If you’d like to learn a 3-step process that doubles your chance of selling homes… then take 5 minutes to read my article.  It’s about the real reason why Apple continues to launch successful products, and how you can use the same strategy to sell more homes, in less time.

But first, some background on the company…

Apple is on a long winning streak that started with the iPod, then the iPhone and now the iPad.  Apple’s stock is so richly valued the small company is now worth more than Dell and Hewlett-Packard combined.

The media is clearly smitten with Steve Jobs, but business reporters may be missing a key element in Apple’s strategy.  When the company is praised for its marketing, it is usually for offering innovative, cutting edge products.  Apple is often tagged with the desirable label of “first mover” status, meaning it gets new technologies on the market before the competition does.

But closer examination proves otherwise. For example, iPod was not the first MP3 player on the market — not by a long shot.  Audio Highway sold the first MP3 player called Listen Up which won a national award at the Consumer Electronics Show in 1997.  Appel’s iPod hit the market in October, 2001.  Nokia was selling smart phones for years before anyone ever heard of an iPhone.  Tablet-sized PCs hit the market a few years ago with great fanfare, but sales have been lackluster.

Now, here comes the iPad, and within weeks, more than a million have been sold hitting that benchmark twice as fast as the original iPhone.  Apple’s reputation for being on the cutting edge is not actually supported by the facts.  Overlooked is…

Apple’s Ability To Create Effective Advertising

Granted, the company’s engineers come up with beautifully-designed and easy-to-use products — which is a marketing function in its own right — but, pay attention to what takes place in their television commercials.  What unfolds in their TV ads is simple and “old school”.

The strategy for the iPhone and iPad are the same—just a straightforward DEMONSTRATION of what the product does for the consumer.  Do they use exotic locations, celebrities or sexy models?  Not at all.  Watch some of the current iPad commercials.  They are filmed as if you are holding the device, and you see books…movies you can select…and another sequence shows a typing keypad, etc.

For the iPhone, Apple used the same technique, and you simply saw a person holding the iPhone in his hand while he did things like bring up a compass or get a restaurant review.  Another ad showed two users bumping their phones together to exchange contact information.

Advertising agencies typically loathe this kind of work because it is not creative, but in many cases a simple communication of benefits results in effective selling.

The iPhone killer was supposed to be the new Droid—a joint venture between Google and Verizon.  I have seen the TV spot that is just out, and it rates much higher for the “cool” factor.  It is a glitzy production that shows the new phone hovering and spinning in a room.  Laser-looking beams shoot out from all sides projecting on the walls with various scenes including one beam that blows a hole in the wall.  The special effects are impressive, but will it overtake the iPhone?  I wouldn’t count on it.

Brush Up On Marketing Basics To
Understand Apple’s Advertising Strategy

Before you create any advertising, you should ask yourself if you offer a product or service.  Products are the easiest of those two because they are tangible.  Selling a service in an intangible. Just as the Apple examples prove that demonstrating benefits is highly effective, there is an similar method for selling a service that as powerful… you demonstrate the benefit of the service by way of telling an interesting story.

One sterling example comes to mind — the “give-you-goose-bumps” radio commercials for OnStar.  The best in this series begins with what sounds like a 9-1-1 call.  A little girl — with trembling voice — says the car has crashed.  Next you hear the calming, voice of the female OnStar Operator.  The little girl says her mom is hurt and not awake.  The Operator says she is sending help and, she tells the little girl she will stay on the line with her until help arrives.  As that conversation fades out, the announcers come on to make a pitch for OnStar.

What do Apple and OnStar have in common?  Nothing.  One is a product, the other a service.  Good advertising is not about products or services…it means you understand human behavior.  Good advertising is also NOT about manipulating consumers.  It’s about tapping into our human desires and motivating action through a compelling demonstration of benefits.

How Does This Apply To Selling Homes?

So why not use these professional strategies on the ultimate consumer purchase — a house?   Unfortunately, what most sellers get is a typical flyer that lists the number of bedrooms, baths and living areas along with the agent’s photo.   But where is the demonstration or storytelling in that?   Providing “dry” statistics about a house makes it seem similar, and good advertising should make the product stand out, not blend in.

