When it comes to success in real estate, the key has always been and will always be: leads.  The melody may change but the song remains the same.  If you want to make money in Real Estate you must generate leads.  If you want to become wealthy in Real Estate you must generate leads at a faster rate.  Everything after that is polish.  I know it is popular right now to frown on this type of characterization.  “Our clients are people, not leads” some will correct.  “I am in the relationship business and I do not view my relationships as simply numbers or leads” others will sneer.  Listen, you can put as much perfume on marketing as you like, we are still talking about a pig.  When you are in the business of selling (and trust me, if you are a real estate agent or a mortgage originator you are in the SALES business) your primary focus is generating leads.

Most all leads can be divided into a few basic categories: prospect, past client and referral.  Here is the good news.  All three types of leads are easy to generate.  You must simply be in front of people more often than your competitors.  There are a lot of ways to increase your conversion besides being in front of them: you can add value to their daily lives, you can keep them informed with trenchant analysis, you can offer discounts and free stuff; probably the most important way to increase your conversions (and the primary cause of referrals) is to convey and heighten your perceived level of expertise.  Having said all of that, go back now and look at how I started the sentence: “…besides being in front of them…”  The bottom line remains the same: you must first get in front of people before you can inform, entertain, show off or otherwise become memorable.

So why am I borrowing from Dr. Strangelove?  Because it is a movie of insane brilliance (or brilliant insanity) that stands out and makes a point in spite of itself.  Sounds a lot like blogging doesn’t it?  Social Media Marketing has made generating leads exponentially easier.  Not since the creation of the business card have we had a tool so easy to use and yet so effective in creating “top of mind status” (is everyone reading old enough to remember that concept in marketing?)  You can sit down in the morning before the day starts, or in the evening when the day is coming to a peaceful end, and type out a few thoughts or share something you learned that day.  You can report on a trend or idea that is important to your sphere.  You can generate some thoughtful discussion on what the events of the day mean to you and how they may affect your clients.  Hey, sometimes you can just put up a picture of your cat.  The beauty of it all is that, at virtually NO COST, you can get in front of people on a regular basis and remind them why they have, should or will do business with you.  Want even more reasons to embrace the land of Mayoral Marketing?  By the very act of expressing yourself you eliminate the prospects that will not like doing business with you and, more to the point, with whom you will not like doing business.  Not only can you get in front of more people for less money, but you can increase your conversion rate as well!

Willie Sutton was famously (if not apocryphally) asked: “Why do you rob banks?”  He replied: “That’s where all the money is.”  Look at the Internet and realize: that’s where all the leads are.

Later this morning I am giving a presentation on Blogging for Realtors, a kind of Blogging 101 that introduces concepts and promotes the half day workshop put on by TReETT.  One of the main concepts that I try to get across during the course of this shortened discussion is the idea of Mayoral Marketing.  As always, however, the question must be asked: Why?  Why Mayoral Marketing rather than CEO marketing or Congressman marketing or just plain Real Estate marketing?  Good question.

Pull vs Push
The reason I like the Mayor example so much is that it captures the essence of finding success in a 2.0 world.  That world is based on pull marketing rather than push.  Push vs. pull marketing is a subject for an entire post, but the idea is this: people are more interested in the information they are interested in and less interested in information that we think they are (or should be) interested in; thanks to the internet, people now have a choice.  Sounds simple doesn’t it?  It is… unfortunately, very few real estate agents grasp this concept.  We are going to work on that but today’s post is specific to Mayoral Marketing.

Role of Mayor 
What is the role of Mayor in any major city?  The Mayor is not only the literal leader of the city, but the figurehead and the personality as well.  In larger scale politics the candidate for office must become so homogenized to be elected that they represent a general ideal more than a group of people.  But at the city level we still see some personality and more often than not, the one elected is the one that resonates with the most people.  The Mayor must also be keenly aware of their movements, actions, words and behavior.  In a locale as small as even the biggest city, very little can be “handled” or spun.  (For a recent example, look no further than the Mayor of La Mesa.)  In other words, the Mayor is always campaigning.  I will repeat that: The Mayor is Always Campaigning.  Sound familiar? It should.

