Being a real estate agent is about selling yourself as much as it’s about selling property.
Reputation is one of the key drivers in what separates average agents from the real estate greats, and it’s word of mouth assisted by reflective marketing and consistency that builds these reputations. Being in real estate is an undeniably tough gig and is considered to be a ‘make or break’ industry, as such it’s imperative to use marketing to differentiate yourself from the competition.
Marketing Advice And Tips For Real Estate Agents
Social Media
Social media, although ever-changing, requires planning and as real estate marketing thought leader, Steve Osborn says, “if you overvalue flexibility, you’ve already lost”.
Without a plan in place for social media channels, you’re at risk of rushed posting, low engagement and incohesive social marketing. Instead, you should look to make a plan that allows you to be flexible when required. It is also recommended that social media content is genuine but not generic as you’re not only marketing your services but marketing yourself as a full-package. It’s difficult to recall someone who doesn’t stand out or strike a chord with people, so use social media to build long-term connections.
Additionally, visuals are vital for social media. If you’re not savvy with style and design (many in real estate aren’t and it’s not a bad thing either) we recommend working with a designer to create your social content. This ensures that positive initial impressions are achieved and content is more likely to be engaged with as a result.
Blogs
Blogs are key for website SEO but did you know they can also single agents out as local leaders with unparalleled real estate knowledge. Before adding blogs to your marketing plan, there are a few things that you will need to consider. These are the angle in which you will write, the tone you want to convey, what is of interest to your audience and whether your writing skills are up to scratch. Spelling mistakes or jilted writing can send readers packing so it’s imperative to have any blogs reviewed by another person. Alternatively, it may suit you to work with a copywriter to create blogs on your behalf to better convey your message.
Once blogs are ready we recommend sharing them through your marketing channels, including social media and email.
Magazines, Reports and Content
Similar to how blogs can elevate an agent’s reputation, so too can magazines and reports. Reports of the past typically only included statistics but as times and tastes have changed, new reports are now featuring market commentary, local interest pieces and unique real estate advice. Some agencies are pooling resources to go one step further by delivering quarterly magazines that become favoured publications in their local area.
If you’re keen on the idea of a magazine or content publication, this is definitely something you will need to talk to a creative and marketing agency about. There are a multitude of skills, resources and experience that go into creating a worthy publication – also you’ll want the design looking schmick and that’s exactly what designers do.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is a staple within real estate, but just because it’s an expected source of marketing and communication doesn’t mean doesn’t mean it’s not worthy of focus and effort. Real estate has an incredibly long customer lifecycle and as such your emails may not be relevant to your entire database – leaving you with two options. Segmenting and sending relevant emails to relevant contacts or creating an email that can be sent to your entire database that has pieces of interest no matter where a homeowner is in their journey.
Additionally, with any emails we recommend creating custom email signatures that refer to and link to any digital marketing pieces you may have, such as reports and magazines.
Pre-Listing and Listing Kits
A real estate Pre-listing Kit is one of the first and most important steps in convincing a potential vendor to list their home with you. A Pre-listing Kit provides potential sellers with all the information they need to know about dealing with you and your real estate agency before they meet with you.
90% of all communication is visual, so it’s important that you have clear visuals in your real estate sales listing kit that allow you to communicate key ideas and direct the conversation.
Summary
In summary, marketing yourself as a real estate agent is more than delivering the best marketing. It’s a process of creating marketing that accurately and positively reflects yourself as well as your services. Take the time to understand what your market wants from you, develop your marketing plan around this and your objectives, then deliver this consistency over time.