A great way for a real estate agent to increase their credibility with prospective customers and increase their number of contacts at the same time is by offering to give free informational speeches to their local community.
The first thing you will want to do is prepare the speech. This means selecting and researching a topic, listing all the information you want to cover, writing and practicing the speech, and preparing the materials you will give to your audience. Stick with current topics, or old topics that are still relevant, and make sure you are presenting your topic from a local perspective. It may be interesting to hear the housing market is recovering on the east coast, but if you live in Des Moines, you probably do not care.
As an example, if you decide to talk about the local property tax system, you will want to cover the various rates for the different cities and counties in your immediate area. You can also explain how the tax system works, the local millage rate, how it is billed, or anything else you think important and informative. The list of possible topics is endless, so use your knowledge and creativity to find the right one for you.
Once you have your speech ready, you have to find a place to give it. This might turn out to be easier than you think. The easiest place to try is your local public library. Confine yourself to branches in the area you are focusing on with your other marketing efforts.
There are many advantages to speaking at the library which include the fact they will advertise your speaking dates with posters, flyers, and on their website. They will usually allow you to make up your own flyers or brochures that they will distribute in the weeks or days leading up to the speech. The amount of free publicity you will get from just one speech would cost you quite a lot in a traditional media outlet, and would not be half as credible.
Other places you may be allowed to speak are local clubs, religious organizations, community and senior centers, even bookstores allow speakers if your topic is appropriate for their setting. Even though these, and other places you can think of may let you speak, they almost certainly will not do for you what the library will, so always make that your first choice.
Prepare a booklet ahead of time you can pass out to your audience that includes all the information you plan to discuss and more. Staying with our example on property taxes, you could also include all the local government offices along with address and telephone information, a glossary of terms they should know, as well as some places they can look for more information. Do not forget to include the usual disclaimers about not offering legal or financial advice. Your name and contact information should be prominently displayed throughout and have everyone sign in before you give them their booklet.
When you are giving your speech, be informative and do not go hard on the selling. Everyone will already know what you do from the handouts and your introduction. Remember, they have come to hear the information you promised, not a sales pitch. After you introduce yourself, remind them there will be a question and answer period at the end. Some people will be reluctant to ask certain question in front of the group so also remind everyone that you will be available afterwards as well. Do not forget to thank everyone for coming and remind them to give you a call if you can be of any help in the future. Lastly, send everyone who attended a handwritten thank you note immediately afterward.
Aldar Nagy is the author of several informational type websites. These include The Real Estate Marketing Blogger, which offers free marketing ideas and daily tips to agents to help you list more sellers, find more buyers, and increase your earnings through better customer service. Real Estate Marketing Blogger can be found at: http://www.realestatemarketingblogger.com
Tags: marketing, public speaking, real estate, real estate marketing
Related Posts
- The 7 Top Teleclass Mistakes To Attract Clients
- How To Ask Your Target Audience What Information You Should Include In Your Niche Market Ebook
- Write Your Ebook Now - How To Write Your Ebook In The Next 30 Days And Sell It On The Internet
- How Do Colour Contact Lenses Change Your Eye Color?
- The Great Networking Debate - Quantity Or Quality?
No comments yet
There are no comments yet, be the first!