The Ethical Experts - A Real Estate Company   

A great real estate brand isn’t just about knowing your market, or having a great logo: it’s about sending a clear message about what makes you different. Brand positioning, a marketing strategy designed to help your brand occupy a distinct position relative to competing brands, will allow you to stand out in a crowded market.

 

Most real estate agents focus on the differentiation part of brand positioning—but equally important is consistency across all the places where a prospective client might find you. Studies have shown that it takes 5-7 encounters for consumers to remember your brand, and 90 percent of consumers expect brand consistency across all channels.

 

Kim Spears, runner-up contestant in our Battle of the Brands Competition, has taken these findings to heart. Her website, VeroBeachLuxe.com (powered by Placester and with a custom design from Brandco), is our runner-up in Placester’s Battle of the Brands. Kim presents a unified vision of her brand and her position in the market, both within her site and beyond.

 

 

On-Site Consistency

Kim’s masterclass in brand consistency begins with the header on her website’s homepage. With a unique design that puts Kim’s menu “below the fold,” Kim’s header focuses visitors’ attention on a slideshow of high-quality images with “Vero Beach” written in bold, Vogue-style type. These images highlight Vero Beach’s luxury lifestyle and Kim herself, encouraging prospective clients to associate her with the kinds of homes they’re looking for.

 

While her header clearly evokes the types of homes, service, and clientele that make up Kim’s business, the rest of her site goes on to deepen and reinforce that message:

 

A domain name that suggests Kim’s luxury focus;

Large CTA tiles invite visitors to learn more about waterfront properties and seller services;

Area pages focused on specific neighborhoods of Vero Beach;

An informative About page includes a professional headshot and tells a personal story that emphasizes Kim’s native Florida roots as well as her passion for helping her clients.

Off-Site Consistency

Kim maintains the same brand positioning and aesthetic across every other channel of her online presence. For instance, apart from VeroBeachLuxe.com, Kim also has separate websites for her interior design business (KimSpearsInteriors.com) and her brokerage (KimSpearsGroup.com). Those websites maintain the same look, feel, and message, ensuring that visitors know exactly who they’re dealing with, regardless of how they find her.

 

Apart from her website, Kim also extends her brand to social media, with Facebook and Instagram pages featuring content that sends the same message about Kim and her business. In addition to maintaining her brand, these channels also sell her expertise with Vero Beach related content and before-and-after photos of spaces she’s designed.

 

To learn more about Kim Spears and her website, check out the recording above of our Facebook Live presentation during NAR Annual 2018!

Published on November 6, 2018

 

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Written by Colin Ryan

 

As the Brand Manager at Placester, it's my goal to cut through all the jargon and provide real estate professionals with insights and strategies for using our solutions to grow their businesses online.

After weeks and months of making pro/con lists and thinking about what you really want out of your working life, you’ve made a decision: You’re going to pursue a career as a new real estate agent.

Before you get carried away by thoughts of happy home buyers and the potentially sizable commissions you’ll receive from them, you’ve got some serious planning to do.

Most people fail when starting out as a new real estate agent because they didn’t take the time to put together a business plan. Don’t be part of this statistic.

While you may be tempted to start knocking on doors immediately, top-performing real estate agents like Melissa Boucher advise caution.

In Boucher’s episode of our Marketing Genius Podcast, “The Road to $20 Million,” she says newly licensed agents should have their website and branding sorted out and their geographic area identified well before pounding the pavement.

To help get your career off on the right foot, we’ve put together an FAQ and month-by month strategy for building your business in the first year.

Below, you’ll find guidance for tackling your licensing exams, establishing a local presence, and getting comfortable with online marketing.

Be aware that some of these steps will net you quick wins, while others will deliver more long-term benefits.

Prep Work: Getting Your Real Estate Agent License

Before you can even think about showing people homes, you need to take care of the fine print of getting licensed.

You must enroll in pre-licensing courses (the hours required vary by state), sit for the actual exam, and pay all of the necessary fees to receive your license and become a member of your MLS or association.

Here are the answers to some frequently asked questions that you might have:

Between real estate classes, the exam, and receiving my license, how much money can I expect to spend?

The amount varies depending on where you live, but it can be anywhere from $100 to $300. For example, brand new agents in Massachusetts can expect to spend around $500 on the whole process.

How many questions are on the exam, and what topics does it cover?

The national portion of the real estate exam is 100 questions, but once again, the local test is different in every state. The exam typically covers topics like contracts, finance, and property management.

How much study time is enough?

Licensing exams aren’t like high school tests: You’re allowed to take the exam as many times as you want over a two-year period.

But since you’ve got more exciting things to think about, why waste time? Study, study, then study some more so you can score high enough on the exam to receive your license, and move forward from there.

What are some tips for exam day?

If you feel confident in how well you’ve retained the information from your classes, all that remains is to:

Get a good night’s rest the evening before your real estate exam.

Eat a hearty breakfast the morning of (seriously, this is vital).

Take your time on each question, rather than rushing to finish.

Once the test is behind you and you’re an officially licensed real estate agent, the real hustle begins. Luckily, each necessary task and learned skill can be divided up into distinct, time-oriented sections.

Months 1-2: Building a Solid Business Foundation

As with all new endeavors, there will be a lot to learn during your initial months in the real estate business. While you’re still getting your bearings, you’ll need to devote time to the following activities: 

1) Define your personal real estate brand.

Creating a worthwhile, relatable brand for your business is about more than just picking a logo or taking attractive head shots.

Your brand is value-driven, and it should communicate to your potential clients what sets you apart from so many other real estate agents in your market.

This could be anything from the niche you specialize in, to cultivating a reputation as an agent who goes above and beyond for buyers and sellers.

2) Invest heavily in your real estate website.

Hopefully, you’ve heard too many times to count that consistently updating the content and pages of your real estate website is essential to the health of your business. This advice is doubly true at the start of your career as a beginner agent. 

Some important questions to think through as you start building your website:

Why are you in the business?

What does it feel like to work with you?

How do you fit into the market?

Why should a buyer or seller work with you?

Remember: Your website is an online business card, and it’s often the first way buyers and sellers will discover the services you offer.

Keeping your site up to date and running smoothly should always be a priority, no matter how many months or years you’ve had your license.

If you want to learn how to turn your website into a lead generating hub, dedicating yourself to updating it regularly is a must.

3) Draw up a budget … and stick to it.

As a new real estate agent, you are running a business — and every business involves accounting.

While it’s not the most fun part of the job, setting a budget and tracking your expenses is an important step in building a profitable operation. In the first few months, you may earn substantially less income than you expected (or than you’ve grown used to in your previous profession). That’s where developing a plan for your money can be a lifesaver.

As you put together a spreadsheet, be sure to account for the following expenses:

Marketing and advertising materials

Transportation and insurance

Multiple Listing Service (MLS) fees

Real estate technology tools

When in doubt, overestimate your expenses while underestimating your income so there are no unpleasant surprises.

4) Find an experienced agent to shadow.

When you begin your journey as a beginner real estate agent, it’s important to realize that you’re not alone.

There are many agents that have come before you, and learning from their mistakes is one of the best ways to avoid making them yourself. Many successful agents and brokers advise establishing a relationship with an experienced mentor or hiring a seasoned coach.

Think about it this way: If you have any doubts about closing deals, building relationships with clients, or investing in advertising programs, the right adviser will be able to rattle off answers to those questions almost without thinking. And if you’re lucky, they’ll be able to easily recall their early days in the business and empathize with your experiences.

Pro Tip: You may be tempted to ask a top performer (someone who’s made REAL Trends’ “The Thousand” or REALTOR® Magazine’s “30 Under 30” to be your mentor. However, veteran real estate agent Pat Hiban suggests a slightly different approach. Pat advises contacting a recent rookie of the year, rather than all star agent, and emulating what that rookie did to find success.

Marketing Genius: The Ego Problem with Pat Hiban

Listen to the entire conversation between Hiban and the Placester team in our Marketing Genius Podcast episode.

Months 3-4: Get the word out.

You may not think you have any leads to start nurturing, but every single person you’ve ever networked or worked with in the past is an opportunity to get the word out about your services.

1) Start with your existing contacts.

To build a contact list from people you already know (what we in the biz call the “sphere of influence”;), follow these basic steps:

Identify all the ways you have built connections with people. This could be LinkedIn, Facebook, Gmail, and even business cards you have collected.

Export a contact list from each of these accounts.

Combine all the contacts into a simple .csv file with first name, last name, and email address. If you have business cards, manually enter this information.

Once you have an initial email list built out, we suggest sending out an introductory message to gauge interest and spread the word that you’re looking for referrals before sending out any automated emails (more on this in the “Months 5-9” section below).

2) Keep track of your communications.

No matter how many leads you have at the moment, or how many you hope to generate in the future, it’s important to note that every contact needs to be organized systematically so no one is neglected or contacted too frequently.

As you begin building contact lists and attracting online leads through your website, it shouldn’t be a question of if you’ll use a customer relationship management system in your business, only when.

3) Connect with local business owners and begin networking with potential customers

If you haven’t realized it already, real estate is a constant balancing act. While you’re getting a handle on your online communication strategy, you should also be spending time on in-person relationship building.

As a new real estate agent, you can’t expect business to come to you. You must be proactive in seeking out leads to nurture.

Here are a few avenues to pursue:

Introduce yourself to local business owners

Mingle with locals at community events

Network at popular places (e.g. the market)

One important thing to note: People can detect a fake a mile away. Rather than being pushy and throwing your business card around, approach those you meet with curiosity and interest.

While you form new business connections with your neighbors, you’ll also get the chance to increase your market expertise.

That way, when you’re fielding questions from your first relocating family, you’ll be able to point them in the direction of the best grocery stores and schools.

Months 5-9: Use email as a lead nurture tool.

Hopefully, by this point, you’ve been able to gather a handful of real estate leads that you’re beginning to nurture and categorize. Chances are, they’ve come to you from different sources.

Your website, of course, but maybe you’ve been lucky enough to snag a referral or network successfully at open houses.

According to MarketingSherpa, 72% of people prefer to receive communication from businesses in their inboxes.

Marketing Research Chart

If you haven’t tried out email marketing as a way to generate, nurture and convert leads, there’s a lot of potential for success.

Here are just a few kinds of emails that will get you in front of buyers and sellers and keep you top of mind in between sales:

Send a weekly or monthly newsletter

Share your open house schedule

Provide a roundup of local listings

For additional ideas and examples on how to keep your leads warm, check out our visual guide to drip email marketing.

Months 10-12: Experiment with Facebook ads and SEO.

You’re in the home stretch of your first year as a real estate agent! We’re willing to bet you may have stumbled a few times, learned a lot of lessons you won’t forget, and are on your way to growing your business.

Now that using your website as a lead generation tool has become second nature, it’s a great time to explore a couple other opportunities to grow your contact list:

Take advantage of local Google searches.

SEO is definitely a topic of interest and debate for people who have the goal of ranking high in Google search results. Local SEO is especially important to agents with physical businesses, and aligning any keywords present in your website’s content with the searches your leads are performing makes it more likely your name will be found.

If you want your website to be seen, understanding how search engines work is necessary. Moz has a great, comprehensive guide to learning SEO to help you get started.

In case you’re feeling overwhelmed, here are the top benefits to becoming an SEO pro:

Keyword research just might be the most overlooked part of SEO. Taking the time to identify keywords your leads search for the most and which ones you use in your content will help you rank higher.

Links are a great way to improve your organic traffic. Whether you’re increasing your presence through outbound links or sharing content on someone else’s website, the more prospects are clicking, the more website visitors you’ll attract.

Make the most of social media and Facebook ads.

Setting up an advertising campaign can do wonders for your lead generation and traffic to your site. Facebook ads give businesses and marketers several advantages:

Ads can be targeted to specific groups of potential customers

They’re cost-effective means of getting high-quality prospects

They can help you broaden your reach to your buyer personas

Using the Facebook Pixel on your website to track activity is beneficial because of its “set it and forget it” functionality.

With the Facebook Pixel, people who visit your site but don’t complete an action (like a map search or request for a home valuation) can be automatically retargeted with a Facebook ad.

This way, you can stay in front of site visitors who have shown an interest in your services, but haven’t become clients yet.

Stay focused and hungry in your first year.

In 2014, the National Association of REALTORS reported 87% of all new agents fail after five years in the industry.