Note the first ad on the left — a classic story ad.  The headline makes you wonder who is getting a dream job in this economy? The ad generated urgency, too, because it suggested a good price was offered as a result of the owner’s buyout and promotion.

You can click the image to see it in a larger format, but you only have to read the headline to get the point — use a story ad that engages the reader and motivates them to respond.

RESULT: This ad  satisfied the main litmus test — it produced multiple offers in less than three weeks in a neighborhood in which every other “for sale” house is still sitting on the market — some for over a year.

The next ad (on the RIGHT) shows the same process Apple uses — a simple, clear communication of a unique benefit.  Can you spot the key element?  You would imagine that to sell a house, the ad must be about the house, right?  Not at all — this house was very similar to all the others on the market.

What made it different was the yard and view (no other competing house offered this kind of setting).  The photo of the yard, and headline, forcefully demonstrated what other “for sale” listings could not match.  The seller received four offers — unusual in this downturn.

How Do You Improve Your Advertising To
Attract Ready-To-Act Buyers?

Serious, ready-to-act homebuyers do not want to talk to a salesman — which is one reason I never stick my personal photo on my advertising — it has nothing to do with what is being sold. Here’s a simple process you can use to create an effective ad… one that sells your listings in half the time:

STEP 1: Identify a unique benefit that no other listing in the area can match…

STEP 2: Think of the best way to demonstrate what this benefit will DO for the buyer…

STEP 3: Dramatize this strongest benefit through an interesting story in your ad…

Using this process, you’ll create better advertising (no matter the home),  you’ll get more attention, and attract the right target audience — a buyer who’s motivated to sign a contract.

Remember: Selling a home is not a real estate function — it is a marketing function.  If ten people find out about your home that is fine, but if twenty people discover it because you have better marketing than your competition, you have just doubled your chances for success.

[Ed note: Copyright Stan Barron. Reprinted with permission. If you, or someone you know wants to sell a house, please give Stan a call at 512-345-8585.]

Have you ever spent hundreds of dollars and countless hours on an ad or mailing program, only to stare at your silent phone?

If so, you’re not alone. Most agents spend an enormous amount of time learning about “real estate”, but very little learning about the “elements” that turn your advertising (or any marketing or prospecting efforts) from a “sunk cost” to a true “money-maker”.

The truth about real estate success is this: Even the most competent and knowledgeable agent will go broke without a steady, consistent stream of qualified, motivated buyers and sellers.

So while knowledge about real estate is essential to being a competent agent, it’s not going to write your ticket to success. You also need to develop prospecting and marketing skills designed to create an on-going flow of leads and clients.

Money-making marketing isn’t difficult if you know a few basics. In fact, all successful marketing has three essential components. I call them…

The Three “M’s” of Marketing Success

The next time you set-out to create a successful ad, post card, or even if you decide to cold prospect (or the next time you’re perplexed as to why your wonderful promotion didn’t work), think about these three ingredients…

#1: Select the Right MARKET

It sounds rather obvious, but most agents fail with their marketing right here – they fail to target the “hungry crowd“… people who are “right now” facing a problem about real estate, and are motivated and interested in what you may be offering.

What do I mean by “market”?

A “market” is a group of people who share a common demographic (statistical description, such as location, occupation, income, etc.) or psychographic (belief wiring). Your goal is to select a market that has an immediate, pressing desire for your services.

Want an example?

About 6 months ago an agent called me because she had been farming a “high-end” subdivision for over 9 months, and her efforts produced zero calls or listings. When I asked her to hop on her trusty MLS system and take a look at the market, she noticed that only 2 homes had sold in the entire area over the past year!

She had been fishing in an empty pond.

I then told her to select 5 decent markets in her area based on casual knowledge, and using here MLS system analyze each market for # of homes sold, average sales time, # of dominant agents in the market and a few other statistics.

By comparing 5 markets based on these criteria, all of a sudden one of the areas stuck out as a higher-potential market than the others – an area with lots of activity, high turnover, short sales times, fewer dominant agents, etc. Within 30 days working these markets she had her first listing, and is now making a small fortune from her farming efforts.

