There are very few real estate professionals that can be everything to everybody. However, when most agents start out you are told to market yourself to the masses. You make uncomfortable cold calls, intrusive door knock, spam the heck out of your sphere of influence.

The problem? There are thousands of real estate agents in your area doing the same damn thing. And 9 times of 10 they are probably doing it substantially better than you. It’s no wonder why  87% of new real estate agents fail within the first five years.

The solution? Stop doing what everyone else is doing. The most successful real estate agents have found a niche and held on to it for dear life. They made a name for themselves by finding the real estate specialty that combined their interest with their local market opportunities. Basically, they stopped being #basic and started being #unicorn. So how can you start standing out from the crowd and having your ideal clients come to you? By developing a niche that sets you apart and marketing directly to that niche – or in other words “niche marketing”.

NICHE MARKETING FOR REAL ESTATE

WHAT IN FIXER UPPER HEAVEN IS NICHE MARKETING? 

Niche marketing is a form of marketing geared toward a very specific population, or niche. Niche marketing is possible when a business specializes in a particular service, such as Atlanta Real Estate, and serves a particular demographic within its target audience, such as Home Buyers. If the business focuses its marketing strategy around this subgroup of Atlanta Home Buyers, this business would be in the practice of niche marketing.

A REAL ESTATE NICHE EXAMPLE

Let’s say that you are a residential real estate buyer’s agent in Memphis, TN. Your target audience is comprised of homebuyers as opposed to home sellers in Memphis. Within this target audience are various types of homebuyers, based on prior ownership, neighborhood, income level, home type, and even lawn size.

Now let’s say you have chosen to specialize in both first-time home buying and new construction homes. You ideal client or your “niche market” would be first-time homebuyers seeking new construction. You may continue to provide services to the average homebuyer as well, but your niche is be first-time homebuyers looking to buy a new construction home.

So here is the handy-dandy breakdown….

• Industry: Residential Real Estate
• Geographic Location: Memphis
• Target Audience: Homebuyers
• Specialties: first-time home buying and new construction homes
• Niche Market: First-Time Homebuyers seeking New Construction in Memphis

Depending on your market niches can make up the entire target audience, while others make up only a small percentage. There are different ways that you can market to your niche:

1. Market only to your niche and not to anyone else
2. Market to both your niche and your larger target audience
3. Market to your target audience but from the viewpoint of your niche

BENEFITS OF NICHE MARKETING

01 HAPPIER CLIENTS

When you are engaging with fewer people and not the masses, it makes it a lot easier to focus on the quality of interactions. You will know exactly how to make your clients happy because you will know exactly what they want and what they need. Leading to more personalized emails, more effective follow-up sequences and more targeted social media engagement. Plus, you will be able to offer custom services and accommodate special requests because you will learn more about your niche’s particular needs. All of which leads to a much happier client.

02 LOWER COMPETITION

Before hiring someone, consumers in all industries ask themselves the question “Is this person for me?”. Meaning are they going to know how to specifically give me what I need vs any other buyer. When you have taken the time to identify your niche market you can speak directly to them proving with every email, post, video, postcard etc. that you are the perfect option for them. This will simultaneously lower your competition because other agents will be using the general marketing approach making you stand apart even more.

03 IMPROVED VISIBILITY

Not only will word-of-mouth get around that you are the go-to agent for your niche market but you will also improve your online presence on search engines! Google LOVES niches so much that they reward websites with niche content with higher rankings. For example, it would be dang near impossible to rank above Zillow.com, Trulia.com and Realtor.com for “Miami Real Estate” but a total cake walk if you go for “Miami-Dade County New Construction Homes For First Time Homebuyers.” Are you picking up what I’m putting down?

04 FOCUSED MARKETING EFFORTS

Being confined to a specific person with a specific need helps you to focus your marketing efforts. It helps you figure out what article to write next for your Real Estate blog, what caption to put in your Instagram posts, or what audience to setup on your first Facebook ad. You will also be spending less on your marketing and an analytics since you are covering the entire neighborhood with postcards.

So not only will niching helping you to easily create content, spend less money on marketing, and set you up as the expert but it also helps you to create high converting marketing campaigns. So basically you spend less resources to get more money. Sounds like a win-win to me…but then again I’m bias because I wrote the article.

5 WAY MORE FUN!

Most importantly when you develop your niche you are ultimately identifying your “dream client”– type of person that you most want to work with in the whole wide world. And when you work with people that you like, doing something that you love, life is a hell of a lot more fun. And isn’t that what working for yourself is all about?

DRUM ROLL

Whether your business serves only your niche, or a niche among other audiences, the purpose of niche marketing is the same. You want to find a small pond in which you can be a big fish. If you compete for everything, you’re going to win at nothing. However, if you pick one area to concentrate on, you can focus your efforts and stand out in your market.

HEY, I HAVE QUESTION FOR YOU!

What niches are really popular in your market? Leave your response in the comment section below.