Your first year as a new real estate agent is critical to your long-term success, as it is the time to build the foundation for your brand and your relationships within your community.

Following the steps we’ve outlined above will put you ahead of the game in the long run.

Want to learn even more about how to thrive during your first year in the industry? Be sure to check out our exclusive guide for beginner real estate agents!

beginner real estate agent

Published on August 29, 2017

Written by Elizabeth Christensen

https://placester.com/real-estate-marketing-academy/new-real-estate-agent-success/

The path to becoming a high-earning real estate professional is different for every agent. However, to be successful, there are several real estate marketing tools that every agent must use.

 

In today’s digitally-driven marketplace, the tools you use for your real estate marketing activities can make a huge difference in the success of your business.

 

Yet with so many options available to real estate agents, its not always clear which strategy will result in greater market share, increased lead generation, or more closed deals.

 

Here’s what you need to focus on in order to grow your business and start the journey to becoming a million dollar real estate agent.

 

1. Pick real estate marketing tech tools that align with your business goals

If you’re not sure which tools are best to help guide you (or your team) to success, ask yourself the following questions:

 

Who are the core people that need to be using these real estate marketing tools?

What are you trying to accomplish with these tools in order to reach your goals?

What’s your timeline for achieving your business objectives?

Where do you need to have a strong marketing presence in order to convert more business?

Once you have answers to these questions, you’ll have a better idea of the devices, software, apps and other real estate technology that best fit your goals.

 

Regardless of what you’re hoping to achieve, there are several pillars of real estate marketing tools that every agent needs. For example: an IDX website, a CRM system and an email automation platform.

 

What else should be in your real estate marketing tech toolbox?

 

Check the list below, and research any solutions that your marketing plan may be missing.

 

essential tech tools - master real estate marketing 3 steps for agent success

 

2. Build a strong real estate marketing strategy

Whether you’re just starting your career in real estate or you’re a seasoned veteran, you’ll need a strong real estate marketing strategy to ensure that you’ll still be converting leads in the years to come.

 

Before you purchase software or pursue potential leads, check to make sure you have the following in place:

 

marketing plan- master real estate marketing 3 steps for agent success

 

Each of these elements is an important part of your real estate marketing strategy. The following resources can help you excel at each of them:

 

The New Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Licensing, Lead Generation, and More

Creating a Real Estate Business Plan: Free Template

How Targeted Content Can Help You Find Your Best Real Estate Buyer Leads

How to Begin your Real Estate Marketing Strategy (with Free Planning Worksheet)

3. Step up sales and outreach

Once you have your real estate marketing plan in place, it’s time to take it to the next level! Building out your lead nurture plan will help you increase client conversions and continue a steady stream of lead generation for your business.

 

Email campaigns are an important element of lead nurturing. This is the easiest way to connect with a lead one on one, and keep your real estate business in the forefront of their mind.

 

While there are many strategies to try when running a drip email campaign to potential leads, these four types of emails are a good starting point:

 

email campaign types - master real estate marketing 3 steps for agent success

 

Most importantly, make sure all your follow-up marketing includes a strong human factor.

 

Your leads will naturally remember and have a positive reaction to emails or other real estate marketing materials that feel friendly and personable. You’ll resonate with leads if you remember that the heart of all your real estate marketing activities is the human factor. They need to know that you don’t just want their business; you also genuinely care about helping them buy or sell their home.

 

Looking for more guidance on your path to becoming a million dollar real estate agent? Download our ebook to learn more strategies that will super-charge your journey to success.

 

real estate marketing

 

Published on November 20, 2017

 

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Written by Carolyn Berk

 

I am a Content Marketing Associate at Placester, where I regularly share helpful real estate marketing strategies through Placester's Academy.

https://placester.com/real-estate-marketing-academy/master-real-estate-marketing-agent-success/

These days, it’s not enough to market yourself as a “local real estate expert.” Consumers have unprecedented access to experiences that match their unique needs and preferences, and real estate is no exception.

In this competitive environment, successful agents know that the key to succeeding is not to compete at all. By focusing on a highly specific segment of your market—your real estate niche—you can reduce competition and build trust with motivated consumers who are interested in what you have to offer. Here are some tips for discovering your real estate niche.

Shrink Your Audience

Many agents and brokers balk at the opportunity cost of committing to their real estate niche. They’re afraid that by limiting their audience, they’re missing out on a lot of valuable business. But it’s important to consider the quality of and competition for that business.

Consider SEO as an analogy. When choosing search keywords to target with your website, general phrases like “Los Angeles homes” are difficult to rank for as a small or medium-sized business. Perhaps more importantly, many of the consumers typing these phrases into Google are not ready to buy a home or talk to an agent, which begs the question: why compete for them in the first place?

Instead, a great keyword strategy is built on winnable terms that demonstrate a high purchase intent (for example: “homes below $1 million in the Pacific Palisades”;). Similarly, when searching for an audience to build your real estate niche on, focusing on a smaller but highly motivated group of consumers will yield better results.

Be Authentic

You may be tempted to seek out a real estate niche based on its economic upside—but if your heart isn’t invested, your audience won’t bite. Instead, start by asking some fundamental questions about your strengths and passions. What are you good at? What keeps you up at night? Where, how, and with whom do you spend your off hours? Spend an afternoon brainstorming on your own, then ask your spouse, children, and friends what they find most interesting about you. Put everything on paper, even if it seems silly or unrelated to real estate.

One example of a real estate agent who has turned an authentic passion into a successful niche is Marguerite Martin, “The Skydiving Agent.” Marguerite’s niche isn’t about taking advantage of a profitable audience (after all, how many of us have gone skydiving?). Instead, it’s about building a unique brand engaging homebuyers who are drawn to her fun, informal approach to real estate. “So much of the training around our business is how to get strangers to like you,” Marguerite told us on the Marketing Genius Podcast. “If strangers already like you, your job just gets really easy.”

Go Deeper

Finding a potential audience in your market is just the first step in carving out a real estate niche. What’s most important is how you’ll capitalize on it—and that approach may not be so obvious. Take a second look, and you may discover opportunities you didn’t know existed.

If you work in an area with an aging population, for instance, senior living communities may seem like the clear route to success. But go deeper, and you’ll find a host of other niches that serve or benefit from the same group: probate sales; ADA-compliant housing; medical office space. Have a previous career as a nurse or care worker? Incorporate that experience to build a niche brand that resonates with your target clients even more.

Get (Hyper) Hyperlocal

Experts have been talking for years about the value of going “hyperlocal” with your real estate marketing. But going hyperlocal doesn’t just mean going after one city or zip code. In fact, you may get even better results by setting your sights on something smaller: a neighborhood, a planned community, a subdivision, even one or two streets.

Take Mark and Linda Porter of Castle Hills Real Estate, for instance. Located in Lewisville, Texas, Castle Hills Real Estate focuses on a single golf course community. At 2,500 acres, The Castle Hills subdivision makes up less than 10 percent of Lewisville’s total area. But by committing to their niche, Castle Hills Real Estate has built an impressive record of results for clients in the area, enabling them to dominate the market and grow their business.

PRO TIP: Market Your Real Estate Niche with Placester’s Area Pages

Interested in pursuing a niche? Our websites can help. Placester’s advanced websites offer Area Page templates that help you promote your niche with image slideshows, maps, and pre-filtered listing search results. Going hyperlocal? Filter listings by a variety of data provided by your MLS, including neighborhood, subdivision, community name, or school district. If you have a different kind of real estate niche (midcentury modern homes in Phoenix, for instance), you can use keywords and other criteria to build an Area Page to suit your needs. Click here to learn more about Placester’s advanced Area Pages.

Placester real estate brokers Insights Lanier Property Group Stephanie Lanier

Invent Your Own

If you’re having trouble finding a suitable real estate niche, it may be because it hasn’t been invented yet. Take, for example, Stephanie Lanier of Lanier Properties in Wilmington, North Carolina. A passionate advocate for her community, Stephanie noticed that one of her favorite areas of Wilmington, Midtown, didn’t get the attention it deserved. One of the major reasons, she realized, was that it wasn’t clearly marked on any map.

With that in mind, Stephanie took it upon herself to define the boundaries of Midtown and raise awareness of the neighborhood’s distinct character. Her initiative brought the city government, local businesses, and other local institutions together. In the process, Stephanie established herself as a clear authority on Midtown and generating renewed interest in the district, inventing her own niche in the process.

Have you carved out a successful niche for your real estate business? Share your story by sending us an email at [email protected], and you could be featured in our next article!

Published on June 14, 2018 

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Written by Colin Ryan

As the Brand Manager at Placester, it's my goal to cut through all the jargon and provide real estate professionals with insights and strategies for using our solutions to grow their businesses online.

Colin Ryan

https://placester.com/real-estate-marketing-academy/how-to-find-your-real-estate-niche/

The path to becoming a high-earning real estate professional is different for every agent. However, to be successful, there are several real estate marketing tools that every agent must use.

 

In today’s digitally-driven marketplace, the tools you use for your real estate marketing activities can make a huge difference in the success of your business.

 

Yet with so many options available to real estate agents, its not always clear which strategy will result in greater market share, increased lead generation, or more closed deals.

 

Here’s what you need to focus on in order to grow your business and start the journey to becoming a million dollar real estate agent.

 

1. Pick real estate marketing tech tools that align with your business goals

If you’re not sure which tools are best to help guide you (or your team) to success, ask yourself the following questions:

 

Who are the core people that need to be using these real estate marketing tools?

What are you trying to accomplish with these tools in order to reach your goals?

What’s your timeline for achieving your business objectives?

Where do you need to have a strong marketing presence in order to convert more business?

Once you have answers to these questions, you’ll have a better idea of the devices, software, apps and other real estate technology that best fit your goals.

 

Regardless of what you’re hoping to achieve, there are several pillars of real estate marketing tools that every agent needs. For example: an IDX website, a CRM system and an email automation platform.

 

What else should be in your real estate marketing tech toolbox?

 

Check the list below, and research any solutions that your marketing plan may be missing.

 

essential tech tools - master real estate marketing 3 steps for agent success

 

 

2. Build a strong real estate marketing strategy

Whether you’re just starting your career in real estate or you’re a seasoned veteran, you’ll need a strong real estate marketing strategy to ensure that you’ll still be converting leads in the years to come.

 

Before you purchase software or pursue potential leads, check to make sure you have the following in place:

 

marketing plan- master real estate marketing 3 steps for agent success

 

Each of these elements is an important part of your real estate marketing strategy. The following resources can help you excel at each of them:

 

The New Real Estate Agent’s Guide to Licensing, Lead Generation, and More

Creating a Real Estate Business Plan: Free Template

How Targeted Content Can Help You Find Your Best Real Estate Buyer Leads

How to Begin your Real Estate Marketing Strategy (with Free Planning Worksheet)

 

3. Step up sales and outreach

Once you have your real estate marketing plan in place, it’s time to take it to the next level! Building out your lead nurture plan will help you increase client conversions and continue a steady stream of lead generation for your business.

 

Email campaigns are an important element of lead nurturing. This is the easiest way to connect with a lead one on one, and keep your real estate business in the forefront of their mind.

 

While there are many strategies to try when running a drip email campaign to potential leads, these four types of emails are a good starting point:

 

email campaign types - master real estate marketing 3 steps for agent success

 

Most importantly, make sure all your follow-up marketing includes a strong human factor.

 

Your leads will naturally remember and have a positive reaction to emails or other real estate marketing materials that feel friendly and personable. You’ll resonate with leads if you remember that the heart of all your real estate marketing activities is the human factor. They need to know that you don’t just want their business; you also genuinely care about helping them buy or sell their home.

 

Looking for more guidance on your path to becoming a million dollar real estate agent? Download our ebook to learn more strategies that will super-charge your journey to success.

 

real estate marketing

 

Published on November 20, 2017

 

Like this article? Subscribe Now

 

Written by Carolyn Berk

 

I am a Content Marketing Associate at Placester, where I regularly share helpful real estate marketing strategies through Placester's Academy.

Your email signature is more important than you may realize. For many real estate professionals, an email signature can boost site traffic, increase social media engagement, and serve as a branding opportunity.

 

Your signature is like a digital business card. Because it is included at the end of every email correspondence that you’ll have with your prospects, leads, and clients, it’s crucial that your email signature is a positive representation of you and your business.

 

Additionally, if your email is forwarded, your signature will travel with it, ensuring that any readers who are new to your business will be able to learn more or get in touch with you.

