I boarded my flight home from Lake Tahoe Thursday night after spending two full days creating marketing for one of our listings, and I found myself thinking about something unexpected.
We had just wrapped photography, video, drone footage, and a number of other marketing assets for a lakefront condo in Tahoe Vista. It’s a unique property and one of only a handful of opportunities like it currently available on the lake.
Yet what I kept coming back to wasn’t any of the content we had created. It was a custom For Sale sign.
A Bespoke For Sale Sign
When we started planning the launch of the property, my team asked: What can we create for this listing that nobody else selling a competing property is doing?
The answer ended up being a one-of-one For Sale sign inspired by the cover of Life Magazine. We commissioned a custom illustration of the property, incorporated a dynamic QR code, and created something specifically for this home rather than pulling a template off the shelf and inserting a new address.
Before we even printed the sign, we shared several concepts on social media and asked people to vote on their favorite design.
The engagement was far greater than we expected. People weighed in, tagged friends, shared opinions, and became invested in the outcome. When we showed the final version to the seller, they immediately started sharing it with family and friends.
What struck me is that nobody was talking about the sign because it was expensive. In fact, the entire project cost roughly $180.
They were talking about it because it felt thoughtful.
Over the years, we’ve tried to approach listing marketing this way. Sometimes that means hosting a launch event with a brick oven pizza truck because it fits the property. Sometimes it means creating a video that tells the story of a home instead of simply walking room by room. Sometimes it’s a custom print piece.
This time, it happened to be a For Sale sign.
The Marketing Takeaway
The lesson is that memorable marketing is usually specific marketing. Too many listings are marketed exactly the same way.
While there is certainly a place for systems and consistency, I’ve found that the listings that generate the most excitement often have one thing in common: there is at least one element of the campaign that feels uniquely tailored to that property.
Interestingly, that doesn’t always require a larger budget. More often than not, it simply requires more thought.
As agents, we spend a tremendous amount of time figuring out how to win listings. What I’ve been reminded of lately is that there is just as much value in creating an experience after you’ve won them.
When sellers feel like you’ve built something specifically for their home, they notice.
More importantly, they talk about it.
The next time you’re preparing a listing for market, consider asking yourself a simple question:
What is the one thing we can create for this property that none of the competing listings are doing?
The answer may not be a custom sign. But whatever it is, that’s often where the most memorable marketing begins.