Long term success in real estate has always been predicated on the idea of creating a large base of clients and referrers to sustain your business for as long as you want to stay in business.  We call that a Community of Raving Fans here at MHB and what better role is there than to be elected Mayor of that community?  Just as with a real Mayor, you must earn the position.  It cannot be bought or taken through the power of large political parties, such as some large scale political positions may be.  It is not earned through longevity the way some corporate positions may be.  No, the Mayor must be aware of their actions and words at all times just as you must be aware that everything you do reflects on your practice and the likelihood of future referrals.  The Mayor is always campaigning, just as you are always being interviewed for a job.  Whether you are holding an Open House or talking to your dry cleaner, you are always being interview for a job as their real estate agent.  You are always campaigning to be elected Mayor of your Community of Raving Fans.

How do you know when you are backing a good horse? You see the guys that know horse flesh standing in line in front of you and betting the same horse.  How do you know when you are becoming a pretty good judge of horse flesh yourself?  When those same guys are betting on the same horse, but they are standing in line behind you.  I just read a post by Seth Godin in which he touches on a new online tool that allows you to become mayor of a zip code.  It is not often (in all honesty it has been never) that I have an idea before the likes of Seth Godin, but I think I see him standing in line behind me!

Seth refrences a new online page builder (an approximation of what they do from a decidedly non-techie; for more info click here) wherein you become the “mayor” of your zip code.  I wrote previously that the goal of blogging (and social media as a whole) should be exactly that.  The difference? I don’t know that being mayor of your zip code should be the end result.  After all, geographic farms are very RE.net1.0  In the coming age of 2.0 and 3.0 real estate, you can create any community that you like.  You can farm geographically, vertically, even industrially (especially industrially).  I have advocated for some time that loan originators do this: one whole community of CPAs for instance.  The most obvious industrial choice and one that applies to agents as well as originators: divorce attorneys.  Just about everything they touch turns into a sale or a refinance.

The community is not nearly so important as what you do with it once you have built it.  In my previously mentioned post I introduced the idea of a new marketing plan that embraces all that is right and beautiful about RE.net 2.0.  You are welcome to read it here, but the gist of the matter is this: Create your very own community of raving fans… then become Mayor of that community!  MAYORAL MARKETING.  Imagine the ramifications: you need to put together a group of raving fans (isn’t that the point of all long-term marketing?), you need to make sure that the people in your community know you, like you , see you as professional and see you as successful (the basis of people wanting to do business with you).  Most importantly, however, they need to see you as the expert (the secret to all referrals): the one and only person suitable to be their… Mayor. 

Once you become Mayor your job is to keep your job.  As with any long term success plan, this one requires that you never stop campaigning and you never stop kissing babies and you never stop adding value to your community.  I will end the way I started: a horse analogy.  When you find a good horse, ride it till it’s dead… 

How can watching a TV program make you a more successful real estate agent?  There is one reality show on right now that exemplifies referral marketing like no other.  I am talking about Survivor.  This year the producers of Survivor decided to create two teams: one comprised of fans of the show (think of them as clients) and one comprised of favorites of past shows (think of them as agents).  In almost every interaction the two teams have, the fans defer to the favorites.  They look to the favorites with an almost rock star adulation.  Why is this?  Because the favorites’ perceived level of expertise is high in the fans eyes simply because the favorites have been on the show before.  That’s it really.  By virtue of their (limited) previous experience they are considered experts in this game.

Here is the interesting part: there is no real difference between these two groups of people.  The favorites have some experience but they are not professional Survivors.  They have never seen this local or these particular challenges, so their only real experience is in creating strategy (which, for most of them, was wrong at least once more than it was right!)  The reason the fans defer so readily to the favorites is a perfect example of how people react to those that they perceive as having expertise.  The goal of all referral marketing is to increase your perceived level of expertise in front of your clients.  If they are already fans of yours (whether from watching you on TV or reading you on a blog) your job just got that much easier.

Blogging is all about creating your community and running for mayor.  The goal is an endless stream of referrals.  I do not know who will ultimately win this season of Survivor.  But I already know who owns the high ground.  If this game were about referrals, it would be all over but the crying.  Your tribe is speaking…