The real estate world can be a very competitive place. It can be competitive for home owners trying to buy or sell a place, but it can also be competitive for Realtors. There are over 100 000 active Real Estate agents in Ontario alone. How do you appeal to someone who has never met you before but requires your services? Family, friends, and referrals are a good place to start. Having a website is a definite must. Anyone considering working with you or attaining your expertise will be checking you out first to see if you are credible and legit. Your website is where they determine this. If it is outdated or doesn’t display well on mobile your leads will typically move on to your competitors websites until they find one that satisfies their reassurance. Here’s some Web design trends for 2018 if you want to read further.
Billboards are not the best for all industries but can create great exposure for Realtors who work locally. Your face becomes familiar as they make their daily commute to work or drive up to their dream retirement location for the weekend. This leads us into our first tip.
Tip #1: Get Exposure
Realtors are a rare breed. You do not run a common business, but can be self employed or part of a larger team working together to buy and sell. YOU are your BRAND. People can’t work with you if they don’t know you exist. You don’t get to hide behind a business logo. As much as you are in the industry of real estate, you are also in the industry of people. You will get great exposure by Connecting with your Community. Use your website and social media to showcase your community involvement. Participate in relevant social groups and get involved by volunteering and/or donating to different things going on in your town.
Tip #2: Events, Events, Events!!!
Go to events. Host events. Network at events. Meet lots and lots of people! Use social media to promote your events and use your events to promote your social media. Use events to collect emails for potential leads. You can generate lots of great leads just by meeting people in person. After you meet your leads, nurture them. Create your tribe. You can do this with Facebook, LinkedIn, Newsletters, and more. You can use a service like Mailchimp to organize those great contacts and email them relevant information. Creating connections at events allows you to meet people in a no stress environment where their arms are not crossed and minds are open.
Tip #3: Use Your Blog
Updating your website with your blog is great for your SEO (ranking your website on Google)! But, it also shows your target audience that you are awesome at what you do. Show your visitors that you are current with market trends and you know what’s going on in your area. You are an authority in your industry and there is no reason to search anywhere else on the web because everything they are looking for is right on your website. If they are ready to list their house or buy they can easily fill in your contact form. If they want more information, great! They can just sign up for your monthly newsletter and get a reminder sent to their email when you post your next fantastic blog that keeps them in the loop until they are ready to make that big decision and list with you. Share your blogs on social media! You have a website for a reason, so make it enticing for people to come check it out. Create a following and reward them.
Tip #4: Stay Current
Facebook will reward you if you use their most current tools and features. Right now they love you the most if you spend money on ads, but there are other ways to get in front of people by using their features. There is a big push on Facebook Live Video, Stories, and Frames. How do they reward you for using their features? They bump your status to the top of the news-feed for your followers to see. Live videos can be used for tours of homes you have listed, open houses, dream homes, community events….. Instagram also has stories very similar to Facebook (makes sense because Facebook owns Instagram). Check out the Instagram Best Practices for Real Estate!
If you don’t have a lot of time then focus on the Social Platform that makes the most sense for you. Overall, Facebook is probably the most popular and safest bet. A lot of business owners are worried about Facebook news-feed right now, with their official announcement of changing their algorithms so more content from family and friends, as well as content worth talking about is showing up more. Make your Facebook Page worth Following. I think Facebook is making the move to make the platform a better place and encouraging more relevant content that starts conversations and less spam. This should get you excited because this can benefit you.