 

Follow these five best practices to transform your email signature into a powerful component of your real estate marketing:

 

1. Include all your social media accounts in your email signature

In this day and age, your social media accounts are an essential communication channel. In the same way that you reply to emails or phone calls, you need to be vigilant and actively reply to people who reach out to you on sites like Facebook and Twitter.

 

Because social is an important part of client communication, make sure you include it with your other contact information in your email signature.

 

Listing where you’re present on social media will also get you more followers on Twitter, likes on your Facebook page, or views on YouTube.

 

SOCIAL MEDIA SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:

 

 

social icons - email signature best practices

 

In the email signature above, realtor Jane Neale includes hyperlinked icons for every social channel where she’s active. This provides a simple, visually-appealing way to take stock of where you can find her on social media.

 

Many viewers are already familiar with these simple social icons, because they already see the same images on their phone and elsewhere online. Even if you’re only on one or two social sites, including them in your email signature will help generate more follows and likes, in addition to signaling to your audience that you are a modern agent who is present and participating on social media.

 

2. Put your picture in your email signature

Do you have a professionally-photographed headshot for your real estate business? You should definitely include it in your email signature!

 

Adding a professional picture of yourself creates a feeling of personalization surrounding any messages that you send out on behalf of your business. After all, do you feel more connected to a bunch of words in an email, or to a person who is talking with you?

 

PROFESSIONAL HEADSHOT SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:

 

photo - email signature best practices

 

The image in the email signature above is expertly shot and would be equally at home on a business card or a LinkedIn profile. Likewise, your own headshot should look professional and formal. This is not the space to share a poorly-lit snapshot, a picture from your latest vacation, or a selfie.

 

The picture should feature you and only you – preferably with a white or blank background that isn’t too distracting.

 

 

3. Keep your email signature design clean and simple

Keep in mind that not every email recipient will see images if you include them in your signature. Some email programs, such as Microsoft Outlook, automatically blocks images embedded in emails.

 

While there’s no avoiding the possibility that your images may be blocked, you can ensure that your signature is still legible if this happens. Instead of putting all your contact information on an embedded banner, list it in a visually-appealing, typed-out format.

 

CLEAN DESIGN SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:

 

image email sig - email signature best practices

 

The example above includes an image. However, if that picture was not visible, viewers would still be able to see all the contact information for this agent. The loss of an image doesn’t detract from the email, or deprive recipients of any contact info that they may need.

 

 

4. Let your logo stand out in your email signature

Whether you’re emailing leads, current clients, or colleagues, your email is an extension of your brand and represents you as a professional. Keep those email communications consistently on-brand by including your agency’s logo in your email signature.

 

Prominently featuring your logo in your email signature is a great way to add a degree of professionalism to your communication. It will also keep your brand at the forefront of your email recipients’ minds, which is especially helpful when you’re communicating with leads who are deciding whether or not to use your services.

 

AGENCY LOGO SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:

 

logo - email signature best practices

 

As you can see above, your logo doesn’t have to dominate your signature, but it should be present.

 

Keep in mind how it will look when your email is read on mobile devices, or on email clients where images may be blocked. Test out the placement of your logo in all these scenarios to ensure that your email signature always looks on-point.

 

5. Feature reviews and awards in your email signature

Social proof is a powerful thing. Stellar reviews from real-life clients will always resonate much more with leads than simple self-promotion. Why not include glowing reviews in your email signature, so your happy clients and your business are linked in the minds of your future customers?

 

If you have a 5-star review on Zillow, your email signature is the perfect place to alert readers of this accomplishment. You can also provide the link to a page of reviews, or a list of recent awards you may have won. You can also quote one review in particular, as long as it’s a short sentence.

 

SOCIAL PROOF SIGNATURE EXAMPLE:

 

reviews- email signature best practices

 

As you can see in the example above, the tail end of your signature is an ideal location to point readers towards your positive reviews. It’s a great reminder that you’re not just bragging about being a great realtor; you can actually prove that you are everything you say you are.

 

Custom Email Signature

 

Learn how to create high-impact custom email signatures with Placester’s Agent Pro subscription!

 

Published on December 7, 2017

 

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Written by Carolyn Berk

 

I am a Content Marketing Associate at Placester, where I regularly share helpful real estate marketing strategies through Placester's Academy.

 

 

More than anything, home buyers and sellers want to work with a local real estate expert who knows their market like the back of their hand. That means knowing all important data for their area:

 

What types of listings have sold most frequently?

What kinds of properties come on the market?

What’s the average price point for a new home?

What neighborhoods and developments are hot?

It also means knowing more than just home sales and value statistics, though. You need to understand your town — including those who live there — and be an integral part of your community.

 

While the following activities might not have much to do with buying and selling a property, they can help you show you are a local real estate expert, as opposed to you simply saying you are one.

 

1. Regularly attend your local government meetings.

Because almost everything your local government discusses affects your business in one way or another, it’s wise to start your path here to prove you’re a true, local real estate expert.

 

From public works projects to housing regulations, you’ll hear several topics of interest at town hall meetings. The issues discussed are ones that can make living in your community pleasant or painful.

 

As a local real estate expert, you can speak on behalf of your clients — the constituents of your community. You know what their concerns are, and you can convey those concerns to decision-makers.

 

You don’t have to run for office or serve on committees. Showing up and taking part in the dialogue, though, is a powerful statement about your commitment to the well-being of your community.

 

 

2. Support local kids’ sports teams and youth programs.

Whether it’s swimming, baseball, or gymnastics teams or the local scout troops or Boys and Girls Club, there are many different childrens’ clubs and organizations to which you can lend support.

 

For just a couple hundred dollars, you can sponsor youth sports teams uniforms for the whole season or help underwrite an out-of-town competition so the kids in question get to travel for events.

 

Similarly, you can help fund or advise other local programs, like ones for at-risk youths or after-school initiatives, to ensure every child in your community gets the guidance they need to succeed.

 

And when any of these programs come to an end, you can treat the kids to an ice cream and pizza party. The children won’t give much thought to who made it possible, much less that it was a local real estate expert such as yourself — but their parents sure will. Overall, this strategy is a win-win for everyone involved.

 

3. Join (or start) a community Facebook Group for locals.

There are Facebook Groups for just about everything these days: ones for fans of certain celebrities, ones for pro sports teams — even ones for buyers and sellers to get advice from (you guessed it) local real estate experts.

 

Your Facebook Group doesn’t have to be one in which you only answer questions for prospects. You can invite anyone and everyone in your community to join to chat about anything related to the area, like hot-button issues and growing interests in and around your town.

 

Once your members start conversations on these subjects, you can hop in to offer your two cents. If you do partake in these group discussions, it’s important you don’t use them for any marketing whatsoever — at least not directly.

 

Take part in these conversations to provide value to those who live or are interested in your market. Be a person, first and foremost, not just a local real estate expert who wants to generate more leads and clients.

 

As for marketing, you can eventually do some targeted Facebook advertising to members of your group and others you join who demonstrate they are, indeed, looking to buy or sell in the near future.

 

Your ads won’t show within the Facebook Group(s) in question, but if the members see your ads and then see you contributing to the conversation, they’re more likely to associate you with being a local real estate expert.

 

4. Create neighborhood and community tour videos.

Local real estate experts not only share their buying and selling tips and tricks with their clients. They also prove they know just about everything there is to know about their markets.

 

Arguably the best way to accomplish this is to produce videos that show off your area expertise.

 

Some of these videos can be simple, visuals-only clips that walk would-be home buyers through specific neighborhoods, businesses, schools, and parks in your area.

 

Other videos can feature narration from you explaining what makes your location so great. For instance, you could create a video that details the best pizza places in town with mini reviews for each.

 

To maximize the results of your efforts, make sure you showcase your real estate videos on your agency website and your YouTube channel. You can also share them on Facebook and Instagram, or highlight them in an email newsletter that you send to your contact list.

 

Whether you realize it or not, you are an authority on your market. Because of that, you can turn your knowledge into lead-generating and -nurturing video content that can add an essential boost to your online presence.

 

5. Give back to your local community as often as possible.

 

Depending on where you live, there are several ways you can participate and help others do so as well.

 

Single events, for instance, that help organizations get attention, funds, and resources are fun to put together and really help other community members get involved. Of course, there are many more cool ideas too:

 

Host and promote a blood drive you could host in conjunction with an organization such as the Red Cross.

Collect books and toys for kids. Donate to your local library, homeless shelter, group home, or pediatric hospital.

Plan a coat donation. One Warm Coat has all the steps mapped out to help you conduct such a donation.

Bring snacks and supplies to first responders. EMS and firefighters need our support, just like we need their help.

Becoming a local real estate expert is a top differentiator for today’s buyers and sellers. So, be sure to show them you’re an expert with both heartfelt, genuine actions and great, hyper-local content.

 

BONUS TIP! Share an interactive map on your website.

How many times do people ask you for recommendations? How often do leads ask for great local restaurant picks, funky boutique shops to visit, or cool festivals to check out? They ask because (bingo!) you’re a local real estate expert.

 

Now, imagine you had one digital location to which you could send your buyer or seller audience over and over again so they could consistently get top picks and suggestions from you?

 

Your website is one such place, but, more specifically, a customized, interactive map — like the one Relola offers agents and brokers — can help you make recommendations with ease and get those recs in front of your visitors and leads.

 

With Relola, you simply open the app wherever you are. You drop a pin on the local features you love. You write a few sentences about what makes it special (along with some keywords for the area to boost your SEO.) Then you publish it to your map.

 

And voila: Your map is an instant snapshot of your community, with the listings you’ve toured, the eateries you’ve tried, and the special locations that make your area unique. The map lives on your website and Facebook Business Page, where your prospects are most likely to find you online.

 

Add in the fact Relola is free for all REALTORS®, and you have the perfect solution to prove your local real estate expertise to your buyer personas online. All you need to do is update it routinely to keep your recommendations fresh.

 

Want to learn more about establishing yourself as a local expert? Check out our free video marketing guide.12 Essential Real Estate Videos for Your Online Marketing

Published on December 21, 2017

 

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Written by Lauren Walker

 

Lauren Walker is the Director of Content Marketing for Relola. She’s a 20-year veteran of direct marketing, having worked for brands such as Reader’s Digest, IBM and Showtime. She’s passionate about branding and a staunch believer in the power of story.

 

 

Sure, real estate closing gifts are a way to celebrate success with your clients. But they also serve two important functions:

 

Providing additional value to their life

Reminding them of the great work you did in helping their home purchase or sale

Spending a little time and money finding the right real estate closing gift can lead to satisfied clients who leave reviews for you online — and hire your agency down the line.

 

Below, you’ll find several ideas for goodies to get your clients right after they sign on the dotted line. (Download our free real estate closing gift guide for a lot more!).

 

The perfect real estate closing gift is thoughtful and personalized.

Think of the types of presents you give your friends and family for their birthdays and around the holidays. They’re usually ones you know they’ll find useful or heartfelt.

 

You may not become best friends with clients during the buying or selling process (not all agents do). But you should get to know them well enough to understand their hobbies or interests. Building a relationship is great for business — but it also helps you gather info you can use when picking a present.

 

For instance, if your buyer client notes the property they purchased is the first they’ve ever had with a pool, consider getting them an entire set of things they’ll need to enjoy it:

 

Chlorine, chlorine stabilizer, and water-testing kits

A pool skimmer and vacuum for routine cleaning

Pool floats and chairs for guests

A grill set to enjoy next to the pool

These may not be the “sexiest” of presents to provide your clients. But these are the types of thoughtful gifts that can lead to a long-term relationship (and perhaps some pool invites).

 

Going above and beyond the call of duty as an agent to make your clients as happy as possible in their new residence can really differentiate your firm from others nearby.

 

All it takes is some attention to detail and listening. You never know when a client will reveal info like this that can inspire your real estate closing gifts, so keep your ears open.

 

You can’t go wrong with gift cards to local restaurants, shops, and theaters.

While you can definitely win lots of bonus points with your clients by going with the attentive approach outlined above, you can always make their day with gift cards as well.

 

An ideal gift card to get clients is one for their favorite restaurant — if they have one, that is. If they’re new to the area, that’s where your local expertise comes into play.

 

Find out what kinds of cuisine they most enjoy. Then, identify a few places in your market you think they’ll like, and get them gift cards to each one. This gives your clients a chance to explore their new neighborhood and save some dough while doing so.

