One of the single most important aspects of a real estate agent’s job is attracting new clients. Every new client you acquire is a significant boon to your business, something that makes a major difference. For smaller or independent real estate agents, acquiring new clients can be all the more difficult. Lower budgets and less-established models are all obstacles agents have to overcome.
There is no single way for real estate agents to market. The options are numerous for the typical real estate agent, as the internet has opened up countless avenues for agents to appeal to prospective clients. Still, if you’re looking for ways to improve your marketing processes, there are best practices and platforms that you should be utilizing.
Below are five different fundamental tips for real estate marketers to consider as they set out to acquire new clients.
1. Build Profiles on Google, Zillow, and More
This should be one of the early steps for a real estate agent looking to market. You want to be someone that exists online, someone who, when your customers look you up, there are results that show you to be a legitimate real estate agent. The ways to do this are by building profiles on platforms like Zillow and Google.
This is easy to do and helps you come up in search results. Creating a Google Business page isn’t hard and helps you appear regionally, so if someone Googles “real estate agents near me,” your name could pop up. Zillow is a major real estate hub, one of the centers of the industry. It is a hotspot for buyers and sellers conducting research. You should build a profile on Zillow and ask current and past clients to provide ratings to lend you more legitimacy.
2. Focus on Building Relationships
The goal of real estate marketing should be to establish a relationship. When you are starting your marketing outreach, you shouldn’t be setting out with the initial goal of getting a client. Start smaller. Aim for a consultation, a phone call, or even just an email. You don’t want to come on too strong. Instead, your goal should be to start a new relationship and develop a new lead.
Real estate is a relationship-based business. The relationship between a real estate agent and their client is a personal one. It will take some time and communication to earn the trust and business of a new lead. If someone has never met you before, they’re not likely to immediately see your marketing efforts and decide you are the perfect agent for them. It’ll take time, effort, and a lot of back-and-forths to get there. With that in mind, aim for your marketing to start a conversation, to be the first step in a long road to a partnership.
3. Utilize Content Marketing
For a real estate agent looking to attract new clients without reaching out directly to them, content marketing is a great way to bring prospects to you. Content marketing is something real estate agents and companies all over the world utilize because it helps them appear higher on search engines and is shareable and eye-catching on social media.
Content marketing draws people to your website or social media page by providing information and content that resonates. A real estate agent should focus on creating real estate-based content, but don’t be afraid to get creative. YouTube and blogs are both great outlets to distribute your content. The best way to generate traction through product marketing is by creating things that have genuine value to the customers you’re targeting.
4. Develop a Brand
Like other forms of marketing, branding in real estate marketing is extremely important. All your marketing outreach should be constructed around the idea that you are a brand. Whether you’re an independent real estate agent or working for a larger company, focus on developing a brand. With websites and content marketing, you can create your image of how you want to be perceived by prospective clients.
Ways to develop a brand are by creating logos, mission, and values pages on websites and utilizing content marketing to showcase the kind of real estate agent you are and want to be. This makes it easier to create pre-conceived associations for clients and generate the image that you want for yourself.
5. Utilize Facebook for Lead Generation
Facebook is the world’s biggest social media platform and one of the most frequently visited websites on the internet. Facebook has 261 million monthly active users in the United States and Canada, the vast majority of the population in those nations. It is an important place for real estate agents to focus their lead generation outreach on. Having a Facebook business page is a great starting point. To push your Facebook lead generation into a higher gear, StreetText is here to help.
StreetText helps real estate agents create high-quality lead capture ads that are targeted and regional. With proven effective ad templates that have helped real estate agents passively promote themselves to prospective clients, StreetText is a valuable addition to any agent’s toolbox. StreetText makes it easy to create high-performing ads and track them, helping you set up meetings and develop your client base.
