For instance, if your ultimate goal is to gain a new client, the goal of your messaging might be to initiate first contact (a phone call or email) from that prospective client. This would be an excellent messaging goal for two reasons:

• First, it's a goal your message can actually accomplish.


• Secondly, it's a goal that can support your overall goal of client acquisition. Here's why: An NAR survey sponsored by the Gooder Group found that 74% of people shopping for a real estate professional go with the first one they call. That means if you earn that first call from a prospect, yo
  Six Sigma Training 101- Guide To Better Management
  Six Sigma is a program that deals with quality management and is designed to achieve an outstanding level of quality for products. Motorola was the first company to pioneer Six Sigma in the mid-eighties and since then it has been adopted by many other companies and manufacturers. Service companies, in order to enhance customer service and relations also utilize Six Sigma strategies. Six Sigma has evolved from a normal distribution curve where failures in quality and customer satisfaction arise after the sixth sigma of likelihood. Hence, the main idea of Six Sigma is to reduce or lessen the
  While working in the direct mail industry for a company whose clientele was 75% real estate, I witnessed the production and distribution of more than 70,000 real estate marketing pieces each week.

  A common but unfortunate trend I noticed was the overburdening of marketing messages. In other words, many of the marketers wanted their messages to do more than they were capable of doing.

  I'll elaborate. But first, a quick marketing primer:

  Creating an effective marketing message usually calls for a three-step approach. You must define your audience, your goal and, ultimately, your message — in that order.

  1. Define your audience
  Who are you marketing your services to? Who are you hoping to motivate and persuade? Sure, you want to reach homeowners or homebuyers — but get more specific than that.

  Go beyond the obvious. Take notes about each client you work with and then compile the notes. Review them prior to each marketing project you undertake.

  Create a mental picture of your typical prospects. Visualize them in your mind's eye. What do they look like? What do they want? What fears wake them in the night? What happiness do they seek?

  When you can answer all of these questions, you can move on to the next step, defining your goal.

  2. Define your goal
  Under this step you might add the sub-steps of clarifying and simplifying your goal. The clear part is obvious — a clearly defined goal is a goal more easily attained. By “simplify,” I don't mean making your goal trivial or unworthy of pursuit. I mean reducing the goal to its purest form.

  Strip away anything that's not critical to the precise objective you want your reader to take. If you have several goals for your marketing message to accomplish, you haven't simplified enough! Boil it down to one specific action (like the example that follows later).

  3. Define your message
  Based on your audience and your goal, what must your message do to bridge the gap? What should you say or write to get your audience to move toward the desired action?

  Process in Practice
  I've simplified the above process, but all the fundamentals are there. Now it's time to get specific. Let's look at how these real estate marketing factors might come together to drive an actual message geared toward an actual audience.

  Let's say you're primarily a buyer's agent, so your audience would obviously be people shopping for homes. You've done some research on homebuyer demographics in your area, you've got a good mental picture of your audience, and you've made a list of things that are important to them.

  Now it's time to define your goal.

  The Key to Goal Definition
  Don't confuse your ultimate goal with your messaging goal. In other words, don't define a messaging goal that your message can't deliver. Instead, go for the low-hanging fruit.

  Let your real estate marketing message do what it's good at. Let it move the reader one step closer to a larger, more ultimate goal. That's what marketing messages have been doing effectively for decades, moving readers toward specific, achievable actions.

  For instance, if your ultimate goal is to gain a new client, the goal of your messaging might be to initiate first contact (a phone call or email) from that prospective client. This would be an excellent messaging goal for two reasons:

  • First, it's a goal your message can actually accomplish.
  
  
  • Secondly, it's a goal that can support your overall goal of client acquisition. Here's why: An NAR survey sponsored by the Gooder Group found that 74% of people shopping for a real estate professional go with the first one they call. That means if you earn that first call from a prospect, yo
    Winning Repeat Business - Follow-Up Techniques That Work
    The secret to obtaining repeat customers and building a solid referral system is following up in a way that has a positive effect on the customer, says sales and marketing expert Danielle Kennedy. She says that although closing a sale can be seen as the completion of servicing the customer’s needs, it’s really only the beginning of a relationship with the customer.In an article in Entrepreneur magazine, Kennedy quotes Ted Levitt, former editor of the Harvard Business Review: “The sale merely consummates the courtship. Then the marriage begins. How good the marriage is depends on how
    nt to reach homeowners or homebuyers — but get more specific than that.

