This article was originally published in Real Estate Agent Magazine Twin Cities, written by Charity Malmberg, Founder and President of Trademark Title

 

Professionalism and education; the two go hand-in-hand. As real estate professionals, knowing about the industry – current trends, regulations and laws – is only half of it. Educating our clients is just as important.

At Trademark Title, we know how important education is to our clients and the agents we work with. We decided to come up with a mascot, a way to reach our clients and educate them. We developed Tori, the Title Super Hero (see her video at https://goo.gl/82UC6h). We hope you’ll introduce her to your clients as a way to educate them on the closing process and the necessity of picking a reputable title company.

Who is Tori?
Tori is our “Title Super Hero,” an animated young superhero, who flies alongside the buyer in the closing process. She acts as a guide, explaining different features of closing and our services in an entertaining and educational way.

Why did we create Tori?
To us, the closing process is second nature. But, to our clients, it’s often a brand new and confusing aspect of buying a home. The mission behind creating Tori is to provide exceptional customer service and experience for our customers, which includes educating them to make informed decisions. Creating Tori gave us a way to not only educate our current and future clients, but also give you, the agent, a tool with which to do so as well.

How do we introduce our clients to Tori?
A lot of this stems back to you, the agent. We have a short, fun video that you can send to your clients that introduces Tori, explains the closing process and helps them both see and hear what our title company does for them. In today’s technology age, people are much more liable to watch a tutorial than read an instruction manual, which is often the solution for learning something new. Giving our clients a video offering them education in a format they prefer is just another way to help us reach our goal of offering exceptional customer service.

Making Education Fun
It’s no industry secret that some clients prefer to simply delegate and would rather not learn about the nitty-gritty of the processes behind buying a home. However, educating our clients is not just the right thing to do – it’s often the legal requirement. For instance, in Minnesota, homebuyers select their own title company, which means they first need to understand what a title company is.

With Tori, we were able to make education fun and we’d like to help you do the same for your clients. Beyond sharing our video with your clients, here are a few other ways to package education in a way your clients can receive.

NO. 1 – Create a fun-facts sheet or Q&A. What if the first time you met a new client, you handed them a sheet created specifically for them? The sheet outlined current real estate insights, restaurants, parks and services local to the area. It also answered common questions and had links to helpful YouTube videos. This is just another great way to show your client how much you care and to set yourself apart as more than an agent – as a real estate expert!

NO. 2 – Create an email list. Nobody likes spam mail. However, consider how nice it is when a friend or co-worker sends you an email with an article about your favorite sports team or even a funny video to brighten your day. Using your email lists to send out helpful articles, links to educational YouTube videos and quality insights on buying and selling a home is a different approach to marketing. It shows that you care about your client’s entire home-buying process and are right there with them along the way.

NO. 3 – Create your own video. The video is what allows our clients to get to know Tori and to learn about the importance of the work we do. Perhaps creating a video or video series of your own is just what you need to reach your future and current clients. You could offer tips for prepping a home for an open house, talk about the state of the market, even have interviews with other industry professionals. In today’s technology era, it doesn’t take a team of videographers to create a video. You can do a whole lot from the comfort of your home office.

Now that you have received a few tips on educating your clients and been introduced to our Title Super Hero, we’d love to have you pass her on. Use the link above to introduce her to your clients and educate them on the closing process and introduce them to our company. In the end, we hope that Tori, the Title Super Hero, is another fun way to accomplish our mission of providing peace of mind with education, integrity and professionalism at the forefront, one closing at a time.