 

Then, there’s retail therapy. Whether it’s for a big-box store, a chain furniture supplier, or a boutique shop, a gift card for one of these places can help your clients furnish their new home.

 

Knowing their design preferences is helpful when securing a gift certificate to one of these stores, but once you know their style sense, you can select accordingly.

 

Don’t forget the entertainment! Some communities have large, franchised movie theaters that play today’s blockbusters. Others have indie theaters that regularly show old movies.

 

Understand the kind of cinema (or stage theater, if they’re into that instead) your clients enjoy. Then, get them free passes to check out a film or play nearby after moving day — a time when they’ll want (and need) to de-stress.

 

If all else fails, you can always invite them to a nice dinner, spend a fun day shopping with them, or take them to a movie yourself.

 

Download our real estate closing gifts guide below for more ideas:

real estate closing gifts

 

Take your clients’ hobbies and passions into account when making or buying them closing gifts.

Everybody has that one activity they can’t live without. For some, it’s gardening and landscaping. For others, it’s traveling and sightseeing.

 

Odds are, your client has a hobby they greatly enjoy. So, figure out what that hobby is, and develop some gift ideas around it:

 

Does your latest client regularly take part in 5Ks and fun runs? Get them a Fitbit or similar run-tracking device.

Does another client love to go to rock shows? Buy them an all-access, VIP pass to the next major music festival to come around.

What about clients who are into decor? Set them up with a a professional interior decorator consultation.

Taking a personal interest in your clients’ interests can help you during your time representing them and post-closing.

 

Go big or go home: Sometimes the best real estate closing gifts are the grandest ones.

All of the real estate closing gift ideas mentioned thus far are ones that won’t put too much of a dent in your commission.

 

If you are in a position to spend extravagantly on clients though — we’re looking at you, top producers — then this is a unique opportunity to really wow your clients.

 

There have been some pretty outstanding examples over the years of real estate professionals going the extra mile for their clients, and it’s inspiring to see such enthusiasm.

 

With that in mind, here are tips for making an even greater impact on the lives of your clients after the transaction is complete:

 

Think your seller clients could use some R&R after their home sale? Get them a one-day or weekend-long spa vacation where they can get massages, hit the saunas, and just plain relax.

Do your newest home buyers need to fill their backyard with some furniture? Get them some patio chairs or loungers they can use to entertain their friends and family.

Do your latest buyer clients have young kids? Buy them a modest-sized playground set and accompanying toys to help them make the most of their new property.

The old adage “You have to spend money to make money” really is the perfect one to describe how you can earn repeat business from clients down the line.

 

Include these types of grand real estate closing gifts in your end-of-transaction marketing strategy, and you’ll reap these rewards:

 

Seeing clients come back to your agency the next time they need to buy or sell

Getting glowing referrals from clients who had a wonderful experience working with you

BONUS: Here are some top gifts to get clients one year after their home purchase.

Gifts for closing day are certainly memorable. What can show you really care about clients is remembering the one-year anniversary of their sale or purchase and getting them yet another present as a congrats.

 

The same gifts above can certainly apply 12 months later. There are several other unique options, though:

 

The first year in a new home likely gave your clients lots of new memories. So, grab one or more photos from their Facebook page and frame them.

Similarly, you could grab those photos and have a professional or freelance video editor compile them into a mini-movie, complete with background music and text overlays.

Hosting a party for multiple clients roughly one year after each bought or sold their home with help from you can make for a celebratory occasion.

Going the extra mile at closing will leave a lasting impression that can pay dividends down the line.

 

 

Written by Matthew Bushery

 

I'm the Sr. Content Creator for Placester, where I educate real estate professionals about modern marketing and, in turn, help agents and brokers make the most of their online presence, earn more traffic, and generate more leads and business.

 

@MatthewBushery

Matthew Bushery

 

 

 

“Generate real estate leads who are ready to buy or sell ASAP and want to hire an agent right away.” If this item is on your online marketing checklist, you’ll want to put some time into building and optimizing your Facebook Business page.

 

To explain why, Placester’s Content Marketing Director Juliana Casale recently co-hosted a webinar with Relola‘s Content Marketing Director Lauren Walker. Together, they explored how agents can generate high-quality real estate leads from their Facebook pages by following a few simple pieces of advice.

 

Check out the recap below, and be sure to catch their Facebook real estate lead generation webinar on-demand.

 

To generate real estate leads from Facebook, you need a strong Facebook Business Page.

“But I already have a personal Facebook account. Why do I need a real estate Facebook page too?” That’s a fairly common question among agents today — and a fair one.

 

It may seem redundant to have multiple presences on the social network. However, as Juliana notes, there are significant benefits to this approach.

 

“Some of the high-level differences between a personal Facebook account and Business Page are that you can add your team members to your Business Page,” says Juliana.

 

“You can figure out what your style will be and how it maps to your branding: the type of colors you use and the logo you use. What you call it doesn’t have to be the same name as your business, either. It can include your local market. You can have fun with it.”

 

Once your Business Page is up and running, Lauren notes that it’s important to think about how you will use it within your real estate marketing strategy on Facebook.

 

real estate Facebook marketing

 

“What is this page called?” asks Lauren. “What is its editorial mission? Are you going to use your Facebook Business Page as an individual agent or broker, or for your team? Are you going to use it for your whole brokerage at large? .Is this going to be a place where you’re relating person to person, or you’re really speaking more as an entity?

 

That’s going to dictate how you build and use the page.”

 

Beyond basic setup, Juliana adds that it’s vital to know who’s going to run the page and ensure it’s effective.

 

“I also think it’s important to think about who’s going to be actually manning behind-the-scenes — you know, who’s in charge of posting, who’s in charge of answering comments,” says Juliana.

 

“It is important to have someone dedicated, that is checking in regularly and updating your content. You don’t want to launch and just have it gathering dust, because that’s not a good look when someone visits your page.”

 

Driving traffic to your real estate website is one of the core benefits of your Facebook page.

Earning many Facebook fans is certainly a big benefit of setting up a Business Page.

 

But Juliana brings up an additional side effect you may not have thought of: “I would say the most important benefit is driving traffic to your real estate website,” she says.

 

“You can build up your audience outside your sphere of influence. I think what’s helpful as you’re thinking about what to post and what content to share is you’ve got to think to yourself, ‘Am I making it easy for someone to contact me when I’m posting? Am I making it easy to learn more by linking to things that lead to my site?’

 

Try to think through what you want a person to do after you’ve posted, and what action you want them to take.”

 

real estate Facebook marketing

 

Just like on your website, your Facebook Business Page features a navigation bar. On the left side of your account, you’ll find tabs where you can add your brand info and website links.

 

“There are so many tabs that are part of the default Business Page, and additional tabs you can add,” says Lauren. “Think about that ‘Services’ area [in particular] and think about how you can get granular: what you do, and for whom you do it.”

 

The more details you provide about your business, the more those who land on your page will know about you, Lauren states. This, in turn, can spark your audience’s curiosity and get them clicking to your website.

 

Multimedia can get more fans for your real estate Facebook Business Page.

From your cover image and profile avatar to photos and videos of your listings and market, high-resolution visuals are a must for your Business Page.

 

As Lauren and Juliana note, start with the brand-oriented imagery, then focus on creating and posting unique, visually stunning multimedia.

 

“Facebook has become visual,” says Lauren, adding she remembers the beginning of Facebook, when people just posted text.

 

“Nowadays, you really don’t think about Facebook without thinking about visuals,” she continues. “And we’re visual people: That’s how we learn quickly and we get information quickly.

 

Your headshot, your logo, your hero image, your featured image, your cover — these are really important. It’s a quick opportunity to tell your brand story.”

 

The key to building a great online brand, Lauren notes, is unifying the way you market your agency on every digital outlet: your Facebook page, other social media accounts, email, and your website.

 

real estate Facebook marketing

 

At the end of the day, it’s all about being as engaging as possible on Facebook.

To generate real estate leads from your Facebook presence, you need to be proactive with your engagement, shares Lauren.

 

“This is how you show your authenticity,” she explains. “When you go on social media, don’t just post. When you get a like or comment on one of your posts, comment back. Do not miss that opportunity to acknowledge that somebody saw what you did.”

 

The best way to get likes and comments, Lauren adds, is to tag people. You don’t want to go overboard and tag random people. If you know a handful of people, though, who would find a specific share informative, don’t hesitate to tag them. Doing so will amplify the reach of those shares, as those tagged are often inclined to share it with their network.

 

Juliana shares the same sentiment, noting how engaging with others allows you to get your brand in front of new individuals — many of whom may not yet know about your agency.

 

“If someone shares your Facebook Business Page post to an audience that’s not familiar, and you’re pointing people back to your website in that post, that’s going to be a big win for you,” she concludes.

 

Watch our webinar with Relola to learn how to generate real estate leads from Facebook:

real estate leads

Published on February 20, 2018

 

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Written by Matthew Bushery

 

I'm the Sr. Content Creator for Placester, where I educate real estate professionals about modern marketing and, in turn, help agents and brokers make the most of their online presence, earn more traffic, and generate more leads and business.

 

@MatthewBushery

Matthew Bushery

 

The benefits of marketing online are particularly clear in the real estate industry, where agents are constantly looking for the next lead or referral to keep their commissions rolling in (especially as the holidays approach!).

 

Today, internet search plays a vital role in the home buying process. This means that real estate agents can’t afford to miss out on online opportunities.

 

Here’s why marketing online is now a major stop on a buyer’s journey, and how agents can incorporate this new customer behavior into their marketing plans to attract, capture and close more leads.

 

1. Home buyers start their search online

The best way to make yourself valuable to a new client is by educating them on what to expect, right as they begin their home purchasing journey. And increasingly, that journey starts online. The National Associate of Realtors has found that 44% of buyers search properties online as the first step in their home buying process.

 

home buyers search properties online - not marketing online

 

Even if home buyers don’t initially start their search online, the internet still plays a major role in their quest for a new home. NAR says that 95% of homebuyers will use online websites throughout the buying process.

 

Whether they start their search online or incorporate digital components later on, at one point or another home buyers will likely turn to the internet for resources, advice, and reviews. Make sure your real estate business is front and center for them to find as they navigate the web looking for helpful information — and ultimately, a real estate agent.

 

2. Your competition is already marketing online

Real estate agents know better than anyone that the competition for business can be fierce. You can’t afford to let competing agencies dominate such an important platform for attracting home buyers.

 

Just how many of your competitors have an online presence? According to NAR, 93% of real estate firms have a website.

 

real estate firms websites - not marketing online

 

The fact that so many real estate firms have a website means that they’re likely marketing online to other channels as well.

 

It could be worthwhile to investigate your competition’s digital presence and find out whether they’re also promoting their services in the following areas:

 

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

Video (YouTube and Vimeo)

Real estate listing sites (Zillow, Trulia, etc.)

If you do spot your competitors involved with any of the platforms listed above, then it’s time to up your digital game so you can also be seen and heard online.

 

If launching content on the same channels as your competitors is not within your immediate reach, it’s important to keep their online activities on your radar so you can come up with strategies for reaching the same audience of potential home buyers.

 

 

3. Clients value real estate agents who are digital

Marketing online won’t just help you attract the interest of home buyers; it will help you communicate with them as well.

 

The home buying process can be complicated and confusing, so it’s essential to provide leads and clients with multiple ways to get in touch with you. Some people prefer to communicate via email, phone, or even texts; and while a phone call may be appropriate during the day, your number alone doesn’t provide people with a way to reach out to you if a question pops into their head at 2 AM.

 

By being present on social sites, email and through your website, home buyers will have plenty of ways to get in touch, according to their preference. For example, a potential client with a question outside of your normal business hours could easily tweet their question to you, send you an email, or fill out a contact form on your site.

 

How important is marketing online to your target audience? You may be surprised that 53% of buyers told NAR that they consider an agent’s skills with technology to be “very important.”

 

agent tech skills - not marketing online

 

Failing to provide leads with a way to digitally communicate with you sends a signal that you haven’t adapted to newer technology. This assumption can be fatal to your business, especially since 89% of buyers surveyed by NAR said that agent communication skills were important to them.

 

A good first step to improve your online communication is to set up a website with a contact page featuring an always-available form. Social media is also an ideal way to provide home buyers with a platform where they can ask questions and express concerns 24/7.

 

4. People are talking about you online

Even if you’re not online, your past clients are. Many of them may even be posting reviews, letting the world know what they think about your skills and service.

