Why Every Real Estate Agent Needs a Niche
The idea of niching can be scary for real estate agents because the first assumption is that niching will reduce business. I’m here to tell you why the results of niching are the exact opposite – and help with the first steps of choosing a niche.
Working in and targeting a specific niche seems like it would reduce business because it reduces the number of people you’re actively targeting. And more targets equals more leads right? Wrong.
Choosing a niche is effective because it can lead to a significantly higher conversion rate than just targeting anyone and everyone looking to do some kind of real estate transaction. Your marketing becomes more effective, so you don’t have to work as hard to turn traffic into leads and leads into clients. The pond is smaller but your hook is more effective.
I don’t know much about fishing but we’ll stick with this analogy for fun. A smaller pond is likely to have fewer species of fish than a bigger pond or lake. So let’s say you go to this small pond intentionally because you want to catch a specific kind of fish that you know is there. You bait your hook with the stuff that specific fish likes and you’re using a hook and line you know will work to catch that fish.
This process is a whole lot more effective than going to a huge lake and hoping to catch that same kind of fish with generic bait and equipment. It’s definitely possible, but it just won’t work as frequently.
When you select a niche, you’re able to target that niche with marketing and content that’s extremely pertinent to people in that niche. Your “bait” and equipment is set up just for them and it’s the best in the biz at capturing leads and converting them.
Here’s what happens when you niche down:
Your systems become magically streamlined. If you’re only targeting seniors who are downsizing, you can probably cut out all of your digital marketing. Likewise, if you’re targeting first-time homebuyers, you can concentrate almost entirely on digital marketing. You can focus more intently on one (or a few) marketing techniques instead of trying to incorporate every single possible thing you read about on Pinterest. Niching is the perfect opportunity to get really good at just a few lead generation and lead nurturing techniques.
People in your target niche begin to prefer you over the generic competition. Niching is a great way to differentiate yourself from the other agents in town who are “working with everyone”. People in your niche would much rather hear information specific to their situation, so you’ll quickly become their favorite source of info over everyone delivering generic content. This is ultimately why niching works: people want specific information so casting too wide a net can really backfire. If you’re trying to appeal to everyone, you’re not appealing to anyone.
You can become the expert more quickly. Building on the last point, you’ll become an expert in a particular niche faster than you’ll become a real estate expert. Real estate is a whole wide world of information and strategy and learning all of it will take years – maybe decades. However, you could become an expert (or at least REALLY good) at working with banks on short sale transactions after maybe 20 transactions. The path to becoming an expert is much shorter when you make the topic as specific and streamlined as possible.
You get to work with people you actually like working with. The best part of choosing a niche is that you get to choose it! If you don’t like working with folks with a particular communication style, this is your chance to pick a niche that will naturally exclude them. It’s important to choose a niche you actually like since you’ll need to be committed to working with people in it and delivering content about it on a regular basis. Niching is a great way to get control of your business and make sure it’s enjoyable.
Have I convinced you to choose a target niche? It’s time to get started by making that selection. You’ll want to choose a niche that you like, that has minimal barriers to entry, and that you know will be eager to work with you. The first step is evaluating your strengths – and your weaknesses – to figure out who you work best with and who you like working with.
Once that target niche is nailed down, it’s time to adapt your marketing strategy. You should be utilizing techniques that align with your target niche’s communication preferences and your content and messaging should be tailored to your niche. Make sure you’re appealing to folks in your target niche and make sure you’re delivering content that they (and only they) actually care about.
Niching isn’t so difficult and can be fun! The trick is to make choices with intentionality – as opposed to floating along and procrastinating making these necessary changes. Make a plan today to choose a niche and adjust your marketing strategy so you can get to work on becoming the expert right away.
MINI GUIDE:
Generating New Leads from Existing Business
Looking for ways to maximize the new business you're generating from current listings and buyers? This 6-page guide outlines all the strategies you could be utilizing. You're sure to get several new ideas!
