The start of the school year is one of the best time to target parents.
It brings countless opportunities to add these parents to your sphere of influence.
Any change in season is a good time to focus harder on your marketing efforts. The end of the summer and subsequent return to school is a perfect time to freshen a campaign and then find a whole bunch of new prospects.
It's also the best time to highlight schools and areas in your area for your marketing.
Schools being near homes are huge. Buyers and sellers have this in mind during this time of year, much more than any other time.
Neighborhoods with at least one good elementary school or middle school have greater home values as well as higher home price appreciation over the long term compared to homes without good schools.
It can be a great time to target families in areas with a bad school. Get to know them and get them into your sphere of influence.
Then you can target them with material about other areas in town that have better schools.
There are also a few other advantages in this time of year when the summer is ending, and fall is starting.
Overall, it's a good time to ramp up your marketing.
Here are some marketing ideas for the start of the school year and fall:
Drop Off Branded Gifts or Goodie Bags
Something simple like candy or some sort of erasers is good here. Don't forget to leave your card or some type of logo with your number on it.
When parents are ready to buy or sell or even just talk about their options, they’ll think of you first.
There are a couple of ways you can go about this. You can give them to the front office and they can keep them there, or give them out as they see fit to parents and kids.
Or you can work with the PTA and get the gifts straight into the parent's hands.
Trinkets and school supplies are the items to give out.
Branding notebooks or erasers with your name or company's name won't be all that expensive.
This is how you get know around the community.
It's a small deed, but parents will start to know and recognize you if you supplied the school with supplies for the kids.
And when you talk to the PTA or the faculty about it, they'll understand it's your way of marketing and shouldn't have a problem with it.
They will most likely be excited for whatever you give out and help you out.
Sponsor a PTA Meeting
Provide dinner for a night PTA meeting or something along those lines.
Get to know the parents when you are serving or passing out the food. Talk to them about how important it is for you to see the school succeed.
That should be true as well.
The better schools in your area are, the better the housing market will consistently be.
You can use all the schools in your marketing and so on and so on.
You really do have a vested interest in seeing your area's schools thrive.
So naturally, a big part of that is the PTA. Help them out and show appreciation for the group.
Donate money for the events as well.
The parents are going to know you and come to respect you for this.
Then when they are looking to buy and sell a home, you'll be the first person they think of.
Of course, you want some that are selling soon but treat each parent as a lead you want to bring into your sphere of influence.
Throw a Back to School Client Appreciation Event
A lot of parents are going to be in a celebratory mood this month. A picnic or cookout to take advantage of the end of the warm weather will bring out a lot of your clients and even potential leads.
Don’t force the conversation to real estate too often, but be ready and willing to answer any questions that come up. Encourage them to come up.
Invite teachers and parents. Build the theme around celebrating the start of the school year.
Try and collect their email addresses or phone numbers. These are the type of owners you want on your contact list.
Write a Back To School Blog Post
If you're not active with your own blog, you can even just make this a stream of social media posts.
Be sure to incorporate SEO techniques to correspond with this time of year.
We all know that owners and prospective buyers will always be willing to pay more for homes near better schools.
According to Realtor.com, 60% of buyers say schools affect their decision and 50% are willing to go over their budget so they can live in their preferred school district.
So a post that explains how home values are affected by the local school districts will have a lot of value.
You could write a blog that highlights and lists all the local businesses that offer back to school specials and savings. Other ideas are things like a list of after-school programs, or lunch ideas for parents to make.
If you can get any businesses you mention to share your posts (which shouldn't be hard), you'll get more traffic.
Highlight school events and games for the upcoming year.
All of these ideas bring you closer to the area and its home owners. You are aligning yourself with the school and area, so when the time comes, you're the first to call.
The chance of someone becoming a hot lead rises when you get more and more traffic on these types of post.
Hold a Charity Bake Sale or Food Drive (Or Just Sponsor an Existing One)
This may seem like something that takes a lot of effort. But it really doesn't.
And it's worth it. These are hundreds of leads you are dealing with, and that's before word of mouth comes into play.
Clear it with the faculty or PTA and put some flyers together. Give the proceeds to the charity of the school's choice.
The school might be already having a few can drives or bake sales throughout the year.
Offer to sponsor those.
Sponsor a Team
See if you can sponsor one of the school's teams. Here's how you do that.
Tell the faculty or coach that you'll buy the team's uniforms if you can have an ad on them.
Most schools are strapped for cash.
They're not going to turn down someone paying for their jerseys. It will be around 200-300 bucks usually.
Think of all the parents who will see your logo each game they go to.
It would be worth it.
Once these parents know you as the area's realtor, get them in the door to convince them to sell with you.
If you blow them away with your presentation, you'll have their business for life.
