5 Steps to Creating A Dynamite Real Estate Marketing Plan

I’m a little crazy about marketing.

I think about it when I’m driving on the turnpike. I watch marketing tutorials and attend webinars for fun. I’ve even been known to - confession - sleep talk about it.

Why? Because smart marketing has the power to turn goals into accomplishments. It’s the keystone of successful business plans. Not to mention, I find it addictingly exciting.

But you don’t have to be “crazy about marketing” to create an effective strategy. Here are 5 basic steps to creating a DYNAMITE Real Estate Marketing Plan:

Step 1: Determine your WHO

Clearly defining a target market is often the hardest step for many agents. If you narrow your focus to a specific type of client or area, then you’re excluding potential clients. And the more people you include, the more opportunities you’ll have. Right?

Wrong. The more targeted you are with your marketing, the more effective you will be.

Brainstorm the attributes of your ideal client. They might be someone you’d like to work with or a representation of past customers. Your ideal clients will become your Customer Personas and the foundation of your marketing strategy.

How to develop a Customer Persona:

• Research their demographics. Think about their general age, income, current location, and where they’d like to call home. How many people live in their household? Are they a first-time homebuyer or an experienced buyer looking to sell their current home?
• Tell their story. This is the step where you really start to visualize their life. Think about their lifestyle and Real Estate goals. Where do they turn for information? What are their struggles when buying or selling a home? Once you know what they’re looking for, you can determine where and how you can provide the answer.
• Give them life. You want to relate to this person like a character in a book. So, give your Customer Persona a name and a photo. Then, put all of their information on a single sheet of paper and display it as a constant reminder.

We have clearly defined Customer Personas in the Marketing Department at ERA Grizzard that guide us throughout our marketing efforts.

They are invaluable when determining where you are marketing, what message you’re presenting, and how you’ll capture potential leads.

Step 2: Set Your Budget

How much money and time do you want to commit to marketing?

Pick a budget that you’re comfortable spending every month and a realistic amount of time you’ll dedicate. Your marketing is an investment in your business and future income, so be honest with yourself.

What budget makes sense for your personal finances, and how much time will you realistically devote?   

Tip: Set aside a percentage of every closing to use towards marketing. You can use this to pay for your monthly budget or as additional spending.

If you have a more modest budget, be prepared to spend more time to offset the difference. Schedule an appointment with yourself to work on your marketing, and consider an accountability buddy to help you stay on track.  

Step 3: Set Your Goals

Your goals need to be specific and attainable within your budget.

Let’s say your goal is to “sell more lakefront homes.” What does that mean exactly? A clearer goal might be - “list 3 lakefront homes in neighborhoods A and B” or “sell 3 lakefront homes to leads generated from my website.”

Tip: Start with a larger goal for the year, and then break it up into smaller goals to stay on track.

Here’s a quick example - last year you created 100 leads on your website. One of those leads became a customer. To close your goal of 3 online leads, your smaller goals might be to triple the amount of leads to your website or increase your conversion rate to 3%.

Step 4: Create Your Strategy

Now, this is my favorite part! What are you going to DO to accomplish your goals?

Tip: Many agents find themselves starting at this step. Don’t be tempted to start a direct mail campaign, increase your online advertising, or anything else until you’ve completed steps 1 to 3.

Think back to your Customer Persona. How can you connect with this potential customer, within your budget, to achieve your goals?

Let’s put it all together in my "Downtown Delilah" example:

• Customer Persona: Downtown Delilah is a first-time homebuyer in her early thirties. She’s excited to own her own home but unsure of the process. While making a sound financial decision is important to her, lifestyle is a top priority. She wants to live in a downtown neighborhood that’s walkable and features plenty to do. She turns to Google for answers and is searching for homes on her iPhone.
• Budget: I’ll commit $350 a month and 3 hours a week to my marketing.
• Goal: I want to generate leads on my website that will result in me selling 5 homes in the downtown area. 
• Strategy: With a budget of $350, I’m going to focus my efforts online and spend more of my time. First, I’m going to sign-up for Google Adwords at $150 a month. My keywords are going to be similar to “homes for sale in downtown xyz” and direct to a page on my site with those listings. 

Next, I’m going to spend my 12 hours a month creating content on my website tailored to Downtown Delilah. I’ll write a post each week about the neighborhood, featured listings, and the homebuying process on my website’s blog. I’m going to answer the questions that Downtown Delilah is searching for.

If I’m creating this content, I’ll need a way to capture the lead. So, I’m going to create a "lead capture". This might be as simple as “subscribe to my blog” or as advanced as using additional offers - think “Download the Ultimate Guide to Downtown XYZ."

