Today I’m niching down to real estate marketing. Tomorrow it may be something else!?
Of course it does not work like that.
I’ve been busy the past decade. Kind of making up for the decade before that, that I spend mostly fishing. You may have heard the story of the fisherman and the businessman.
Today I am the businessman, so that I can become the fisherman again.
I started of as a freelancer in digital marketing. A bit of SEO here from 2007 onwards, and a bit of SEA there starting in 2018. Copywriting? Sure! Social media management? Of course! Website development? Bring it on. You can imagine that taking on all kinds of work kept me busy, but hardly enough to get out of survival mode.
Things went much better when I focused on SEA. Focus is good. You know that.
I personally specialized in Google Ads, got my certificates and became Google Partner. Ans so did 1000’s of others in 2019. Still nothing special.
I got the hang of it and expanded my services to Microsoft Ads, a very nice method to add an extra ppc channel for my clients.
Right around that time – when Covid hit – I was invested in a bunch of side projects (like always). Our very own private project development endeavor got to a hold so I wanted to do something with that online as well.
Also, let’s not forget we have two kids to raise that require either pro-active distance learning support, or a daily logistic expedition to get those little parasites off our skin for the day.
I found myself locked down in my freelance practice so it was about time to step things up a bit and go into agency mode.
Easier said than done, we move fast forward to today, were I finally managed to work myself free to be able to raise my head up from my keyboard. I stretched my back and look into the future.
What I see is too ambitious to share right here. It is not the time yet to do so (learned some lessons here).
But…
What I realized is that for further growth, niching down is required.
I knew that for long already! But actually taking the dessision to reject potential clients because it is not a perfect fit is not an easy thing to do.
Going back over all the clients and projects I have been involved in, many niches have passed the revue.
- Travel Industry
- Personal Finance
- Machine Factories
- Manufacturing Industry
- Dropsh#tters on Shopify
- e-Commerce on 3rd party platforms
- Big e-Commerce stores
- Transport
- Healthcare
- Coaching
- Realtors
- Construction and repairs
- Furniture
- Funeral Services
- Insurance
- Automotive
- Food and Beverages
You name a niche, and I have done ads for it. The problem is that I enjoy exploring such a versatile portfolio. For client acquisition this wide range of experience is not helping. It is not appreciated if you are a generalist. Even if you are very good at google ads. It is too broad.
As the matter of fact, I like advertising so much, because it gives me the opportunity to have a peak behind the doors of dozens of businesses. Something I liked doing while I worked side jobs as a student, and still love doing as an advertiser.
Now. The process of niching down
I thought I’d do sustainability clients, because I want to make an sustainable impact with my advertising efforts, and what is better than multiplying my efforts by letting the world know about the very best sustainable products and services?
For me, this do not work out as planned. I’m not getting excited from selling soap and candles. Retail products in general are a bit boring to me. I already realized I do not like Big e-Commerce because of the datafeed management required for that. Neither anything related with Shopify because of the limited SEO features and the ever present platform risk.
In the end, the sustainability angle did not work well, because it was still to generic.
Next. Pinning it down to lead generation
It is hard to let go of all online sales, because the single service businesses that charge online for a consult, booking or reservation, are very similar to lead generation. It is a very good lead confirmed with a payment!
(No worries, we will keep services you with dedication, but we will stop accepting similar clients)
Highly scalable, without adding too much products, that is more what I like.
So. Lead gen it is.
Local, national or international?
Another angle, is the international character of many of my clients. Defining a geographic area for my prospects would be pretty useful. The world was de facto my limitation, and that again proofed to be just a bit too ambitious.
It would have been much easier if I kept it to Utrecht (my native city in The Netherlands).
Choices. Had. To. Be. Made.
In the past 12 months or so, the geographical targeting was sorted, kind of.
- I serve all Dutch clients with Houdyk, my Dutch Business
- I serve all International clients with Expert Expats, my Upwork Agency
- I will serve all Bolivian clients with a new business initiative
It is no secret to my clients that I am based in Bolivia, but I keep calling my Dutch clients local if their business is strictly local.
Geotargeting – So, were are we now?
Lead gen. Serve local clients with my local agencies, and international clients (multinationals) with our international agency. That makes sense so far.
Note that the geo-targeting still seems very broad. In each target region, I’ve narrowed it down much further. However, out of strategic considerations I will not go into much detail about what countries, states, cities, or postal codes and even specific ofices I am either blacklisting, or pinpoint targeting at.
Size of the business and ad spend
After I sorted out the type of business, and the geographic area’s to target, there are still many possible levers tu adjust to tune in and come on the right frequency with my perfect client.
One is business size and consequently ad spend.
Small businesses (ad spend under $1000) are only interested to attend with economy of scale. Either by having enough qualified staff available to attend small accounts in bulk, or with use of software and tools to provide self-help solutions.
A particular way I am exploring to help small and or starting businesses – that I really do like to help – is to provide educational content. The possibilities are endless here. From free pdf downloads, to free or paid video courses. I’m also considering real live training as a method to serve those smaller businesses. Why go through this effort? It is like setting up an acedemy to form my students were some of them grow into becoming future clients.
Ideally such endeavor is a profitable one where I provide lots of value for all participants, without having to go broke on it.
While that is yet another sidequest (losing focus!!! again) it becomes clear that we enter certain ad spend level for our prospected clients (1 – 10K per month).
Why focus on real estate marketing?
Of all the lead generation businesses I helped so far, the real estate businesses were by coincidence more numerous than various other niches. It could have been automotive as well (one day I will come for you, Volkswagen, if you do not go out of business before that day comes)
Some niches I rather keep for myself. We have a larger internal trainee project in Dutch personal finance.
I guess somehow it just happened that my personal interest grew into real estate.
In a previous life I was working as an environmental engineer.
I came on many construction and plan sites for sanitation projects with my boots in the mud. It allowed me to perform environmental evaluations on all kind of properties, from demolition sites, to luxury estates, as part of the due dilligence before a purchase or to get planning permission. That is how I first came in contact with the real estate business. It always intrigued me that somehow someone was investing in these properties I visited.
I noticed a lot of people are involved in the development, purchase and maintenance of real estate. I realize that is a pretty lame argument, because this goes for every niche, but seeing it for yourself makes it become tangible.
My personal interest in real estate grew also because of the many homes I lived in and searched for over time. Simple as that. The typical residence time in one home is seven year I once learned. That was pretty much true for me when I lived in The Netherlands.
When we moved to Latin America that changed. Before we settled in the house we build ourselves, we moved around on average once per year. I have to blaim and thank my wife for that, due to her international career we spend considerable time in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Mexico.
The quest for homes became part of life. To avoid paying rent in Bolivia, we used an intermediate mode in between renting and buying. It is called anticrético. It is a short term agreement, were you put a large deposit on a house – from 20 to 50 percent it’s value – to become part owner for a year. You get the right to live in the house, but it comes with the obligation to maintain it in good state. The typical paint job when leaving.
Last but not least, there is the project development side of things. I can tell what it is like to build a house. It’s a long story, for another time.
Well, now you know why I niched down on real estate marketing. Given the specifics before, I doubt this will change overnight.
Real Estate Business Owners
Are you an (international) realtor, real estate developer, or property investor? In that case you should get in touch with me! Best you contact me on LinkedIn and we take it from there to explore possible cooperations. Are you ready to talk about business right away? Than schedule a call just now.
Let’s talk
Jeroen
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