When the going is tough, use data to extend your marketing reach

I once heard a new fly fisher ask one with experience:

“Where’s the best place to cast your hook?”
“Right down their throats, son, right down their throats.”

Sometimes, the most effective way to catch a fish is to reach them.

If you publicise only locally, then you’ll be waiting for people to come by your area and find you, which means they’ll also find every other real estate agent around at the same time.

Conversely, you could find out where they are coming from, and cast your lure there.

You know what kind of properties are in your local area – big relaxed houses, or small economic flats – and which demographic segment is likely to want them, so when you find the people, it should be a simple match to find them a property.

But people don’t stay just in the one area – they migrate. As people from one suburb shift demographic – leave their 20s, start a family, retire and so on, they will be looking to move to a new suburb.

The perfect time to catch them is when they have listed their house on the market in another area, and if your suburb would be ideal for people at their stage of life.

Which means knowing something about the demographic composition of other suburbs!

This might involve having a chat with friendly agents in other suburbs to find out what their demographic composition is, and you could give them the heads-up on what’s happening in yours. In order to be useful to each other, of course, the more accurate the data, the better.

Once you find another suburb that is upstream of the migration path, you could go to the source and obtain data on that area, then market to it and carve a niche for yourself to help settle people into your area.

With great data on your own people, you could also help them to find a house in the area that they are moving to. In doing this, well-informed and well-connected agents regularly sell houses 10-20km away!

After knowing the nature of the properties you have to offer, the vital step is to find out who your people are – getting accurate data on demographics in your area, and of those areas where your new residents are likely to come from.

So that, instead of just dangling and waiting for a bite on your hook, cast your fly with skill.

Real Estate List Provider exclusively serves the needs of the real estate industry through Radius Suburb, which allows real estate entrepreneurs to access data on specific areas throughout Australia.

Visit our website today to get up-to-date information on your suburb of choice, and target better prospects in a bigger pond.