I’m going to promote my content through my Facebook Business Page and pay $50 to promote each weekly post. I’m also going to share my posts on LinkedIn and Instagram. 

I’m going to reuse the content I create to help nurture my leads through drip email campaigns for free.

If I lost you anywhere in the strategy portion of that example, don't worry. Your actual strategy might be more or less complex.

What you need to keep in mind is your dedication and ability to execute it. Online marketing might be the most effective way to target Downtown Delilah (and online marketing is no longer the future. It's today!). However, your Customer Persona might respond to traditional advertising such as direct mail or newspaper ads. 

Step 5: Lather, Rinse, Repeat

The most important aspect of your Marketing Plan is your consistency. Whether you’re trying content marketing online or farming a lakefront neighborhood with postcards, you’ll need to give it time to see results.

At the same time, your Marketing Plan shouldn’t be a Ron Popiel “Set it and forget it” Rotisserie. You’ll need to evaluate the return on your marketing and adjust your budget and strategy throughout the year.

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Developing a Marketing Plan helps you not only achieve your goals, it also stops you from wasting time and money. You can more effectively monitor your Return on Investment and pinpoint areas that need reevaluating. So, what are waiting for? 

Here’s to creating and executing a dynamite Real Estate Marketing Plan!

5 Creative Content Marketing Ideas For Real Estate Agents in 2017

If you’re ready for some fresh content marketing ideas for real estate agents in 2017, you’ve come to the right place.

In an age when internet noise couldn’t be any louder, it’s no secret that the need for relevant, compelling content is bigger than ever. Early adopters of the strategic approach, better known as content marketing, are engaging their audiences, increasing brand awareness and positioning themselves as real estate industry thought leaders. Personalizing and cultivating meaningful relationships is now the reality of an effective marketing strategy. And in the real estate industry, agents are challenged to create high-quality content that resonates with their clients.

With the increasing number of social platforms for business, it’s more important than ever to build a presence on each channel by developing platform-specific content. And it’s no easy task. Gone are the days when one carefully crafted message could reach the masses. Today, the most successful content marketing tactics resonate with consumers and add value to their lives, winning their loyalty and business over time. Here are five creative real estate marketing ideas for 2017 you likely haven’t tried yet:

1. Write an eBook

eBooks, or an electronic version of a book, are purposely designed for you to download and read on a digital device. eBooks are a unique multi-channel marketing tool because they are the opposite of a hard sell and successfully drive leads with little to no investment from the consumer. They usually exist to offer expertise and often entertainment to your target audience. While drafting your eBook, keep in mind it should not be solely written on your product or services, rather something in the industry you are very knowledgeable about. If you position yourself an as expert on that topic, readers will be more likely to visit your website later on. In addition, a direct call-to-action (CTA) at the end of your eBook is a must or your efforts will be wasted.

Next you’ll need a stellar blog or landing page to publish your eBook on so you can market and drive traffic to generate leads. Best-practices for promotion involve a multi-channel approach including Facebook ads and email marketing. “We developed a very successful email marketing campaign that consisted of convenient snip-its from the book to current customers. Our audience views us as the experts and we’ve seen a very tangible response from our eBook,” explains Paul Moore, author of The Definitive Guide to Smith Mountain Lake Real Estate. eBooks can tremendously help you build brand loyalty so that the next time your audience is ready to buy a house — you’ll come to mind.

2. Create an Interactive Infographic

According to Psychology Today, research shows the brain—an image processor—is much better at retaining and retrieving information tied to a visual. In the past few years, the use of well-researched and well-designed Infographics (IGs) has drastically increased due to the aid they provide in communication. When these types of visuals appear to the right audience with attention-grabbing graphics and informative content, they resonate extremely well. In addition, they are great pieces of evergreen content and can be used in multi-channel distribution.

When creating an IG you should decide on a topic your audience really wants to know about and then conduct primary research via surveys or interviews. For example, you could do research on the financial steps involved in buying a new home. Customization of design is your best bet to stand out, instead of following out-of-the-box design templates. If you have good data and content, you can turn your IG into a white paper, news release or incorporate pieces of it into an email campaign. Lastly, start promoting your content-rich IG via social channels and boosted campaigns. Using relevant hashtags to real estate in your area, of course.

