While real estate can be a lucrative field, it’s also challenging to build a successful career. It can be so difficult to achieve success that 87% of real estate agents last less than five years in the industry. Getting your real estate license and joining a brokerage that can provide the effective mentoring you need are important first steps to take in your new career, but they don’t guarantee success. To build a lucrative career, you must not only master your craft, but also become a savvy marketer.
Whether you’re a brand new real estate agent or a seasoned veteran, it’s critical to have an effective marketing strategy. In addition, you must invest a significant amount of time and financial resources into this part of your business. Otherwise, you won’t be able to generate enough clients to build a successful career.
Unless you have a stellar reputation built over many years and are able to generate enough referral business to maintain a steady pipeline of new clients, you’ll need to devote a good portion of your work week to marketing. The inherent nature of the real estate business requires you to be a marketing professional in addition to an agent. There are several reasons for this.
While you are for the most part connected with a brokerage, you aren’t exactly an employee of that brokerage. Instead, you’re running your own independent business out of your brokerage. While you will have access to certain resources, including mentoring by more seasoned agents on your team, it will be your responsibility to generate your own leads. Your brokerage will not supply you with a steady stream of clients.
In addition, your income is generally dependent on commissions as a real estate agent. The more deals you close, the more money you make. If you’re unable to generate leads that provide you with a steady supply of clients, it will be extremely difficult to earn a good living as a real estate agent. Your marketing efforts will be critical to your ability to close enough deals to reach your income goals.
A study by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) found that 73% of home buyers only interviewed one agent when searching for a new home. So not only is it important for you to build awareness of your business, but it’s critical that you’re able to reach potential leads quickly. Otherwise, you’ll lose out on these clients to other real estate agents who have a more effective marketing strategy.
The following tactics will help you successfully market your real estate business so that you can build a thriving career.
Real estate marketing has evolved over the past decade, and now the primary way to reach your target audience is online. Approximately 97% of home buyers now use the internet to find their new home. With virtually all prospective buyers starting their home search online, it’s critical to have a strong online marketing strategy if you want to be a successful real estate agent.
The challenge to developing an online marketing strategy is that it requires a specific skillset and an understanding of an industry you may not be familiar with as a real estate licensee. You’ll need to understand how to leverage a variety of different methods and platforms to generate leads, build trust with them, and nurture them until they become a client.
For example, you will need to understand how to get your website to show up on search engines, and you will also need to understand how to set up effective paid search campaigns. In addition, you’ll need to understand how to navigate a variety of social media platforms to maximize your ROI on these efforts. If you utilize email marketing strategies, these will require an entirely different skill set.
Many of the tips below will focus on specific online marketing strategies. Regardless of which online methods you choose, you’ll need to take the time to learn how to implement them properly.
The foundation of your online marketing efforts should always be a website and a blog. While social media is an effective complement to your website, it should not serve as a substitute.
Your website is where your leads will go to learn more about you, your experience, and your business. It is where you have the best opportunity to build your brand and convey your messaging about what makes you different from other agents. It also provides you with a place to post:
While there are tools that will help you build a website on your own, it’s worth it to invest in a professional website that optimizes both the aesthetics and functionality of your site. This will provide the best experience for your audience, make you look more professional, and help you stand out from your competitors.
It’s also important to include a blog on your website that you update regularly. Your blog is where you can provide the educational content that will build trust with potential leads. It will also help your SEO (search engine optimization) results, which is necessary to ensure your website is found on Google. Make sure your blog topics focus on the common questions and keywords your target clients are searching for to drive the most traffic to your website.
Blogging is one of the easiest ways to provide valuable information to your target audience. Over time, you’ll be able to attract a larger number of readers, which will pay huge dividends in your lead generation efforts. If your information is relatable and informative, people will be more likely to share it with others, which will provide an additional boost to your lead generation efforts. As part of your blog, you should provide visually engaging and interactive content such as:
A strong social media presence will provide an effective complement to your website marketing efforts. While most people don’t specifically look on social media to find a home, it provides an effective platform that helps you build your brand and expand your audience.
When creating social media content, it’s important to provide material that is both useful and engaging. This can involve sharing educational guides and other informative content that will help convince people to visit your website. You should also post content that is entertaining and showcases your personality since most people are more likely to work with a real estate agent who they find to be likeable. The more engaging your content, the more likely it is to be shared by others, which will further expand your audience and build your brand.
While social media marketing is an important strategy to include in your efforts, it’s also important to understand that each social media platform functions in its own unique way and has its own demographic audience. Therefore, you’ll need to tailor your social media marketing efforts to the platforms you use.
