The Essence Of Personalization

The key to personalizing a client’s real estate experience lies partly in the word itself: personality. And remember, a client’s experience begins when they first encounter your brand on social media or out and about, and does not end—ever! You never know when or how a loyal client will return.

Marketing and social media

Although personalization doesn’t stop with marketing, much of the work can begin and be done through such efforts. Real estate accounts are responsible for the most marketing on social media, but the least account of engagement. As a partial remedy to this, it is worth noting that the Association For Psychological Science found that marketing is more successful when targeted to specific personality types.

Via greatschools.org: Personality makes a difference.

This means that even though targeted ads cut out or even alienate different demographics, they are also much more successful within the demographic they are aimed at. A way to tackle this discrepancy is simply to run multiple campaigns targeted at different personality types.

Social media analytics are another way to capitalize on personality types. Going far beyond introverts and extroverts, analytical software can comb through Tweets, browsing histories, and Facebook likes to compile an extensive profile of an individual’s tastes. While you don’t need to market to one person in particular, you can market to areas and sections of the population based on location, age, or gender, for example.

Client relations and personality

Social media marketing based on personality, however, involves a significant degree of guesswork, even if it is educated guesswork. Once you have acquired a client, however, the personality work can—and should—really begin.

There are many notions of personality floating around the real estate sphere. Some advice argues for five castes: dreamers, braggers, nesters, explorers, and movers, for instance. These divisions may or may not be accurate; the important take-home message is that divisions of some kind exist.

Via Prototypr: Different kinds of people need different approaches.

What works for one client will not necessarily work for another. This is obviously the case in most situations, but the simplicity often causes agents to overlook the cause: personality. Many aspects of personality can be discerned by simply asking questions or paying attention.

Listen and learn

For example, you may notice that a certain customer prefers to communicate through text or email rather than via phone or in person. This person may be more introverted, or socially anxious, or perhaps they are a writer by passion or by trade and prefer to express themselves in written form.

Another client may constantly show you pictures of features they really admire in the homes of close friends and family. While you may not be able to infer something specific from these actions, you can guess that human connection is important to this person, and highlight neighborhoods and home features that would enrich that factor of her life. You could also ask her, for example, to put you in touch with the interior designers that her cousin used in her new living room, personalizing her experience even further and increasing your professional contacts.

You are not a detective; if you ever believe that more information would help you better serve a client, respectfully ask! Whatever you do to personalize their experience, they will most likely acknowledge and appreciate your effort.