Real Estate Marketing 101

0:00 – Welcome and Why Marketing Matters

0:00 Ryan Grant: So next up we have Jamie Burke from Burke by Burke, and she'll be presenting on real estate marketing 101. Hello Jamie.

0:08 Jamie Burke: Hi Ryan, great to see you again. Welcome, or I guess thank you for welcoming me. Why am I saying welcome, you're the host?

0:19 Ryan Grant: Yeah, we're quite excited to hear what you have to say here on real estate marketing for the stratas. Many don't know how does this apply to me, but I saw a few of your slides before and there's some really interesting points that you have to make.

0:35 Jamie Burke: Yeah, absolutely. So first off, hope it's been a great kickoff to day one of the BC Strata Tech conference. I know there's a lot of great speakers coming up, so I'm glad to get done early, because then I don't have to follow up anyone who's smarter than I am. But I'll do a quick introduction to who I am and kind of the context behind this, like Ryan said.

0:59 So my name is Jamie, I run a real estate marketing agency with my husband Eddie, Burke by Burke.

1:04 – Jamie's Strata and Real Estate Background

1:04 Jamie Burke: And for some who may or may not know, I actually used to be a former strata manager. So I was licensed for a number of years, about three years, worked on anything from the smallest building I had, which was a 20 unit complex in Port Coquitlam, to the largest I had, which was like a 200 unit high-rise in Yaletown, and everything in between. So I have lots of real life experience in strata.

1:32 It's actually part of why we started the real estate marketing agency, Burke by Burke, because throughout my years I've actually worked in real estate in various capacities as well over the last eight years. I saw that there was a big gap in what these businesses that I was dealing with, versus the audiences that they were trying to target. There were huge gaps, there were lots of missing components in marketing strategy, a lot of miscommunication, and just a lot of needs that needed to be filled.

2:02 So actually we still work with property management clients now, we work with trades and contractors, just through my many years of network connections. So like Ryan said, this might not be the presentation you think you need. Who knows, you can throw tomatoes at me later if you need. I mean, or at least at your screen. But yeah, so I hope that this is informative and valuable to the strata management context, which I've designed this presentation to be very much targeted towards: strata managers, councils, and the trades and contractors who you're all going to be working with.

2:42 Because I've actually also been all three, actually, except for the trade contractor. I was also council president at my old building for about 18 months.

2:48 – Marketing Is Not Sales

2:51 Jamie Burke: So, very well-rounded in my experience, and I hope that this is going to be informative and surprisingly helpful.

3:00 Ryan Grant: Awesome, thanks so much.

3:00 Jamie Burke: So, real estate marketing 101. So there is a common misconception that it's not even going to matter, like Ryan said, in the strata management industry. So why does it even matter? I'm going to talk about this later in the presentation, but marketing isn't sales. So I'm going to say that like twice or three times here: marketing isn't sales. If that's the one thing you get out of this: marketing isn't sales.

3:30 So it's not about selling shoes, it's not about selling, it's about building relationships. That's what this is. Marketing is… a lot of people expect a lot from marketing. From my years, or at least the couple of years so far we've been running the agency, I meet with various clients, the ones that relate to the strata management industry. Like I said, I've met with exterior cleaning companies, pest control companies, property management firms, etc. And when I asked them what their goals are, they tell me their marketing goals, but they actually really sound like sales goals.

4:10 You know, I want to convert clients, or I want to increase my revenue. Those are sales goals, those aren't marketing goals. So marketing is, like I said, I'll explain that a bit later, but it is not sales. So it's about building relationships. And I'll kind of continue forward from here.

4:30 – Antiquated Practices in Strata Management

4:33 Jamie Burke: So, why does it matter? I've kind of said that a little bit earlier already, about why it matters to the strata management industry, because the industry, as I've seen — like I said, I was an agent for three years, I've worked in real estate for eight — and the real estate industry as a whole is quite antiquated, to be perfectly honest. There's a lot of old school processes.

5:02 I won't say what property management firm, I won't say where, I won't say if I even work there or not. But I've seen, or I've heard, invoices for instance where you're not using something online, where some people are still writing their GL codes on paper and sending it to their accountants and stuff like that, which to me is wild. And this wasn't that long ago, this was like less than seven years ago that I remember seeing that and being shocked.

5:31 But that invoicing example is just one of many of how the real estate industry is quite antiquated in its practices, especially strata management, out of all the various industries that I work in. So I've worked in real estate appraisal, property management, construction, development land sales, marketing, worked with mortgage brokers. And out of all of the industries I've worked in, like I said, strata is absolutely the most behind.

6:07 And that's going to have very real implications for your strata corporations, whether that be your strata manager who's still having to code your invoices the old school way via pen and paper, whether you're a council who is trying to decide what vendor to use, whether you're a trade contractor who's using very old school ways of marketing your business, which I'll talk about as well a bit later.