So how do you find hot markets? How do you find the well-stocked ponds that will produce consistent business for you, year-in and year-out?

The secret is to pay attention to where the dominant activity exists for the type of homes you specialize in selling.

If you’re a luxury market specialist, do your homework and locate luxury areas with better activity than others. If resort properties or horse properties are your specialty, then analyze the best resort or horse property subdivisions to target.

If you’re looking for buyers, examine your market for segments where the highest volume of buyers exist (get cozy with your local board and you can find lots of market data). Between your MLS and a trusty Excel spreadsheet, the answers are right at your fingertips.

But you want to know the one “market” that will out-perform anything else as much as 16 to 1? It’s your “Power List”…your list of past clients, friends, family and acquaintances.

If you’re interested in building a booming “Power List” business click here to learn more.

To sum up this first “M”… go where the pond is stocked from the beginning, and your odds of success will be much greater when you cast your line.

Let’s move on to the second “M”…

#2: Select the Right MEDIUM

Once you’ve found your market(s), the next question you should ask yourself is: “Where does my target market get information that’s important to them?”

The secret is to tap into the lines of communication and information that your market already finds credible and helpful.

Most agents are seduced into finding mediums (magazines, newspapers, etc.) based on the highest circulation, but that’s a BIG mistake because you’re going to pay for exposure to people who have no interest in your services – it’s called “waste circulation” and it’s very costly.

Find a medium that reaches your targeted prospect and only your targeted prospect.

You might choose to use direct mail after performing an analysis like the example above. You might locate a homeowner newsletter to contribute a helpful article about buying or selling in the area. Or you might find a bedroom newspaper that specifically targets the area you farm.

Either way, the “secret” to success is in finding well-targeted, small ways to reach your prospect and only your prospect. That’s because every dollar (and minute) counts when you’re prospecting for leads and clients.

The more you target by selecting the right medium for your promotions, the more money you make.

And the final “M” is this…

#3: Create the Right MESSAGE

All of your advertising, mailings or any other marketing should have one and only one objective: Motivate qualified buyer and seller prospects to CALL YOU or hire your services!

If they don’t call or hire you, you’ve wasted your money.

But most agents believe that, if they put up their photo with a “call me for more information” they’ve done the job. Wrong!

You will find volumes of books and courses about direct response marketing and ways to motivate prospects to call you, but here’s a quick 4-point checklist that will almost instantly improve the success of all your marketing.

• Capture Attention with a Benefit-Rich Headline and Lead. Your headline is your “ad” for your ad or letter or even your listing presentation – no it’s not your name or your big company logo. It’s the specific call-out message that causes your reader or listener to stop and take notice, just like a headline in a newspaper article works. Your “lead” is what you say in the first 5 seconds that captures the attention of your reader and motivates them to read on.
• Stimulate Interest by Harmonizing with Your Prospect. How do you get people interested in you? By talking about the problems they face and the desires they seek. It’s not about you; it’s about them! When you connect with your prospect and empathize with their situation (their immediate fears and desires), you instantly capture their interest and open their minds to be willing to listen to your solutions.
• Create Desire by Matching Your Services Perfectly to Their Fears and Desires. When you demonstrate how your services solve problems or deliver benefits for your prospects and clients better than any other option – in a way that’s risk-free for them – you automatically make yourself a stand-out choice for their business. The art of persuasion is simply matching your solution perfectly to the problems and desires your prospect faces.
• Stimulate Action with an Irresistible Offer and Call to Action. Remember this: No one will call you without a self-serving, almost irresistible reason for calling. So you need to give prospects reasons to call. For lead generation, offer special reports, preferred lists of homes and other “magnets” that will motivate people to seek you out. When closing a listing presentation, list out all the “things” you will DO for them, and make an offer that will have them saying, “we’d have to be fools to pass this up!” If you don’t include an offer, combined with an urgent call to action, chances are your prospects are going to procrastinate. And procrastination in this business means an empty checkbook!

One final note… these three “M’s” of marketing success are not magic bullet solutions.

It’s up to you to take action and consistently apply them in your marketing. Once you really understand each of these ingredients and USE them, you’ll have a reliable way of creating promotions that work instead of just a fizzle of response.

