Marketing Your Home: This Is Where I Earn My Keep
/By the time your house hits the MLS, you may feel like we've already done a lot.
Oh, friend. We're just getting started. 😂
You didn't hire me to put your house in the MLS, stick a sign in the yard, and cross my fingers.
You hired me to position it, package it, launch it, and keep finding reasons for people to pay attention to it.
And that process starts well before your listing goes live.
First, We Build the Launch
About two weeks before launch, I'm already working behind the scenes on your marketing campaign.
We're planning professional photography, but we're also thinking about how your particular house should be introduced. What's the story? Who is likely to love it? What makes the floor plan work? What does living here actually feel like?
From there, I work with my media “team” (aka my husband) to create several different pieces of content - not just one set of pretty pictures.
That typically includes a vertical lifestyle reel designed for social media and a horizontal walk-through video buyers can watch directly from the MLS. Most listings don't even include a video, which means this is one more opportunity for your house to stand out before a buyer ever schedules a showing.
You'll also have a floor plan, because pretty photos show buyers what the house looks like; a floor plan helps them understand how they could actually live in it.
Your House Gets Its Own Marketing Binder
I'm also creating a physical marketing binder specifically for your house.
This isn't a generic brochure with your address slapped onto the front.
It's designed to give buyers the information and context they may not get from scrolling through a listing online - the features we want them to remember, information about the property, and anything else that helps them better understand what they're buying.
When someone is standing inside your house deciding whether it could be their house, I want the answers right there.
Then We Launch
Depending on our strategy, your home may begin as Coming Soon, giving us an opportunity to start building awareness before showings begin.
I'll add it to my website and portfolio, connect it to supporting content, prepare social media, coordinate the sign and lockbox, set up ShowingTime, and make sure all of the pieces are ready before we flip the switch.
And if you're comfortable with it, I'm a big fan of opening-weekend open houses.
A fresh listing gives us a natural reason to create some energy around the house, so I want to take advantage of that window while buyers are seeing NEW next to your address.
Social Media Isn't One-and-Done
Your house isn't getting one Just Listed! graphic followed by radio silence.
We'll have our launch content, but I also keep looking for different ways to tell the story of the property.
Maybe that's the neighborhood. Maybe it's why the floor plan works. Maybe it's a lifestyle feature buyers are overlooking. Maybe it's another video clip, a targeted paid Instagram campaign, an appearance in my monthly newsletter, or content built around something we're learning from the market.
If the house is still for sale, my marketing job isn't finished.
And Then There's Everything You Don't See
This may actually be my favorite part.
While you're living your life, I have an entire system running behind the scenes: coordinating photographers and videographers, writing the listing and neighborhood content, organizing media, updating the MLS, prepping open houses, managing ShowingTime, communicating with my marketing “team”, monitoring activity, planning future content, and making sure all of those little pieces happen when they're supposed to.
There's a reason my Trello checklist for marketing a single listing is... substantial. 😂
Because great marketing isn't one thing.
It's a hundred little things done intentionally and in the right order.
The Big Picture
I can't promise that fancy marketing will magically make someone buy a house that isn't right for them.
What I can promise is that we're not going to lose the right buyer because we did a mediocre job introducing them to it.
Professional photography. Lifestyle video. MLS walk-through video. Floor plan. Marketing binder. Website. Social media. Open houses. Continued storytelling.
Your house isn't just going to be listed.
We're launching it.
And this is the part where you get to hand me the keys and say:
“Okay, Crystal. Go do your thing.” 🎉