3. Post Snapchat or Instagram Stories

Because the real estate industry is highly visual, content could reach your audience better on Snapchat or Instagram. Deciding which one you should use can be difficult, but contrasting the “stories features” can help you determine where to invest your efforts depending on your strategy and goals. Instagram pictures or videos can be delivered permanently through the feed, or episodically for 24 hours through Instagram stories. Instagram has 75 million active daily users and 53 percent are ages 18-29. In addition, engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook. So, depending on your specific audience Instagram stories might be great to target young adults who want to buy a new home.

Zillow engages their audience with video and conversation starting questions:

Snapchat promotes timely engagement and audience retention through consistent sharing of snaps, or real-time photos or videos. The app provides no permanent feed, relying solely on 24-hour temporary content posted by users. Filters, customization and branding opportunities vary between platforms. Using stories for your business creates an opportunity to give followers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into your world. You can create buzz over new listings, show teasers of upcoming developments, host giveaways or celebrate your client’s closings.

The opportunities are endless with Snapchat and Instagram stories, just be sure to have a solid content plan.

4. Shoot and Promote Videos

Video marketing can be a costly expense but real estate agents who are using it to showcase listings are seeing a significant return-on-investment (ROI). According to Inman, 85 percent of buyers and sellers want to work with an agent who uses video. In addition, homes listed with video get four times as many inquiries as those listed without video. Whether you hire videographers, or even use your iPhone 7 wide-angle lens, you can’t afford not to invest in video.

Once you’ve shot and edited your videos, YouTube should be your default upload location. More popular than listing websites, YouTube is now the top video search destination for people who are house hunting. Consider setting up your own real estate channel on YouTube and be sure to use search-friendly keywords or property address in your video titles. Once they are published, you can easily share the videos via your other social networks and embed on your website. Drones, or unmanned aircraft systems, are also a great idea because they can show potential buyers in abundant detail aerial views of the entire property, proximity to amenities and much more.

5. Write Storytelling Email Campaigns

The storytelling nature of content marketing is now a strategic priority. Stories humanize your brand, allow you to emotionally connect with consumers and keep them coming back for more. The Science of Storytelling states 92 percent of consumers want brands to make ads that feel like a story. In order to implement, you must deliver content that is linear and expresses a clear narrative.

Your email marketing campaigns should consist of blog-type content, introducing and developing a story for your intended audience. For example, you could tell the story of a historic neighborhood with a direct CTA to check out listings in the area. Or write about what your new listing means to the generations who have grown up there. Then, you could turn those emails into a blog post. For realtors who don’t maintain an up-to-date blog, these types of emails will connect with existing and potential clients by delivering compelling content straight to their inbox.

Wrap-up

Agents who are continuously monitoring user experience get the most ROI out of their real estate marketing efforts. Always have a long-term content plan, backed by research and analytics. Mediocre content might be tempting for a quick fix, but in order to stay competitive and really stand out to your audience, you must be willing to get creative in 2017. By the way, if you could use a hand building your real estate marketing plan, we’re always here to help!

35 Easy & Effective Real Estate Marketing Ideas

The real estate industry has had some interesting ups and down over the past decade - NAR (National Association of Realtors) membership hit its all-time high back in 2006 with 1,357,000 realtors before dropping dramatically with the housing financial crisis. However, since its rock bottom in 2012 (with 999,000 members), it has been steadily increasing, and with nearly 1,100,000 members in 2014, the competition among realtors is heating up.

The competition is fierce, and these days you’ll need expert online and offline marketing skills to set yourself apart from the pack.

While real estate agents are still key in the home buying process, buyers are increasingly looking to do more leg work online before involving the experts. A study from the National Association of Realtors showed that 92% of buyers use the internet to begin their house hunting quest, driving home the vital need for real estate agents to have an active online presence. If you're not active, engaging, and networking online, then you're missing out.

Here are our 35 best real estate marketing ideas for those looking to win the real estate marketing game.

1. Set Yourself Up For Social.

Make sure you have social media accounts on all the big networks (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and even Instagram if you snap a lot of house pics). Interact with users, share good press, and promote your properties.

2. Add Social Sharing To Property Pages.

Chances are, home shoppers are eager to share their top housing pics with friends and family, so make it easy for home buyers to email and share various properties online by adding social sharing buttons.

3. Keep An Eye On The Competition.

What are other realtors in your area doing? What do their websites look like? How active are they on social media? Take note of what competitors are doing – then avoid their mistakes and replicate their success!

4. Make Yourself Easy to Contact.

Put your contact info on every page of your website. Ideally, make an impressive contact us page that grabs attention.

5. Create a Killer Business Card.

Get an awesome looking business card and hand them out like pizza flyers on a Friday night.