If you want your promotions to bring you a steady stream of commissions and clients, go and review every promotion you have right now against each of these ingredients of successful marketing.

You’ll be glad you did!

Here’s a free publicity case study I’ve been meaning to write about for a while.

It’s a paint-by-the-numbers way to get free publicity and how it resulted in over $52,000 in traceable business for my most important client at the time:  my wife.

But first, to really grasp the nuances of what I’m about to share, you’ll need to imagine a world quite different from ours today.

And it’d help if you’re acquainted with Bizarro World in D.C. Comics — the place where incompetence is rewarded, stupidity is praised and ugliness is treasured. Interestingly, Bizarro World boasts a popular financial instrument called the Bizarro Bond, “guaranteed to lose money for you.”

The backdrop for this story gives Bizarro World a run for its money.

Imagine a place where…

• Little things like collateral, income and creditworthiness are totally irrelevant factors when buying a home.
• Property values can go nowhere but up.
• Generous credit lines are given to anyone with a beating pulse.
• And similar to the Bizarro Bond, something called the sub-prime note is the preferred ruinous investment of choice.

Well, you needn’t imagine it. This was that very strange year known as 2005 and the place was the good ole’ US of A.

But don’t worry. Even if you resided elsewhere, we almost certainly exported these to a place near you.

Recalling this brings to mind an oft-used quote of Woody Allen’s:

“80% of Success Is Showing Up.”

Great quote Woody came up with except in 2005, he was off by 20%.

This was a year in which money ran uphill.

Almost everyone in the real estate, lending, construction and related industries made a nice living just by showing up — from the spec home builder to the journeyman electrician to the girl making photocopies at the title company.

Those who brought something extra to the game enjoyed the gravy.

During this astonishing time, my wife decided to jump into real estate, after watching her energy trading markets implode in the post-Enron world.

She faced a challenge…

Unlike her previous industry where she had plenty of credentials and bountiful press, including a front page article in the Money section of the USA Today (12/11/01), she had no obvious competitive advantage coming into real estate.

But since money was running uphill, she got her license, jumped in and cashed her commission checks.

After a year of enjoying the fruits of being in the right place at the right time, we realized it was time to sit down and figure out…

How To Craft A Real Competitive Advantage

How does a newcomer differentiate herself from the masses? Moreover, how can she turn her lack of experience into an advantage?

Smart marketers know almost any challenge can be broken down into a set of concrete steps. And our first step was to leverage an asset we didn’t own.

Almost immediately, she mentioned a technology-laden home listed at $17.5 million, which was several multiples more expensive than anything else in town. It was also a home with a major marketing challenge.

Since Tucson is far removed from the glitz of the Coasts — it’s a winter haven for frozen mid-westerners, an hour’s drive from Mexico — finding a buyer for a 17.5 million dollar home was no mean feat.

And from what my wife told me, the listing agent was spending far more marketing this property than most agents were making at the time.

So, we decided, (don’t laugh)…

“Let’s put the home on eBay.”

You have to remember, this was 2005, the height of the housing bubble, and real estate marketing on eBay was a trend in full force.

And like anything else that’s trendy online, whether it’s eBay in 2005 or Facebook in 2010, the marketing opportunity lies somewhere between the overhyped to the underutilized.

So, Anjelina went to the listing agent with a simple proposition:

“With you and your seller’s permission, I’ll market this property online at no cost to you and if I find a buyer, I’ll receive full commission as the buyer’s agent. Deal?”

Hard to argue with that. They wanted to get the place sold, so they gave her the green light.

Since this was over a half-decade ago and literally was a house ad, I’ll make a confession that I’d never make to my copywriting clients today.

The ad I wrote was a midnight write.

Yet, it was wildly successful because I unearthed the right hook and linked it to a trendy channel.

My main material to craft the ad was a coffee-table sized prospectus that looked more expensive than a small trailer home. Of course, it was loaded with the kind of gushy superlatives that makes copywriters like me cringe.

