Guerrilla marketing is a phrase coined by Conrad Levinson, author and former advertising agency executive, who wrote the million-copy bestseller Guerrilla Marketing in 1984. Levinson has expanded the Guerrilla Marketing concept into an ongoing empire featuring additional books, lecture tours, and more. Guerrilla marketing means going against conventional wisdom and making the marketing choices that make sense for you and your company as opposed to what works for others. It means investing time, energy and imagination instead of a great deal of money into marketing.

REALTOR®s have a unique challenge when it comes to marketing. They are typically contract laborers who are expected to be dazzling entrepreneurs by the brokers who hire them. But the flaw in that reasoning is that agents receive licensing training in the laws and regulations that govern the real estate transaction, but they receive little help or insight into how to market themselves or their properties until they join a firm. There, the odds are stacked against them. The firm primarily promotes its own brand in the media, but it also will promote top-producing agents in small ways by featuring their homes in display ads, or entering stories about them into the feature section of the local newspaper. Seldom do new agents or agents with lower sales momentum get the marketing help they need to promote themselves as individuals from their brokers, and they are arguably the ones who need the most help.

Marketing poses a significant risk for REALTORS® because mistakes can be costly and every medium appears to have its own set of rules. That makes marketing very intimidating for most REALTORS®. They may go to advertising companies or books for advice, but most marketing tools are targeted toward big budget companies, with little help for small businesses or individuals. That's where guerrilla marketing comes in.

Here are a few guerrilla marketing principles that can work for you as a REALTOR®.

1. Look at profits, not sales.

Successful marketing is measured by sales or responses. On the Internet, marketing is measured by email responses. Take it one step further. Which sales closed, and for how much profit? Where did those sales come from? Track where your sales come from and compare the cost of your marketing efforts with the profit from the closing. You may have had fewer sales come from the Internet this year, but did they result in a bigger bottom line for you? If so, you can concentrate more of your marketing dollars there next year.

2. Aim at individuals, not groups.

According to big-budget marketing principles, most buying decisions are made in the subconscious mind. Since, most marketing is guesswork, it attempts to program the consumer by repetition. That's why you see the same ads over and over in magazines and on television. This type of advertising is aimed at large groups of people, Coca Cola drinkers and Gap clothes buyers. Again, it strengthens brand awareness, which is not as appropriate for an individual marketer.

When you are only helping a client once every seven years or so, it is harder to retain client loyalty than it is for a soft drink or clothing manufacturer. Like them, you want to grow your business by adding new customers all the time, but in the real estate industry, that may take years. Meanwhile you will have lots of attrition as clients will forget about you or they lose any sense of loyalty with the passage of time.

Therefore, you are wiser to grow your business geometrically, by expanding your services to the limited customers you have. New initiatives being introduced in the real estate industry are ideal for this concept. If you can't add new customers quickly, you can provide more services to the customers you do have. One way to do this is to become a lender and provide loan origination services to your clients. You can help your clients with more frequency with mortgage loans, refinancing, and home improvement loans, staying top-of-mind until your client wants to sell and/or buy again.

Another way to add value for your existing customers is through affinity programs, such as Homestore's plan to help you make more money and remain top-of-mind with your consumers by offering them services available through Homestore, such as FireTap's broad-bandwidth Internet access services.

In short, guerrilla marketing teaches you to enlarge the size of each transaction (with lending and/or affinity services); and to have more transactions with each customer. This enables you to also gain more referrals for the different aspects of your business.

3. Cooperate with your competition, don't obliterate them.

Obliteration works well for giants like Microsoft and Homestore, but you don't have their market share. Guerrilla marketing says to improve your relationships with others in the field instead. Ask for referrals from your clients. Start working on ways to get referrals from agents by joining online communities such as RealTalk or Property.com. Set up a networking program with other agents in which you share up-to-the-minute marketing information such as pocket listings, new buyers and their criteria, and more. Call other agents whose work you admire and offer to help them with their next open house. Learn from the agents you most want to be like.

4. Give instead of take.

In real estate, it is easy to think in terms of how you can capture the most commission from a closing, but that attitude doesn't serve the consumer well. This is the information age, think about the information that you can give that will help your client or customer. Think more in terms of how to make his or her life easier. The easiest way to look at it is to think in terms of you, not me.

5. Your goal is consent, not making the sale.

Particularly on the Internet, agents think that their lead generation tools must close a client right away. The best you can hope for is to gain access to the consumer. Think in terms of permission marketing. Ask if you can email the customer a newsletter. Ask if you can provide a service such as performing a CMA. Don't spam, but call your customers and ask if they would like to receive any materials you have for them. Once they have received your materials, then they are primed for buying.

6. Keep in touch after the sale.

Marketing is supposed to result in the sale of a product or service, but too many agents treat their clients as if the relationship is over at closing. Do it differently by providing lots of follow-up after the sale. Send a hand-written thank-you note immediately after the closing or sale. Call to make sure the move went smoothly. Email a note in six months to make sure the client has changed the air filter in the air conditioning system. Call in a year to find out if the client's needs have changed. Perhaps they are expecting a baby and are rethinking the home they chose, or they may want to add on. You can be right there with the right service for them. The key is in making them feel you are performing a service, not that you are out to sell them something.

7. Marketing isn't just buying an ad or a Web site.

Marketing relies on a number of sources such as television, radio, the newspaper or the Internet, but surprisingly, the real sales aren't made there. According to Levinson, there are over 100 marketing weapons, and 62 of those are free. Free to the Realtor are attitude, the ability to inspire confidence, and the ability to quickly share information via email. Another approach is viral marketing - getting customers to market for you by word-of-mouth. Give great service so they will tell others about you.

You have more power as an individual than you think.

Published: September 13, 2000

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

Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. For more articles by Blanche, click here.