Real estate agent Jess Lenouvel utilizes a psychology-based approach to bolster her marketing tactics. Here she shares how any business can follow suit.

Would you share an overview of your business experience?

I was an active real estate agent for over fourteen years and had a lean but mighty team that did hundreds of deals a year in the Toronto real estate market. In 2018, I transitioned to the coaching industry and founded The Listings Lab, a consulting firm that helps real estate agents create relationships at scale. I’m also the bestselling author of More Money, Less Hustle: Becoming the 7-Figure Real Estate Agent.

How did you develop your approach to marketing?

I first took my business online and dropped the old-school marketing tactics that were engraved into the real estate industry.

I started combing through Facebook Marketplace and having online conversations with people looking for houses or rentals. At the time, I was doing something that practically no one else was: using technology in an industry that didn’t—and frankly still doesn’t—use it well, at least not in the ways they could or should. It made me so efficient that I was able to talk with so many more prospective clients than if I were out doing street marketing.

I wanted to know more. I got a job working for a builder so I could learn the residential real estate business. I realized that none of their marketing techniques were successful. No one in our business was doing what other sectors were doing—even though what they were doing could be applied to real estate. I just had to figure out how.

So I began a long evolution of testing, running ads, and creating landing pages for my real estate business. I can’t honestly tell you how much I spent testing and running Google and Facebook ads, but I can tell you it was a lot. But I wanted to be ahead of the curve, which meant spending some money to make some money.

How would you define marketing?

Marketing is being able to articulate what’s in the back of your ideal client’s head better than they can. When you can do that, they will automatically credit you with the solution.

You’re well-known among your consulting clients for your theory of omnipresent marketing. Can you explain this concept?

Omnipresence is when you literally appear—or at least seem to appear—everywhere in a prospective client’s life. You dominate their screen. There are three components to this concept: timing, frequency, and platform.

The goal of marketing is always to be in the right place at the right time. What you’re doing is getting your messaging in front of people so consistently and so frequently that, in your client’s eyes, you seem like the only choice for them to get the help they need.

You want to be top of mind at all times. You’re not just appearing out of the blue when they’re trying to make a decision. For the most part, you can do this online. You show up everywhere your prospects go, to the point that they see you two to five times a day. This is possible through targeting and retargeting ads, organic social media, and email campaigns.

Being omnipresent means you give value over and over again so that when you do eventually ask for a client’s business, it doesn’t feel like such a hard ask. The element of reciprocity is already there.

How is psychology relevant to marketing a business?

It’s crucial. You need to create messaging that truly resonates so that you’re breaking through the noise. To do so, identify the psychology of your ideal client’s motives and the way they think. Once you understand what drives your clients to make decisions, you’re able to adjust your messaging accordingly to resonate with them to create that connection and relationship. Good marketing is only possible through understanding psychology.

Why is it important is it to think like your audience?

It’s how you can build trust with your audience. Building trust is building a relationship. You can’t just hide behind a logo anymore, especially in businesses like real estate. This is a human-to-human business, so it’s important that people get to know, like, and trust you. We have to break down barriers to trust.

You need to understand your audience and show them that you truly understand their pains, problems, fears, and desires. Once you fully understand your audience, you can draw them in with psychology-based messaging to truly speak to them and show them that you understand what they’re going through—and how you can help.

People make decisions emotionally. To tap into those emotions, you need to understand what drives them. Understanding how your community thinks is the only way you can narrow down your messaging and reach the people you need to. If you don’t understand your audience at all, then you’re not going to resonate with them to make that connection.

Can you use these psychological tactics when interacting with clients in person?

One hundred percent, you can. Purely understanding the psychology behind what drives your clients’ motives will help you better structure your conversations with them to be able to relate to their pains, problems, and desires. It also gives you the ability to present yourself and your services as the solution to these problems—without coming off as inauthentic or salesy.

By having these psychological strategies drive your conversations with clients, you’re building trust, connection, and, ultimately, a relationship with them. And once that relationship is built, they are less likely to break the relationship as opposed to a contract that means nothing to them.

What’s a famous example of a business using psychology in their marketing successfully?

Super Bowl commercials are the perfect example of using psychology in marketing. The companies who run ads during the Super Bowl know the key to good marketing, the key to mental market share. It’s all about emotion—building “know, like, and trust” techniques through sound psychology and messaging targeted to a specific group. Emotions lead to thoughts. Thoughts create decisions. Decisions trigger actions. Actions lead to results.

What challenges in your entrepreneurial journey did these approaches help you overcome?

Deciding to leave real estate was difficult. I knew I needed to make a change, but I wasn’t sure what that looked like. I took the principles that had made my own real estate business successful and taught other people how to create relationships at scale. This is also how I market, and it’s the foundation of everything that we do now at The Listings Lab. People know the marketing strategies work because we teach them how to recreate the same funnel that helps them feel connected to me!

Finally, what’s the number one mistake that organizations make when trying to market themselves?

One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen people make is going after multiple niches at once or being way too general. You know the saying about being good at everything but great at nothing? It applies here as well. Start with one niche, and dominate it. Once you have, you can move on to another. Remember: the riches are in the niches.

From a marketing standpoint, the worst tagline you can use is “I’m here for all of your real estate needs.” That immediately gives a sense of desperation and lack of specialization. It’s as if you’re saying, “I’ll take what I can get.”

The key to drawing someone in is implementing specific, psychology-based messaging. This can only be done well if it’s directed to one demographic. Though being so specialized might go against everything you’ve ever taught, get over it. The narrower your focus, the more successful you’ll be.

When you’re relevant to people, you don’t need to use “spray and pray” marketing (spray the area with your face and phone number, and pray that somebody calls you). They’ll listen to your marketing and tell their friends because you’re speaking directly to them about the problems they’re having. “Have you bugged my house?” is a question you should be hearing regularly. If no one’s asking you that question, it’s because you’re not relevant to them yet.

For more information, go to thelistingslab.com

TAKE ACTION:
Think about your target audience’s mindset. How can you employ a psychology-based approach to elevate your marketing strategies?