The secret to successful real estate marketing is...shhh, come a little closer, we don't want everyone to hear it! Anyway, the secret to real estate marketing is...well, it's really no secret at all. Cheap cop out, we know, but when it comes to marketing your real estate business you need to know one main maxim: all the marketing you do should be for the purpose of generating real estate leads.
If your real estate marketing doesn't cultivate leads, it is most likely a waste. A waste of time, a waste of money, maybe even a waste of a good idea that with a few tweaks actually COULD generate leads. Whether you're at the beginning of your career or half way through it, if you're not making the kind of income you want, it is most likely time to start beefing up your marketing. The one thing about real estate marketing is that you shouldn't ever stop (with VERY few exceptions). Many agents stop once they feel they have enough leads coming in - that is the wrong way to go about things.
Slow income periods are the best time to increase your marketing. After all, things are probably slow because you didn't have enough leads in your pipeline to convert to clients. Not every lead will turn into a client within months, so it is crucial that your pipeline is full enough so that you have leads converting to clients on a regular basis. No matter how much it might hurt, if money is tight, it is time to increase your marketing to generate more leads.
Most agents today have a website, so you can start with focusing some real estate marketing in that direction. After all, your website is one of the easiest ways to generate leads, since about 80% of people do some type of real estate research on the web first before speaking with a real estate agent. That is why you need to make sure your site is easily found and it has a call to action that will make people leave you their contact information.
There are several ways to set up your site to generate leads. One of the most popular is to offer free home value estimates, which consumers can only get from you, or by paying an appraiser. By putting a simple form on your site asking for property and contact information, you can easily cultivate leads simply by offering a free CMA to visitors. Offering information they can't easily find on their own is always a good real estate marketing tactic to use to suck in your visitors.
Your website is just one type of real estate marketing you can do to generate yourself more leads. You can also pay for an online lead generation service to supplement your own lead generating tactics. This can save you time and the hassle of setting up various forms of lead generation online. One pitfall of these services however is that some lead generation services are giving your lead out to other agents as well, so you may be competing for the same client with three other agents.
For less tech-savvy agents, there are more traditional forms of real estate marketing that can garner many leads. Open houses are a great source for marketing your services, if you do it properly and make sure you're talking with people that come. Placing your listings in the local Real Estate magazine is also useful, but you must leave enough information out to make readers call you for more - such as the actual price tag of a home. If you put all the information in the ad, you take away a reason for consumers to actually get in touch with you.
There are plenty of relatively easy ways to market yourself as a real estate professional and generate leads. It is simply a matter of being willing to do some things you may not like, such as cold calling or manning open houses as well as working hard at the things you do enjoy about the process, such as helping a client to find a new home or walking a client through the selling process. The main thing is to always remember that the purpose of all your real estate marketing techniques should be to generate more leads for your business.
If your real estate marketing doesn't cultivate leads, it is most likely a waste. A waste of time, a waste of money, maybe even a waste of a good idea that with a few tweaks actually COULD generate leads. Whether you're at the beginning of your career or half way through it, if you're not making the kind of income you want, it is most likely time to start beefing up your marketing. The one thing about real estate marketing is that you shouldn't ever stop (with VERY few exceptions). Many agents stop once they feel they have enough leads coming in - that is the wrong way to go about things.
Slow income periods are the best time to increase your marketing. After all, things are probably slow because you didn't have enough leads in your pipeline to convert to clients. Not every lead will turn into a client within months, so it is crucial that your pipeline is full enough so that you have leads converting to clients on a regular basis. No matter how much it might hurt, if money is tight, it is time to increase your marketing to generate more leads.
Most agents today have a website, so you can start with focusing some real estate marketing in that direction. After all, your website is one of the easiest ways to generate leads, since about 80% of people do some type of real estate research on the web first before speaking with a real estate agent. That is why you need to make sure your site is easily found and it has a call to action that will make people leave you their contact information.
There are several ways to set up your site to generate leads. One of the most popular is to offer free home value estimates, which consumers can only get from you, or by paying an appraiser. By putting a simple form on your site asking for property and contact information, you can easily cultivate leads simply by offering a free CMA to visitors. Offering information they can't easily find on their own is always a good real estate marketing tactic to use to suck in your visitors.
Your website is just one type of real estate marketing you can do to generate yourself more leads. You can also pay for an online lead generation service to supplement your own lead generating tactics. This can save you time and the hassle of setting up various forms of lead generation online. One pitfall of these services however is that some lead generation services are giving your lead out to other agents as well, so you may be competing for the same client with three other agents.
For less tech-savvy agents, there are more traditional forms of real estate marketing that can garner many leads. Open houses are a great source for marketing your services, if you do it properly and make sure you're talking with people that come. Placing your listings in the local Real Estate magazine is also useful, but you must leave enough information out to make readers call you for more - such as the actual price tag of a home. If you put all the information in the ad, you take away a reason for consumers to actually get in touch with you.
There are plenty of relatively easy ways to market yourself as a real estate professional and generate leads. It is simply a matter of being willing to do some things you may not like, such as cold calling or manning open houses as well as working hard at the things you do enjoy about the process, such as helping a client to find a new home or walking a client through the selling process. The main thing is to always remember that the purpose of all your real estate marketing techniques should be to generate more leads for your business.
About the Author:
The author, Carina Healey is a marketing expert with over 15 years experience with an emphasis in real estate and financial services marketing. Her favorite topics include real estate marketing, customer service techniques, internet marketing, copywriting for the web and search engine optimization. You can find out more about her professional experience from RealEstateMarketing.net.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment