I can't stand the cheesy looking photos that agents put on their cards and marketing stuff. I'm having a hard time making myself use a photo but I don't want to do something that hurts my marketing. Do you established agents think it is really necessary to put your photo on everything.

I know the theory is that you get your face known through your advertising but it seems to me that if every agent is doing it then how does it set me apart? I can see why it was a good idea years ago when the first agents started doing it but now it just seems like I'm another face on a card.

Instead of marketing my face/image, how about using a logo in that area that markets something else, like an idea. How about a for sale sign with a sold sticker across it. You would be marketing the idea that I get you the results you want, not marketing my smiling mug. You could have some catch phrase with it that stresses that you get people results.

Everything that I am reading about marketing says that you have to create an emotional response in your target market to get them to call you. I don't see how my face on a marketing piece would create an emotional response making someone want to call me about my service. But a logo and catch phrase that stress that I can fulfill a need that they have seems alot better.

This is the direction that I am thinking right now but I would love to hear some ideas from successful agents.

Thanks in advance,
Will Rose

Do you look hawt?

Thank you for your most insightfull reply. That was just the response I was looking for.

I don't think it really makes that much difference. All these glamour shots can't make a difference in their production.

I do have my photo on my card, but it isn't a cheesy glamour shot. The trend here is to have an extreme close up of the Agents face that is so large it takes up 75% of the front of the card. Not pretty.

I have been thinking along the same lines actually. Here is a link to an article that makes the case for not using a picture...

http://www.fredlight.com/pages/articles/nophoto.html

Don't shoot the messenger, haven't you heard that sex sells? If you look good, work it. Work everything you got: brains, personality, track-record of success, tender-heart, whatever. Use it all.

We had a good discussion a while back. Check it out:

http://www.agentsonline.net/forum/ultimatebb.php/topic/9/351.html

PS: I had a website that didnt have my picture on it. This time around, I have one.

Getting face to face with people and being caring and geniune in trying to help them.

People can spot new and old agents alike that are desperate or just after the commission.As soon as the ptoential buyer or seller feel that wat towards you they will put up a wall and you are then dead in the water.

Focus on helping people first and the deals and money will follow.

If you want to be at the top of your field don't follow the "herd mentality" be different in a good way.What are you doing that knowone else does?When you have that you create a commodity and are percieved as valuable by prospective clients.

I would put a performance guarantee on your card.With parts of florida being down i would require a year listing or i would require the homeowner to pay for advertising and have it reimbursed off of your commission when it sells.

This will keep from sellers draining you dry for thousands of dollars in advertising costs on an overprice listing in a down market.

good luck

Commercial agents do not suffer from the need to have our faces on our business cards. How many Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants or other professionals have pictures on their business cards. We deal with business professionals and is reflected in our cards.

I love residential agents who use old photos on their cards and other advertising? When you meet them in person for the first time you are thinking who is this person?

Oh Paul that happened to me today!

I met an agent out at a property who I had never met in real life before. I have talked to him on the phone many times, and he's shown my listings, so I've seen his photo on his cards. In his pictures he has a thick head of brown hair and looks around 30 and is wearing a leather jacket and looks kind of cool. I half expected him to come roaring up on a motorcycle.

So I'm waiting at the property today and up pulls this big white Mercury Grand Marquis (not the car I was expecting). This old man with a potbelly and white hair with a bald spot gets out and starts pacing and looking upset. I stayed in my car figuring he was another agent there to see the property too. Finally after about 5 minutes I got out, he introduced himself as Greg.

The same Greg I was there to meet.

I was floored.

That picture has to be 20 years old. He uses it on all of his marketing, and it's not like he just happens to have old signs and cards sitting around. He changed companies recently and is still using the same card.

I hate that! There are many females here that use pictures of them when they were like 20 years old. Now they're around 55 years old! It is so deceiving.

I use a photo on my business cards and everywhere else (even on craigslist listings). I've had a good response to it, but it's not your usual headshot - it's a headshot of me and one of my horses and it's my "logo".

There've even been people who've said they picked me initially out of the pack because of that photo. But I specialize in horse properties, so it was a deliberate marketing move on my part. (I have almost an entire box of the standard business cards with professional headshot photo left over from when my broker bought them for me when I started with them, because I just don't use those that much.)

I update mine once a year. I was out giving things around my farm area, and one lady said she recognized me from tthe postcards I send out each month. She said she was not selling soon, but will recommend me to anyone she knows who needs an agent. It does help.

For me, the hair style gives it away....I think its hilarious when I see a photo that is obviously from the 80s...big hair and all...NO ONE has that style today unless they are in a time warp! In my area, most of the women who have been in the business for years have a photo that is 20 years old...the men seem to have updated more..

The lesson? Men look distinguished as they age, women just look old - hence the 20-year old photo.

i think having a photo on your business cards is important though. if you dont have a face to go with your voice, then nobody will remember you. sex sells too. so if you are a hot female, then by all means, put your picture on your cards. you would be a fool not to.