Think perversely? What?! Just the sound of the word itself conjures up images of... well, take your pick. But "perversion" actually means deviation. So "perversely" simply means the act of doing something that deviates from the usual way of doing things. And that can be good for a Realtor®.

"What? Be different?" you say? "Gee, I dunno. Everyone might think I was weird." If that is your first response, better try again. In your community, if you want to get leads, you have to put yourself in front of potential clients. You already do this every time you run and ad, or do farm mailings or use door hangers. But for Almighty's sake, when you do that stuff, do it in a truly memorable way, not in the "me too" way that most agents use. Why spend money that makes you look like everyone else?

"But I'm really not a creative person," you answer back. Well, you may not be an "artistically" or "graphically" creative person, but you can always hire people for that. What you need to be is the generator of the perverse ideas that will make you different---and thus more memorable than all those other agents. And you can teach yourself to think that way--- to think "perversely."

How do you start? Look at what all the other agents in your office and in your farm are doing. And then DO NOT do ANYTHING like what they are doing. Remember that your job is to be perverse. If they use red mailings, you use blue. If agents in your own realty office use the corporate mailing materials, consider buying yours from an OUTSIDE service. Or sit with a cartoonist and create a character that you use in all your materials. After all, where would Disney be without Mickey Mouse? Agents may all look the same to consumers who get their farm materials, but cartoons—perhaps even a caricature of yourself—at least makes your stuff LOOK different from those ten-year-old portraits that the other agents use.

What about content? Consider for a moment the standard farm mailing that agents use after an escrow closes. The mailer essentially says, "SOLD! 1234 Apple Street." Along with a picture of the property (sometimes), a few details and contact information. Can you think of a perverse way to publicize your sale?

How about sending a post card or mini-newsletter with a photo of you and the homeowners and their kids in the front lawn all jumping for joy three feet off the ground with huge smiles next to your yard sign saying "SOLD." Doesn't that imply that you did a great job for that family and that they actually "endorse" you? Won't a good many other owners (and their kids) in nearby homes be more interested in reading your mailer if it shows photos of parents and kids whom they've known for years? Of course. And that's just one example of how thinking "perversely" can make you stand out.

Thinking perversely is like using successful guerrilla warfare against agents who can outspend you ten to one. Yes, they have the money for communications that keep them in the faces of their prospects. But if their stuff is that "canned" stuff you usually see from agents and yours is radically different, theirs may routinely get thrown out each time it arrives, and yours, though less frequent, may get read---perhaps even remembered!

If other agents use regular sized post cards, you use odd-sized ones. If they never think of cutting a deal with a local restaurant or hardware store for a discount offer to put in their mailings, you go do it. If they mail only cards, you mail envelopes with some clever note and premium inside (that you can feel from the outside) so that people will actually open up what you send.

Yes, some of this may cost more, but successful guerrilla warfare involves conducting carefully planned and extremely effective hit and run skirmishes against a superior force. It does not involve prolonged, shot-for-shot exchanging of bullets.

Marketing in a perverse way requires that you out think the opposition—not overwhelm him. Every few weeks you need to do reconnaissance to see what other agents are up to. And then, thinking perversely, and using a yellow pad, you first write down what the other agents are doing and then below that you… stop.

Before you write a word, you begin thinking perversely. You say to yourself, "Hmm, my biggest competitor, Sally Smith, is doing X. So what can I do to top her? Or nullify her message? What did she say that was "me too?" and boring. Or not developed fully? What did Sally forget to say in her communication that I could forcefully say? What did Sally miss in the colors she used, the size of her card or envelope, her cover letter or the lack of one?

As you figure these things out, you write them down along with how YOU will do something, ideally, new and original—even perverse, if you will—to deliver a better message to the consumer. But you can also think perversely without first looking at competitor materials. After a while it becomes a natural way of thinking.

Once you have mastered perverse thinking in your marketing, no more can you do just average mailings. You'll get more leads. You'll have more sales. You'll look 20 years younger. Your sex life will never be better.

Oops. Well, maybe I can't promise those last two things outright. But, by thinking perversely when I wrote the headline to this article, I did get you to read it, didn't I?

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Published: February 22, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.

Bill Koelzer is a Web marketing consultant to web-proficient agents nationwide. He is co-author, with Barbara Cox, Ph.D., of the Prentice-Hall books, Internet Marketing in Real Estate and Internet Marketing. Bill is also webmaster of Orange County Real Estate, among the most-awarded known Realtor® sites. Visit his website, Koelzer.com or e-mail him at .