There’s never been a better time to be in real estate sales. Compared to just a few short years ago, there are so many wonderful options to create and contribute valuable content to your customers, clients and sphere of influence. From website to social media, email to tweets – even a well-placed phone call now and then, too – connecting with consumers has never been easier.

Yet with so many options, staying focused and choosing the right tools can sometimes be daunting. For starters, almost every real estate agent’s business is unique: Two agents in the same office might have completely different target audiences, with different needs and communication styles. So it’s important for each agent (or company, for that matter) to start by learning about their audience first, then selecting the right tools to get the job done. Here are a few research facts and strategies that can help.

1. Review your past success. Create a list of the buyers, sellers and referrals you handled in the past 12 months. Next to each name, identify two items: Their revenue value (both in commissions and potential referrals) and their source. Now look for patterns. Did you get a lot of customers from your website, or from past client referrals? If you got lots of buyers from your blog or social network, what was their total dollar value? By identifying what sources are already working for you, and giving it a value, you can build upon your existing strengths. At the same time, you might see that little value was generated by certain marketing activities (or that no deals were generated from something you spend a lot of time or money doing) so you can reduce those from your budget.
2. Study consumer trends. My post on knowing your customer in 2013 covers the major changes and characteristics in home buyers and sellers in 2012 based on the National Association of REALTORS Annual Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers and study.
3. Go beyond real estate trends. Even with the latest industry trends at hand, you’ll want to incorporate some larger research into your marketing plan, too. Connecting and capturing the attention of consumers next year can be easier if we study how they already like to access content. For example:

• More than 30% of all mobile traffic is watching video. More than using email or surfing the web. So make sure that your mobile marketing plan incorporates short, high quality video clips that talk about you, your market and your inventory.
• Nearly 1 in 10 U.S. adults owns a tablet computer already. Connecting with those consumers at open houses or during a listing presentation will already be an “expectation” of many buyers and sellers next year.
• Nearly 73% of online Americans use Facebook regularly. Each day, nearly 1 in 6 minutes of internet usage is spent inside Facebook – nearly four times as much as they use Google. So make sure you’re at the right party, connecting with people who already care about you at least four times as much as you’re trying to find “new” business through search engines.

Of course, any sales and marketing strategy will need to be tailored to your specific goals, target clients and personal skills. Yet it’s easier to swim with the current than against it. By studying the latest data, smart salespeople will have a better time formulating the right strategy for connecting with consumers, and as a result, growing their business next year – and beyond!

Matthew Ferrara will be speaking at ERA IBC 2013 in Austin, TX March 21-24, 2013. Register here.

photo credit: C. Regina via photopin cc