Facebook is still the best social media resource for real estate agents, as it has the largest subset of users that will be receptive to your efforts. For this reason, you should prioritize creating a Facebook Business page to help grow your brand. Make sure you’re actively posting on your page and that you provide value in every post. Avoid overly salesy posts that will make your audience feel like they’re always being pitched to. Instead, provide useful information or fun content that helps showcase your personality and brand.
You can also create paid ads on Facebook to target a specific audience. Often, Facebook ads can be an effective way to expand your reach on the platform.
Instagram is another extremely popular social media platform that allows you to reach a large number of people and build your brand. Your Instagram profile is a great place to post your most engaging photos and videos that promote your listings. You can also post relevant lifestyle imagery that will help you spread the word about your business.
As with Facebook, you can pay for targeted ads on Instagram. These ads give you the ability to select your target audience, specify your budget, choose between a variety of post types, and control the length of your promotion.
LinkedIn is a platform that caters to a more professional audience. If this is the target demographic for one or more of your properties, then LinkedIn may be an effective place to promote your business.
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to stay top of mind for prospective buyers and sellers. Not every prospect that contacts you is going to be ready to make a purchase or sell their home right away. Therefore, it’s important to have a tool to maintain contact with your audience so that they keep you in mind once they’re ready to act. Email marketing is the ideal solution to achieve this goal.
The key to a successful email marketing campaign is to provide value in every newsletter you send. To accomplish this, emphasize educational information over promotional information. Some good items to include in your newsletter are:
You’ll also need to establish an effective schedule for your newsletters to ensure your audience remains interested. Sending emails too frequently will bombard your audience with information and increase the likelihood that they’ll unsubscribe. A schedule that is too infrequent will have the opposite effect – it won’t allow you to remain top of mind, and you may lose out on some prospects when they decide they’re ready to act. For many real estate agents, a monthly or bimonthly newsletter provides the right frequency to achieve your goals.
When representing sellers, it’s important to showcase the property in the most engaging way possible. This will help you more effectively appeal to potential buyers. Two effective tools to improve the way properties are presented are virtual tours and drone photography.
Virtual tours provide a video walkthrough for a property. This will provide buyers with a more engaging and realistic insight into how the space would look in person. Virtual tours also give you an opportunity to showcase your personality in the videos you shoot.
You can make your virtual tours even more engaging by pairing them with drone photography that creates a 3D map of the property. When people see overhead drone footage that shows them how the property lays out and the surrounding landscape, they are more likely to schedule an in-person showing.
Zillow has grown into one of the primary online real estate resources used by buyers and sellers. With 198 million average monthly users, it is important to maintain a strong presence on this platform. You can create a profile on Zillow, allowing you to share your listings with a large audience and connect with new potential clients. You can follow these steps to set up your Zillow profile.
Once you’ve created your profile, invest time on a regular basis to build it up and make it look impressive. Make sure you ask for reviews on Zillow from your clients after each successful transaction, as this will help you use your profile to send powerful trust signals to potential new clients. Once you’ve built a solid profile, Zillow has the potential to drive a tremendous number of new contacts, allowing you to rapidly expand your leads. Just keep in mind that you must pay for Zillow leads, so it’s important to create a budget for this aspect of your marketing.
Are you asking your clients for referrals? If not, you’re missing out on an important way to generate new business. In fact, 41% of sellers find their real estate agent through a referral from family and friends. As you become more established, referrals can potentially become one of your primary lead generation tools. Since it takes time for this marketing strategy to pay dividends, make sure to start building a system for referrals as soon as you launch your real estate business.
It should come as no surprise that referrals are such valuable sources of new leads. Most people feel more comfortable reaching out to a real estate agent referred by a friend or family member than contacting someone with whom they have no prior knowledge.
Some ways to build a system for generating referrals include:
Marketing your real estate business is critical to your success. Whether you’re a new agent getting your Colorado real estate license or an experienced agent looking for continuing education courses, we have you covered. In either situation, our online real estate courses can provide you with a foundation that will help you develop a successful marketing strategy.
When you take our online real estate licensing course, you’ll benefit from our Experts on Demand Approach™ focused on helping you pass your exam and acquire the knowledge necessary for career success. All of our online real estate courses meet the Colorado educational requirements for licensing, and you have the ability to work through the materials at any time that fits into your schedule.
Our Experts on Demand Approach™ sets you up for success with:
In addition, our TruSupport Pass Guarantee™ provides additional support to make sure you’re able to pass your exam. If you don’t pass on the first try, our team will review your results and work with you to develop a personalized test success plan, which includes extended access to all course materials, as you prepare to take the exam again.
Contact us today to learn more about our online real estate courses.
