Mr. Marketing: Stick to what you know best

Long ago I learned the importance of focusing on my areas of expertise. I just can’t do everything.

Apparently, not everyone got the memo to follow suit. Consider some of my friends in real estate.

Like every business owner, each wants an edge over the competition. Each focuses on specific markets. Each has particular marketing needs to address.

Most Realtors include networking, print advertising, social media, website presence, and collateral in their business plans.

But marketing is typically outside their core competencies, so these folks sometimes miss the target.

For example, Jones Realty is currently running an attractive ad in an expensive publication. To maximize exposure, there’s a lightbox in their storefront window. On the lightbox is this page, torn from the magazine.

The problem: the bright background light reveals the ad on the reverse side of the page. Backwards. Making the Jones Realty ad unreadable.

The problem is immediately noticeable to anyone walking by the office after dark.

Too bad nobody at Jones Realty checked.

Thinking perhaps I’m being persnickety I backed off, until I saw Ms. Smith’s brochure, containing these mistakes:

The personalized cover had a misspelled name on it;

The market activity map incorrectly identified several street names;

The pre-printed brochure shell was very pretty, but the personalized section (with the actual local listings) looked terrible.

I called Ms. Smith and asked about these issues. Her response: “Okay,” without any whiff of contrition.

If you’re a Realtor, your success will probably depend upon extensive networking, pounding the pavement, signage, and generating actual results which, in turn, will lead to more referrals. The collateral, advertising, and websites you’ll use to spread the message will help complement your primary efforts.

Which sounds great on paper. However, if your secondary efforts degrade your primary ones, you’ve hurt yourself more than helped.

Regular readers know I’m a great believer in business planning and comprehensive follow-through.

Seeing these kinds of issues in such a hyper-competitive environment reinforces the importance of mapping out strategy, solid implementation, and, as my first grade teacher regularly reminded me, checking your work.

After all, you only get one chance to make that first impression, right?

With that said, I wish you a week of profitable marketing.