 

For many home buyers looking for a real estate agent, these reviews can help them decide if they want to work with you. Zillow’s report on the relationship between buyers and agents found that online reviews and ratings of agents are important to 49% of home buyers.

 

agent online reviews - not marketing online

 

Regardless if these reviews are good or bad, you need to make sure that you’re part of the conversation. Thank clients who leave you positive reviews, and address poor ratings. Don’t attack reviewers who say bad things about you; instead, apologize, ask them to provide more information so you can correct that mistake, or provide context for their criticisms (especially if it involves a factor that was beyond your control).

 

Don’t be left out of real estate’s digital revolution!

The world of real estate has found a new home: marketing online. If you haven’t yet migrated your business to digital platforms, you are letting valuable leads — and ultimately commissions— slip through your fingers.

 

Learn how you can modernize your marketing strategy by downloading the free ebook below:

real estate marketing strategy

 

Published on October 27, 2017

 

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Written by Carolyn Berk

 

I am a Content Marketing Associate at Placester, where I regularly share helpful real estate marketing strategies through Placester's Academy.

Real Estate Marketing Defined: Understanding the Inbound Funnel for Your Realtor Business

 

 

By Matthew Bushery

About Inbound Marketing

Placester real estate marketing inbound marketing funnelYou, the modern agent, are also a marketer. You may not think you are, but when you’re writing detailed blog posts, showing your latest listings, and networking at local events, you’re marketing yourself and your Realtor business.

 

On the other hand, you, the busy agent, don’t have time to keep up with every new digital marketing trend that could prove profitable for your brand, given you’re conducting all of the aforementioned promotional tactics (and quite a few more, if you’re doing it right).

 

It’s because of these time and energy demands that oftentimes prevent agents such as yourself from catching up on the latest and greatest marketing techniques, terms, and ideas many other professionals are leveraging for their companies. But that doesn’t have to remain a concern for you any longer — thanks to this new Placester Academy series.

 

In our Real Estate Marketing Defined series, you’ll learn all about the must-know marketing trends that can transform your business for the better — and we start with one of the popular marketing concepts of the 21st century you should incorporate into your plans: inbound marketing.

 

 

 

“So … what does inbound marketing even mean — and how does it apply to real estate agents like me?”

We’re glad you asked. To start, let’s define what inbound marketing isn’t. It isn’t a strategy the utilizes offline or outbound tactics like newspaper ads or billboards. It isn’t an approach that incorporates cold-calling contacts to gauge their interest. Most of all, it isn’t an intrusive marketing method — like those of decade-plus ago — in which you overtly and heavily promote your brand to everyone, in turn annoying … well … everyone.

 

Nope, inbound marketing isn’t any of these things. It is, however, the best means for you to connect with the people who matter most for your real estate business: the typical audience you have historically worked with. This could be novice home buyers, experienced home sellers, the luxury market, the vacation home demographic — whoever tends to hire you most often.

 

Inbound marketing is the best means to connect with your niche audience.

 

CLICK TO TWEET

As it pertains to your agency, inbound is the act of setting up your online presence (from your IDX website to your social media accounts), developing digital promotional plans (primarily, your drip email campaigns), and continually optimizing all of these outlets and techniques (mostly for your SEO strategy, buyer personas, and brand positioning) over time to attract your target audience to your internet-based channels and nurture them into leads and clients with educational materials.

 

In short, inbound is all about enticing the right buyers and/or sellers through sharing materials and resources that make them want to engage with you, rather than figuratively shoving your self-promotional messaging down their throats with over-the-top, aggressive, and — most importantly — wasteful marketing schemes.

 

As renowned marketing consultant and motivational speaker Simon Sinek once noted, “People don’t buy what you do — they buy why you do it.” So, instead of telling people why you’re the best agent around, show them — prove to them your history of success, share your vast industry knowledge, and exhibit your determination to get the job done right … and do it all online.

 

“Okay, you’ve piqued my interest. Tell me more about modern inbound marketing. What does it entail?

As with many of today’s real estate professionals, we have no doubt you’ve earned some business with outbound marketing activities, like when you meet people in your community when you’re simply out and about and networking with other folks at more formal business-oriented meetups and conferences — and that’s great!

 

You should continue to explore these offline avenues for lead generation, when time and your overall business duties permit, but this is the “bonus” marketing mindset that should support the foundation of your marketing strategy: your inbound blueprint.

 

Think of it this way: You could spend a few hours daily meeting and greeting existing contacts and new connections to try to earn more prospects you can later manually add to your customer relationship management (CRM) database.

 

 

 

Or, in half that amount of time each day (or less), you can build new pages and write new blog posts for your real estate website to attract new leads, set up your automated email campaigns for your current leads, and schedule some social media shares for the week or two ahead to heighten your brand awareness — all without having to move an inch (well, except for your arms and hands, which generally do all the typing and clicking).

 

To put it another way: There will always be a place for connecting with prospects over the phone and in person to convince them to sign on with you. But, in order to get to this point and truly scale your business in a reasonable, effective, time- and energy-saving manner, you need to construct a comprehensive inbound marketing strategy from the ground up that streamlines nearly every facet of your brand promotion for you.

 

In other words, you need to implement inbound activities that aren’t as obtrusive as overly assertive outbound promotion (e.g. calling leads a few times weekly to see where they’re at with their housing search; knocking on doors to see if any random person in your market is looking to buy or sell; etc.).

 

 

“I’m warming up to the idea. Inbound marketing seems legit — but how can I create an efficient inbound plan?”

To get going with your inbound marketing for real estate plan, you first need to focus on either a) getting a modern, beautiful, easy-to-use, responsive IDX real estate website or b) upgrade your existing one so it has these traits.

 

The final destination for all of your inbound efforts should be the highest-converting pages of your website. To discover this, you need to dig into your site analytics.

 

Some site providers offer built-in data platforms that make it easy to see who’s engaging with your pages and how often. A CRM, though, is also a must-have tool to ensure you’re able to see your future customers’ journeys. It should be one that offers you the ability to see every data point related to your leads and build distinct profiles for them.

 

The inbound approach is the only feasible way to scale your real estate business.

 

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You want to be able to track every lead from the first time they interact with a component of your marketing (e.g. an email open and click on an email link, like one to your IDX page or a downloadable buyer or seller resource), to their middle-of-the-funnel engagement (further exploration of your site and consumption of more advanced content, like nurture videos and client reviews), to the very end of their agent and/or housing research (e.g. when they check out your About and mission statement pages, or favorite some listings).

 

It’s this omni-channel real estate marketing mix and subsequent lead life-cycle tracking (that is, observing each stage of the inbound funnel) that will give you a leg up on other agents nearby who haven’t adopted inbound and still rely on bugging prospects on the phone to ask where they are in the buying or selling process (pretty bothersome, right?).

 

“That all sounds great! Are there are top inbound marketing tips or essential best practices I should know about?”

As is likely the case for you when you began incorporating practically any activity into your marketing mix (Facebook ads, YouTube videos, AdWords campaigns, and the like), adopting inbound entirely will take a bit of time and several adjustments along the way.

 

Having said that, it’s more than worth the effort you’ll put in to carve out your specific strategy — especially once your site starts getting found more often atop Google search results, your ads start earning higher click-through rates, your emails are opened and engaged with more often, and your social posts drive additional traffic to your online presence.

 

Here are some of the ideal resources to check out that can give you a further notion as to what you’ll need to have in hand (tools and mindset) to build an inbound marketing plan that can elevate your marketing game:

 

This Entrepreneur post from expert marketing Murray Newlands details eight fundamentals of inbound marketing every professional should know.

Over on the Modern Marketing Partners blog, you’ll find an extensive breakdown on what distinguishes the inbound methodology from the outbound system.

Here on the Placester Academy, you can view statistics regarding the inbound marketing tactics and channels that can bolster your online strategy for years to come.

Via his Kaiserthesage blog, marketing pro Jason Acidre shares 70 infographics and checklists that detail the ins and outs of inbound marketing.

After learning the tricks of the inbound trade (many of which you can find right here on our Academy) and how you can eventually transform your real estate business into an online-lead-generating machine, you can start your inbound approach in earnest.

 

Just like with your search optimization and lead-nurturing efforts, inbound is about sustainable, long-term lead gen and conversion success.

 

Thus, it’s important to set the right expectations for yourself and your brand going into building your marketing strategy, so you remember what the end goals are — more clients and revenue — and to avoid the “shortcut” marketing tactics (e.g. buying leads, black-hat SEO, sending random mailers weekly).

 

When it comes to inbound, real estate agents such as yourself would be wise to be patient and persistent. After all, there’s more than enough proof nowadays that shows it’s the future of marketing … and the premier way for pros and brands in all industries to better their bottom lines for the long haul.

 

Download our “Launch Your Real Estate Marketing Mix” ebook today to discover more about getting started with inbound marketing!

 

What are some other online trends you want to learn about? Share your thoughts with us below, and we may cover one of those topics in an upcoming Real Estate Marketing Defined article!

 

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Published on March 17, 2017

 

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Written by Matthew Bushery

 

As the Content Creator at Placester, I'm devoted to producing content that helps transform real estate professionals' marketing efforts and bottom lines. When I'm not developing Academy posts here, I'm writing film reviews and screenplays (the latter of which will never see the light of day).

 

@MatthewBushery

Matthew Bushery

 

The Power to Influence Purchasing Decisions: Real Estate Marketing Insights for Agents

By Matthew Bushery

About Inbound Marketing

Placester real estate marketing insights buying decisionsLike any other consumer decision, who to buy from or hire typically comes down to a handful of key factors: awareness, trust, quality, effort, and reliability. More often than not, convincing your leads to sign on with you and to let you guide them to find the right home or list their own requires some savvy salesmanship.

These brand traits were explored at length during a roundtable discussion at Placester’s Boston headquarters to determine what exactly drives consumers’ decision-making and the role businesses — in your case, real estate professionals and agencies — play in their audience’s buying choices.

We hosted the discussion live on Facebook, but you can check out the entire video of the 30-minute panel discussion below, and read on to learn some of the key takeaways from the chat which featured Placester VP of Industry Relations Seth Price, Placester Senior Marketing Manager Katie Price, Wellesley College Professor and Neuroscientist Dr. Sara Wasserman, and Wistia Customer Growth Manager Andrew Capland.

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Wistia video thumbnail - Special Placester Event: The Power to Influence Purchasing Decisions

Dr. Sara Wasserman: Fruit flies and humans have more in common than you think. Bear with me for a second …

Human beings may not feel comfortable being compared to animals that still reside within the food chain, but as Dr. Wasserman indicated during the panel discussion, people and fruit flies share many commonalities. This isn’t a slight to humans, but rather an interesting evolutionary detail — and one that can help modern marketers and brands better understand how their niche audience’s minds work.

“Fruit fly brains are really similar to our brains — surprisingly,” Dr. Wasserman noted. “It’s pretty amazing and very humbling. They have these big eyes, and they have a lot of their brain committed to processing visual information so they don’t crash into things. … But the way in which they interact with the world, take in sensory information, assign value to it, prioritize that information, integrate their internal state … they might assign different value to the things in their environment.”

So, just like humans, fruit flies make quick, instinctual decisions about what they do, eat, and fly to by the second. Only humans, of course, have the ability to consume products and services, though, and that is something Dr. Wasserman stated is something businesses all over will continue to research further to better understand whom they serve.

“I’m really trying to understand how the brain makes a decision, and in the lab, we have to decide what it means for the brain to make a decision,” Dr. Wasserman added. “For me, at this moment in time, the first step is what to pay attention to in your environment and what to ignore, and assigning value to what you pay attention to. … You’re constantly updating that value and things can change.”

Andrew Capland: Communicating with customers based on insights beats cold-communicating every single time.

Leveraging data is at the heart of nearly all brands’ marketing and sales efforts today. Increased customer knowledge has allowed companies to create hyper-targeted marketing campaigns that allow for more successful sales conversations down the line, and, as Capland articulated during the roundtable, an easier time converting leads.

“We don’t cold-communicate at all anymore,” said Capland, referring to his company, the video-hosting service Wistia. “We’ve done some experimentation with a cold email list to see what kind of response we get, and it’s just been tough. The more you know about something, the more you can customize ‘success’ language to them. So everything we do at this point is warmer, and the warmer, the better. We take our warm leads, we score them, categorize them based on … company size, job title, industries that they’re in, and the more that we know, the more helpful we can be.”

