It’s been a record-setting year in real estate. With historically low-interest rates, low inventory, and rising home prices, it remains a strong seller’s market in many parts of the country.
If you’re just starting out as a real estate agent, you are entering this profession at an exciting time. Now that you have your license and are ready to start helping people find their dream homes, it’s essential to create real estate marketing strategies.
Are you wondering how to market yourself as a real estate agent? If so, stick with us as we go through a comprehensive list of marketing tips to help you have an incredible first year as an agent.
Make a Website
People often research online first when they consider purchasing a product or service. If you’re just beginning your realtor marketing strategy, an excellent first step is to create a website.
On your site, you include your new and previous listings. You can also have other tools such as a mortgage calculator or a quiz to help prospective buyers determine which neighborhood in your area is ideal for them.
Make Sure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
More and more, people are using their phones or tablets to access the internet rather than computers. If your site doesn’t work flawlessly on a wide variety of devices, you will lose clients who can’t be bothered dealing with a website that isn’t mobile-friendly.
Create a Blog
Once you have a website, you should build a blog to help optimize your site. A SEO (search engine optimization) strategy helps to make sure that you rank highly on search engines when searching for local real estate agents in your area.
You can then create content suited for both buyers and sellers in your region. This content can include a wide variety of topics, including information about qualifying for a mortgage, how to help your house sell faster, and posts about local attractions and history.
Guest posting is another good idea when it comes to marketing yourself as an agent. You can learn more about guest posting strategies here.
Make a Google My Business Page
It’s easy to set up a Google My Business page, and it helps users find you in Google search, on Google maps, and through Google+. No matter how much of a beginner you are when learning how to market yourself, creating a Google My Business page is a simple and necessary task.
Partner With Local Businesses
A big part of becoming a successful real estate agent is building a referral network. Consider partnering with local coffee shops, clothing boutiques, and home decor showrooms to help promote your listings. You could even have businesses set up pop-up shops in homes where you’re hosting open houses to create a truly memorable experience.
Create Email Marketing Campaigns
Beyond helping you have an internet presence, your website is also a place to generate leads. Consider having a landing page or a pop-up to sign up for a mailing list so you can start building your email list of potential clients.
You can then send out a monthly newsletter that provides information on the local market or a roundup of your recent blog posts. On top of that, you can reach out to your email list with new listings every time they hit the MLS.
In these messages, you’ll want to include images and a link to the listing. You could even have virtual staging of the home and a video walk-through of each property.
Build a Zillow Profile
Every month, 188 million people visit Zillow, and it’s safe to assume that several of those Zillow users are someplace in the home buying or selling process.
Tap into the power of their market by creating a Zillow profile. On Zillow, you can share your listings to connect with potential clients from a large audience.
Create a Referral System
One of the common ways that real estate agents find new clients is through referrals. After the deal has been closed for a few months, consider following up with both buyers and sellers to ask if they’d be interested in providing a referral. You might even think about including incentives for past clients to pass your name along to other buyers and sellers.
Use High-Quality Photographers
When you come up with real estate marketing ideas, you’ll want to think about incorporating real estate images into your website, blog, listings, and advertising campaign.
Humans are fundamentally visual creatures, and the quality of the images you use impacts how potential clients see you. When listing a property, you want to hire professional real estate photographers who make any property look appealing. Additionally, you might consider drone photography to highlight your listing. Drone photography can elevate your brand as it’s on the cutting edge of real estate marketing technology.
Are you wondering what high-quality photographs look like for real estate listings? Check out our gallery here.
Offer Home Valuations as a Lead Generator
When people are thinking about selling their home, it can be challenging to know how much they can expect to list it for. On your website, consider including a home valuation tool where visitors can enter their address to find out roughly how much their home is worth in the current market. For example, you can create a real estate valuation tool using a calculator builder and generate leads that way.
The strategy is to set up a lead form requesting their email address to see the report’s results. This technique provides new leads that you can add to your email list and as a contact.
Real Estate Social Media Marketing
When you’re embarking down the road of realtor marketing, one thing you’ll want to do is set up social media accounts for your business.
Social media is both a way to promote your properties and generate new leads. You can also post your blog articles on your channels to drive more traffic to your website.
You can also run paid promotions on different social media sites. For example, you can use Instagram ads to focus your advertising on your target audience and grow your brand.
If you’re wondering whether you can use TikTok for marketing yourself as a real estate agent, check out this article.
And if you’re looking for advice regarding marketing on Instagram, take a look at this.
Become Active on Forums
Believe it or not, sites like Reddit are helpful when learning how to market yourself. By finding appropriate subreddits and participating, you provide insights to people thinking of buying or selling a home. You can also sign up for local subreddits, where you can offer helpful information for people who are considering relocating to the area.
Reddit isn’t the only forum that can be useful, either. Search around for relevant forums to position yourself as an expert in real estate and your local region.
(Looking for more advice? Check out this listing presentation guide.)
Check Out Your Competition
Different regions of the country might have different standards when it comes to marketing for realtors. By looking at your competitors, you can get a sense of how they make their websites, marketing themselves, and what they appear not to be doing.
This information can be invaluable in that it gives you both ideas about how to market yourself and ways to make yourself stand out from the crowd.
Be Easy to Reach
Ensure that your contact information is easy to find on your website and your social media pages. When someone does reach out to you, make sure that you get back to them promptly. Otherwise, you run the risk of losing their business to someone else.
As a real estate agent, the work hours are unconventional. If you choose not to answer a call after 5 pm, you may lose out on potential clients. Try to have availability to speak with people at any (reasonable) time of day. Additionally, have some flexibility to work with their schedule.
Go Old School With Business Cards
Business cards are still very relevant in the world of real estate marketing. Make sure your business cards are sharp-looking, and then hand them out at every possible appropriate opportunity.
Position Yourself as an Expert of Your Area
When you are selling a property for a client, you aren’t just selling the house. You’re selling the whole region at some level. Incorporate exciting articles about the area as well as high-quality photographs showcasing the highlights of the location.
Does your area have a fascinating history? Is there a prominent geological feature that is worth knowing about for potential buyers? These are the types of things that you will want to position yourself as an expert on.
On top of that, you will want to show that you know everything there is to know about the local economy and industry. When people move from out of town, they will appreciate having someone who can help them get a sense of their new home.
Send Out Mailers
You might think that the world of print advertising is dead, but that isn’t necessarily the case. Digital advertising saturates people’s social channels, and it can be a relief to hold something physical in their hand that isn’t flashing at them, introducing countless pop-ups.
When you have a list of potential buyers or qualified leads, consider sending out postcards within the zip codes you’re active in. Check out these direct mail ideas for realtors.
Keep In Touch
It’s a good idea to keep in touch with past buyers and sellers, even after months and years have passed. It’s good to make sure that they remember you so that if they have a friend or family member thinking about buying or selling, they can pass your info along. They also might hire you again if they end up moving from their current location in a few years.
These Real Estate Marketing Ideas Can Help Your Career Start With a Bang
When it comes to real estate marketing ideas, the sky is the limit. Your goal as a real estate agent is to make as many people aware that you are the go-to realtor in town as possible. While this is a solid list to help you get started with your real estate marketing plan, feel free to get creative and get the word out in ways that feel right to you.
Are you looking to take your real estate photography to the next level? Are you done with having inconsistent images, lackluster performance, and an inefficient scheduling process? If so, it’s time for you to check out Virtuance!
It doesn’t matter whether you are marketing thousands of listings or one when it comes to Virtuance. We are here to provide high-quality images that are scientifically proven to get positive results.
If you’re interested in learning more about our visual marketing solutions, click here.
