Marketing Power

Lannie Hall: Marketing Power

“When I started in this neighborhood,” said Lannie Hall, a REMAX realtor in Atlanta, “one agent controlled most of the listings. He had been in the market for decades, knew everyone, and didn’t really do much marketing because he didn’t have to.”

When you enter a new market dominated by established competitors, how do you breakthrough? You out-market them. “When I started here, the standard marketing materials were Xeroxed copies of typed descriptions of properties,” Lannie said. “My background was in architectural sales, and I was used to quality brochures and other marketing materials. I thought that if I brought that kind of marketing to this real estate market, I could differentiate myself and create an opportunity. So that’s what I did.”

“When you work really hard to do the best job you can to market peoples’ homes, people can see the difference. In this market everyone else pales by comparison. So I get the business.” Lannie Hall

So long PC. Hello Mac.

It quickly became apparent, however, that the cost of professionally produced marketing materials was more than he could afford. A friend suggested that he could create the materials himself on a Mac for a lot less cost. “I was hesitant at first,” he said, “I had always used a PC and didn’t really know anything about Macs.” A trip to the Apple Store at Lenox Square in Atlanta changed that. “I stopped by the Apple Store. They showed me how easy it was to use, demonstrated how I could drag and drop photos, and create flyers. And I walked out with an iMac.”

Four years later, Lannie is still using the same iMac. He’s doing more and more with it. And capturing more and more market share. Using iPhoto, iWeb, and Pages, he creates iPhoto books, websites, brochures and flyers to market for his client’s properties. He stages and photographs client properties. And because all the applications are integrated, he can easily drop those photos into his website and into printed materials. And when prospects see the materials he’s created, they become clients. “When I send them to the hackberrycourt.com, the website I’ve created to showcase how I market my listings, I always get the business. Always.

Lannie Hall

RE/MAX GREATER ATLANTA
(770) 645-1646 — Office
(770) 234-6308 — Fax
(678) 886-8850 — Cell
www.lanniehall.com

True North, Total Access.

To get the Windows functionality that is required to access the Multiple Listing Service, Lannie Hall turns to True North’s Northstar software as service offering. While Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 from Northstar meets Lannie’s needs, Northstar also hosts other Windows applications that can be important to realtors. These include the Top Producer suite for client management, scheduling, marketing and more, plus WebForms forms development software. The Windows applications reside on Northstar servers and you can access them in a secure window on your Mac. The applications look and act just as they would on a PC. There are no configurations to change. They can run side-by-side with your Mac applications. And you don’t run the risk of PC viruses infecting your Mac. So you can use Window apps to interact with your Multiple Listing Service, while you use iLife and iWork to do a better job of marketing your clients’ properties, all within the secure, stable Mac OS X environment.

Power marketing with a Mac.

Lannie Hall has set up a website at www.hackberrycourt.com that showcases his Mac-based marketing efforts with samples of what he does for his clients. When he gets an initial call from a prospect, he sends them to the site so they can see the difference his marketing services can make. “Recently, a gentleman called me from Florida. He had part-time home in the Atlanta area that he wanted to sell. I sent him to hackberrycourt.com. He liked what he saw, he called me back, we signed a contract, and I sold his house without ever meeting him in person. Now that’s the power of technology in marketing.”