Many businesses use the press release as a tool to garner publicity for their products and services. They announce a new product, the opening of a new store or the appointment of a new company president. But few real estate professionals use this tool for their own businesses. Guess what? They’re missing out on a very simple yet powerful way to generate publicity for themselves in the real estate arena.
Remember your teachers who asked you to write essays and include the “who, what, why, where and when?” Those are important “w” words to ask yourself as you create a press release for your real estate business. The basics of what should be contained within a press release are as follows:
- Contact information
- Who you are and what you do
- What the event is, or what announcement is being made
- When the event will take place
- Why is the event taking place or announcement being made
While press releases are designed to announce information such store openings, product releases and such, a real estate professional needs to practice some restraint when translating some of those types of uses to her own real estate business. For example, an interest rate change is not the news an agent should send a press release out about. This kind of information is available to the average consumer and no website or publication would be interested in a press release you generated about it. (Obviously, you can and should give interest rate updates on your own website so you can show your clients and prospects that you stay on top of this sort of information). Also, you would not create a press release announcing an open house.
The point is to generate publicity with pieces of unique information. And the press release should be something that places you and your real estate business in a positive light. If a new home development opens up and you have arranged to be the sole sales agent for that development, that’s news! If a new home buying program has been introduced and your office is the only one in the area that understands and uses that program, that’s news.
You can come up with ways on how to make what may seem insignificant into a press worthy event. Perhaps your office is moving. Create a grand opening or new office open house with refreshments and door prizes and that’s worthy of a press release. Your local papers and websites will want to provide pertinent, timely information to their readers and such an event is something they would want to pass along.
Traditionally, a press release is submitted to a service which then shoots that release out to various newswire services. The goal, of course, is to have the press release spread as far and wide as possible and picked up by as many online and print services as possible. The more, the merrier…right? However, in the case of the real estate agent, you really need to become the professional in your region, in the area where you sell real estate. What’s the point of having your release printed in the New Hampshire News when you are located in Portland, Oregon? So distribution will be easy once you do your research.
All you need to do is figure out your local newspapers, journals and websites that your clients and prospects would read or view. And then you concentrate on those specific places to submit your press release. You may even try to make contact with editors at the various online and print sources so you can have a more personal connection. This may lead to more accepted releases.
Remember, you not only have to make your press release about your real estate business, but you have to make it compelling! You want the local websites and papers to think that it is worthy of posting for readers. You can do this by keeping a few key things in mind:
- Take the time to craft an eye-catching, interesting headline.
- Draw readers in with that introductory paragraph by packing it with punch.
- Don’t make it read like sales materials; be objective and make sure that it’s informative – it shouldn’t read like an advertisement.
- Make your release action-oriented by using active words and “show” people through the use of benefits rather than features; if you are throwing a credit seminar, concentrate on how they will learn to save money (vs. how they will learn the specifics on credit scoring).
- Proofread; check those dates and names. Proofread again…in fact, you may want to ask one or two others to take a look as well!
How to Use Press Releases to Generate Publicity As a Real Estate Agent
No comments:
Post a Comment