Marketing for the High Value Listing: Strategies for ‘Bagging the Elephant’
John Ansbach, RECON Intelligence Services
Sponsored by Mobile-Shop
High value (HV) listings have the highest degree of competition, and obtaining those listings requires strategy, planning, deliberated action, and commitment. To “bag the elephant,†you need a plan, a vision and the right tools for the job.
Grow and Nurture Relationships:
The most essential key to high value listings are personal relationships. You have to be the go-to company so that anyone in the professional arena of HV listings knows you and recommends you first. How do you do that? Through reputation/brand building, aggressive relationship-building (go to all networking events), storytelling (capture and tell great stories about your business), and getting involved (trade associations). Become known, credible and reputable and stay there over the long term.
Permission marketing:
Don’t talk to strangers – turn strangers into friends by offering something of value. Educate your HV prospect by providing something useful and interesting. Invasive, mass-marketing doesn’t work for HV – they want personal messages that resonate with them.
Be Competitor-Focused:
Traditionally, companies are client-focused. To bag the big deal, you need to be competitor-focused: look for weak points in your competitor’s positions and launch marketing attacks against those weak points. Orienting marketing efforts to account for your competition adds extra punch.
Purple Cows:
Just as a purple cow would stand out in a field of normal cows, your services must be remarkable, exceptional and worth talking about – in other words, they too must stand out from the field.
Embrace Generational Tools:
Tailor your messaging so it resonates loudly and effectively. There are four distinct generations: Civics, Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y/Millennials. Emotionally connect and align with your target for marketing purposes.
Don’t Forget the Web:
Your Web site is a tool for branding and reputation-building – ease of use and navigation means you are easy to work with. Include referrals and testimonials – tell the story. Make your Web site a knowledge center to empower and better inform your clients.