4 Real Estate Marketing Tips For Beginners
What does marketing have to do with real estate? Everything. You can have tons of raw real estate talent, but without knowing how to market your skills and show the world how great you are, you won’t reach your potential. Marketing is a broad concept and can be intimidating, but we’ll give you the beginners tips on how to start building your brand.
1. Build a beautiful and inviting website
You’ll need a website that reflects your quality. It should illustrate to potential clients why you’re a top choice with your bio + mission statement, show them the kinds of homes you’re offering with a listings section, and another page showing your closed transactions. There are tons of great web hosting domains for real estate agents. We’re personally huge fans of Placester and Zillow for their great features and flexible, low costs. Make sure your website has a place for readers to enter their email so you can stay in touch with them via newsletter (more on that below).
For a few excellent realtor websites, check out this article.
2. Craft a helpful and relevant newsletter
There’s no better way to keep in contact with past, present, and potential future clients than with a dynamic, fun, and up-to-date newsletter. However, don’t just be that guy or gal that sends only new listings + closed sales… boring. Instead, fill your newsletter with handy tips (i.e. “How to pick the perfect paint color to accent a living room” or “3 tips for better bathroom lighting”) that are relevant to a wider audience. Make sure the newsletter has an attention-grabbing subject line and a visually appealing format. Your readers should look forward to reading it every week, month, etc.
Make sure you always have your top social handle buttons and a link to your website in the email. No need to include that Google+ account you made once upon a time and have let gather dust ever since! Read more here about crafting the perfect realtor newsletter.
3. Get active on social media
Social media is where it’s at. One of the first things potential clients, partners, and mentors/mentees will do is look at your social handles, so you’ll need to be active. Posting whatever you want, however, doesn’t quite cut it. What will go above and beyond is providing content that your audience wants to see. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes; what’s relevant and interesting to them? What do they probably already see a lot of? Do a little field research, gather your thoughts, and create a plan as to how you’re going to differentiate yourself.
Of course, each social channel is going to need a bit of a different strategy. Here’s a great article on mistakes to avoid. Remember: social isn’t a place to simply overly promote yourself. It’s purpose is to show your legitimacy, and bring value to the consumer.
4. Make in-person communication a delight
We’ve covered a lot of online marketing bases, but the true show of quality is when your in-person interactions are kind, engaging, and organized. In short, your clients (or potential clients) should remember how your communication made them feel like they were your only priority. This article covers key communication points. Remember, above all else, to answer and return calls immediately. Being empathetic towards your client’s needs, concerns, and excitement is a must. Remember: the best marketing is word-of-mouth referrals!
See? Not nearly as hard as you may have thought. Marketing yourself is all about how you want to make your clients feel, so put yourself in their shoes and get familiar with their needs. Apply your expertise as a realtor to their needs as clients, and you’ll have something well-worth spreading the word about.
Want more? We chatted with real estate pros like Fredrik Eklund and Josh Altman of Million Dollar Listing to ask them how they got to the very top of the real estate world. Their advice came down to three important points: branding, networking, and communication, all of which we show you how to achieve in our spinoff article 3 Traits of the Nation’s Best Real Estate Agents.