It’s not easy being a real estate agent these days.
Before the curtain of COVID-19 fell over the country earlier this year, the real estate market was hot as Death Valley summer day. That has cooled a bit in recent months, with fears of spreading the pandemic forcing would-be homeowners to reconsider if buying their dream home in 2020 was still worth it.
To keep homebuyers in the market, real estate agents have to get creative with their marketing themselves as the competition for a depleting homebuying customer base has become even fiercer, which is why you should follow marketing tips for real estate agents to up their marketing game.
So how can you market your real estate business while keeping ahead of the competition? These handy marketing tips for real estate agents will keep you ahead of the game.
Build Up Your Brand
You can’t get ahead if your name isn’t out there. This is what these marketing tips for real estate agents are all about, branding yourself.
Think of yourself as a brand. For you to sell a house, you’ll have to get your name out there in an industry that is becoming increasingly competitive. The real estate industry is one that’s driven by sales, and this thinking can make real estate agents think of the short term.
That can hamper how you market your brand. Think of your real estate brand in the long-view, as building your brand and getting it out there will allow potential homebuyers to come to you, not the other way around.
Be Social On Social Media
Over the past several years, social media has greatly influenced how we communicate. Nowadays, businesses of all stripes have used the power of social media to build and market their brands.
As a real estate agent, you should harness the power of social media to build on your brand. Market your home portfolio on Facebook and Instagram. Consider using YouTube to post videos of home tours. YouTube, especially, has become a valuable tool to showcase the homes in your portfolio, given the uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a bit of a downside to this, as potential clients are 10-times more likely to find agents by search engines than by social media.
However, with in-person home tours currently curtailed thanks to the pandemic, social media can still fill in the gap of showing off your portfolio to potential buyers.
Make Sure Your Website Is Friendly To Smartphones
Part of marketing tips for real estate agents is improving your social media game, don’t forget to pay attention to your website.
According to Statista, 50% of web page views come from smartphones. Looking at that statistic, you should make sure that your website is tailor-made for potential homebuyers who are increasingly using their phones to search real estate listings. If your website is hostile for smartphones, a large number of users won’t return to your site, resulting in lost business.
Those same site troubles can also do some damage to your brand reputation. Fifty-seven percent of smartphone users told SocPub that not only will they return to that site, but they will also not recommend those sites to their peers, which is a big blow to your brand.
The main takeaway here is that you should not overlook making your website as mobile-friendly as possible. You don’t want to give off the impression that you don’t keep up your website, which could, in turn, be a bigger blow to your reputation than you may realize.
Business Cards Are Your Friend
New age marketing tips for real estate agents (such as this one) will ask you to think outside of the box. It seems that in a social media-driven business climate, the business card may be obsolete given the fact that you can reach potential buyers instantly.
The business card, however, still has tremendous value within the real estate industry and making sure that your card stands out from the pack and get your brand out there. Don’t lose faith in the business card.
Be Accessible
Making sure your brand is on point wouldn’t matter if you’re not accessible to potential homebuyers.
Put your contact info out there for all those to see. Put your contact info on your webpage. Put your info on your social media channels. Wherever you can add your contact info, do it so that your real estate company can be out there for potential homebuyers to reach out to if they’re shopping for a new home. Accessibility is a huge key to upping your marketing game.
Showcase Your Market
A part of the real estate business is marketing houses. However, you will be surprised to know just how many potential home buyers look at the surrounding area to see if that market is for them.
Not only are your showing off a home, but you should also show off the surrounding area. Maybe do a list of things that a new homeowner should do within their area. Talk up how great the school system is. Parents with young kids will want to know what the top preschools are in their area, so market how great the schools are in a particular area. How great the neighborhood amenities are. Heck, even go as far as promoting your area’s restaurant and cultural scene.
One of the best marketing tips for real estate agents is to get the word out about how great your market is is to use stunning local images to capture the beauty of a city, suburb, or town with local landmarks. Look to hire a professional photographer to take stunning photos of your market that you can show off to potential homebuyers. By marketing the area, you will give the home that you’re selling added life, and word will also get out about how knowledgeable you are about the market.
Grab A Local Sponsor
What better way to get your name out to the community than to sponsor local events?
By becoming a sponsor, you’ll provide brand recognition and send out the signal that you’re an integral part of the community. Sponsor a local sports team or school events, or even sponsor a popular festival in your market. By being a sponsor, it will go a long way to upping your marketing brand.
Start Up A Blog To Get Your Name Out There
Potential homeowners are already bombarded with ads from numerous realtors looking for their business.
