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In the crazy world of real estate, where every agent is vying for attention, marketing without personas is like trying to find a friend in a crowded concert without a cellphone — you’re one in a million, hoping to be heard.
When you harness the power of personas, you’re amplifying your voice and tuning into the specific frequencies of your ideal clients. This makes your marketing resonate, not as generic industry noise, but as a clear, compelling message that makes each potential client feel not only seen but truly understood.
Demystifying buyer personas
Ever wonder who’s on the other side of your marketing messages? Imagine them as distinct groups of guests at your next open house event. Some are young professionals scouting their first home, while others might be seasoned families looking for an upgrade.
This is where the magic of personas comes into play. Think of personas as your VIP guest list, grouping people with similar characteristics, dreams and challenges into clusters.
Creating a persona involves building a comprehensive profile that goes beyond basic demographics such as age or location to include detailed information on their dreams and desires, their pain points and challenges, and even their communication preferences.
In marketing, these profiles, known as buyer personas, are essential tools for gaining deep insights into what motivates and challenges your audience. Using personas in your marketing ensures that your marketing efforts are tailored to meet your target audience’s specific needs and desires, making your communications more relevant and engaging.
Why personas are your secret weapon
Understanding your clients is part of the job — it’s the heartbeat of your success as a real estate agent. Without this understanding, you’re like a ship without a compass in a vast ocean. Personas offer you that compass, ensuring you’re not just meeting needs but anticipating desires, and aligning your marketing content to their specific needs and challenges.
Here are some key reasons why you should start leveraging personas:
- Solve real problems: With personas, you’re not selling a service; you’re offering solutions. You’ll know the exact hurdles each of your personas face, and you’ll attract them with content that speaks directly to their unique challenges.
- Connect emotionally: Personas allow your brand messaging to resonate on a deeper level because potential clients feel seen and understood when your marketing speaks to their unique needs.
- Streamline your marketing: As a marketer, this is my favorite reason for using personas. By understanding and addressing the specific needs, preferences and behaviors of your persona, you can optimize your marketing strategies for better results. Aligning your marketing content with your audience’s needs will make your marketing more targeted and impactful.
- Target with precision: Stop trying to cast a wide net. You’re competing with every other real estate agent in your market. Instead, when you target personas, your marketing efforts are laser-focused, ensuring that every marketing dollar spent is a dollar spent wisely.
The stats say it all
A MarketingSherpa case study found that marketing to persona created the following benefits:
- 900 percent increase in the length of website visits
- 171 percent increase in revenue
- 111 percent increase in email open rate
- 100 percent increase in the number of website pages visited.
Want to convert more leads? Persona-based content increases engagement almost six times when targeting cold leads.
Want higher commissions? Eighty-one percent of consumers will pay a premium for industry experience and industry-specific solutions that fit their needs.
Want to build your brand? Eighty-seven percent of consumers surveyed say personally relevant content positively influences their feelings about a brand.
Want to build more relationships? Sixty-three percent of consumers claim they’d think more positively of a brand if it gave them content that was valuable, interesting and relevant.
How to create your real estate personas
Crafting your buyer personas is a bit like detective work — it’s all about gathering clues, piecing together evidence, and arriving at a clear picture of your ideal customers. Let’s walk through the steps to create your personas.
The first thing you need to do is select the personas you want to focus on. The options are as limitless as your imagination, but let’s start with the basics. These are the most common real estate personas:
- First-time homebuyer
- Move-up homebuyer
- Luxury homebuyer
- Empty nester homebuyer
If you want to drill down even further, you can create personas for:
- Single women buyers
- Golfers buying in golf communities
- Pickleball players looking to buy in communities with courts
- Buyers who want downtown condos
- Equestrian buyers
- New construction buyers
- Green/high-performing homebuyers
- And on and on…
The next step is to do a bit of research on each persona:
- What are their goals and motivations?
- What are their pain points and challenges?
- How can you help them with their specific challenges?
- Which marketing and communication channels are best to use for this audience?
Lastly, you’ll want to list at least six pieces of valuable content you could create for each persona.
I’ve made this part easy by creating the most used personas for you, including six content ideas for each persona you can leverage.
Personas for first-time homebuyers, move-up buyers, luxury buyers, and empty-nest buyers are entirely filled out and ready for you to use. You can access the files here.
NOTE: Remember, when creating content for one of your personas, always include your city/local market. Make sure to add your city/local market name to the content’s title, and mention it in the content. This is super important for SEO.
How to leverage personas in your marketing
Start with one persona. Please don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to build content for all of them simultaneously. Build out content for one persona, and then slowly add additional personas over time.
Here are some tips for creating persona-based content:
Blog Posts:
- Address common pain points: Write blog posts that directly address your personas’ challenges and questions. For example, if one of your personas is a first-time homebuyer, create a post titled “5 Things Every First-Time Homebuyer Should Know.”
- Success stories: Share success stories that resonate with each persona. A post like “How We Helped a Growing Family Find Their Dream Home” can be very compelling.
- Area guides: Tailor area guides to different personas. For instance, for young professionals, you might highlight nightlife and commute times, whereas for families, you might focus on schools and community activities.
Social media posts
- Engaging questions: Post questions encouraging your personas to share their experiences and opinions. For example, “What’s the No. 1 feature you’re looking for in a luxury home?”
- Tips and advice: Share quick tips and advice that cater to the specific needs of your personas. For a downsizing empty nest persona, you might post about decluttering and simplifying their lifestyle.
- Behind-the-scenes content: Give a glimpse into your day-to-day work related to your personas’ interests, such as showcasing a day exploring 55+ communities in your market.
Videos
- Q&A sessions: Host live Q&A sessions where you address common questions and concerns from your personas. For example, a “Navigating Your First Home Purchase in a Seller’s Market” session can be very informative.
- Educational series: Develop a series of short videos that educate your personas on various aspects of buying, selling, or investing in real estate, like “Investment 101 for First-Time Investors.”
Email marketing
- Personalized newsletters: Segment your email list based on personas, and send personalized newsletters with content and listings that match their preferences and needs.
- Market updates: Send out market updates that are relevant to each persona. For example, investment-savvy clients might appreciate insights on market trends and potential investment opportunities.
By utilizing these ideas and tailoring your content to your personas’ specific needs and interests, you can create more engaging and effective marketing that resonates with your target audience. Each piece of content should feel like speaking directly to them, acknowledging their unique challenges and offering valuable solutions.
Final thoughts
Understanding and leveraging buyer personas can transform your marketing from a broad, impersonal strategy to a finely tuned, highly engaging conversation with your target audience. They enable you to address specific needs, connect emotionally, streamline your efforts, and precisely target, ultimately leading to remarkable increases in engagement, revenue and brand loyalty.
Remember, the journey doesn’t stop with creating these personas; you still need to bring them to life in your day-to-day marketing. From crafting blog posts that speak directly to the heart of your personas’ challenges to engaging with them on social media and through personalized emails, every piece of content you create should echo the desires and needs of your target audience.
It’s about making each client feel seen, heard and understood, thus fostering a deeper connection and trust with your brand.
Marci James is the founder of Be Inspired Digital. Connect with Marci on Linkedin and Instagram.