6. Make Use of Local Images.

In many ways, you’re not just selling a house, you’re selling a whole town or area. Showcase the best that your area has to offer, with high-quality, beautiful photos of local town landmarks and familiar sites.

7. Create an Irresistible Content Offer to Capture Leads.

Consider producing an ebook like “X number of things new home owners should consider before buying” or “X most valuable features of a new home.” Offering free ebooks in exchange for an email address (and zip code, in the case of real estate) is a great way to capture leads.

8. Hire a Photo Pro.

Successful real estate relies heavily on great photography. Bad photos will diminish interest in even the greatest of properties. It’s absolutely vital that you have gorgeous photos of your properties. Hire a professional photographer (preferably with experience photographing homes and architecture), or, if you have sophisticated equipment and are confident in your abilities, have your own hand at it. Just remember this is one of those scenarios when it pays to bring in the professionals.

There are tons of great resources that provide in-depth detail about real estate photography – this guide from Digital Photography School is helpful (so long as you have some basic photography experience under you belt already).

9. Create a Virtual Tour.

Your clients’ time is precious, and they want to understand as much as possible about a property prior to visiting in person. Virtual tours are a great way to give a comprehensive, accurate preview of the property for potential buyers.

Here’s one example of a virtual tour (although you’ll find some aspects of this video are quite outdated). If you make your own, I’d beg you to not use music that resembles the soundtrack of The Sims.

10. Local Sponsorship.

Consider helping sponsor local festivals, sports teams, or school events. Signing up as a local sponsor often means getting your business a spot on t-shirts, program pamphlets, or flyers.

11. Animated Video.

Consider outsourcing a quality animated video for your real estate businesses. Short, cute, high-quality cartoon videos can help establish your brand as well as give a touch of personality. You may even want to consider featuring local landmarks or sites in your animated video to make it ultra-unique and targeted.

Your animated video doesn’t have to be super sophisticated – check out this short and very simple animated ad from Geico.

12. Pinterest Boards.

Pinterest boards are a great way to provide images and information for specific listings. You can create a Pinterest board for a single property that, in addition, to property photos, highlights major benefits of the area.

13. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly.

Tech-savvy consumers spend tons of time on their mobile devices. In fact, a recent study has shown that 80% of Internet users use their mobile devices for online activity. It’s paramount that your website is mobile friendly. Even better, consider creating a mobile app that potential buyers can use to review listings.

14. Create a Newsletter.

Email marketing is one of the best strategies for building client relationships. Collect emails from your website, local outreach, or any other methods you can think of. Send your email subscribers the stuff they’re looking for – notices about upcoming open houses, new houses on the market, news about seminars you’re offering in the area, etc. (Note: if you work in different geographical areas, you’ll want to segment your newsletter subscribers based on their location, ensuring that they only get relevant emails and updates from you).  

15. Start an Email Nurture Campaign.

Nurture campaigns are like the breadcrumb paths of Hansel and Gretel, except instead of a gingerbread house at the end, clients find their dream home (hopefully without a resident evil witch).

Leave your clients a trail of high-end panko breadcrumbs by tailoring your interactions with them based on previous actions they’ve taken. If they first attended an open house with you, send them an email detailing other nearby houses on the market. If they attended your first time homebuyer’s seminar, send them your “10 Things Every New Homebuyer Should Know “ ebook. Deliver content that will help your clients take the appropriate next step, depending on where they are in their journey.

16. Build Your Google My Business Page.

Google My Business is the latest in Google location-based pages. If you’re feeling confused, don’t worry – it’s basically the same idea as Google Places for Businesses and Google+ Pages. Setting up a Google My Business account makes it easy for users to find you in Google Search, Google Maps, and Google+. Trust me, this one is a no-brainer. 

17. Consider Going Niche.

If you’ve got some real estate marketing competition in your area, you may want to consider making yourself stand out by going niche. Become the go-to real estate agent for dog owners, families with kids, divorced individuals, whatever. Making a name for yourself in regards to a specific niche need can make you memorable, especially in saturated zip codes.

18. Use Emotional Storytelling.

Utilize emotional storytelling with compelling copy and powerful visual elements. Humans respond to stories – tell a good one and clients will flock to you.

19. Host a Webinar.

If you feel comfortable enough, hosting a webinar can be a great way to garner attention for your business. Host a “12 Little-Known Things to Look For In A New Home” webinar, providing a Q&A at the end for questions. Webinars can also be repurposed as YouTube videos, with can serve as valuable video content that can live permanently on your website! Here are some more tips on putting together a great webinar.

