Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Dominate The Uncontested Market Space

Recently, we responded to an S.O.S from a successful luxury real estate marketing professional who put out this distress signal:  I have been blogging consistently. Why is no one commenting or following me?  Is there anyone out there?  For those of you who are experiencing the same frustration, here is an important tip: Discover and dominate an under served market niche

A niche is specialized market. It is a market segment or a particular market “space”.  An example of a niche in luxury real estate would be historic homes. When we were in commercial real estate in Beverly Hills we specialized in high end retail and the entertainment industry.  One of our jobs was to find potential tenants for retail stores and shopping centers that we represented exclusively, on Rodeo Drive, or surrounding areas.

In doing some research for an upcoming blog series we found an excellent analogy for niches by Ray Wert on his Jalopnik.com blog.  He referred to niches as the spaces between the marbles in a Mason jar that is full of marbles.  If you were to pour sand in the jar it would fill those spaces and there would be a surprising amount of room for the sand.  Only when you can no longer add sand is the jar really “full”. The marbles represent what everyone else is doing, the niches exist in those spaces between the marbles that the sand fills.

To be successful as a blogger, as a luxury real estate marketing professional, you must first identify an uncontested market “space”.  The first place to look is for an under served consumer group.  It must be a niche about which you can write passionately.  It needs to be a market segment for which you can offer an extraordinary promise of value, value that cannot be found elsewhere. And, you must blog in your own unique voice, your authentic style.  That is, if you want to build an audience and be follow-worthy over time.  

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Luxury Real Estate Marketing: Is Print Media Dead?

Luxury real estate marketing professionals are often told that “print media” is dead. Shrinking revenue numbers of traditional media is presented as proof.  Besides, Google discontinued its print ads in February of 2009.  But, according to the Luxury Institute print will always have a place in luxury and we agree.  Why? Because, taking the time to browse through a print magazine is a luxury in and of itself. Plus, it’s a break from being in front of ubiquitous digital screens: TVs, Computers, PDAs, Smart Phones, video games and now reading devises likes Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes and Noble’s  Nook. 

Consider in-flight magazines. London-based Ink, a privately held company, posted after-tax profit of £2.4 million ($4 million) on revenue of £25.3 million for the year through June 30, 2008. Last fiscal year Ink showed close to a 10% increase in revenue. According to a study conducted by Arbitron, more than 80% of U.S. passengers read the magazines airlines placed in front of them and readers average around 30 minutes per flight with their magazines.

What is important to understand about this captive audience is that frequent flyers, those who can afford to fly frequently (or be sent by their companies), are upper-demographic consumers who are taking a break from electronic devices.

Yahoo! recently announced its new 15 month marketing campaign ($100 million dollar budget) which includes print ads, TV ads and online ads.  Clearly, this internet company sees the value of print advertising combined with other media.  This balanced approach is a good strategy for luxury real estate marketing professionals, as well, especially when your competition is retreating from print.

Luxury real estate magazines are often placed where high net worth consumers will take the time to read them.  For example, duPont Registry distributes its high end magazine to athletes. Their issue featuring California luxury homes is placed in the locker room of the San Francisco Giants. LuxuryRealEstate.com (Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate) sends their glossy magazine to 500 top CEOs and also on private jets.

Print advertising for luxury real estate marketing can be an integral part of your personal or company branding strategy if it is done effectively.  What is often missing is the right call to action that can generate bona fide leads, leads that can convert to measurable sales.

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Real Estate Luxury Marketing Essentials: A Great Way to Contribute to the Community

The Ritz Carlton chain of hotels has found a novel way to contribute to the communities where their hotels are located. On designated days, guests and hotel staff contribute a half a day to a local community experience in a humanitarian or environmental project. Unique to each destination “the program is designed to make a lasting contribution and enduring impression” . All profits are donated to the participating organization.

For the guests, it is a wonderful opportunity to join the locals and enhance their experience of the cities they are traveling to. What a wonderful way to meet people and create new friendships! This is actual social networking without computers. This is playing a part in the global village, and the best way to spread culture and good will.

The venues are varied and interesting. You can plant trees in Beijing, preserve monuments and memorials in Washington D.C., or participate in music therapy for children in Istanbul.Here are two examples from the hotel's web site.

You will be briefed by Jean-Michel Cousteau, naturalist, on the plight of the 25-pound “blue dragons” and collect fresh food necessary for preparing them for release into the wild. A breath away from extinction, the Grand Cayman Blue Iguana relies on a breeding program to maintain its claim as the island’s largest native land animal. You will partake in a critical project to ensure their survival, preparing them for release into the wild. Later at the Queen Elizabeth II Botanic Park, you will feed iguanas from babies to breeding pairs and serve as a spotter in the park to map the location of roaming blues using binoculars and GPS tracking.

Help give a voice to children struggling with autism and other communications disabilities as a volunteer at the R.I.A. Centre in Bahrain. Their miraculous holistic approach gives these extraordinary youngsters the tools to interact with the world around them, bringing newfound hope to them and their families. You will be taken on a tour of the facilities, and then join the teachers and children for skill-building activities including planting trees in the garden, baking cookies and cakes, and beach activities. This will be an enriching experience you will always remember.

Ritz Carlton is a luxury brand actively involved in their community in a grand way, and giving its guests the opportunity to do the same. As a luxury real estate marketing expert, come up with something that can get your community and your sphere of clients involved. It feels wonderful.

This is part of an ongoing series about Luxury Real Estate Marketing . Get Fluent. Get Affluent! Subscribe to The Language of Luxury by Email or RSS Feed. Comments? Please use form in left column.