How to avoid common marketing mistakes and stand out in the real estate industry.
Are you one of the 80% of real estate agents who don’t get enough leads to effectively grow your business? Do you find yourself chasing new clients instead of letting them come to you? If so, you’re likely making one of the common mistakes of realtors when it comes to marketing. Here is a list of those mistakes and how you can avoid them to get ahead of your competition.
Neglecting SEO
SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving the content on your site in order to rank higher in online searches by your target audience. One of the biggest mistakes real estate agents make in their marketing is neglecting SEO. The more you put off optimizing your real estate site for SEO, the more time you are losing to build a strong online presence. SEO builds upon itself. If you put time and effort into it from the beginning and then continue to make minor tweaks to keep it updated, it will pay off down the road and make it much easier to get leads.
To address this problem, start building your SEO now. Do some market research or use tools like Google keyword planner to better understand what your target audience types in when doing Google searches for real estate. Incorporate these keywords and phrases into your web content and your blogs and up your SEO game even more by including inbound and outbound links, optimizing titles and images, and creating shareable content.
Not Leveraging Referral Networks
Did you know that agents who use referral networks receive between 11-25 referrals per year while those who don’t average 6-10 referrals? In addition, agents who consistently use referral networks also close more business and typically get an additional one to two deals out of each referral. Agents who leverage referral networks attribute more than 20 percent of their overall inbound referrals received from those networks and have stated that they close more than 20 percent of the referrals they receive.
The real estate agents who are not joining referral networks and marketing themselves to fellow agents and others in the industry such as mortgage professionals, insurance agents, and stagers are missing out on a large chunk of business. When you join these networks and find ways to give value to others, you are opening up doors to leads that would have never come your way before. Not sure how to get involved? Partner with a marketing firm like Luxury Presence for some tips on getting your referral network started.
Forgetting Their Database and Focusing on New Leads
database and creating marketing strategies to appeal to those on your list. Too many agents suffer from “shiny object syndrome” and continue to focus on the newest or trendiest marketing plan instead of putting in the time and effort that will pay off in the long run. This leads to wasted time, money, and opportunities.
To get ahead of your competition, view your database as your insulation against external changes to algorithms and other issues that can tank other marketing strategies. Build a robust database (1000 names is a good goal to shoot for) and create a plan to engage those on your list. Send out weekly or monthly newsletters, invite them to upcoming events, send out birthday or holiday greetings, and share information with them about the real estate industry or neighborhood updates. This will keep you top-of-mind and will pay off two or three years down the road when those on your list start looking for an agent.
Cold Calling Leads
Gone are the days when an agent could have success picking up the phone and calling on people they didn’t already have a relationship with. Cold calling in the current market equates to chasing business and most people are turned off by it. This is especially true if high-end clients interested in luxury property are your target market as they tend to choose those they work with by referral or recommendation as opposed to being “sold”.
When you stop cold calling and instead focus on developing your referral networks, building your database, and utilizing effective marketing techniques like SEO and social media ads, you stop chasing business and instead let it come to you. This will position you as a premier agent and help you attract the type of clients you enjoy working with.
Not Leveraging Social Proof
Social proof is the phenomenon where people tend to copy the actions of their peers or of those they trust and view as “experts.” When you talk yourself up through salesy social media posts or spend too much time extolling your experience and credentials on your website, you are not leveraging social proof and will not seem credible to those you want to work with. Instead, you need to let others do the talking for you. This means soliciting and promoting online reviews and testimonials and creating meaningful connections in your referral networks so that others will do the selling for you.
When you leverage social proof, you position yourself as a preeminent agent who others want to work with. This allows your ad campaigns to perform better, you won’t need to pitch yourself to potential clients, and you can sit back and let the leads flow in. After each transaction, reach out to your client and ask them if they will write a review or film a testimonial for you. Talk to those you do business with every day, such as mortgage officers and stagers, and inquire if they would be willing to film testimonials or write reviews as well. This will not only increase the visibility of your brand, but it will also enhance your trustworthiness and make lead generation much easier.
Work With Us
Do you want to be different from the 80% of agents out there who aren’t getting enough leads? Avoid the common mistakes discussed in this article and do what it takes to get ahead of your competition. Need some assistance? The pros at Luxury Presence are always happy to help.
