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Connecting through understanding by Lee Woodward


By Lee Woodward

Supermarket giant Aldi is thriving because they understand their target market so well. They know how to connect with them in such a way that people queue up at the door on specials days. What’s Aldi’s point of difference when it comes to specials? It’s that you never know what you’re going to get (people love a surprise). Similarly Apple is killing it because they too know their customers exceptionally well. To truly make a connection with your tribe, you too need to become exceptional at understanding your target market and knowing how they tick.

I talked earlier in this chapter about database champion, Creagh Ferdinands from Harcourts Currambine in Perth’s northern suburbs. Not only is Creagh on the ball when it comes to building and maintaining his database, he is also a savvy marketer with an uncanny ability to connect with his clients and give them exactly what they want. Creagh says, “I realised I was one of those lucky agents who could call an owner up just to say, ‘Hi, how are things going?’ without them thinking I was trying to sell them something or sign them up for an appraisal”. The fact that Creagh’s tribe responds to him like this is not due to luck. It’s due to the fact that he has been very clever at picking up signals from his market and responding accordingly.

Creagh has a number of different marketing pieces he can send out as the need arises.

One of the most effective marketing campaigns he says he has run is the ‘three things’ letter campaign. This began as a campaign responding to a commonly asked question he was hearing from his community – “What is the best way to prepare my property for an open for inspection?” Creagh came up with the ‘three things’ letter in response. “The enquiries generated from that simple approach that just highlighted three simple things they could do to make an impact during an open home were staggering,” says Creagh. “I found a lot of my competitors were putting out things like 100 ways to improve your home for sale and basically bombarding people with too much information. Selling a home is stressful and people are time-poor. They just want to sell and move on. People don’t want a hundred things they should do, or even ten. Three is manageable."

Creagh Ferdinands is innovative and inventive when it comes to his marketing and the way he connects with his audience – the hallmarks of a successful real estate professional.

Order Lee Woodward’s book “Frameworks” from realestateacademy.com.au

 


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