20. Saddle Up For Social Ads.

Don’t be afraid to dish out dough for paid ads on social media. With organic reach dwindling on many popular social networks like Facebook, paid Facebook ads are often the most effective way to get in front of clients. Facebook has tons of great targeting features that ensure you’re only paying to get noticed by your key target audiences.  

21. Old School Mailers.

The web is where it’s at, but that’s not to say traditional advertising doesn’t have its place, especially when you have targeted audiences. Consider sending out postcards to qualified leads or potential buyers in the specific zip codes you are active in.

22. Become a Columnist in Local Magazines.

When it comes to real estate, it’s important that you get laser focused on local. Getting yourself in local magazines or newspapers is a great way to get the word out about you and your brand. See if you can write a column or feature for local publications. You don’t want to be blatantly salesy – today’s consumers don’t like to be pitched to. Instead, try to showcase your knowledge. Write about how rising prices of houses on the market shows that the town is doing well, or list the reasons why your regional area is becoming more popular (maybe it’s the revitalized downtown area or improved school system).

23. Host Free Seminars For Home Buyers.

Make yourself and your knowledge available to the community by hosting mini-seminars. Consider providing a basic 101 seminar about the basics of home buying and mortgages. 

Remember, marketing today is all about inbound, and that doesn’t just apply online. Users want you to share some of your knowledge for free before investing time and money in you. A home buying seminar is the local equivalent of a webinar. Yes, it will take time and energy, but attendees will walk away impressed and will have established a relationship with you. That relationship will be worth its weight in gold when they’re ready to shop for a home.

24. Get Branding.

Branding is your buddy – that means pens, drink koozies, and all those other freebies people love. Give out some branded goodies at local festivals and events to spread your brand. 

25. Partner With Local Businesses.

Developing relationships with other local businesses will be key for your real estate marketing efforts. See if you can get local breakfast joints to let you buy them a set of new coffee mugs with your logo on them, or buy a place on their paper placemat setting. Don’t be afraid to get creative with local partnerships. 

26. Ask for Testimonials From Former Clients.

Testimonials are tremendous trust signals. Showing that real, live people endorse your services means the world to potential clients. When a homebuyer has had a great experience with you, reach out to them and ask for a testimonial. If possible, try to get a photo of them as well. Make the most of these testimonials by placing them strategically on your website and sharing them now and then on social networks.

27. Create an Awesome Website.

Today’s consumers like to do a lot of legwork themselves online when making major purchases, and that includes home buying as well. I myself have only rented, but even when renting a property I’ll Google Map the address, use Street View to get a feel for the area, see which businesses are within walking distance, look at home photos, and, ideally take a virtual tour of the property.

Make it easy for users to access all this information – make sure all your property pages have great photos, virtual tours, and easy access to Google Maps and Google Earth. List the hot spots nearby and their respective walking distances (mention the bus stop that’s just a five minute walk, or the Starbucks at the end of the block).

 

28. Make Your Site Easy to Navigate.

All the great property pages in the world won’t mean much if your site is a nightmare to navigate. Your visitors need to have a good experience on your website, so take the time to brush up on user experience design skills and information architecture. 

29. Include Local-Oriented Copy.

Make sure you are including some local-oriented keywords in your copy to ensure that your content is found by buyers Googling online for homes in your area. 

30. Get On Zillow.

Zillow is basically the Yelp of real estate marketing, and you really need to be on there if you want any chance of being discovered - you can ignore the sun, but it will still burn you! Zillow offers the ability to advertise as an agent on their website. This can get a bit pricey, but considering the huge role Zillow plays in home buying, it’s probably your best bet. After all, sites like Zillow account for 48% of all site traffic for real estate searches on the web.

Zillow also allows users to review real estate agents, so put on a smile and rack up that rating, as a solid star rating will greatly increase your leads. 

31. Shared Scheduling App.

Use a scheduling sharing app to coordinate times to show a house to buyers. Scheduling apps like Doodle can cut down on the endless back and forth timeslot swapping.

32. Give a Local Care Package After Closing.

Your relationship with a client doesn’t end right after they close. You want them to remember your name so that hopefully they’ll share your info with friends, family, and acquaintances who might consider moving in the future. Send a local care package to clients after they close, with local movie or theater tickets, restaurant gift cards, etc.

33. Keep In Touch.

Stay in touch (even months and years later) with past buyers in order to build in that good relationship. Send anniversary cards, holiday cards, etc to stay fresh in their minds. When they have a friend who is ready to buy, they’ll pass along your info. 