6:37 It's time we caught up. It's time that the strata management industry kind of caught up with what modern practices are, and a lot of that is, whether agents are going to like it or not, is digital. And whether or not firms are going to catch up there, well, they're not going to have a choice.

6:56 – How Councils Find Vendors and Quotes

6:56 Jamie Burke: They already don't have a choice, in my opinion, but that's neither here nor there, we'll continue on. So why does this even matter and how does this relate? So I'll kind of divide it into two sectors here. So with strata councils, like I said, it's about finding vendors and other property management companies. If you're relying on the traditional channels to find the right people, then you're just going to keep using the same people.

7:25 And I'm sure everyone here knows exactly what I'm talking about. If you're a council, and let's say, let's use landscaping, I've done that, I've gotten the quotes and I've asked for the quotes, and we're all going to do the same old thing, get three quotes. The strata manager is likely going to use the same three vendors that they use, they're going to put it in front of you, and nine out of 10 times a council might make a price-based decision.

7:52 And there's nothing wrong with making a price-based decision, that's not necessarily my point here, but it's the same old song and dance that we've been doing since, I don't know, at least as long as I was being a property manager. I'm sure there's at least a few senior agents here who have been doing this for a very, very long time. But at least in my humble opinion, I don't think that's going to last much longer.

8:21 I think councils need to be more savvy in how they dissect this information, and this marketing information. That's going to be my second presentation later today, which is, or actually not later today, right after this presentation. I'm going to be doing a presentation on digital marketing literacy, so I'll be talking a bit about, for both councils and businesses, why that matters. So I think, for councils, marketing is important because if you're just relying on your strata manager or your property management company to find the vendors for you, you're limited in your options of the service that your building can get.

9:04 Councils might not like to hear this, but your strata manager is just your administrator. And well, not just, I apologize, we're a lot more than that. But what I mean is, councils need to take some accountability and responsibility in these decisions as well. When you leave it all under the strata manager and then you get mad when the landscaping company isn't up to par, you also had a responsibility to pick a good vendor.

9:25 – Contractor Outreach and Online Reputation

9:29 Jamie Burke: So anyway, that's on councils, and I'll be talking a bit more about digital marketing literacy again later. Now for businesses, that's kind of the same thing: you're going to want to attract new clients in today's competitive markets. So let's take the landscaping company and flip it to the other side. So now I'm ABC Landscape and I want to attract property managers and councils. And the old school song and dance again is, you email the property management company, you somehow BCC everyone's email, you find out that the FirstService Residential emails are set up like first initial dot last name.

10:19 If you're a trade contractor listening to this you know exactly what I'm talking about too. I received a dozen of those emails every week. And you would send an email, you would ask for lunch, you would take them out for a coffee, or you would go to a PAMA event. And like I said, not saying that those methods aren't effective, but it's a very old school method and it's also very, very limited.

10:38 In today's landscape we're not limited to those options to build relationships with businesses, that's just one of many. So yeah, it really does matter a lot more than you think. It's not just pretty pictures or a funny reel. There are very real implications for councils, not only for who you get to service your building, but for businesses, trade contractors who are trying to get your business. It doesn't always have to just be through the strata manager as the conduit to that relationship, you can also build those relationships directly.

11:18 So I'm going to move on to the next slide, but actually, sorry, one more point that I forgot to make when it came to the councils, was for property management companies and why that matters. Because when you're looking for a new property management company — sorry, no offense if people got terminated or anything, I've seen that before — but when you're trying to pick your next property management company, you need to be cognizant that the things you see online might not always be representative of the things that happen in real life.

11:53 If you're just going on Google reviews and saying, oh, XYZ company is terrible, they're getting bad reviews, that's not the full picture of what that management company can offer you. And again, that's what I'll be talking about later today.

12:10 – Marketing Versus Sales Explained

12:10 Jamie Burke: Heck, I even got a bad review when I was a property manager. But whether or not I deserved that, that's a different presentation. So let's move on. Again, like I said, if there's anything that you're going to get from this presentation, is that marketing is not sales. It's not tomato, tomahto. It's kind of funny seeing this in text, because it just looks like it's not tomato, tomato.

12:35 But anyway, you get the point. It's not tomato, tomahto. Marketing and sales are two very, very different processes. This slide might be more particular to trade contractors who might be in the meeting today. But marketing is really what it takes to get someone to your front door. Sales is what you do once you're inside the house. You can use a few other analogies too: marketing is like asking someone out on a first date, and sales is what you do on that date, etc, and so forth.

13:08 But really it's kind of what I was saying a bit at the beginning, that marketing gets asked to do a lot, when really, as I said at the beginning, and kind of the main point here is, marketing is about building those relationships, building trust, fostering strong relationships between clients and vendors or businesses. And that might take time.

