Real Estate Signs Are a Waste of Marketing Real Estate

When a real estate agent is selling a house, they emblazon their logo over the signs outside, which tells you who is selling the house but gives you no clues as to what makes their business special. But those signs are valuable marketing real estate!

In this article, I explore how you can make better use of your marketing to reach out to your target person and demonstrate your USP.

In today’s video, I talk about why real estate agent signs outside houses are a waste of prime marketing real estate – and what you can do to make optimal use of these marketing spaces.

If you haven’t subscribed to my YouTube channel already, please do – it will help me loads, and if you click the bell you’ll be notified when I release new videos.

Marketing 101: Is Adding Your Logo Enough?

When real estate agents sell or rent a house, they put these big, obvious signs out the front so you can’t miss them. Maybe the sign says “Sold!”, “For sale” or “To rent”, but they always have the agent’s logo and branding in place to signal to passers-by who is managing the sale or rental. Clearly, they are hoping to be recognised as a strong local presence or aiming to drive traffic to their website.

These are good reasons for putting up these signs – it’s base-level marketing. But really, it is little more than, “Throw my logo onto a thing!”

Imagine you’re building a Facebook ad and you take the same approach: “Oh, just put our logo on it.” Would that work? I’m not convinced, and I think that anyone who’s tried marketing on an advertising platform knows that “throwing your logo on a thing” is not the best marketing tool in your toolbox.

Use Your Prime Marketing Real Estate Wisely: Give Something!

If you think about it, those real estate signs are prime marketing real estate. They are right in front of people walking on the street, especially those who are looking at houses. But if all they see is yet another real estate sign, the signs become repetitive eyesores – which is not great for the agency’s brand!

So, what could real estate agents do differently? One approach would be to give something to their customers.

Giving something to your customers is a foundational marketing ideology. If you can internalise this ideology and make it a part of every single decision you make about your marketing, it will become ten times better.

Always make sure that your marketing is giving something to your customers. Make sure that they are receiving something that is of benefit to them and that they want to receive. Make it a good experience to encounter your marketing.

Might Humour Work for Your Business?

TikTok offers some really good insight into the power of giving something. If you want to use TikTok in your marketing, you probably need to be funny (which is one reason why I’m not on TikTok, as I’m not that funny). But the users on TikTok want to see funny content, so if you’re a brand that’s trying to get on TikTok, be funny!

Going back to those real estate signs – if they were funny, people might enjoy seeing them more. Humour might not translate into more house sales, but you know what? People will remember your branding because it’s making you unique. It’s all about step two of my five steps: what makes you unique, what makes you stand out from your competitors? This is so important, and I feel like real estate agents are wasting a huge opportunity to stand out from the crowd with this prime marketing real estate.

Giving Helps You Stand Out from the Crowd

Giving something goes beyond step two – beyond being unique and making every interaction with your business a fun experience. When you give your customers something, you can make the experience really beneficial to the customer. For example, you could put a QR code on a poster or sign that gives them access to something they really want. This comes back to understanding your target person (step one of my five steps): you know what you can offer that target person that’s different to your competitors, which means you can make that the first thing they experience from you. As soon as they understand how unique you are and they receive something from you that they want or need, you’ve got them hook, line and sinker.

If you haven’t identified what really makes you unique from your competitors, then you have nothing to say to your customers – and if so, maybe all you can do is throw your logo on a sign. But if you can figure out what makes you unique, you can figure out what needs to go on that sign.

Of course, this doesn’t just apply to real estate agent signs. Look at your marketing and do a quick check with yourself – are you putting your USP in front of your customers in every space that you can?

Are You Giving Your Customers a Good Experience?

If you’re just putting your logo and your brand out there in a passive way, you’ve not won the battle yet. What you really need to do is give something that your customer loves – something that they want to see again and again.

Even if you’re not a real estate agent, I hope that this resonates with you and that you’re able to apply these ideas to your business. If you’d like some help figuring out what you can give to your target person to help you stand out from the crowd, please do get in touch – I’d love to help you out.