Keeping real estate marketing fresh can be a challenge for many agents. Today I’m sharing a blog post with you by Gregory Kiep that orginally appeared on Inman. Gregory offers 5 actionable ideas for breathing new life into tired real estate marketing.
Gregory writes:
The number of real estate agents in the market in 2016 has grown to 2.5 million. As of February of this year, there are over 190,000 active agents in the state of California alone.
That means the market is competitive for buyers and sellers looking for real estate advisers.
Every day, consumers are inundated with marketing from agents and companies pitching their services and looking for their next transaction. The vast majority of these materials are not only boring but also totally ineffective.
So what can you do? How can agents take their real estate marketing and career to the next level?
1. Be more than an agent; be an adviser
One of the main reasons that people hire a professional in any field is that the experts know more than they do.
In real estate, this is no different. Don’t be someone who just opens door; showcase yourself as an expert in the marketplace, as an adviser to their needs.
Push market statistics and neighborhood info, and show that you understand the process inside and out.
Information is easy to find in today’s world — you need to show that you know more than just the facts people can easily find.
Dominate an area by knowing sale prices and the details about every sale in an area.
Paint a picture of what it’s like to actually live in a home and in a neighborhood rather than simply pointing out the features of the home. Advise all along the way, and you will build clients for life.
IXACT Contact Tip: Keep track of businesses to refer to in your Business Directory
Part of being a valuable advisor in all things home-ownership is being in the know about local vendors. IXACT Contact’s Business Directory helps you market yourself as the expert on home-related services. You can easily search and filter your Business Directory and pull up the name of a reputable professional for a client in a matter of seconds. Your clients will appreciate you sending them to quality vendors, and the vendors will certainly appreciate you sending them business! Inform those in your Business Directory that you will be sending them referral business, and let them know you’d welcome any real estate referrals that they can send your way! (And by the way, who do you think the vendors in your Business Directory will call when they want to buy or sell a house?)
2. Give some thought to your brand image
The importance of curb appeal tells us that first impressions are oftentimes the name of the game.
Take time to think about and develop a brand image that represents the target you want to attract and is consistent among all your marketing, including social media.
If you focus on first-time homebuyers, for example, make your brand inviting, more youthful.
If the luxury market is more of your focus, look at what luxury companies are doing around the world and think about how you can represent yourself in comparable ways.
Once you have this brand developed, push it in all your email campaigns, print collateral, social media, etc. Execute consistency in color, images, logo and everything that you piece into your brand.
IXACT Contact Tip: Reflect consistent branding in your digital marketing
Keep your branding consistent so your real estate leads recognize you across different mediums. With IXACT Contact’s email marketing and agent websites, your personalized email header will reflect your brand in an eye-catching and consistent way. You can even use the same look on your social media and print collateral.
3. Refresh your bio and presentation on review sites
Get rid of the cliche words that most agents use in their bio statements and showcase your personality.
Don’t be afraid to put your true nature out there in your social profiles and in other arenas where you display your personal brand.
Building this personal connection can be a key component of quickly perpetuating a relationship with potential clients and getting complete buy-in from them.
4. Stop with the one-off, random ads and mailers
Your advertising needs to be part of a full campaign that features numerous touches to the people you target.
One-off ads have very little return on investment and are rarely worth the cost.
Developing full campaigns that address who, what, when and how you want to reach your target market is key to producing maximum results.
5. Develop interesting and beneficial calls-to-action that appeal to your market
CTAs or calls-to-action are an important part of getting people into your sales funnel and converting them into leads.
If you are not familiar with the term, spend some time researching how others implement these on their websites.
For real estate, some of the most effective CTAs are market statistic reports and off-market listing campaigns. These drive a strong amount of submissions comparatively.
IXACT Contact Tip: Gain insight into your CTA performance
With Email Campaign Reporting, you can learn exactly which links in your email messages are being clicked on by recipents. Armed with this information, you’ll be able to identify your strongest CTAs.
An important and powerful part of email marketing is understanding which email messages are resonating with your audience, and who exactly they’re resonating with. That’s where Email Campaign Reporting comes in! IXACT Contact’s Reporting shows you exactly how many of your mass emails were opened, what links were clicked on, and who forwarded your message. Armed with this information, you can reach out to hot leads and connect with them at the right time.
Think about what might work for your market, and test it out.
So few agents take the time to put a plan in place that will allow them to dominate an area. Stop being boring, and start taking your marketing efforts to the next level.
Ready to make some of these changes to refresh your real estate marketing? IXACT Contact can help! Sign up for your 5 week free trial and take your marketing to the next level.