Branding or Conversion? – Why Strategy, Measure, Adjust Always Wins

Written by Acme Mag

Before you spend another $1 on marketing, there’s a much more important question. Is this a branding campaign or a conversion campaign? Branding campaigns are critical to building client trust over time. To make sure your marketing hits the spot, you need to be relevant. The relevancy will drive the frequency of communication, and then you need to be consistent. The more consistent you are, the more likely you are to get on and stay on the shopping list. There is no specific measurement, no guaranteed return, but it’s critical to build trust over time.

Conversion campaigns are where the magic happens. For every strategy, you need to have the measurement, and with that measurement, you can adjust if you’re not getting the result. Let’s look at some classic conversion campaigns that are overlooked. Past clients. The industry dogma is the anniversary call. It rarely happens, there’s no measurement, many lack the intention to book an appointment, and most are underwhelmed with the number of past clients who come back. Let’s face it, every time you win a listing that you didn’t sell to the owner, you’re stealing another agent’s past client that’s been entirely undeserved.

Let’s change the language. The new strategy is called the annual check-up. The measurement is the number of calls made, the number of connections and the number of appointments booked. Then we measure the results of those appointments over the course of the next 90 days to listing conversion.

Here’s some simple dialogue: Hi Hannah, it’s Josh Phegan. Just a quick courtesy call to say congratulations, you’ve been in your home for another year. How are things with you? How’s the house? You’re due for your annual check-up, that’s where we pop out to give you an idea of the value so that you can make some better decisions for the future, would that be useful? It’s simple, direct and focuses on the formula for change. For anyone to move, they need to have some level of dissatisfaction, vision or desire to make the first steps.

The second conversion campaign is open for inspection callbacks. Here are some simple questions for measurement: How many people did we meet on the weekend? How many were owners? How many were landlords? How many were first home buyers? How many market appraisals, listing appointments, and buyer appointments did we book?

To be exceptional in business, you need to be strategic. Most are going so quickly that they are trying a million things, losing out to wasted effort. So before you kick off your next campaign, is this a branding campaign or a conversion campaign? An exceptional business has both but never loses on its conversion campaigns.