So how can real estate pros utilize this approach for their own marketing plans and better connect with their core demographics and prospective leads? Capland has a specific vision as to how agents and brokers should deal with the data they collect on their audiences.

“Start simple,” Capland recommends. “Data can be overwhelming and paralyzing at first, especially if you’re not super data-savvy. So you look at all this stuff and go, ‘I think I should probably be tracking all of it.’ And so the question we ask ourselves [at Wistia] is: ‘If I knew this answer, what would I do differently tomorrow?’ If the answer is, ‘I don’t know,’ then we ignore that data point for the short term.”

Katie Dick: Have the right data tools in place — then you can make the most of that data for your marketing and sales.

Dr. Wasserman and Capland explained in great detail what it takes to use data to make marketing- and sales-oriented decisions that can affect one’s bottom line, but as Placester’s own Katie Dick noted, it takes a concentrated plan to learn how to efficiently earn that data in the first place.

“Having the data in the first place is so important,” Dick stated. “Your customer success is your success. That’s probably true in every industry, but I don’t think it could be any truer than it is in real estate because, not only do you have to convince someone to work with you, but then you have to actually help them successfully buy or sell a home. So it is the truest form of being helpful and making your customer happy.”

One of the best means for agents and brokers to keep tabs on new leads, according to Dick? Have a mobile real estate CRM that simplifies the lead management process for them — everything from adding leads while out and about on the job to setting tasks and reminders for those prospects when away from the office.

“The on-the-go nature [of the industry] is critical to a real estate agent because so much of their work is out in the field,” said Dick. “They’re not sitting at their office in front of a desktop computer. They’re out there doing listing presentations. They’ve got showings, open houses. It’s also a relationship business. Even if they don’t have one of those pre-defined activities, they’re probably out there in their community connecting with people and looking for ways to help.”

Given that responsiveness was rated as the top quality home buyers and sellers look for in an agent, per the National Association of Realtors’ latest Generational Trends report, Dick said it’s vital for real estate agents and brokers to have the right resources at their disposal when working out in their markets, trying to generate new business.

Download Placester Mobile for your iPhone® today to enhance your real estate lead management and nurturing strategy while on the go. Then, check out these tips for How to Make the Most of Your Lead Management System.

What do you make of the panel’s insights and opinions regarding how brands — and real estate pros — can affect their audiences’ buying decisions? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!

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Published on November 25, 2016

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Written by Matthew Bushery

As the Content Creator at Placester, I'm devoted to producing content that helps transform real estate professionals' marketing efforts and bottom lines. When I'm not developing Academy posts here, I'm writing film reviews and screenplays (the latter of which will never see the light of day).

The 5 Components of Successful Real Estate Lead Nurturing from Century 21′s Billy Ekofo

By Elizabeth Christensen

About Inbound Marketing

Century 21 Billy Ekofo real estate leads nurturing webinarIn real estate, and any business, really, it’s easy to fall into the trap of prioritizing money above all else, and forgetting about nurturing your leads effectively through to conversion.

Billy Ekofo, director of leads management at Century 21 Redwood Realty in Norton, Virginia approaches it, stresses that the interaction with the client and the takeaway experience they have is the most important aspect of his business. In our webinar (which you can watch below), he talks about his passion for people and his lead nurture strategy.

Here, Ekofo shares what he believes are the most important aspects of a successful real estate lead nurture process.

Familiarize Yourself with the Right Technology

“What is the tool that allows you to redirect all that traffic through a central hub where you, the agent, or the lead manager, can essentially open it up and see all the inquiries that came in?”

Ekofo said those are the capabilities to focus on when selecting a customer relationship management (CRM) system. He explained how technology can allow for the consistency and flexibility that’s needed when it comes to lead management, and also believes you must strike a good balance between automation and individual communications to let the agent’s personality shine through and to make the agent-client interaction more genuine.

Prepare for Success

Ekofo explained once you have an effective lead management system in place, ask yourself: “What is the one thing that’s going to allow me to capture more business?” Take the time to really learn the system and see what types of information it captures about your leads. He recommends, “Spend a good month, two months with it. See how it works, see how it integrates with your already existing platform.”

He explained that 90% of your reach out efforts should be automated and the other 10% (which is hopefully the cream of the crop), should not. “To get to that 10%, you need to learn the 90% and understand how it works effectively for your goals.”

Zero In on Your Best Leads

“The beauty about automation is that you can assign specific attributes to a prospect coming into the system, and if they [the lead] match those attributes then it’s worthwhile.” Ekofo said it’s important to use the tools available to you to categorize leads as they filter in. He also cautioned it’s best to only reach out to prospects who seem most interested based on the information your CRM gives you, rather than getting ahead of yourself just because a prospect came in. “If you have someone that’s actively looking on your website, that’s the person you want to engage and have a conversation with.”

Once you have successfully qualified a lead, the next step is making the effort to pick up the phone, begin a conversation, and showcase your natural skills and enthusiasm. As Ekofo puts it, “the phone is only an extension of your excitement.”

He went on to explain what he finds most important about connecting with prospects and lead nurture: to always think of them as people, rather than sales opportunities.

“People want to feel like they’re being talked to. They don’t want to feel like they’re part of a system. That’s key. Prospects are not just a set of numbers. They’re not just random figures looking at homes and ready to be converted. The point is there’s a human behind a curtain and so the more you act like a human, the better the experience is on both parties.”

Humanize Interactions with Your Prospects

Throughout our conversation with Ekofo, he stressed the importance of really connecting with people. He said that’s the crux of his business. “I always try to focus on people having a great experience, whatever that leads to, because that’s what makes you memorable.”

“I always try to focus on people having a great experience, whatever that leads to, because that’s what makes you memorable.”

— BILLY EKOFO

Since Ekofo is a lead manager and regularly reaches out to and passes qualified prospects over to agents in his office, he is familiar with the reality that sometimes people have questions beyond his level of expertise. When that happens, he’s happy to direct a prospect to someone who can provide help.“That’s the way I approach lead generation. Sometimes it’s not so much setting an appointment, per se, it’s being aware enough to help people, regardless of their inquiries, and guide them to where they can find the answer.”

Ekofo discussed the time constraints he’s under when having a conversation with a prospect, and why it’s important to get to the heart of an inquiry as quickly as he can. “Time is of the essence to me, so within five minutes, I need to be able to find some key points to make the appointment worthwhile for my agent.” This point is further proof that it’s necessary and important to segment and score your leads using your CRM before reaching out.

Focus on Conversion Tactics

Ultimately, the goal is to convert the leads you’ve been nurturing into clients. Ekofo explained that lead conversion is all about the experience clients have with his agency, and he believes you never know where a connection can lead down the line, even if a sale never materializes. He operates under the positive effects of social proof, and considers a referral from a client’s friend or family member the ultimate compliment.

“At the end of the day, if the transaction fails, which tends to happen, what do we want them to remember? That the transaction failed, or that they were with one of our best agents who carried them through, and regardless of the circumstances, they’re still able to say, ‘yes we lost on the home, but the agent had it all together’.”

Another trait Ekofo possesses that he says makes him unique compared to others in real estate is that he prioritizes client relationships ahead of money. “If money trumps the experience, I think you’re doing a disservice to every lead that comes in. But if you’re focusing on giving them a great experience, that dictates everything you put in place. That’s how you get to the conversion.” He, of course. acknowledges the importance of a paycheck, but says that for him, it’s not the driving force behind his business. “My passion in real estate was always about people. It’s always about giving back.”

Missed our conversation with Century 21′s Billy Ekofo the first time around? Watch our webinar here and learn even more about his thoughts on lead nurture!

Billy Ekofo Real Estate Lead Nurture Webinar

How do you approach lead nurture in your own business? Share with us in the comments below!

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Published on January 23, 2017

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Written by Elizabeth Christensen

As a content writer at Placester, Elizabeth is excited about helping real estate professionals enhance their brands and discover new ways to form connections by sharing their stories and experiences. She enjoys equal parts print and digital media, and is always seeking inspiration.

10 Powerful Benefits Of Drinking Moringa Every Day

by Brenda Godinez

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Moringa plant is beginning to gain more popularity as a new “superfood” for its highly nutritious profile and powerful anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and tissue-protective properties.

Moringa oleifera, also known as horseradish tree, ben tree, or drumstick tree, is a small tree from India, Pakistan, and Nepal that has been used for generations in Eastern countries to treat and prevent diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, anemia, arthritis, liver disease, and respiratory, skin, and digestive disorders.

Moringa has become popular as a leaf powder supplement, although the pods, roots, bark, flowers, seeds, and fruits are also edible.

It's used as a traditional remedy for many ailments, and here are 10 scientifically backed benefits of consuming it:

1. It's nutrient-packed.

Moringa is rich in vitamins, minerals, and amino acids. It contains significant amounts of vitamins A, C, and E; calcium; potassium; and protein.

2. It fights free radicals.

Antioxidants fight free radicals, molecules that cause oxidative stress, cell damage, and inflammation.

Moringa contains antioxidants called flavonoids, polyphenols, and ascorbic acid in the leaves, flowers, and seeds.

A study found that leaf extracts had higher antioxidant activity, free-radical-scavenging capacity, and higher inhibition of lipid, protein, and DNA oxidation than flowers and seeds.

This means it prevents the damage and degradation that free radicals cause in the cells of different organs in the body, keeping them healthy and functioning at their best.

3. It fights inflammation.

Inflammation can lead to chronic diseases like diabetes, respiratory problems, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and obesity. Moringa reduces inflammation by suppressing inflammatory enzymes and proteins in the body, and moringa leaf concentrate can significantly lower inflammation in the cells.

4. It helps reduce some diabetes symptoms.

Moringa leaf powder has been effective at reducing lipid and glucose levels and regulating oxidative stress in diabetic patients, which means it lowers blood sugar and cholesterol and improves protection against cell damage.

5. It protects the cardiovascular system.

Moringa leaf powder has heart-healthy benefits, particularly in blood lipid control, the prevention of plaque formation in the arteries, and reduced cholesterol levels.

6. It supports brain health.

Moringa supports brain health and cognitive function because of its antioxidant and neuro-enhancer activities. It's also been tested as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease with favorable preliminary results.

Its high content of vitamins E and C fight oxidation that leads to neuron degeneration, improving brain function. It’s also able to normalize the neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline in the brain, which play a key role in memory, mood, organ function, responses to stimulus such as stress and pleasure, and mental health, for example in depression and psychosis.

7. It protects the liver.

Moringa contains high concentrations of polyphenols in its leaves and flowers that protect the liver against oxidation, toxicity, and damage.

Moringa can reduce liver damage and fibrosis and reverse oxidation in the liver. Moringa oil can also restore liver enzymes to normal levels, reducing oxidative stress, and increasing protein content in the liver.

The liver is responsible for blood detoxification, bile production, fructose metabolism, fat metabolism, and nutrient processing, and it can only fulfill these functions with the aid of liver enzymes, so it's vital they stay at normal levels. For instance, lower levels of hepatic enzymes can impair its ability to filter the blood.

8. It contains antimicrobial and antibacterial properties.

Moringa has antibacterial and anti-fungal properties that fight infections. It's been effective against types of fungi that cause infections on skin and strains of bacteria responsible for blood and urinary tract infections and digestive problems.

9. It enhances wound healing.

Moringa has blood-clotting properties in its leaves, roots, and seeds that enhance wound healing and can reduce clotting time, which means it reduces the time it takes for scratches, cuts, or wounds to stop bleeding.

How to Use It

You can add moringa powder to your smoothie or drink it as a tea. The leaf powder was deemed safe in human studies, even in larger doses than normal. The powder has a mild flavor, so it makes for a light tea with a slightly earthy taste.

But you might want to stay clear of seed extracts, as they have shown a level of toxicity in immune cells.

Moringa can have laxative effects in large quantities, so a safe dose to introduce it into your diet and avoid digestive problems is ½ to 1 teaspoon per day.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

KEEP READING: #food #food as medicine #tea

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Brenda Godinez

Brenda Godinez is the blogger and food nerd behind Crave the Benefits. She wants to help you make healthy eating happen, regardless of your schedule, budget, or lifestyle. Her mission is to show you how to prepare and love healthy food, enjoy the benefits, and feel fantastic. You can get…

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The Real Estate Video Marketing Promotion Checklist for Agents and Brokers [Free Download]

By Matthew Bushery

About Inbound Marketing

real estate video marketing promotion checklistOnce you have your real estate video marketing strategy up and running, it’s time to plan out your promotional efforts for those recordings.