Step 1: Find The Right “Hook”

A strong hook (or “power concept”) is a must for even a chance at creating a winning promotion. Fortunately, this home was so loaded with technology, that it leapt right out at me and I put it in the headline…

“Amazing ‘22nd Century’ Tucson estate boasts every luxury and technology innovation you could ever conceive of…

it even comes with a 602-page owner’s manual”

No time for fifty candidate headlines. This was a midnight write because we told the listing agent the ad would be published by morning.

As soon as I learned of the 602-page owners manual, I knew that was it. What was a barely legible footnote in the prospectus was transformed into a dynamite advertising hook.

The rest was straightforward.

I added captions to the photos and made a bulleted list of the most compelling features of the home. Features, not benefits — this was pure cut-and-paste since I had so little time.

Within a short-time, the “Amazing 22nd Century Tucson estate” listing rocketed up eBay Pulse.

<< CLICK HERE To See the eBay Homes Ad Along

With Newspaper Articles From The Publicity >>

At $13.5 million (which didn’t include the surrounding 10 acres of land) it was the most expensive piece of residential real estate on eBay for two out of three 30-day ad insertions.

The barrage of emails and phone calls from all corners was relentless.

Since the percentage of people with a net worth of over $50 million is small compared to the number of eBay users, most of the inquiries came from curiosity seekers, plus a healthy share of outright nutters.

Eventually, the ad brought in several qualified respondents who took tours of the home. One even flew into town on his company’s private jet shortly after making a telephone inquiry.

Step 2: Contact The Press

With several thousand page views taking place each day, it wasn’t long before Anjelina’s name became associated with this property. And all she did was offer to help the seller and his agent market the property in a way they hadn’t considered, while spending almost nothing out of pocket.

Now, it was time to contact the state and local newspapers and let them know about the eBay auction.

All it took were a handful of emails before the state’s second biggest newspaper called. Within a week, there was a front-page article in the business section about the property and Anjelina’s role in marketing it on eBay.

Even though this happened over a half-decade ago, there are plenty of timeless marketing and public relations lessons in here.

The one that still jumps out at me is what I call the “newcomer’s advantage.”

Most people are accustomed to looking at a lack of experience as a negative. And while it’s true there are some spin-resistant professions like heart surgeons and airline pilots, you can make a case in many fields that the old, entrenched way of doing things doesn’t work as well as a bold, novel approach. That was one of the clear take-aways from the article.

The Lifetime Advantage of Free Publicity

Besides achieving the major marketing advantage of having prospects come to you, after a front-page story like this hits, you now hold the lifetime advantage of being able to say: “as seen in The Wall Street Journal” or “as reported in The Oshkosh Northwestern.”

Oftentimes, you can parlay one story into many.

In Anjelina’s case, she was later written about in a real estate industry trade journal, as well as interviewed on a local TV station.

And the best part is, you don’t need to spend thousands on publicity agents or PR courses to do it.

In fact, the absence of a marketing or a publicity budget has often been an advantage for me because every time I’ve thrown money at a problem, it’s usually gone down the drain.

My PR approach today can be best described as a bootstraper with a budget. Here are my…

3 Guidelines For Getting Press For
Yourself And Your Business

1. Keep your eyes pealed for unexploited marketing channels. Are you a specialist in one or multiple areas? Look for ways to bring something being marketing successfully into your niche area. (Example: I’m now working with a company that does over $20 million in sales through direct mail but they have almost no experience with online marketing. I’m condensing and translating their strongest direct mail packages to the web, then helping them push this offer to proven online lists in their market. News outlets are often interested in stories like this which would benefit both me and my client.)
2. Find a hook or create one yourself. “22nd Century Tucson Home.” Cliche-ish? Sure. But it’s memorable. You want something where readers and viewers will have as close as possible to 20/20 recall.
3. Join two ideas together in an exciting way. The attraction of social media for business development is trendy, and to a degree, a black box. But the problem with social media marketing is it can be a boringly generic. Solution? Join the use of social media to an exiting business model. (Example: Curtis Kimball runs his business from a crème brûlée cart on the streets of San Francisco. On any given day, he can be miles from where he was yesterday. Curtis’ customers not only follow him on Twitter to find out his location but also about the flavors of the day. The New York Times liked this enough to lead with Curtis’ story in an article over the summer. Think what that’s done for his business.)

