Turning Clients into Lifestyle Communities: Why & How?
If you don’t have community, you really have nothing defensible when it comes to lead and client acquisition.
If you have great SEO, Google can yank it away. If you get tons of referrals from person X, they can suddenly send them to someone else. If you have one big investor client, they can switch to another agent tomorrow. If you get leads from Zillow or Trulia, they stop the minute you stop paying. You get the point.
Community is the only thing no one can take away from you; the best long term marketing & lead acquisition tool known to man.
That’s the why focus on community.
The How
There are very, very few who truly understand its importance, and how to build one. It’s largely because most people (not just real estate agents) play the short game. And I can tell you, community building is most certainly NOT a short term strategy. That said, if you are playing the long game, then building a lifestyle community is certainly a viable strategy. (Note: Communities do not work if they are not centered around a common interest/passion/lifestyle).
Honestly, community building is really fucking simple. It requires you do two things:
- TRULY Give a SHIT
- Talk to lots of people, with a genuine interest/desire in helping THEM (without regard as to whether that helps you)
As you likely know, most people fail at both #1 and #2. Thus, most suck at community building. There is a reason so few in the industry build real communities. It’s likely the hardest strategy there is — and there is no way to pay money to shortcut the process.
Are you in?
In my next post, I’ll dive into the strategy and tools you’ll need to build your very own lifestyle community.
Note: This is part of a 4 part series on the topic of “Turning Clients into Lifestyle Communities”
Bryn Kaufman
Posted at 12:42h, 05 FebruaryWow, the f-bomb? Could that be an issue from an SEO perspective?
My community is dedicated Website users who also tell others about my Website. I did lose my SEO positioning, yet my total page views are higher now than they were then.
I am sure they would be even higher if I still had my SEO positioning, but the community of dedicated Website users keeps things going.
I have tried various methods to build more of a community such as allowing comments and other things so I am curious to see what you suggest in your next post.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 12:44h, 05 February“Wow, the f-bomb? Could that be an issue from an SEO perspective?”
I don’t write for SEO reasons 🙂
Sandra Mathewson
Posted at 07:11h, 06 FebruaryI don’t know why the f-bomb was inserted…probably because people think it’s cool and all the rock stars, athletes and celebrities use it. It was a total turnoff for me to read it in what is supposed to be a real estate, professional, publication.
Drew Meyers
Posted at 08:09h, 06 FebruarySorry to disappoint. It was used for emphasis, not because it’s “cool”.
mattdollinger
Posted at 16:40h, 06 February“Community is the only thing no one can take away from you; the best long term marketing & lead acquisition tool known to man.” Oh how I loved to read this. The best part, and angle that many won’t consider, is that your sphere, database, past client list, whatever – is essentially a community. Per Wikipedia – “The term community has two distinct meanings: 1) Community can refer to a usually small, social unit of any size that shares common values. The term can also refer to the national community or international community, and 2) in biology, a community is a group of interacting living organisms sharing a populated environment.” So you have 1) your past sphere, clients, etc. and 2) a hyperlocal environment (building, geography, etc.) Well said my friend… well said. Looking forward to reading more.
Turning Clients into Lifestyle Communities: The Tools - GeekEstate Blog
Posted at 15:52h, 07 February[…] So, you are “in” when it comes to building community? […]