This is a crucial step: If you already invest a hefty amount of time, energy, and resources (hint: your ever-so-valuable marketing spend and time) on making your real estate videos, why not put that same effort into ensuring they’re actually seen and by the right people — those who are likely to convert into leads and possibly clients down the line.

There’s no need to panic if you don’t have a strong promotional blueprint at hand just yet, as we’ve created a comprehensive checklist of real estate video promotion ideas and activities agents and brokers of any age, niche, and skill and experience level can utilize for their marketing strategies.

Note: If you haven’t yet started developing real estate videos yet, definitely also check out the following posts that will help you build out your video marketing strategy.

23 Types of Real Estate Videos Agents Should Create ASAP

Real Estate Video Marketing Tips and Tricks: Optimizing Your YouTube Channel

The 10 Best Video Recording Apps for Real Estate Agents

How to Hire the Right Real Estate Videographer

Click below to get your free copy of our real estate video marketing checklist.

And stick around to learn why promoting your videos is essential to your online marketing (and overall business) success.

real estate video marketing promotion checklist

Why Your Videos Require Significant Promotion

It’s just not enough to get the right video equipment, hire a third-party crew to help, and shoot videos throughout your community, in your office, and on location at your listings to create a winning video strategy. You also must integrate all of your specific marketing tactics and activities into your video marketing to ensure they get seen by lots of local buyers and sellers.

Some of the most popular marketing methods you can (and should) employ for your real estate video promotion include:

Email: Your email marketing is the powerful tool for communicating directly with leads and clients. Send different video types based on the each individual leads’ main interests or concerns to further inform them and, in turn move them down the marketing funnel. Because you’re unable to embed a video in emails, it helps to include a photo from the recording and link to another landing page where they can watch it.

Social media: You may view Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and other social networks as just places you can occasionally chat with your audience one-on-one and share a blog post featuring how-to housing advice, but these platforms can be used as a primary spot for your real estate video marketing promotion. For example, you can pin status updates to the top of your social accounts so your best-performing videos are the first ones seen by your audience. You can also splice your videos into 30-second clips and share them on Instagram and Pinterest over the course of several months instead of just a few weeks.

Website: Outside your YouTube channel (which you definitely ought to get going if you haven’t yet), your real estate website is the premier place to host your videos. Your homepage can be an excellent spot to place explanatory videos that detail who you are and your market niche, while area and community pages can (you guessed it) feature recordings about each facet of your real estate market. And your blog can feature listings and advice videos throughout. The key to getting these seen is making sure your site and videos are search-optimized from top to bottom.

There are plenty of other ways in which you can get a considerable amount of mileage from your real estate videos — many of which you’ll find in our detailed checklist, so get your copy today!

Need inspiration? Check out these great clips from some of our favorite stunning listings videos. Also, check out this webinar with Rick Lamb where he discusses leveraging video marketing to generate leads.

How do you get your niche audience to consume your real estate videos? Share your video marketing secrets to success with us in the comments below!

How to Use Your Real Estate CRM to Score and Segment Leads

By Matthew Bushery

About Agent Basics

real estate CRM software lead scoringOnce you have a clear idea as to which home buyer and seller leads in your real estate CRM software database are likely worth your lead-nurturing efforts, it’s time to rate and prioritize them accordingly.

The criteria each real estate agent uses to score and segment leads in their CRMs can vary, but generally speaking, there are certain characteristics they should look for in prospects in their lead management systems that can help them discern which are more likely to seek representation and search listings sooner and more aggressively than others.

Below, you’ll learn how to implement the ideal lead-scoring system for all leads in your real estate agent CRM. This will help you separate your cold seller and buyer leads from the warm and hot ones, so you can focus on those who are ready to act on their housing needs sooner than later and make them the primary focus of your lead-nurturing campaigns.

First, you need to understand the difference between “lead grading” and “lead scoring.”

Before you can score a lead, you need to grade them. The two may seem interchangeable, but they are actually distinct approaches to qualifying leads. Lead grading happens before lead scoring for the simple fact that you don’t want to bother scoring every single one of the leads in your real estate agent CRM database. The reason is simple: because not every lead will be worth your time to nurture — at least for the time being.

What separates a high-grade lead from a low-grade prospect? Typically you can define a high-grade lead when they’re actively looking to hire an agent or search the market, you have a strong sense of what their general timeline looks like (if they need to buy or sell ASAP), by how long they’ve already spent searching for representation or homes for sale, and if they are a prototypical client you tend to represent. If a lead fits your particular real estate niche (for instance, if you strictly work with buyers looking to purchase high-end condo units), then highly grade that lead.

Once you grade all of your leads, it’s time to segment the list of those who should be scored right away from those who can wait. Here’s a rough breakdown regarding how you can distinguish which to score and which to wait with:

“Hot” leads — those individuals who have filled out a form or provided you their contact information in some other manner and regularly consume and engage with your content or website — should be scored immediately after they’re graded and prioritized in order of likelihood of converting them into a client. For instance, if one lead downloaded three pieces of content off your site and spent a great deal of time browsing multiple pages, they should make the lead-nurturing cut, so to speak, over a lead who downloaded one piece of content and spent less time perusing your site.

“Cold” leads, meanwhile, should be graded right off the bat, but scored at some point down the line, given they are unlikely to turn into a client or fit your criteria for clients whom you generally represent. You can add notes and reminders in your CRM for these leads denoting when you think they may warm up (i.e. change their minds about a housing decision; end up fitting your real estate niche down the line and, thus, are a good candidate to go after). But, it’s best to hold off on any near-term marketing activities geared toward these folks for however long you prefer to wait to re-engage cold leads.

There will be criteria you add over time to determine the quality of your leads, and certain leads will fluctuate between hot and cold, but for the most part this grading and scoring process will help you develop an easy-to-implement system of organizing your prospects into unique buckets.

Here’s an example of a lead record in a CRM, with details about lead type and website and automation activity.

real estate CRM software

Score and segment only the cream-of-the-crop leads in your real estate agent CRM software.

Now, it’s on to the actual scoring of your top leads. Scoring potential home buyer and seller clients in your real estate lead management database may seem like a time-consuming task, but as long as you have clearly defined buckets fully developed — in other words, ones based on the characteristics you look for in prospective clients — it shouldn’t take you long to assign a rating to each and determine which are worth more of your marketing time and energy than others.

Consider the demographic information in leads you tend to nurture and convert to clients: If the overwhelming majority of your clients are 40 and older and have an income of at least $100,000 annually, then you know leads who fall into these two particular buckets should make the lead nurturing cut, so to speak, over other, presumably lesser-qualified prospects. That’s not to say those other prospects can’t turn into viable business opportunities. Rather, it means you know who should get stronger scores so you can allocate your marketing spend and efforts there first.

As explained in this Placester Academy infographic, there are multiple buyer personas agents tend to see. You can create relatively basic buckets and segment your leads based on this age-based criteria, or you can get more detailed and hone in on more of the niche traits your leads and clients tend to have, including (but certainly not limited to):

Income: As noted above, many agents focus on this lead attribute as income status and property values tend to align.

Budget: Having said that, how much a lead wants to spend or earn will be personal, so as you learn more, make those notes in their CRM lead profile, see if the commission will be worth it, and adjust the score accordingly.

Timeline: Are your buyer and seller leads looking to make a move right away or down the line? Learning when they intend to make their housing decisions will dictate if they are ideal candidates to nurture right away (those looking to buy or sell ASAP or soon) or wait to nurture (those who wish to hold off on buying or selling).

Engagement: This is one of the easiest lead qualities to discover, since you can view all of your leads’ activities with your real estate website’s analytics. The trick is knowing which metrics matter more than others. In the case of lead scoring, downloads and the page types they viewed (like listing pages or your about page) likely give you a good indication of their intent and urgency.

Some of this criteria you will have to pull from other sources, like social media or by asking follow-up questions. A bit of research can help you build a broader profile for them. Below is an example of how a series of lead scoring might look in your CRM.

real estate CRM software

Set a specific real estate marketing plan for nurturing the hottest leads.

Once you’ve identified the top buyer and seller leads that are worth your nurturing efforts and given them higher scores, you can start to focus on them. Decide which marketing tactics to implement and set a specific schedule in place for each activity, starting with your drip real estate email marketing campaigns.

After you segment your leads in different score categories, add each bucket to a unique drip campaign. Let’s say your score buckets are hot buyer leads, warm buyer leads, hot seller leads, and warm seller leads. Now, you just need to determine what nurturing activities you want to implement for each. For example, if you do start with drip campaigns, here’s how you can set up your nurturing efforts:

The hot lead groups should be your first priority. Add these leads to real estate email drip campaigns that are sent weekly that provide written case studies of past clients, offers for free in-person consultations, and the like. This will help nudge them to making a housing decision and learning more about your business, which they’ll need to know a fair amount about if you want them to select you to represent them or help them find a home.

Once this nurturing for hot leads is established, turn your attention to your warm leads. These individuals can receive similar content, but since they are more near the middle of the funnel, send them mostly content pertaining to general housing advice, like your latest YouTube videos featuring buying/selling tips and blog post series detailing the intricacies of securing a home loan, preparing personal finances, and other pre-sale and -purchase tasks. You can also leave more time in between communications.

Hot leads who engage with your email the most move to the top of your list and necessitate outreach to convert them into new business. Warm leads who open and click your emails regularly and move down your sales funnel, meanwhile, may need their scores updated and be moved into your hot leads marketing.

There will undoubtedly be leads who fall out of the funnel altogether — those who don’t interact with your email marketing in any way and stop visiting your site. These once-solid prospects can be relabeled in your CRM as cold, but even they can be added to a special drip campaign sent once every few months just to check in to see how they’re doing (a less frequent newsletter, in a sense).

Here’s an example of lead communication sent directly from your CRM.

real estate CRM software

Having an easy-to-use real estate CRM is one thing — knowing how to make the most of your lead management system, including how to use all of its core features and functionality, is another, so learn to become efficient with your real estate CRM software in this Placester Academy post.

What’s your system for scoring and segmenting your real estate leads in your CRM system? How do your prioritize which home buyer and seller leads are most worth your time and which you can hold off nurturing? Share your own personal lead management tips and tricks with us below!

Open House Promotion Tips: 10 Ways to Leverage Your Real Estate Marketing

By Matthew Bushery

About Agent Basics

real estate open houses marketing tipsWhen hosting open houses for your exclusive listings, you’ll need to do more than just a simple email blast and newspaper ad to promote them effectively. In fact, there are several other real estate marketing methods you should prioritize and employ to spread awareness of upcoming showings you will host that can get lots of walk-in traffic and generate lots of interest in your listings.

Take a look at the 10 unique offline and online marketing tactics below you can put into play to garner considerable attention and traffic for your open houses and, in turn, help you make the most of your listings’ open houses.

1) Produce a visual-heavy blog post that highlights the listing in advance of the open house.

Blogging can be one of the best marketing investments for your time. You can spend just 20 minutes crafting a real estate blog post (yes, it can be done in that amount of time) about your listing showing and detail what makes the property great to draw more visitors to the event. In fact, this is one of the most effortless lead generation activities you can perform. See some examples here.

2) Build a single property site for your open house listing that showcases its features.

Seller agents with high-profile listings often want to make the most of their promotion of those residences — and for good reason. If you mainly sell $250,000-and-under properties, for instance, and then secure a new seller client with a home value in say, $500,000 or higher, it’s evident you ought to pour more of your real estate marketing energy and dollars into promoting the high-priced listing than you have for previous ones you’ve represented.

One of the premier ways to maximize the marketing for this type of property is to dedicate a single property site for the listing itself. Single property sites allow you to focus entirely on (you guessed it) one of your listings and expound upon the details of the home for potential buyer leads — for instance, a map showing popular businesses and top-rated schools nearby and more info on specific room types and amenities at the property (e.g. laundry room, balcony, office, backyard, etc.).

3) Send a weekly email to your buyer leads list that features the open house blog post and/or single property site.

Hopefully by now you’ve done some work to segment your list. Once you’ve identified the most important group of buyer leads, it’s time to start sending them email marketing campaigns.