    Go beyond the obvious. Take notes about each client you work with and then compile the notes. Review them prior to each marketing project you undertake.

    Create a mental picture of your typical prospects. Visualize them in your mind's eye. What do they look like? What do they want? What fears wake them in the night? What happiness do they seek?

    When you can answer all of these questions, you can move on to the next step, defining your goal.

    2. Define your goal
    Under this step you might add the sub-steps of clarifying and simplifying your goal. The clear part is obvious — a clearly defined goal is a goal more easily attained. By “simplify,” I don't mean making your goal trivial or unworthy of pursuit. I mean reducing the goal to its purest form.

    Strip away anything that's not critical to the precise objective you want your reader to take. If you have several goals for your marketing message to accomplish, you haven't simplified enough! Boil it down to one specific action (like the example that follows later).

    3. Define your message
    Based on your audience and your goal, what must your message do to bridge the gap? What should you say or write to get your audience to move toward the desired action?

    Process in Practice
    I've simplified the above process, but all the fundamentals are there. Now it's time to get specific. Let's look at how these real estate marketing factors might come together to drive an actual message geared toward an actual audience.

    Let's say you're primarily a buyer's agent, so your audience would obviously be people shopping for homes. You've done some research on homebuyer demographics in your area, you've got a good mental picture of your audience, and you've made a list of things that are important to them.

    Now it's time to define your goal.

    The Key to Goal Definition
    Don't confuse your ultimate goal with your messaging goal. In other words, don't define a messaging goal that your message can't deliver. Instead, go for the low-hanging fruit.

    Let your real estate marketing message do what it's good at. Let it move the reader one step closer to a larger, more ultimate goal. That's what marketing messages have been doing effectively for decades, moving readers toward specific, achievable actions.

    For instance, if your ultimate goal is to gain a new client, the goal of your messaging might be to initiate first contact (a phone call or email) from that prospective client. This would be an excellent messaging goal for two reasons:

    • First, it's a goal your message can actually accomplish.
    
    
    • Secondly, it's a goal that can support your overall goal of client acquisition. Here's why: An NAR survey sponsored by the Gooder Group found that 74% of people shopping for a real estate professional go with the first one they call. That means if you earn that first call from a prospect, yo
      A $40 Million Dollar Little Known Referral Strategy
      Would you like to know how a car wash chain with only 12 locations has cleaned over 33,373,975 cars and has an annual revenue of over $40 Million (that is not a misprint) using little to no paid advertising?Well, sit forward because I'm about to tell you. The company name is "Car Spa" and here's how I discovered their brutally effective referral strategy. I often go to Taco Bell to have lunch and read a book. I noticed a little flyer next to their cash register.A few days later I stopped in with my family to get a frozen yogurt and right next to the cash register was the sa
      n making your goal trivial or unworthy of pursuit. I mean reducing the goal to its purest form.

      Strip away anything that's not critical to the precise objective you want your reader to take. If you have several goals for your marketing message to accomplish, you haven't simplified enough! Boil it down to one specific action (like the example that follows later).

      3. Define your message
      Based on your audience and your goal, what must your message do to bridge the gap? What should you say or write to get your audience to move toward the desired action?

      Process in Practice
      I've simplified the above process, but all the fundamentals are there. Now it's time to get specific. Let's look at how these real estate marketing factors might come together to drive an actual message geared toward an actual audience.

      Let's say you're primarily a buyer's agent, so your audience would obviously be people shopping for homes. You've done some research on homebuyer demographics in your area, you've got a good mental picture of your audience, and you've made a list of things that are important to them.

      Now it's time to define your goal.

      The Key to Goal Definition
      Don't confuse your ultimate goal with your messaging goal. In other words, don't define a messaging goal that your message can't deliver. Instead, go for the low-hanging fruit.

