inboxes are stuffed with large and small business emails alike. It makes sense that real estate email marketing can also be effective, in that it delivers information about agents, developers, sellers, and their respective properties directly into the hands of interested potential buyers.
Email Marketing is Easier than it Seems
At first blush, real estate email marketing may seem out of reach for many people. After all, their expertise is in real estate and they may not be very tech savvy. On the contrary, there are online real estate services that make email marketing a cakewalk for virtually anyone.
When looking for an online email marketing service, choose one that can help you create emails, manage your contact lists, and obtain tracking reports. Essentially, you should be able to send your first email marketing piece in less than an hour. The best services have "wizards" that allow you to, for example, put together email newsletters using a Web interface and on a single screen. Templates and click-and-drag functionality allow you to easily arrange text, upload photos, and instantly see what your recipients will see when they receive your email.
Once you've sent your emails or newsletters, the service should enable you to track the results, telling you how many emails you sent, how many bounced back, how many people opened the email, how many clicked on the links, and how many forwarded it on to others.
There's little doubt that real estate email marketing is a cutting edge tool that helps push your message into the inboxes of potential buyers. And in today's competitive environment, it's an advantage you can't afford to be without.
In short, it's a volatile market. Lenders are tightening the criteria for mortgages, and the window for subprime lending is closing. Some homeowners who are holding subprime mortgages are facing foreclosures, while others are trying to sell their homes before they find themselves in a negative equity situation. As a result, real estate professionals, investors, and home sellers are scrambling to gain an edge in a competitive marketplace.
Real Estate Marketing
Long gone are the days when traditional methods of real estate marketing are sufficient to move properties. A sign on the lawn, a Multiple Listing Service listing, and an open house still have their place, but they comprise only one facet of an effective real estate marketing campaign.
Just as in most other areas of business, the Internet is playing a crucial role in real estate. Online listings of homes for rent, homes for sale, and foreclosures draw an increasing number of buyers and investors. Photographs and video are increasingly being used to whet the appetites of potential buyers. Still, online listings and multimedia presentations are relatively passive forms of marketing in this competitive era. Those who are on the cutting edge are utilizing the Internet to their best advantage, and taking strategies from the playbooks of those in other fields.
Email Marketing as a "Push" Strategy
If drawing potential real estate buyers to an online listing is a "pull" strategy, then real estate email marketing is a "push" strategy - one that makes sense in today's marketplace. After all, retailers and e-tailers use email marketing to their best advantage. Email inboxes are stuffed with large and small business emails alike. It makes sense that real estate email marketing can also be effective, in that it delivers information about agents, developers, sellers, and their respective properties directly into the hands of interested potential buyers.
Email Marketing is Easier than it Seems
At first blush, real estate email marketing may seem out of reach for many people. After all, their expertise is in real estate and they may not be very tech savvy. On the contrary, there are online real estate services that make email marketing a cakewalk for virtually anyone.
When looking for an online email marketing service, choose one that can help you create emails, manage your contact lists, and obtain tracking reports. Essentially, you should be able to send your first email marketing piece in less than an hour. The best services have "wizards" that allow you to, for example, put together email newsletters using a Web interface and on a single screen. Templates and click-and-drag functionality allow you to easily arrange text, upload photos, and instantly see what your recipients will see when they receive your email.
Once you've sent your emails or newsletters, the service should enable you to track the results, telling you how many emails you sent, how many bounced back, how many people opened the email, how many clicked on the links, and how many forwarded it on to others.
There's little doubt that real estate email marketing is a cutting edge tool that helps push your message into the inboxes of potential buyers. And in today's competitive environment, it's an advantage you can't afford to be without.
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