34. Create a Referral System.

Provide incentives for past clients to refer you to future homebuyers.

35. Leverage Call Tracking.

Real estate is one of those industries that absolutely must use call tracking in their paid search campaigns. Most people use the phone when trying to find a realtor or make an appointment to view an apartment, condo or house. If those calls come about because someone saw your PPC ad, you want to be able to track which ads and keywords are driving calls.

Here Are The Top 6 Real Estate Marketing Must Do's In 2017!

It’s about a new brokerage concept coming into the mainland from Hawaii.  They will be offering full service real estate services for 2% listings.  The 2% is split between buyer and seller brokerage!  In the comments there are threads of pissed off brokers complaining about how companies like these kill our industry. I think companies like these improve our industry because they force the rest of us to get better!  SRE Matrix (name of brokerage company) is not the only “discount” brokerage in town. There are many other brokerages offering discounts trying to out price their competition and save consumers money, but is that a good thing?

My personal opinion is that discount brokers give you discount service. Did you ever notice that many newly licensed and/or inexperienced agents tend to work at these types of brokerages?  They are given clients to work with vs. having to rely on their own lead generation.  There is nothing wrong with that.  It’s a win-win for the brokerage and the agents working there.  There is a market for this and all they are doing is serving it.  More power to them, this is capitalism.  I don’t feel threatened by them in any way.

Once those agents mature in the business, their experience typically graduates them into a traditional real estate brokerage. The discount brokerage served  as a stepping stone for newer agents to get to the next part of their career. Do you see many top producers in your market hang their license with these brokerages? I believe these models will always have a “revolving door” of agents, which is key to my next point.

You see, saving money is not always what EVERYONE wants.  It’s also not always in the best interest of consumers.

People will pay more for things they feel they are receiving value with. Have you ever seen what women’s purses sell for today?  I was trying to buy my wife a purse and didn’t know it would cost me a mortgage payment.  What’s wrong with the purses at Target?

Creating Value For Consumers…

Not long ago my wife and I were at dinner with a couple we just met.  I found out they just bought a house FSBO.  They gave me the info on where they bought and I knew immediately they way overpaid!  I probably could have gotten them the exact same property for 50,000-75,000 less!

Do you think this couple would have any problem with me making a full 2.5% commission if I found them them another house at a much lower price?  HELL NO!

The reason why I attract buyers is because I’m great at what I do. My job on the buyer side is to advise whether or not their investment is a good one. This is my value proposition to any buyer I work with and why there is a demand for my services.  It’s my job through marketing to educate consumers on that.

Listings…

There’s a discount brokerage in my market and their agents are very new to the industry. Everything they list seems to be at a great price and sells within days. I’m sure the sellers think they saved 2.5%  of the sales price not knowing that an agent with the experience and a true marketing plan can easily find a buyer that would exceed the 2.5% savings!

The discount brokerage’s marketing proposition is the savings on commission. They do a great job educating consumers of this and it works!

Here’s the point.  There are good agents and there are bad agents.  Just because someone has a real estate license does not make them equal to another agent who has the experience and expertise to do a better job!

It’s like plastic surgeons.  Some of these doctors get top dollar for their procedures while the newly licensed surgeon does the same surgery for less money.  There will always be a market for a more or less expensive price point of the same product.

They think that anyone with a real estate license can provide the same level of service more or less.

So back to the good news…

The discount brokerages, the Zillow’s, Trulia’s, Realtor.com’s, and all the rest of technologies out there are competition.  If there wasn’t competition, how would our industry advance?

Adapt these 6 things into your business and you will begin attracting business so you can eliminate the peaks and valleys of real estate.

1. Create A Better Listing Marketing System

Create a better listing marketing system– What’s your current value proposition for a seller?  What’s you marketing plan?  We know you will put a sign in the yard and list it on the MLS, but what else are you going to do? If you cannot answer this question, then yes I am speaking to you.  I’m not talking about hosting an open house or your print brochures either, those don’t count. Sellers can do this without us! 

Technology has caught up and we need to do more than the status quo to compete with the ‘discount brokerages” and Zillow’s of the world.  Check out a couple of these articles and you’ll see how you can create a value added proposition through enhancing your listing marketing plan so that you may begin attracting business, not chasing it.

2. Create A Referral Marketing System

61% of  ALL agent business is attributed to referrals and repeat business.  Real estate is like a popularity contest.  The more relationships you have that know you’re in real estate…the more referrals you’ll get.