Instead of joining in on the onslaught, create a blog post that focuses on your home portfolio and beyond. Content marketing is a great way to market your brand. Maybe you can create a list of the top ways you can sell homes for cash? Or focus your blog around what has potential buyers interested in buying a home. The point is, blogs can be a tremendous asset to your brand, taking you to the next level in your marketing game.
Create Virtual Tours
In this year of COVID-19, doing things in person has become a tricky endeavor. COVID-19 has certainly created issues in the real estate industry, with agents unable to show off their home portfolio in person, thus curtailing the marketing of their brand.
While you can mourn over the temporary loss of showing a home in-person, this is a great time for you to get creative with your marketing game. You don’t have to show potential homebuyers your stunning home portfolio in person. With just a few clicks of the mouse, they can see the inside of a potential new home, from the living room to the garage, from their current one. That’s right, one of the marketing tips for real estate agents is to create virtual tours of your homes so that your potential clients can get a better understanding of the homes they’re searching for without leaving their couch.
With virtual tours, you can give out a detailed and accurate preview of your properties, and there are apps available that will allow you to take 360-degree photos of your properties. Afterward, add them to your website or your social media to get as much traction as possible.
Explore Niche Areas
Marketing yourself in the real estate business can be a cutthroat experience.
With the industry being so competitive, you’ll have to go the extra mile to market yourself and your properties. Instead of doing what other real estate agents are doing, one of the great marketing tips for real estate agents is to go outside of the box and go niche. Push the uniqueness of your properties, from highlighting the exterior tile and stone floors of the sliding glass doors that opens out to a beautiful view, going niche will help you stand out from the crowd.
If you choose to go niche, you will want to market yourself around a certain characteristic by studying every inch of your market. If you see a lot of dog owners looking for homes, become that real estate agent that is perfect for dog owners. Have potential buyers that have big families? Become the agent that specializes in finding the perfect home for families.
By finding your niche, you’ll be able to market yourself and your properties in a unique way that will have potential homebuyers talking and inquiring about your services to find that perfect dream home.
Do Webinars
There are a lot of potential homebuyers out there with a lot of questions about the real estate market, and you are the right person to help navigate and answer those questions.
If you feel comfortable in front of a microphone and camera, try hosting a webinar that will get the attention of potential homebuyers in your market. Maybe host a show that details what folks should look for in a new home? Maybe you can invite a guest to your webinar to discuss the best interior design techniques to use in your new home.
Making your webinar fun but also informative should be part of great marketing tips for real estate agents. It will be a way for viewers to gain a better knowledge of the market and also will allow you to have a new pipeline toward potential buyers. If done right, a webinar can be a win-win situation for your brand.
Write For Local Magazines
If you’re a real estate agent with an inspiring knack for penning a written word, then become a columnist in a local magazine.
These magazines are excellent sources of knowing what’s happening in your area, and they are also excellent sources for potential buyers to learn about the real estate market in their areas. Most local magazines dedicate space to showcase homes and writing stories about real estate, which is why you should get in on the action and see if you can contribute a monthly column talking about real estate.
By doing this, you will market yourself as an expert on the market, and there is nothing potential homebuyers love more than a real estate agent who is knowledgeable about the market.
Showcase Testimonials From Former Clients
As a real estate agent trying to get ahead in the marketing game, you should never, ever overlook the power of testimonials from former clients.
As much marketing as you can do, asking for testimonials from former clients could be one of the tools in your arsenal. Much like reviews, client testimonials will give potential buyers a sense as to how you do business and if you’re the right agent to go with as they try to find their perfect home. Place those golden testimonials front and center on your website and your social media pages so that will be the first thing a potential client sees when they click on your pages.
In conclusion, the real estate industry has become fiercer in recent years. Yes, it can be a lot of pressure, but it also presents a golden opportunity for you to diversify and up your marketing game for your business and your properties.
This requires going outside the norms, which is what these marketing tips for real estate agents are made for. Some of the marketing tips explained above are old standbys such as making your webpage vibrant and friendly, being active on social media, and sponsoring local events
In this day and age, however, you’ll need to tap into your creative energy more to set yourself away from the pack. Become a niche real estate agent, specializing in a certain aspect of the industry that may turn off others like marketing to young people just starting in life. Also, look into contributing to a local magazine and become an expert in your market such as giving potential clients a list of the best professionals to fix home windows.
The bottom line is, whatever you have to do to get your name out there, do that thing while following the marketing tips for real estate agents. It’s all about getting your name out there so that everyone will know who the top real estate agent is in your area.
