Pass the Hand Sanitizer? Viral Marketing for Home Sellers

January 21st, 2008 categories: Real Estate Market

Do you know what viral marketing is? Would you know what a real estate agent was talking about if they were saying your house is being viral marketed? Most importantly, would you think it was a good thing?

I ask/comment because I came across another agent’s website touting her brilliant marketing plan for sellers. She uses Viral Marketing! Great, what is it though?

Sometimes real estate agents get a little caught up in lingo that we forget other people don’t know the meaning of words/acronyms we use everyday like PUD, DOM or absorption. That doesn’t mean that as a seller, you shouldn’t be interested in having your agent use viral marketing to sell your home.

Someone who is much smarter than me (insert Seth Godin), describes viral marketing by differentiating it from “word-of-mouth,” which is something we all get.

“Viral marketing is a compounding function. A marketer does something and then a consumer tells five or ten people. Then then they tell five or ten people. And it repeats. And grows and grows. Like a virus spreading through a population. The marketer doesn’t have to actually do anything else. (They can help by making it easier for the word to spread, but in the classic examples, the marketer is out of the loop.) The Mona Lisa is an ideavirus. “

Another site described viral marketing as follows:

“Viral marketing ideas are clever ideas. A virus attacks the immune system and many people believe that consumers are now ‘immune’ to advertising. Hence, we need viral marketing to break down the body’s (mind’s) defenses, and allow brands and ideas and concepts and content to form more intimate relationships with their customers.” -Billdoll.com

How would this apply to real estate and your home in particular?

In the recent past, homes were on the market for so little time that agents barely had time to put the sign out in front of the yard before buyers were beating down the doors to write offers. (I exaggerate) Now, it takes a little longer to sell and agents have time to really think what distinguishes one home from another. Differences sell in real estate, especially when there is a lot of duds on the market.

An agent using viral marketing might use some or all of the following tools:

Create a listing announcement to send to home sellers’ friends, family, etc. as well as real estate agents’ database of contacts including past clients, other agents, friends, etc.
Post video/photos on blog or community sites.
Talk about the house on blogs or community sites.
Post home for sale on sites where buyers can ask questions anonymously or even review the house.
Create an announcement for all open houses and e-mail to seller and agent databases.
Go door-to-door asking neighbors to come to an open house/party announcing that the house is for sale.
Host a community event/fundraiser at the house for a local non-profit.
Contact local media to get the house featured in a local paper. Media will need to know why they’re featuring this house - the sellers are being foreclosed on, the home has historical value, it’s the first sale in the area in 2 years, etc.
Agent would carry around pictures/video of the house on their pda/phone to show to people wherever they are.