Epilogue of the 22nd Century Home Story

As you may have guessed, we didn’t sell the home. We came ever so close but as they say close only counts in horseshoes.

Had the home been sold, a $500,000 commission from this marketing and PR adventure would have made a great 80/20 case study but no complaints…we got plenty out of it.

And we weren’t ready to quit. A year after this, we gave it another go.

We suspected the sellers were using direct mail to contact people on the Forbes 400 list who lived in the States.

So, we asked ourselves, “who could they have overlooked that this home might make sense for?”

And someone came to mind.

Today, Carlos Slim of Mexico City is the world’s richest man, but at the time, he was relatively unknown in the States.

How do you get the attention of a billionaire like Carlos Slim?

The same way you get anyone’s attention — do something different, even slightly outlandish.

So, we FedExed him a black leather briefcase containing a prospectus for the home, an invitation to come and see it, and a letter making a case for how the home could be a valuable cross-border asset as a corporate retreat.

Though I never spoke to him directly, his English speaking secretary, Sylvia, was easy enough to reach. A week after sending the package I rang her up and introduced myself. She immediately answered in a mixed tone of recognition and astonishment: “Oh, you’re the ones who sent the briefcase!”

And after a dozen more follow-up calls with replies like “Sr. Slim is in Switzerland and will examine your proposal on return,” he finally looked it over and declined.

Sylvia related his answer which was diplomatic and portentous — “Mr. Slim is not interested in making any investments in the U.S. real estate market at this time.”

Guess he knew about Bizarro Bonds.

[Ed note: Copyright Lawrence Bernstein.  Reprinted with permission.  Lawrence has 20 Real Estate Domains for Sale in Top US Markets that would be next to impossible to come by in 2010.  If you're interested, click here for more information... ]

Comments:  Add Yours By Clicking Here…

Here’s a very cool system for reactivating old clients, generating referrals, and building your Power List.

Many agents I work with have a lot of old clients they simply forgot.  Life gets busy and before you know it, it’s been months (even years) since you last contacted some of your clients.

That’s why I created the “Re-Acquaint Letter System”…

It’s an easy way to get back in touch and harvest referrals and repeat business from your network.  And this  letter has worked for hundreds of agents all over the world.

I also give you an example of a Referral Coupon.  This coupon is designed to work much like a “bounce-back” type of coupon that restaurants and retail stores use. The very same strategy will work for you if you just give it a try.

How To Use The “Re-Acquaint” Letter System…

STEP 1: Create a LIST of your past clients and friends, friends, family, and acquaintances

Narrow your list down to the people you’ve not contacted in the last 6 months.

STEP 2: Send them a personal LETTER

Here’s a pre-written letter for you to use and make your own.

(click the image to download as a word document)

STEP 3: Give your Power List a meaningful REASON to get back in contact with you

Use a “Referral Coupon” that goes with this letter, like this…


They may or may not use it, but it’s a stand-out way to remind them that you work by referral.

(IMPORTANT:  This coupon is designed to give a discount to the END-USER only.  In most, if not all states, it is illegal to directly compensate any unlicensed person for sending you business.  This coupon only makes a discount offer to the end user, NOT to a person sending you a referral.)

STEP 4:  FOLLOW-UP with regular contact (at least monthly)

Agents tell me they start getting calls within a few days after this letter goes out.  But you can also follow up by phone 7 days after sending the letter.

Going forward, you’ll want to keep in contact in a meaningful way.  And I’m not talking about pumpkin seeds or calendars here.

You can use my Service For Life system or your own monthly contact, just make sure it’s something your Power List sees as a “welcomed guest” rather than an annoying pest.

This is very important.  For every 100 people on your database, 14 of them will buy or sell a home in the next 12 months.  And that doesn’t include the Referrals they could be sending you.

Don’t continue to leave this gigantic hole of lost revenue in your business.  This “Re-Acquaint Letter System” will help you get back in touch with your clients.  Then keep following up with your network each month with welcomed and valued contact.

[Ed note: This article is a small excerpt from the "Fast-Track to Success" Turn-Key Real Estate Business Building System. To learn more click here.]