In a world of picture perfect Instagram posts, potential home buyers want (and expect) their next dream home to look as good as the pictures online. While some blame can be placed with today’s expert real estate photographers, who can make the smallest and dullest of properties pop in the MLS listing, the reality is that home buyers have more tools at their disposal than ever before. Buyers can view hundreds of homes online in a weekend, compare pricing, research tax values and school ratings, and even determine how many steps they need to walk to the nearest Starbucks. What this means for home sellers is that it is a lot more competitive to sell your home today. Unless you’re living down the street from the next planned Amazon headquarters, home sellers today can experience just as much stress as buyers looking for one.
Unfortunately, the home buying/selling experience has always been somewhat lopsided with more sympathy going towards the buyer. There are home buyer education courses for new couples just starting out to ensure they understand the financial commitment. There are special loans for military and teachers. There are appraisers, inspectors, and all that information online, which all go towards protecting the buyer. Sellers on the other hand can easily be looked upon as the home owner with lots of equity who will walk away with plenty of money at closing. Even among Realtors, the listing agent is looked upon as the glamorous million-dollar seller who simply has to put a sign in the yard, while the poor buyer’s agent schleps buyers around for 30 homes – we pity the buyer and their agent. In practice, both sides of a real estate transaction are tough, just for different reasons. In a seller’s market we find that home owners often think their home should sell in less than 30 days, but that’s not what a seller’s market means. This is especially true if the seller has put money upfront for a photographer, fresh paint, new carpet, and more. Home owners selling older homes can be even more frustrated as buyers still expect move-in ready homes. The fact is, there are so many things that factor into why one home sells in less than a week and a similar home on the same block may take 3 months. Everything from initial listing price to the side of the street the home is located on, can impact the pool of potential buyers. With so many resources for buyers, it makes sense for sellers to have help too. It’s been shown time and again that when two parties have more knowledge about a transaction, better expectations are set. When better expectations are set it leads to less misunderstandings and hopefully a smoother real estate transaction. If a buyer is looking for a rock-bottom deal, and a home owner thinks their place is a “palace” it makes for a miserable time for everyone involved. Today’s home sellers shouldn’t feel like the market is against them and that they will never be able to sell their home. Yes, times have changed and the dream of home ownership may not be as strong today as it was for buyers in the 70’s and 80’s. But like most everything, people’s viewpoints come in cycles, so the best thing to do is educate yourself and understand that selling a home may not just be planting a sign in the yard. Learn more about the FREE online course for Texas home sellers today. Whether you’re a local fitness coach or celebrity personal trainer one thing that’s common is that you have little time to think about marketing. While Instagram and other social media have taken over as the “go to” tactics for building your audience, these channels can consume a lot of your time. Recording those workout routines at the local gym requires equipment, possibly a partner if you want dynamic shots, and then there is the video editing and posting to your channels. And if you’re building your client base, you will need to spend additional time answering all the posts that come as a result of your video uploads. Multiply this several times a month, if not per week, and it’s easy to forget that your primary goal needs to be on building your body and mind.
SMS text message marketing can be an alternative, or at a minimum, supplement what you’re already doing on social media. Text messaging is extremely personal, and is almost too easy to abuse. No one wants a message from a stranger popping up as a text alert on their smartphone, especially in the middle of work or late at night while on a date with your significant other. For this reason, many businesses have shied away from using bulk text messaging as a marketing tactic. Today, the only businesses that will use it regularly are often doctors and dentists who don’t want you to miss your appointment that was made 6 months ago. But there is a huge opportunity that is being missed by many service-based businesses that have less than say, 100 customers or clients. SMS marketing is a very cost effective way to reach these customers and say top of mind when done properly. No one needs a sales alert every week when they only shop at your store twice per year, but if you’re a trainer, you should be engaging with your client base at least 1-2x per month, if not weekly, in person. In between those one-on-one in person training sessions text marketing can shine. It doesn’t require you to constantly be “on” with a camera in your face to catch every workout. Text marketing is quick, requires no additional equipment other than access to your account, and you can even schedule when you want your text messages to go out. Here’s just a few ways personal trainers can use text message marketing to enhance their business:
The key to making text marketing work is understanding that simplicity and moderation is key. Keep messages short and to the point, and for most fitness coaches, 1-2 bulk SMS messages sent to all your clients each month is more than enough communication to stay engaged. Weekly may be too much unless your whole service is about pushing clients each week. Another thing to remember is that building your list is a slow process where your tell clients to text a keyword to your special number. It's not about loading all their mobile numbers into your platform when they didn't ask to opt-in. This is a quick way to annoy people. If you’re interested in learning more about SMS text message marketing, checkout TXTsigns.com. Not only can personal trainers get access to a great text marketing platform in the cloud, but TXTsigns will even manage those communications if the trainer wants a completely hands-off approach – all for a very low rate. |
StpChgWelcome to StepChange (StpChg). A blog about personal finance, small business, and investing. Looking for the real estate blog Knew Home? Archives
May 2020
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