I think all agents should strive to incorporate lifestyle marketing into all of their listings. When I am talking to agents about lifestyle marketing, usually all they can think about are videos. They often don’t realize that there is so much more to lifestyle marketing than spending a couple of grand on a fancy video.
Don’t get me wrong – lifestyle videos are an incredible tool for the right property – but any agent can incorporate lifestyle marketing into their approach for any property regardless of the marketing budget they have.
What it really comes down to is this: focus your marketing on conveying the benefits of living in the home. Don’t just list out all of the features in the property.
Our industry seems obsessed with feature-rich marketing. You don’t have to look any further than MLS to see our fixation with only talking about property features. I took a look at 10 random listings on MLS yesterday. Despite the fact that 80 to 85 per cent of the MLS sheet is focused on the attributes of the listing, the majority of agents still saw the need to jam even more features into the client remarks section.
I realize the importance of noting the features in a home. A consumer needs to know the lot size, number of beds, number of baths and so forth. I get that. But we can’t just stop there. We need to place more focus on conveying the benefits of owning the home in our marketing. That is what I would love to see talked about in the client remarks section and on any marketing piece.
People aren’t simply buying four walls and a roof. They are buying the lifestyle that the home in that neighbourhood will provide them. This lifestyle is the benefit our marketing needs to reflect, not just a list of all the features the property offers.
Brad Sage is a real estate agent and the VP of marketing at Sage Real Estate, his family brokerage in Toronto. He believes that by embracing social media and digital marketing, agents can better meet the changing needs of their clients, while also creating a more accessible and informative personal brand. He is a sought-after speaker at real estate conferences about how to use digital marketing to improve the real estate industry.