For home buyer leads in your real estate CRM, your best bet to spark their interest in your listings and open houses is to email them the aforementioned blog post and/or single property site you created for the listing. Because the important first step is getting the email opened, make sure you announce the open house details right in the subject line with details they would find most interesting. Learn more about using email to promote your open house.

4) Post numerous photos and videos daily to social media that show the best of your real estate listing.

There are many ways to use multimedia on social networks to promote your open house — including images and recordings that advertise your listing and exhibit its many top features. Whether that’s Facebook albums, Instagram videos featuring quick preview tours, Twitter event updates, or even Pinterest boards to showcase the best of the property and area.

5) Create a video montage of previous open houses you’ve hosted to entice buyer leads to attend future ones.

Publishing content to your real estate website with relative frequency is a must. No, that doesn’t mean you have to be glued to your computer screen half of every day. It does mean, however, you should spend your time wisely to craft content that will hit the right notes with the right audience — something you can easily accomplish with great real estate video marketing.

Create a collection of all of the aforementioned open house and listing showing collateral you shoot: property tour footage, images of the listings’ exteriors, clips showing you working with clients, the collateral and food you give out, and the like. Edit this into a fuller video as one of your big branding assets to share on your homepage and elsewhere on your site that promotes not just a single open house, but rather all of your open houses, and display what the experience is like touring your listings and having you as a sales rep.

6) Advertise your open house using Google AdWords and Facebook — just be sure to target local buyers.

The sheer number of targeting options available to advertisers on AdWords, Facebook, and other platforms and social networks is staggering. On Facebook, for instance, you can target your real estate ads to potential buyers for your listings by age, location, gender, interests, behavior, and even connections (who better to sell to than a friend of a friend?). This all adds up to a great advertising avenue for your agency and a premier method for garnering attention for your open houses.

The big fear for many agents is wasting precious marketing spend on ads that won’t get any clicks (or at least not clicks from the intended demographic), but these ad channels offer plenty of tutorials to simplify the ad creation and targeting processes, and there are several guides that can give you advertising insights for Facebook and how to get your AdWords strategy off the ground, so check out those before hitting go on your event promotion ads.

7) Work with local publications and public relations pros to advertise your open houses in your housing market.

While you shouldn’t rely solely on traditional advertising methods like print ads and press releases to gain the kind of attention needed to move the needle for your business, it doesn’t hurt to cover your bases with your open house promotion by leveraging popular newspapers, magazines, news stations, and other outlets in your market. You may even occasionally hire public relations professionals to give some guidance on how to promote your agency.

Start by making contacts and building relationships with publishers and PR pros and explaining your marketing goals. From there, you can determine which offline and online publications work best and what PR person has an ideal advertising plan for getting you lots of open house traffic. Consider this promotional endeavor a more off-hands approach, but since you’re an agent — and time is a highly valued commodity — it’s okay once in a while to let others aid your digital presence and brand awareness efforts (as long as it’s within budget).

Email buyer’s agents in your market with clients conducting home searches to alert them of your open house.

Of course, relationship-building doesn’t end with local press members and bloggers — it’s also important to connect with several other agents in your market, including buyer’s agents who may have clients looking for a listing like yours.

Send weekly emails that provide your open house schedule for the next week and the core information about the listing(s) in question: list price, square footage, days on market, and (when applicable) the willingness of your seller clients to bargain and make concessions to sell their residence. This last detail often sparks the interest of buyer’s agents with clients who aren’t willing to get into negotiation battles with sellers and are willing to meet at (or at least near) the middle to make a deal.

9) Create a unique virtual tour of the listing in advance of the open house.

From Matterport to Floored, there is a growing number of companies that provide cutting-edge 3D imaging technology for real estate agents and brokers that can add another dimension — literally and figuratively — to their listing and open house promotion. For your featured listings, you can have one of these 3D virtual tours crafted and published to your site, but don’t forget these innovative graphics can prove helpful even during in-person tours.

The cool thing about many of these imaging platforms, though, is they paint an even clearer picture of all that comes with the property and allows visitors to get more detailed information — from architectural blueprints of the property to images showing what a home could look like with different furnishing setups — that can prove vital in their decision-making process.

10) Work with premier home staging professionals to make your real estate listing look even more attractive to buyers.

Few buyers bid on homes for sale after a single open house visit. Buyers with sufficient interest in one of your listings will, in all likelihood, request a follow-up private visit in which they can get more details on the listing. But the key to getting to this point with prospective buyers is to make the home for sale look stunning — and data from the National Association of REALTORS backs up the importance of staging and obtaining this aesthetic for your listings:

81% of prospective home buyers say it’s easier to visualize the home when it’s professionally staged

32% of buyer’s agents say staged homes often increase the price point at which they believe their clients will have to bid

46% of buyers would be more willing to tour a home for sale online if it has been professionally staged by the seller

Unless you have a background in home design, your best bet to make your listing look amazing is to hire home staging pros who know how to fashion a home accordingly to maximize interest from buyers and make it as appealing to them as possible.

When to Hire Help for Your Real Estate Marketing

By John Doherty

About Agent Basics, Inbound Marketing

real estate marketing servicesYou’re a small business owner, and with that comes all the challenges of running a business: lead flow, accounting, employee management, and growth. At the end of the day, you desire to provide a great service for your customers and make a decent living yourself.

As a digital marketing professional myself, I am often asked when someone should hire help to generate more business from their digital marketing. There is no one-size-fits-all answer … though I believe there are some tried and true guidelines to work through to determine if it’s time pay someone to handle your real estate marketing strategy and execution for you.

Before we get into those reasons, allow me to also say that, even when you hire someone to do your marketing for you, you still need to be involved in the process. As the face of the business — and especially in a face-to-face, high-trust industry like real estate — your marketing needs to be personal. Thus, it needs to sound like your voice and reflect your approach to working with clients — whether informal, full of data, or the other reasons people use you as their agent.

Secondly, you need to understand what the marketing agency you ultimately employ does to drive your business. You may not be well-versed in digital marketing, but you should ask questions around why the firm you end up working with suggests the strategies they do so you can understand the implications and potential risks.

Marketing is similar to accounting in this way. You may not be an accountant or an accounting expert, but you should know where your money is going and ask questions of your accountant to make sure you are within the bounds of the law and that your business can continue to operate.

With all that said, here are the primary reasons you should hire help for your real estate marketing.

When You’re Unsure of How to Enhance Your Marketing

You’re a business owner and real estate expert, not an online marketing authority. While you can learn a lot about SEO, content marketing, or other ways to drive traffic and customers to your website, it’s likely digital marketing is not your main area of expertise.

When you reach the point in your business where you are considering hiring help for your marketing, you do what any successful real estate agent does: You ask yourself what the best use of your time and talents are. What you should also ask yourself, though, is what you enjoy doing and want to do — it’s these answers that will help you realize you can achieve so much more with a little help from outside resources.

Here’s my recommendation: Even if you love doing the work with your real estate marketing plan and become pretty good at it over time, to really take your business to the next level, you need mentorship. If you are able to hire an expert either as a consultant or full-time with your business, it may be smart to do so, because you can learn a great deal from them.

Rarely do you see a business owner in any industry also be the head of their marketing for the long haul. It’s more common in small businesses (where we as owners wear many hats) to take on that responsibility. For long-term sustainability, however, it is far more fruitful to hire someone to focus on building and evolving your real estate marketing strategy full-time while you continue to educate yourself and help out where you can.

When You Need to Grow Your Business Faster

If you already make the income you need to make because you generate the revenue you want to generate, you’re at an exciting time in your business. Now you get to decide whether to really double down and grow your business or maintain it at its current level since you’re happy.

If you decide to do the former and double down on growth, you’ll need more hands on deck. What got you to where you are now will, in all likelihood, not get you to where you want to go. You’ll need new processes, new ways of thinking, and new skills to take it to that next level.

Think of it this way: More than half of all B2C marketers (including real estate agents) describe themselves as being in the “adolescent,” “young,” or “first steps” stage of their digital marketing strategies. That means there’s plenty of room for these professionals to augment their marketing strategies — and many of them accomplish this by hiring external marketing resources and agencies.

In short, you need to decide what your time is worth and how much you want or need your brand to progress financially. When growth is paramount, you need assistance. If you’re ready to grow your business much bigger than it is at the moment, it’s time to hire help.

When You Just Don’t Have the Time for Marketing

As we’ve already said, you’re busy. You are responsible for business development, customer service and fulfillment, marketing planning and execution, payroll management, and so much more. With all of these responsibilities on your plate, it’s tempting to let marketing fall to the wayside. There is so much to do, and, as you should be, you worry about paying the bills and taking care of existing clients.

Pulling on your decisions from the section above, the lack of availability to focus your time, energy, and resources on your marketing scheme is a great forcing mechanism for automating or outsourcing some (or many) of the tasks on your plate. Marketing may be one of those — especially when you are not an expert.

The goal of subcontracting is to free up your time so you can focus on the things that really matter by eliminating the mundane tasks that someone else could do for you at a lower cost to you and, in certain cases, do more efficiently (e.g. research long-tail, local-market keywords to help your real estate website rank better).

Time is the ultimate currency, so reclaiming your time to work on revenue-generating activities is always a win for your business. As a side note, I recommend Tim Ferriss’s “The 4-Hour Work Week” as a great place to start thinking about ways to automate and outsource some of your mundane business processes.

When You’re Unsure of the Next Steps to Take

Even professionals who are very good at their craft eventually come to the point where they are not sure what to do next to move their company forward. If you reach the point where you struggle to identify effective means to improve your real estate lead generation, client conversion, and bottom line, it’s time to find someone to help you.

To start, reach out to a marketing pro from whom you can get initial (and oftentimes free) advice on where to take your marketing next. For instance, you can pinpoint one of these marketers on Clarity.fm, a website for those who run startups or SMBs that connects these business-runners with someone who can offer marketing and general business guidance.

Regardless of where you find a business consultant to chat with, conduct a 30-minute phone call with them to discuss your brand and get some fresh real estate marketing ideas. If you then realize that you do not have the time or expertise (or time to get the expertise), then the decision is made for you: Search for a marketing firm or pro to take on some of your core marketing duties.

When Your Business Growth Stalls or Suffers

As a marketing consultant, sometimes I feel like a dentist: People only come to see me when they have a problem. Some people are good about their twice-yearly dental checkups just like some people are proactive in their marketing and keep a marketer either on staff or on retainer.

If your growth has gone the wrong way and you don’t know why, it’s time to hire an expert to help you diagnose the issue, put together a strategy to bring your business back to its former levels, and then help you further advance your business beyond that.

Marketers are surgeons, and good digital marketers make their decisions based on data and their past experience. This is why you should employ someone who focuses on your data, gathers data from your competitors using a myriad of tools, and makes recommendations and decisions based on what the data tells them. Relying on your gut or intuition in marketing is a fool’s errand, and if you hear this from a potential consultant or agency, you should immediately head in the other direction.

How to Hire the Right Real Estate Marketing Services

If you’re not familiar with modern marketing techniques and approaches, you might not know the questions to ask a marketing services provider to gauge if they’re a good fit for you or your company. For deeper reading on this subject, check out this post I wrote for Infusionsoft about specific questions to ask a potential marketer.

The first decision you need to make is whether you should hire someone full-time or as a part-time consultant/contractor to help you. This is both a personal and business decision, depending on the kind of company you want to run.

A full-time employee may or may not be more expensive than a consultant from a pure salary point of view, but you also must take into account working space (if you have a physical office, they need a desk, phone, supplies, etc.), payroll, benefits, and more. If you enjoy running your business solo and the freedom to work from anywhere (or on the go as a busy agent), this might not be the right direction for you to go.

The goal of subcontracting is to free up your time so you can focus on the things that really matter.

— JOHN DOHERTY

Consultants can be relatively expensive as well, potentially more so than a full-time employee (minus benefits, office space, etc.), but since you can typically hire these professionals on a limited-time, as-needed basis, that provides a level of flexibility for your business.

Begin your search by asking colleagues in your industry if they’ve worked with a marketing consultant or agency and who they would recommend. Then, search for marketing firms and pros that specialize in real estate marketing. Have conversations with multiple agencies and experts, and learn about:

Their process for doing work

Who you’d be working with directly

How much they usually cost

If they require a minimum engagement length

What they’d do to get started on your account

Once you’ve narrowed down your list based on the needs of your brand, you can make the hire and work side by side with your new marketing partner to take your real estate marketing to new heights.