Real estate is first and foremost a people business. Success in real estate is often measured by tenacity and persistence. Real estate is also a profession that requires a lot of patience and planning. Being a successful realtor is a future-looking profession in which you spend a lot of time actively pursuing opportunities and cultivating relationships. This means effectively managing relationships with prospective clients and making longstanding connections with the communities that you serve. Marketing strategies for real estate agents bring themselves to the attention of potential customers.
Selecting the right marketing strategy for your territory can be a challenging and even daunting task. It begins with knowing your territory and your prospective clients, having clear objectives, and being realistic about what you can achieve in territory. That’s a lot of data to process. To help, most successful real estate professionals have adopted a scalable customer relationship management initiative.
CRM combines contact management with the best practices, strategies and technologies in real estate. These tools can manage and analyze human relationships with the aim of building better and lasting relationships with customers and potential clients. In addition to CRM, here is a list with six of the best marketing strategies for real estate agents:
1. Know your market and become an expert in your territory
One of the most popular parts of the hit TV show Bar Rescue are the scenes where host Jon Taffer deploys what he calls “bar science,” breaking down details about demographics of the neighbourhood so that the businesses can effective target customers.
For years, successful real estate professionals having been doing the same kind of research about the territories in which they operate. Do your research on every aspect of your territory including the kind of people who live there, most common professions, local amenities, services and attractions and even local history.
2. Develop a marketing plan for your real estate business
Once you know you territory and customers, develop a plan for effectively marketing to them. Is the territory ripe for prospective first-time home buyers, sellers, or the rental market? Ask yourself and others how best to reach them. What marketing strategies have local competition embraced? How can you do better or differentiate yourself? You are trying to figure out ways for you to better uniquely serve your territory.
Formulate clear goals about what you want to accomplish in both the short-term and long-term. Develop targets and strategies for achieving them. Also, establish a way that you can measure your success. Marketing strategies are your tools for achieving these goals. Clarifying your objectives will help you evaluate which marketing strategies are best for you.
3. Develop a brand
Branding is one of the most important parts with any marketing strategies for real estate agents. Your brand is the shorthand version of who you are as a real estate agent or group of realtors. It should be attractive to prospective clients. There are all kinds of ways to shape this. Some real estate agents try to look dynamic, friendly, family-oriented, pet-friendly, athletic, etc.
Extreme examples include realtors who wear boxing gloves promising to fight for their clients, or use a pet dog with glasses on, or ever dress up like the Incredible Hulk! These are gimmicks, but there are more subtle ways of being memorable. Your brand should be consistent across media including all of your advertising, social media, billboards, business cards and even personal appearances.
4. Build a website and social media presence
Your online profile should be uniform and set out to accomplish two primary goals:
- advertise and promote your brand
- attract prospective customers.
To that end, your message should be clear and you must be easy to contact. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and even YouTube can drive eyes to your website and business, so develop something worth showing potential customers. Engage a professional photographer to make your images dynamic and effective.
Embrace video in the marketing strategies for real estate agents. Posts with video are more likely to garner attention on platforms like Facebook and Twitter. For larger properties, consider using drone video. Develop virtual tours of prospective properties. You might even host virtual staging as events on social media exclusive to interested parties.
Showcase your expertise about local real estate trends by writing a blog or video series that offers advice or highlights local interests. Be sure to make all your content shareable, so that social media can really start to work for you.
5. Be available on various communication channels
Being a real estate agent involves working nights and weekends to better meet client needs. Do not be afraid to text or respond to social media, and work hard to respond quickly, before prospective leads turn elsewhere.
One of the most popular communication channels is Zillow, which has been dramatically expanding the audience for local real estate. Creating a Zillow profile will allow you to share listings and connect with users on a platform that boasts 36 million unique visitors each month.
6. Participate locally
Become a visible part of the communities you serve. Advertising, lawn signs and billboards are some simple strategies. You can also participate in local civic activities, social clubs, country clubs, charity runs, or even sponsor a float in a parade. Make yourself available to local media (newspapers, free weeklies, radio, and television) for comment about real estate trends, historical properties and more!