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The weather is warmer, schools are letting out for summer break, and it’s time to start brainstorming for some creative summer marketing ideas to help make sure you stay in business all year round. Here are some of our favorite ways to get exposure and advertise your real estate services this summer:
The Community Pool: Just about every area has a community pool, which makes it a great place to network and meet people in the area. You can take the passive approach, which is to sign up for a membership and visit on a regular basis talking to everyone you can with a stack of business cards in your bag, or you can take a more assertive approach by sponsoring or hosting events. For example, you could sponsor a special lunch with free admission for a day or you could set up to have free passes or admission to use for past client appreciation.
Real Estate Internship: If you are a broker looking to recruit some young and fresh agents, offering a real estate internship summer program could be a great way to attract high school and college students. They could learn the ropes and do just about anything around the office that doesn’t require a license. You can start off by contacting local schools and colleges, advertising in the job classifieds, and submit press releases for local papers or magazines to cover for additional exposure.
Ice Cream Social: Everybody loves ice cream (well, mostly everyone!) and this can be a great event for your farm or marketing prospects. All you need to do is either set up in a community center with games or activities and all the fixings for ice cream sundaes, or you can partner with local ice cream shops to see about hosting an event there.
Community Day Marketing: Many areas have a community day celebration complete with vendor booths and events and activities for the whole family. Reserve a spot, set up a tent and table, and have something phenomenal to give away, such as a raffle or promotion with every house sold. (Just remember to check with your broker on what is okay and what may be against the law!) You’ll have all types of new prospects to follow up on by the end of the day.
Weekend Getaway: If you have a few close past clients, organizing a fun group camp or getaway could be a great way to reconnect on a personal level and hopefully increase the referral business. Invite them to bring a friend or two along, and you may just have a few new clients while you’re taking a mini-vacation!
Wedding Crashers: While I would never suggest being a wedding crasher, June is one of the most popular months for weddings, which can be a great source of first time home buyers. As I mentioned in our article on where to find real estate leads, networking with a wedding planner can be a great source for referrals. You might also want to scope out the announcements section of the newspaper.
Summer Promotional Gifts: Whether it’s a Frisbee or a beach ball or golf balls, there are all types of promotional gifts that are geared for summer that can work well for mail campaigns or other promotional events.
Summer BBQ: Fire up that charcoal grill, get some of your picnic favorites, and celebrate summer with your past clients, neighbors, or farm. It can be a great way to get more referrals and clients with a little careful planning and creativity.
The options are endless for possible summer marketing ideas. Think about the events that are going on in your community and how you can be involved. Have any creative summer marketing ideas you’d like to share? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below!
6 Comments
Thanks for the great marketing ideas. We traditionally hold a July 4th Bar B Q at our house for both clients and family. This year my house is going to be on the 2009 Austin Pond Society Tour which will enable me to promote my business. My yard is a National Wildlife Certfied Wildlife Habitat http://www.nwf.org/gardenforwildlife/ so I will have information about that, water conservation, front yard gardening, etc. to support my Green Real Estate business as an EcoBroker http://www.texasorganichome.com/
All great ideas – Summer parties and weddings are great places to network. Probably one of my favorite and best summer lead-building opportunities.
A friend of ours had a neighborhood block party barbecue for one of her listings. She had over half of the neighborhood show up and people from several surrounding communities as well. She ended up selling the house and picked up a couple looking to buy. Said it was a lot of fun (and work).
I like the promotional gift idea because it is something that would have a more lasting effect and would have the possibility of creating leads over a longer period of time. Frisbees and golf balls could have more staying power. Although the ice cream would certainly get attention.
These are definitely some great tips. I like that all of these have some sort of face to face interaction. This is often overlooked with all the available technology today, many business owners forget about the importance and effect of meeting potential clients face to face.
These are great ideas for carving a niche out for your site. Social media is hot right now so I wrote a post about it and received very positive responses.