8 Real Estate Lessons From The Spartan Race Craze
By JD Esajian on July 24, 2015
How can real estate professionals boost their business by implementing the concepts that spurred the new endurance race craze?
The endurance race craze has taken America by storm. We now have the Tough Mudder, Crossfit Games, and the Spartan Race. Three years ago, even before most people had ever heard of the Spartan Race, the event attracted 150,000 participants. Now these events appear to attract thousands per day. The action is viral on social media, and the Spartan Race has almost 5 million fans on Facebook. It’s the type of engagement that every Realtor, real estate investor, and industry CEO wishes they had. So what takeaways can be gleaned and applied to real estate from these trendy races?
1. Low Overhead Business Models
While we may not be privy to all of the financial workings of these race promoters and organizations, it appears they are working with very low overhead models. Between volunteers, viral marketing, sponsorships, and the types of sales and revenues being raised, this appears to be a very thin operating budget with big margin potential. Today, more than ever, real estate leaders and organizations need to be working with low overhead, and big spreads. Freelance workers, online content marketing, and community involvement can all help with this.
2. Events Still Work
These races are frequently major events, in major event spaces (like the AT&T stadium in San Francisco). They can easily attract thousands of people. Some have been televised on mainstream television, with prizes up to $250,000. They can draw thousands of people, from thousands of miles away – even at a couple hundred dollars per ticket. There are plenty of ways for real estate pros to implement more events from home buyer seminars, to foreclosure prevention seminars, real estate investment events, tax strategy sessions, and home auctions.
3. Value is all about the Positioning
Imagine getting paid whatever you got on your last real estate deal without giving any product. Imagine getting paid $5,000; $50,000; or $500,000 without giving the buyer a house! That’s virtually what these races do. Participants pay to travel to an event and workout incredibly hard. They do it to prove themselves. While that might not be a model that works exactly in real estate, there are certainly some ways that real estate pros can take insights from these races.
4. Endurance
The media describes the more serious endurance races as “sheer tests of will.” It’s amazing to see friends, colleagues, and others go from couch potato to competitor. It’s evidence that we can all achieve a lot more if we try. Sometimes it is as simple as having a goal to work towards. So if you feel like you’ve just been going through the motions in real estate lately; find a new goal or mission. Use that to fuel progress.
5. Finding Great Talent and Like-minded People
These events unite thousands of people around a single idea. In fact; the founder says he created the races specifically to find great talent. He believes that if you can find the grit to make it through these races, you can do anything. That sounds like a lot of great people to have on your team as a real estate company.
6. Groups
A large percentage of races in these events are group activities, and train with partners that help keep them motivated. There are now even kids Spartan races, which get the whole family involved in the brand. While marketing directly to kids is often considered unethical, real estate brands can do a lot better at engaging groups. It is much more likely to create long-term clients.
7. Content Hacking
If there is one thing that the Spartan Race has done well, it has been content marketing. Using hashtags, video, appearing in guest podcast, getting mentions from the blogging community, and attracting sponsors from heavy hitting brands like AT&T and Reebok, the promoters have rapidly grown their online followings.
8. Warm Outbound Permission Marketing
While many brands and real estate professionals are struggling to maintain email lists and social media followers, brands like the Spartan Race appear to be doing very well. Their email updates offer daily tasks, workouts, and recipes. All of them are actionable, and help nudge users towards their goals. How can you get a better handle on this for your real estate business?