Ten Strategies to Jump-Start Your Real Estate Marketing
This post originally aired as a podcast about kick-starting your marketing in the new year!
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher
Ever felt like there was simply too much to do when it comes to your real estate marketing? I’ll admit from social media to lead generation to building long-term relationships, the list can seem never-ending.
But it doesn’t have to be!
Here are 10 real estate marketing strategies that you can easily implement into your business. Whether it’s the start of the new year or you need a shot of energy for your marketing, these strategies are easy to accomplish and yield lasting results.
Take a look below and be sure to download my free checklist that accompanies this post. There’s nothing better than crossing items off - especially if those items are intended to help you grow your business!
Now, let’s dive right in!
#1: Refresh Your Agent Bio or Resume
One of the essential parts of your personal branding is your real estate agent bio.
Despite being a more traditional form of marketing, it’s often one of your most-used marketing pieces. Is it current? Better yet, would somebody else want to read it? And after they read it would they be excited to work with you?
If you listen to the podcast, I step outside of the real estate industry to give you a unique perspective on how to take any bio from uninteresting to appealing.
It’s important to make sure your bio not only highlights you but is also tailored towards your ideal customer. You can do this by speaking to your niche, including how you resolve their specific pain points (ex: working with first time home buyers), outlining your experience, and including a compelling call-to-action to trigger engagement.
Keep in mind, agent and REALTOR® bios don’t have to just be words! This a great way to incorporate video into your marketing strategy!
#2. Optimize Your Social Media Profiles
Have you been working hard on your social media presence? Or is this going to be your year for social media marketing? Either way, take advantage of the full capacity of your social profiles. This is an easy, FREE way to enhance your online strategy!
Start off by analyzing your social media presence from 10,000 feet.
What platforms are you really on (note: I said really using and not which platforms do you have an account on)? Consider removing accounts you don’t use. It doesn’t serve your business or your customers to have abandoned or inactive social accounts.
Instagram:
Your Name & Username: Are these still relevant, easy to remember, and easy to associate with you? We don’t want people searching for you but can’t find you.
Bio: How are you maximizing these 150 characters? You could use your tagline, a catchy blurb, or a popular choice that involves select multiple words.
Check out my post “How to Write an Instagram Bio for Real Estate” or download my bio template
Ex: “Award-Winning Realtor - Interior Design Enthusiast - Mom of 3 - Living & Loving Life Along the Coast.”
You can also use emojis and line spacing to keep things interesting.
Link-in Bio: Don’t forget your link! This could simply go back to your website or a specific page you might be promoting in your bio or lead magnet you’ve created.
Facebook Personal Pages:
Intro: This blurb is all about you! So, make it shorty, catchy and a representation of your personality (better yet, your personal branding!)
Featured Photos: These are a subtle way to highlight that you’re a real estate agent without spamming your friends constantly.
About section: Select your work & education to mirror your career. Include places you’ve lived. You never know how this might lead to new conversations or referral opportunities.
Contact & Basic Info: Don’t miss out on your sphere connecting with you because you have an out-of-date phone number or junk email associated with your account.
Social Media Links: Include the other platforms you’re engaging on.
Facebook Business Pages:
Highlight a Featured Story: This is traditionally used for “about” section, but who says it has to be? Get creative and use this space as an opportunity to promote a service or special program you’re offering. You can always pin a post/link to your agent bio at the top of your page if you want to.
About Section: This is very self-explanatory, but so often overlooked or outdated.
Social Media Links: Link to your other accounts so people can choose where to engage with you.
Events: Are you using this section for open houses? Broker Opens?
Community: If you’re growing your Facebook following through the use of Facebook Groups, be sure to link them to your business page under community.
Cover Photo/Video and Profile Photo: Do these need to be updated?
Reviews & Recommendations: Take a look and make sure you’ve responded and thanked people for reviews.
Do this exercise for all the major platforms you’re on. Check out your profile pages and make sure that everything is up to date!
#3 Review Your Own Reviews
Compile all of your reviews and get them in one place by creating a library of reviews. This might simply be a word document, but it’s helpful to have them all in one spot for future use.
Start by adding relevant reviews to your website.
I’m an avid recommender of taking every opportunity to highlight your niche or specialty as much as possible! So, if you’re farming an area, you might consider editing the customer’s name to include that area. For example, if your farming Orchard Grove, you could say “Review from Sam Seller in Orchard Grove OR First Time Homebuyer Nancy in Downtown.”
If you don’t really have any reviews, now might be a perfect time nice time to ask.
“Hi (insert customer name). Hope you had a lovely holiday and start to the new year. I enjoyed working with you and your family so much last summer. As I’m finalizing my business planning for this year, I’d love to learn more about our experience working together. Would you mind sharing any feedback in the form of a review? Look forward to hearing from you!”
Once you’ve gone through all your reviews and requested more, turn to the search sites.
What do your reviews look like on Zillow or Realtor.com? Don’t forget, Realtor.com allows star-based ratings & reviews (that customers have to leave) and recommendations that you can upload! Take advantage of this feature in addition to requesting reviews directly through the sites.
While you on the real estate search sites, let’s spruce them up!
#4. Search Yourself on the Search Sites
Pretend that you’re a customer and search for your self on Zillow and Realtor.com. Can you find yourself in your market area? Once you’ve logged into your profiles be sure to check the following:
Make sure your photo is current and high-quality
Include your updated bio
Check your contact info
Add a video!
Verify that your past sales are displaying and all of your active listings look good
Connect any teammates
We sometimes complain about these sites and the cost of buying leads. But there are FREE things you can do to make sure you stand out on these sites.
