Real estate can be a fantastic career path in many ways. Your ability to scale and increase your income is almost without limits. You are essentially your own boss. You make your own schedule. And you are helping people make their dreams come true.
But real estate agents cannot do any of that if nobody knows who they are and what they do!
Let’s say you are an amazing artist. You have created murals and paintings that practically rival da Vinci. You’re amazing.
And you pay your bills by drawing caricatures at a local amusement park.
That sounds ridiculous, right? Why is all of that talent being used to make silly drawings in front of roller coasters?
This is why: Nobody knows about your abilities or the services you can provide!
You have no clients to paint for because you don’t tell people what you can do for them. People have no idea how you can help them or give them what they need help with.
But you know what? You can do something about it. You can do some marketing. Tadah! It’s that simple.
Real Estate works like that. You absolutely must market yourself to have major longevity and to get ahead in your career. Don’t avoid it, do it.
You just need to know how other real estate agents are making it happen. Let’s talk about it.
How Real Estate Agents Market Themselves
It’s time for you to learn some of the best ways to market your services as a real estate agent. Are you interested in leveraging digital marketing trends and technologies to get more leads? Then keep reading to learn ways you can market yourself as a real estate agent!
Updated Professional Headshots
Having updated professional headshots on your website, LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, business card, Instagram profile, and other digital channels will help establish trust with your prospective customers. Hiring an experienced photographer will ensure quality updates are available for years to come. And please, look at the photos from top agents to see what style is on trend.
Create a Real Estate Website
Get your face and your name out there with your own website! Put that professional headshot to good use! Creating a dedicated website for your business gives customers a great place to find relevant information about you and your services. Investing in quality design, hosting, and user experience can help create a web property that appeals to potential clients. A thoughtful website should include client testimonials, agent bios, listing portfolios, listings search capabilities, and contact forms.
Engage Through Social Media Platforms
Utilizing social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can help spread awareness about your agency or listings among potential clients. Regularly sharing content that’s valuable to users on these websites helps nurture relationships over time and provides more opportunities for engagement than traditional advertising methods like TV or radio spots.
The key to this is bringing valuable content. People shouldn’t feel like you are selling them something in every single post or they will probably ignore your posts.
Use Facebook to Your Advantage
I know … I know. People are on Facebook to interact with their family and friends, or other people they follow. So using Facebook as a means to market your business needs to happen with a strategy.
I can teach you how to use Facebook to market to a targeted audience. You can even create lookalike audiences and market to them.
And, of course, you need to build a professional page on Facebook that is just for your real estate business. It can be linked to your personal page, but it is separate from that page. People can send messages here, find your website address, see links to your blog posts, and grab your contact information.
Build a Network with Fellow Agents
This just makes sense. You may have your own business, but you are not an island floating alone out there! You need to build relationships with fellow agents to grow your business. This is called networking.
You may have a person who comes to you that needs help in another niche. You can send that person to another agent who specializes in that niche. More than likely, that agent will send clients to you that she doesn’t specialize in but that you do.
Develop Email Marketing Strategies That Convert
Email marketing is still an effective way for you to reach out to prospects who may have visited your real estate website but didn't take any further action. Developing your email list-building strategies and creating campaigns customized specifically for each person are both important components of creating successful email campaigns.
The point is to build a strategy that converts prospects into clients. Otherwise, the time and money you are spending on your email campaigns are not serving their purpose. Make those emails count!
Create a Newsletter
I repeat. You need to bring value. Creating a monthly newsletter is another way to bring value to former clients, existing clients, and potential clients. You can inform people about existing market trends and other information relevant to the housing market.
It’s also a great idea to remember that these are regular people who need regular help with their homes! So, you can include home maintenance information and help them keep up with energy-saving tips and current home decor ideas.
Optimize Your Presence On Real Estate Listing Sites
Having your own presence on popular real estate sites such as Zillow or Trulia gives potential customers the chance to research information about you before engaging you directly. Having comprehensive profiles with good photos increases your chances of people contacting you directly so make sure all the details shared on those sites are up-to-date.
Keep in mind that people search on Zillow and Trulia on a regular basis without any help from a real estate professional. This means they may not have an agent representing them and you could be the perfect person to help. So, best foot forward!
Use PPC Advertising To Increase Brand Awareness
Paid search engine advertising (PPC) campaigns, more well-known as pay-per-click advertising, can be used affordably by real estate agencies both large and small depending on their individual budget constraints. Using Google Ads allows agencies to target the keywords related to their business that is currently being searched by users allowing them to capture new leads amid the competition in their local market.
Websites with Your Blog
I think I’ve made it clear that to market yourself well in real estate you must have a well-established online presence. Social media, emails, plus a website with a blog are smart choices when building your brand.
You can’t rely on social media and email. People need to be able to find you from a business card, a mailer, or an internet search. And you need a solid website for them to find all of your information!
Think of a professional website as your time to shine. Seriously. You can show people how you plan to help them and add a blog that provides valuable information to anyone and everyone who stops by. A blog is a totally unselfish way to serve others by providing value.
Position Yourself as an Expert
Use various social media channels like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok to engage in posts with helpful information and answers to real estate questions. You can create intentional posts that deliver information to the audience.
Again. You are providing value through social media. The more consistently you provide value, the better because people will begin to trust you and seek you out as a source of reliable information.
Add Postcards to Your Online Presence for a Better Advantage
An online presence is an absolute must these days in pretty much any business. The most successful agents don’t stop there. They take things a step further and add postcards or mailers to their marketing efforts.
Postcards may seem outdated or elementary, but you’d be wrong about that. Postcards and mailers are still used because they just plain work. Postcards don’t have the same reach as Facebook and Instagram, but you can certainly reach a more targeted audience with them.
You can spread your name throughout a neighborhood and people talk to their neighbors. People will notice your name on the yard signs when you list that home for sale. And that listing may very well lead to more listings! This neighbor-to-neighbor recognition is your friend!
But First …
Before you do any marketing you need to do a couple of important things. You can’t market to people well if you don’t know what you’re about or who you’re marketing to.
So, define your brand. This means you need to know exactly what you are about. You need to be clear on how and why you want to serve people, what you can do for them, what your values are, and what your vision is.
Second, you need to know who the heck you’re looking for. If you think of marketing like hide and seek, you can’t seek after people if you don’t know what they look like. You have to define your target audience!
Don’t waste time, money, and energy on a marketing campaign that has no real focus. You must define your brand and identify your target audience first before you begin any sort of marketing campaign.
In the End
Take all of these suggestions to heart and put them into practice to build a strong marketing foundation for your real estate business. You can do this!
I want to help you succeed in your real estate career. My team wants to help you succeed in your real estate career. So, please feel free to reach out to us. We’ve got the tools and the experience to give your career wings!
