Tom Ferry On Buyers, Branding, Brokerage: The Real Word
This week: Byron Lazine and Nicole White are joined by special guest Tom Ferry offering insights on marketing to millennials and expanding your brokerage’s end-to-end capabilities.
Byron Lazine and Nicole White are two agents in Connecticut who give us their thoughts on the week’s news every Friday in The Real Word, a weekly video column on Inman.
Byron Lazine and Nicole White’s special guest this week was Tom Ferry who talked about how brokerages can build a brand with the huge millennial cohort that is dominating the real estate industry.
Ferry suggested creating avatars for millennial buyers and sellers, including those who are divorcing or starting their families and those who are in the acquisition phase right now. The numbers in this group suggest that home prices and demand will be going straight up for the next five to seven years, according to Ferry.
Ferry said agents and brokers should start with the pain points of first-time buyers and sellers and gear their message toward solutions to resonate. The more marketing can narrow and speak to a specific group, the more effective it will be.
Lazine said that messaging has to be crystal clear and connected to other businesses that are involved in the transaction as well. That great content means that when people contact you after seeing your content, they act like they already know you, so you don’t even have to sell yourself, White pointed out
Next, Lazine and White asked Ferry about the proliferation of all-in-one, end-to-end brokerages that encompass in-house mortgage, title and other services. They appeal to both the agents and the consumers because of the more cohesive service they offer, while they appeal to brokers because, as margins shrink on both brokerages and mortgages, this offers the ability to improve both service and profitability.
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