Take the time to ensure your profiles are not only professional but also compelling.
But don’t get overwhelmed! I’ve created a super simple checklist for you to easily implement these tips! Click here to download your copy.
#5 Visit Your Website “For The First Time”
Take a critical look at your website. It might have been a while since you really took stock of what is on it. Start with the basics and update any necessary profile and contact info.
Then, go page by page. I know this seems exhausting. But if it’s on your site, it should be there for a reason. There’s no point in having website pages that don’t bring value to your customers or pages that you’re even too bored to peruse through!
For my more advanced digital marketers, do a quick SEO audit. Could you be optimizing your site more? Do you have any links that are broken? Pages that are loading slowly? Make a plan to fix these things over time.
I like to say that a website is always under construction. The key is to have a plan to improve it over time and a strategy that supports your overall business goals.
#6 Review Your Online Ad Strategy
Have you run any Facebook/Instagram ads or Google AdWords in the past year?
Take a look back at what you spent on online advertising and figure out your ROI on each campaign. For easy math, let’s say you spent $100 on a Facebook ad and got 10 leads. The cost per lead would be $10. Did any become customers? Did you get great engagement in the form of comments, shares, website visits. If you already know your metrics, you’re ahead of the game for the next step - analyze what worked and what didn’t.
What you could improve for this next year? Where did you see success? Take note of your results to better plan for your digital ad spend.
If you’re more advanced with online marketing or are running your own ads, make sure you are reviewing your ads regularly. I often meet with agents who have set up AdWords campaigns but aren’t monitoring them or are working with an agency but are unsure of what’s going on with them.
Bottom line - take this time to edit and improve any active ads and spend some time learning from your past ads.
#7 Write Tomorrow’s Email, Today
No, email’s not dead! Make your life easier by optimizing your templates and campaigns.
Do you have any pre-written emails for FAQs or email campaigns for leads? Take a look at these and save yourself the painstaking process of writing the same email over and over again.
Spruce up any email campaigns and make sure the content is something people would actually want to read!
If you’re starting from a blank slate, don’t be overwhelmed here. People want to feel like they are receiving an email from an actual person. Have you ever filled out a form online or contacted someone and received an obvious email campaign in return? The secret of automated emails is out! Short, personal emails come off as more genuine.
For example, an email could say, “Hey name! Just wanted to check-in. It’s been a bit since we last touched base. Do you have any questions that I might be able to help out with? Did you get my XYZ”
This little blurb might be all you need for one of the emails you have on hand.
You don’t always need elaborate email marketing campaigns with fancy graphics, embedded videos, and professional writing. People want to know that they are speaking with you. So, have your emails sound like you wrote them.
#8 Finalize Your Sphere Touch Plan
What was your plan last year to stay in touch with your past customers, friends, and family? Did you stick to it? Did it work?
Review what you did and what you’d LOVE to do this year. Now, what’s realistic for what you’ll actually do?
A lot of what we talked about on this episode impacts attracting new clients. It is beyond important to stay in touch with your sphere with a concrete plan. Use this time as you’re going through and updating everything for the new year to update your plan on how you will stay in touch with everyone and pencil it in.
#9. Refresh Print Marketing
I love print! This might be a funny statement for a modern marketer to say. Because while I might not be crazy about most print ads, I seriously love a great piece of marketing that you can hold in your hands and leave behind.
Let’s take a look at some of your standard print pieces:
Business Cards: Need new ones? Did you use them up? Are they still a reflection of your brand and goals for this year?
Flyers: Go through each piece of collateral you give people and scan it over.
Presentations: Do you have any buyers or sellers presentations that need to be updated?
Did you start offering something new last year or want to start a new service this year? Add it to your print pieces! This is a good time to not only update info but also incorporate some new ideas by making simple tweaks to assets you already have.
#10 Get an updated Worthy Headshot
I consistently update my headshot because a headshot is a reflection of my personal brand.
Start thinking about headshots as a form of personal branding. If it’s been over three years, you should probably get a new one! Why? Because over time you will start to look different, and we don’t want to be hanging on to a completely outdated photo.
Try something new! I’m a huge fan of lifestyle photos versus the single headshot.
A lifestyle photo is different than a traditional photo because it’s not on a solid background in a studio setting. It’s a photo or collection of photos of you out-and-about. You could be working at a local coffee shop or outside a new construction home. The idea is to use yourself as branding imagery in ways that will relate to and attract more people.
To Recap
You might have a little bit of work to do with these 10 tips. If you had a lot of this done last year, awesome! You might just need a few tweaks here or there.
Don’t forget to download your freebie from this episode - “10 Tips for Real Estate Marketing Success CHECKLIST” to easily get started. Click here to get your copy.
These tips today will help you set a clean slate to start trying new things or help you to continue with what’s already working!
If you tried any of these, I’d love to hear about it! Reach out to me on Instagram @IdeasForRealEstate or leave a comment below.
Up Next:
I’m Heather Colby, host of the “Ideas for Real Estate Podcast.”
If you like what you read here today, I’d encourage you to take a listen to the episodes.
You can find them on:
New episodes air on Mondays and if you have a topic request, connect with me here!
It's time for seasonal marketing! Fall-themed real estate content and marketing on social media is not only trending, it also works in your Instagram Reels, posts, carousels, and more. The secret is to customize this content with photos and videos of you. So, in today's episode, let's plan an easy fall content shoot for you as a REALTOR to use in your marketing strategies this season!