A good referral marketing system will nurture your relationships keeping your name at the forefront. Anytime the word real estate comes to mind, everyone in your database immediately thinks of you! When you pair this with a value driven selling proposition, you will ATTRACT clients so you can throw the cold calling scripts out the window!

3. Create A Better Process

Have you ever thought about your process to working with clients? Do you have a system you follow with each buyer or seller client you work with?  Can you think of any business that exists today that doesn’t have a process to follow with their customers?  What if Dunkin Donuts coffee tasted different every time you went there?  What if the next time you went to Apple Bee’s the honey mustard sauce was totally different?

You cannot have a brand without consistency. You cannot have a real estate business without a brand.  A better process will allow you to create a level of service that transforms your current clients into referral sources.  A better process will have you performing marketing tasks during the course of each transaction so that you can leverage existing clients into additional spin off business.  Things like Facebook Just Listed Ads, Just Sold Postcards, You Tube video marketing,  and online listing marketing!  If you are not using your existing clients to market your brand you are missing out! Check out some of these articles if you want some more pointers.

4. Become The “Expert”

We are living in a Content Marketing world.  Content marketing is how to market your business by sharing your expertise with people who are highly likely to need your services.  Much like I am writing this article you are reading. If you are looking to market your business online, you are going to need to consistently create content.  This is how you attract business to you. People look online for the content you produce and are naturally drawn to you.

People want to use an expert. Your goal in all of your marketing efforts online and offline should be to become the real estate expert in your area.

You will realize that once your focus becomes education, that you will rarely ever feel like you are selling anything!

5. Start Using Video

It’s 2017 and whether you like it or not video is here to stay.  I know it’s very scary for most agents, but you aren’t alone.  It’s supposed to be scary, but wasn’t your first showing the same way?  Don’t you remember the first time you had to show a house, how nervous you were?  I was so nervous and didn’t know what to do! That didn’t stop me from doing it though.  Video will take some getting used to, but it has so many advantages. I suggest using video for content creation, social media, listings, neighborhoods, about you, and email marketing for referrals.  Here are some articles that have some more ideas how you can use video in your real estate business.

6. Set Up Multiple Lead Generation Systems

Relying on a single source of business is never a wise thing.  In real estate you should have several different lead generation systems set up in your business. This is how you avoid peaks and valleys. I suggest using permission based marketing strategies that have leads coming to you vs. you having to chase business through old school prospecting techniques and cold calling.  You can buy internet leads, use direct mail, video marketing, blogging, and Facebook ads.  It’s not hard to make your phone ring, it’s all about what you say when it does.  Check out some of these articles to get a better idea of some things you can implement.

Tips on Creating a Real Estate Marketing Plan & How To Attract Clients In Real Estate

Marketing is very important in real estate business. Real estate agents need to be very creative and come up with strategies that will result into obtaining more clients and retaining them as well. Good marketing strategies will keep you, as a real estate owner or agent at a competitive edge in the business. Discussed are some of the ways of coming up with a marketing plan and how to attract clients to your business.

5 Steps to Creating a Real Estate Marketing Plan To Find Sellers

Discussed below are five key steps of coming up with an effective real estate marketing plan that will bring you results at a much lower cost. In business, marketing is very important because it gets you to sell and if you don’t sell you don’t make money. And real estate is no exception. Make sure you don’t skip a step for effective results in marketing.

1.      Identify your sellers – the bright way of approaching this is identifying, as an investor, you want to work with. It is important for real estate owners to know who they are going to work with, their targeted sellers. These sellers should be individuals (or companies) who are able to quickly move the properties at the highest price as possible for investors to have a return for their investments as early as possible.

2.      Establish your budget – setting aside a budget of how much it is going to cost you to acquire the services of the sellers you have identified or how much it is going to cost you to market your properties. In the budget, include the miscellaneous expenditure. These are normally expenditures that are not budgeted for but they do occur.

3.      What kind of marketing you can afford or would like to use. There online platforms you can choose from or the traditional methods such as boards and signs. You can also decide to use media which is a very effective form of marketing. You can as well do direct mail campaigns which come with very low or no cost at all. It is advisable to choose one or two options to keep focus of the marketing for ultimate results.

4.      Managing your leads – your leads in this case can be where to go or someone to talk to. You can hire an assistant or just a virtual assistant to ensure you only deal with the most qualified leads. The virtual assistant handles most of the tasks on your behalf. But if you decide on saving the cost you can set up both online and offline platforms of dealing with leads such as email addresses, phone, etc.