13:34 – Long Lead Times in Strata Relationships

13:34 Jamie Burke: And one thing I find with real estate, and especially strata, is these relationships do take time. I mean, we all know what the average lead time is, even in the best case scenario. We'll use the landscaping one as a baseline reference. Let's say a strata council knows they want a new landscaping company in August. It could take… they could ask their strata manager to get the quotes in February, it might take a month for the strata manager to get the quotes, then they review it, but then they have questions for the vendors, and they do this.

14:11 And depending on how often councils meet, that could take a lot of time. And at that point the quote might not even be valid anymore, or the company might not be able to take on clients because you approved it too late. Or there's all sorts of factors that affect the feasibility of making that relationship actually happen. And sometimes it takes time. For Burke by Burke for instance, I have clients or prospective clients that I've been nurturing as a marketer for like 18 plus months, or years even.

14:47 And marketing is a patient process. And I think a lot of trade contractors see it as interchangeable, but it's not. I'm not going to speak too much on the sales side because that really isn't my specialty. I'm a marketer, I'm not a business development or a sales rep, and that's a very different job in its own right. Like, I know many trade contractors have those business development reps.

15:14 And perhaps one thing that those business development reps, if there's any in this audience, is thinking about: yes, it's a long process to build those relationships and get the sale done, but that's just kind of the nature of it. And maybe there's things, if we're cognizant of this rhythm and the difference, then we can bridge those gaps and maybe make it a bit faster, or if not faster, at least more smooth and efficient and enjoyable for everybody.

15:37 – Branding Beyond a Fancy Logo

15:51 Jamie Burke: Okay, so I'm going to talk a little bit more now. I know the first half of this presentation was really just trying to sell you on why I'm here and convince you that this actually does matter to strata. So hopefully I convinced you, and if not then I apologize in advance. But regardless, we'll continue, and I'm going to be talking more about the marketing component itself. So when you hear of branding, this is again both related to councils who are going to be sifting through brands, strata managers who are sifting through brands, and trade contractors who are putting their brands out there.

16:30 Branding is more than, like I said, just a fancy logo or funny social media reels. It's who you are as a business, your values, your principles, vision and goals. The visual is just a representation of that brand. So here we have some very well-known brands. Of course, in BC local strata management, I mean, unless you're like a big national company, there's like… or things like that. These brands like Spotify, Airbnb, Netflix, Nike, these are of course larger scale, but give you kind of an idea that when you see these brands they evoke a sense of what they're about.

17:15 Spotify isn't just about playing music, it's about connecting emotionally to that music. Airbnb isn't just short-term accommodations — we're not talking about the bylaws today, we're just talking about the brand, and I'm sure there's a lawyer speaking later in this conference — but Airbnb is about selling the idea of escape and relaxation. Netflix isn't just Netflix, it's entertainment and Netflix and chill, if people know what that means, or other things.

17:52 And Nike isn't just shoes, it's performance and speed and excellence and all of these things. That's what a brand is, and it's not just these colours and these logos, it's what they're evoking and what they're making the audiences feel, and the benefits that you can get from these. And that's very important, whether you believe it or not, for strata corporations, when you're trying to pick that landscaping company, or you're trying to pick a vendor, or you're a strata manager trying to sift through all that noise of these vendors, or you're a contractor trying to stand out.

18:23 – Outdated Websites Hurt Contractor Credibility

18:28 Jamie Burke: That's really at the heart of that relationship, that's really the first kind of impression there. So yeah, like I said, why this matters. So I'll kind of sum it up here, just as I was speaking earlier. So as a business, like I said, if you're a trade contractor listening to this, if your website and logo look like they're from the 80s, for instance, let's say you haven't updated it, it's an old HTML, you've got Times New Roman and you've got all these stock images.

19:01 And we laugh, but I've seen it, it's there. I won't say what trade contractors, but there are trade contractors that do this, or don't do this, because they haven't updated it. And you might be doing the most excellent work possible. Let's take ABC Landscaping again: you might be the most reputable, high value, strong reputation, excellent customer service, eco-friendly, all of these great benefits.

19:32 But if you haven't updated your website, then potential councils, especially with the uptick of EPS buildings — I mean, I think the new developments are just rising and rising and rising, as we've seen — and those councils aren't going to be privy to the past 30, 40 years of strata management reputation. They're going to be starting from scratch. And if they look up your firm and they see your 1980s looking website, even if you're a fantastic company, what do you think they're going to think?

20:04 Of course they're going to think that you're running antiquated practices. And to be fair, maybe I'm being cheeky here, but that could be reflective. Because, are you… even if your business is running well for the last 30, 40 years and you don't think you need to change, well, maybe you do, because audiences are changing. The buildings that you serviced that are excellent, these like NWS, these — I don't even know if there's VRs anymore.

