One of the most critical elements to building a successful real estate career is learning how to get clients. Real estate income is based on commissions earned on each deal you close, so the more clients you work with, the more money you will be able to earn. It’s common for new real estate agents to find that it takes time to get clients. Therefore, it’s important to devote a considerable amount of time to this aspect of your business during the first year.
Once you become more established, you’ll most likely generate a large percentage of your business from referrals and repeat clients. But as you’re starting out, you’ll need to devote time to marketing your business to generate leads and find new clients.
While some brokerages may provide some assistance with leads, you will be responsible for handling most of your lead generation efforts. You can’t rely on your brokerage to supply you with a steady stream of clients that will help you build up your fledgling business from scratch. Therefore, marketing your business becomes a critical way to get clients when you’re starting out.
This is why the selection of a brokerage to join is so important. A good brokerage will have training programs and tools to teach and assist you with getting clients.
The following tactics will help you successfully market your real estate business so that you can build a thriving career.
It’s also important to include a blog on your website that you update regularly. Blogging is one of the easiest ways to provide valuable information to your target audience. 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 good brokerage will help you with this important aspect of your marketing. In fact, your brokerage will often provide you with a website.
A strong social media presence will provide an effective complement to your website marketing efforts. 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.
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:
Some ways to build a system for generating referrals include:
Most successful real estate agents build their client base predominantly from referrals and repeat clients. The way they’re able to do this is by building a sphere of influence.
Your sphere of influence refers to the people in your life who know, respect and trust you. This can involve close friends, family members, loose acquaintances, prior clients, professional connections, and just about anyone else who you may be able to influence by encouraging them to act. The larger your sphere of influence, the easier it will be for you to build a thriving business based on referrals and repeat clients.
You’ll want to build a database that sorts your sphere of influence into three categories:
While the “A” clients are the most important ones to have, you still need all three tiers of clients in your CRM database at all times. Make sure you place the greatest emphasis on marketing to your “A” clients (including meeting with them socially), while still devoting significant time and effort to your “B” clients. Your “C” clients should receive the least attention, but should not be ignored. These clients should be placed on your newsletter list in hopes of moving them to an “A” or “B” client in the future. Your newsletter is an extremely effective marketing tool, allowing you to keep in touch with these clients with minimal time or cost invested on your end.
In general, we’ve found that having 20 “A” clients represents the tipping point to maintaining a successful real estate business. This is a very realistic number to achieve.
Building a sphere of influence takes time and consistent effort, but this work will pay huge dividends once you’re able to maintain a steady stream of clients from referrals and repeat business. The following tips will help you build your sphere of influence.
Start by making a list of everyone you know. This includes:
Once you’ve generated your list, you can begin reaching out to everyone on it. The first contact with the people on your list must be handled properly. Your outreach should be personal, and your conversation should be focused on relationship building rather than jumping into a sales pitch.
While it takes more time, one-on-one interactions are critical to building these relationships. Whenever possible, reach out by phone for this initial contact. If you don’t have the person’s phone number, send a personal chat message over social media that is geared towards your specific relationship with that person rather than a generic message.
Remember, the point of these calls is to deepen connections with these people to build trust that will hopefully lead to referrals over time. Your initial contact needs to focus on this relationship building aspect of the process.
You’ll need to dedicate regular time to building your sphere of influence and consistently engage the people currently in your sphere. Make sure you schedule regular follow-ups with the people you’ve spoken with and look for opportunities to reach out to new people you meet in your life. Managing these contacts in a CRM database will make this process much easier to navigate.
While regular contact with the people in your sphere is important to nurture and grow these relationships, the way you contact them is also important. You’ll want to use a variety of different communication methods with each person on your list. Your regular outreach schedule should include a mix of phone calls, social media messages, and video chats to supplement your email efforts. You can use your CRM system to manage the frequency and mode of contact used with each person on your list.
Some potential workshops you can host include:
Make sure to get the names and contact information of anyone who attends your events so that you can add them to your list and begin nurturing this new relationship.
If you’re looking to start a career as a real estate agent, Colorado Real Estate School can set you up for success as you get established in the industry. Our online real estate classes contain all the important information you need to pass your real estate exam and build the foundation for a thriving business.
Our online real estate courses allow you to work at your own pace and fit your learning into your busy schedule. You’ll benefit from the most comprehensive content available, and all our courses are developed by local, licensed real estate professionals who can provide the perspective you need to understand the nuances of the real estate industry. You’ll also have access to our VideoConnect Success Learning System™ containing the largest library of instructor-led video content in the industry. Our video content provides an authentic classroom experience from the comfort of your own home.
At Colorado Real Estate School, we’re truly committed to your success. That’s why we back up all our courses with our exclusive TruSupport Pass Guarantee™. If you don’t pass your real estate exam on the first try, you’ll receive extended access to all course materials. In addition, one of our instructors will go through your test results to identify the specific areas where you struggled. We’ll then work with you to develop an individualized study plan that will ensure you focus on the right subjects and improve your results when you retake the exam.
Contact us today to learn more about our online real estate courses.