5.      Follow up and set appointments. Following up your best leads is an important step in marketing strategy in real estate. This means that how many people you have to contact over a specified period of time to get to one serious lead. After you get a serious lead, make sure to set an appointment because face-to-face interaction is very important.

As a real estate investor, marketing is very important and that is why strategies have to be put in place that relate to how your properties are going to sell and at how much. Coming up with a marketing plan that is effective can be hard and costly but from the tips above, you can actually come up with a working plan at the least possible cost.

Coming up with a marketing plan makes you focused on a course by dully following it over a period of time. Marketing plans also forces you to work within deadlines and holds you personally accountable of any failures caused by ignoring the plan. 

Marketing Strategies - How To Attract Clients In Real Estate

real estate is one of the most competitive businesses to get into this is because, you are a number of real estate agents out there trying to sell the exact same product, property. Sometimes you get beat down by agents who use online resources to sell or by agents who have stayed for quite some time in the industry and know how to move about or by agents who have exact same products but sell at shockingly low prices.

Only way to beat some of them is to stand out and be unique. Make real estate marketing personal and incorporate passion into it. Agents put their faces on business cards, road signs, social media, and so on but not many tell their stories.

Telling your story is how people are going to work with you and refer more people to you because they feel like they know you and they trust you. Trust is very important in business and if you can get real estate clients to trust you, it works to your advantage.

In addition, combine your business with passion. For instance, if real estate is your business find a passion in you that can work with real estate to get you as many clients as possible. For example, if you have a passion for music find a way of connecting that passion to work with real estate and result into ultimate success.

Attend decent music events to have fun and also to market yourself out as a real estate agent. Get to sell real estate to musicians or individuals who are passionate about music. Having the passion as a common factor will get you as many clients as possible. Possibly, musicians will come to you for real estate services or refer individuals.

Think of what it is as a passion that you have that is going to get you the next client who has the same passion as you. How do you get that passion to work for you? How do you retain clients using that passion?

Combining passion and your story of what you do, why you do, who are you will get you the most local clients and keep you at the competitive edge of the real estate market without having to use so much effort and money on unnecessary marketing tools.

This is how you attract clients in real estate business.

25 Tips to High Impact Real Estate Marketing

Here's an idea.... fill your head today with some inspiration that's going to get you going in a new direction with your real estate business.  If you're feeling like you're in a rut, now's the time to snap out of it.  The market is shifting and frankly it's becoming an untapped gold mine for those of you who know how to tap into it.  And even if you don't know there's no time like now to start working on your marketing plan.  If you don't plan you plan to fail.  It's not always how much you have in your pocket right now and what you're spending that's going to make the difference in advertising.  It's consistency!  If it's easy or if it's been easy that does more damage to your progress than hardship.  Hardship builds your tenacity, hardship builds your intention to succeed.  So start filling your head with ideas that are congruent with your desire to succeed.  To help you with that we've got a book we'd like to recommend you read, it's not a thick text book either, it's a simple read and it will only set you back $5.00-

The book is for sale on Amazon and it's called "Kick It Up a Notch Marketing: 25 High Impact Marketing Strategies for Real Estate Professionals"  .  Create a real estate business by design, not by default. How many times have you wondered, “Do I really need to market my real estate business?” If you’re like most agents, it’s probably a daily question. But between client meetings, open houses, listing appointments, and negotiating contracts, not to mention your personal life, how can you possibly fit marketing in? The answer is simple: Integrate some simple yet powerful marketing strategies into your daily routine. That’s what this book shows you. Now you can discover and implement the 25 top marketing strategies the real estate heavyweights use on a daily basis. From marketing plan creation to PR and advertising options to prospecting, Kick It Up A Notch Marketing gives you the high impact marketing strategies that lead to results. When you integrate these marketing techniques into your real estate business, you’ll quickly and easily generate the sales and income you need to succeed in today’s competitive real estate marketplace.

Another great book that will fill your heart and mind with motivation and good will is "The Science of Getting Rich".  This book will only cost you $3.98 so it's a thrifty buy for sure... but the content will fill your heart with good vibes and set you on the path to make your way in business knowing and believing that your hardship is going to pay off.  We'll talk more about this great read in our next blog.  Thanks for tuning in.

5 Ways to Improve Your Listing!

Listing presentation is everything.  I've worked with Sarah Jozwiak from Remax First on a project in Westland.  I've got before and after photos of the project that will blow you away. And the project isn't even done yet but already the listing is transforming.  When I saw this video I thought about the power of presentation and how it relates to a project I'm currently working on with Sarah.  Take a look at this video and stay tuned for the presentation on the transformation from "impossible" to "possible".