20:31 I firmly believe, at least maybe in the latter part of my lifespan, those buildings are going to be winding up, or there's going to be an evolution. So anyway, that's why it matters for businesses. For councils and owners, again, I know I'm kind of reiterating the same information, but really that's actually part of marketing too, is you simplify the same message over and over to really get the point home.

20:59 For councils and owners, you need to be able to sift through these businesses trying to vie for your business, and make well-informed decisions on who you want to work with. So if you're going through this 1980s looking website, you have to take that seriously on what does that mean. Not that they're not a good business, like I said, but it's developing again that digital marketing literacy, which we'll talk about again in a bit.

21:32 – Buyer Personas and Audience Pain Points

21:32 Jamie Burke: Okay, so, audiences: developing buyer personas. Again, a bit more marketing lingo here. So buyer personas, in the fewest words possible, it's kind of just like a prototype or a model of your ideal client. So I'm sure, if there are trade contractors here who are a bit more sophisticated, I'm sure you have one. If you're not, which is more than fine too, I will kind of explain what that matters.

22:06 So let's say again ABC Landscaping Company is your business, and you're trying to market ABC Landscaping Company. You need to understand your audience. Again, who's the strata manager, owner, councils. And you need to understand them beyond the core demographics. You need to understand what are their pain points, what are their challenges, and how are you going to fill those for them. So when I say pain points and challenges, it's not just something as simple as money.

22:38 It could be anything, and it's really going to depend on each unique contractor and their area. So if you're servicing, let's say your focus area is the Fraser Valley, and then let's say specifically it's… let's say Fraser Valley. The pain points and challenges that stratas are going to have there, and how you can fill those, are going to be quite different than if your buyer persona is a strata corporation in Metro Vancouver.

23:11 So for marketers it's really important to understand your audience beyond those core demographics. Again, building relationships. And then the audience themselves, the strata managers, owners and councils: pay attention to what these trade contractors are doing. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with asking strata managers for lunch and doing the PAMA events and going for coffees and the golf tournaments. I've seen it all, and there's nothing wrong with that.

23:44 But you can be more savvy in terms of paying attention to who appears to be selling to you, versus the ones who are trying to educate and connect to you.

23:54 – Marketing Funnels and the Hourglass Model

23:54 Jamie Burke: Again, more on that in the second presentation. Okay, wow, I zipped right through this. But hopefully, Ryan, I left, if there are even questions, at the end. So the last slide here is really again just trying to reiterate the shift in practices. Let's say for marketing, and the industry as a whole is changing. Marketing is just one of many examples of how the real estate industry, the strata management industry, is and needs to change.

24:28 So marketing funnels are, again, similar to buyer personas, a very standard basic marketing principle, that kind of says, hey, this is the journey that a prospective client is going to get to. So again, ABC Landscaping, let's say they are trying to target LMS 1234. So the first step would be awareness, that they make sure that LMS 1234 knows they exist. And then interest, evaluation, negotiation, closing, renewal.

24:59 So you can see on the left it's a very funnel based, it's just kind of leading to one end goal, and it's kind of like this cone of revenue, or not revenue, but it's just this cone, and it kind of just ends at the end there, like renewal, or interest, we purchase a product. So for a landscaping company, let's say you sign a three-year term, then the end of that funnel is that LMS 1234 is so happy with you at the end of the three years that they renew you again for another three-year contract.

25:27 And like I said, if the thing on the left is new to you, then that's great, there's nothing per se wrong with that traditional marketing funnel. But on the right it's changing more into an hourglass shape, or at least that's what marketing is shifting towards. It still has very similar steps: there's awareness there, engagement is very similar to interest, and same with consideration, and then purchase is like closing.

25:55 But the red that you see below on that latter one, the bottom half of that, is really that relationship based marketing and principles that I was talking about. At that point your client isn't just renewing you, but then they're advocating for you. Especially now, with things being savvier than ever online. So let's say EPS 2345 is built on Austin Avenue, and they're great with your service. Their neighbour in Tower, they might be wondering, someone might say, oh hey, what's a good contractor?

26:34 And now that business, or EPS 2345, is going to say to EPS 2346, oh yeah, hey, ABC Landscaping was great. And they're advocating for you, and that's because of the relationship that you built and you fostered. And in that case everybody wins. The strata councils win because they get good quality service, the strata managers win because their councils are happy and they're working with a trusted contractor, and the trade contractor is happy because they get a great client and they've built a good relationship.

27:11 So yeah, like I said, I'm nearing the end. A couple more minutes for questions before I speak again for the next presentation. And yeah, hopefully I convinced you that marketing matters in strata. That's the whole point here. Thanks Ryan.