      Let your real estate marketing message do what it's good at. Let it move the reader one step closer to a larger, more ultimate goal. That's what marketing messages have been doing effectively for decades, moving readers toward specific, achievable actions.

      For instance, if your ultimate goal is to gain a new client, the goal of your messaging might be to initiate first contact (a phone call or email) from that prospective client. This would be an excellent messaging goal for two reasons:

      • First, it's a goal your message can actually accomplish.
      
      
      • Secondly, it's a goal that can support your overall goal of client acquisition. Here's why: An NAR survey sponsored by the Gooder Group found that 74% of people shopping for a real estate professional go with the first one they call. That means if you earn that first call from a prospect, yo
        Product Review: Desktop Marketer Pro
        Every time someone sends me an e-mail telling me that they've just discovered the "next big thing" in online marketing, I'm naturally a little bit skeptical.So when I received an e-mail from world-renowned Internet marketing expert Derek Gehl recently telling me that he had a "revolutionary" product he wanted to show me, I wasn't sure what to expect!It turns out that Derek was talking about "direct-to-desktop" technology. Now, for those of you who haven't heard of this before, it basically allows you to send messages directly to the desktops of your customers or subscribers W
        factors might come together to drive an actual message geared toward an actual audience.

        Let's say you're primarily a buyer's agent, so your audience would obviously be people shopping for homes. You've done some research on homebuyer demographics in your area, you've got a good mental picture of your audience, and you've made a list of things that are important to them.

        Now it's time to define your goal.

        The Key to Goal Definition
        Don't confuse your ultimate goal with your messaging goal. In other words, don't define a messaging goal that your message can't deliver. Instead, go for the low-hanging fruit.

        Let your real estate marketing message do what it's good at. Let it move the reader one step closer to a larger, more ultimate goal. That's what marketing messages have been doing effectively for decades, moving readers toward specific, achievable actions.

        For instance, if your ultimate goal is to gain a new client, the goal of your messaging might be to initiate first contact (a phone call or email) from that prospective client. This would be an excellent messaging goal for two reasons:

        • First, it's a goal your message can actually accomplish.
        
        
        • Secondly, it's a goal that can support your overall goal of client acquisition. Here's why: An NAR survey sponsored by the Gooder Group found that 74% of people shopping for a real estate professional go with the first one they call. That means if you earn that first call from a prospect, yo
          Online High Risk Merchant Accounts
          Running an online casino is hard, you need a watchful eye on everyone inside your casino for there will always be people who would do anything to win games. If you let your guard down even for just a second you could loose thousands or even millions of dollars. Managing what goes on inside a real casino may be hard but running one online is a totally different story.The idea of running an online casino may be absurd to some due to the fact that there are people who can easily hack into the site. If this happens to you, then you can say goodbye to all your money. This is the main rea
          ultimate goal. That's what marketing messages have been doing effectively for decades, moving readers toward specific, achievable actions.

          For instance, if your ultimate goal is to gain a new client, the goal of your messaging might be to initiate first contact (a phone call or email) from that prospective client. This would be an excellent messaging goal for two reasons:

          • First, it's a goal your message can actually accomplish.
          
          
          • Secondly, it's a goal that can support your overall goal of client acquisition. Here's why: An NAR survey sponsored by the Gooder Group found that 74% of people shopping for a real estate professional go with the first one they call. That means if you earn that first call from a prospect, you have a 74% chance of turning them into a client.

          Think of It This Way
          You're not selling a toaster. You're selling the real estate services you provide — services that have an impact on the finances and ultimate happiness (or unhappiness) of your clients. Those are weighty issues.

          Words on paper can sell a toaster. Words on paper cannot sell your prospects on your ability to deliver. Words can, however, sell your prospects on the next step they might take (in this case, calling or emailing you). After that first contact, there's plenty of time to show them your ability to deliver.

          Give your real estate marketing message a break from unreasonable expectations. Let it do what it's best at. Let it move the reader forward in your ultimate plan.

          * Copyright 2006, Brandon Cornett. You may republish this article if you keep the byline and author's note, and also leave the hyperlink intact.