Real Estate Marketing For Dummies (Simple & Effective Strategies
As a real estate agent, you’re a licensed sales professional, but your job is a whole lot bigger than just that. Unlike many other sales professions, real estate agents are responsible for marketing both their own services as well as client listings — and if you don’t have a plan of action in place for marketing then even stellar salesmanship is going to fall short.
For the most part, agents all know that they need to be marketing, and most even have a plan in place for it — and you’re probably no exception. The question isn’t so much about whether you have a marketing plan, but whether than plan actually works. So take a moment and ask yourself whether the ROI you’re getting on the time you spend promoting yourself and your listings is producing real, measurable results. Are you getting back the time investment you’re putting into it?
The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that 20% of the activities you are doing is responsible for 80% of the results. If you have no idea what this 20% is then you need to act NOW. Understanding and knowing where each one of your transactions came from is crucial in growing your business, because it helps you to know where to focus your future energies, and also provides insights into tasks you might be undertaking currently that are simply a waste of time.
So the very first thing you’ll want to do is keep track of the time you spend on different types of marketing activities, along with the results that each activity produced. Then, like any keen financially-minded businessperson, you can invest in activities that pay off, and divest yourself from those that don’t. You can use our handy reference guide below to group those activities into 4 main focus areas for real estate marketing, based on the key tasks of Phone Prospecting (Calls), Internet & Social Media Marketing (Online), Word Of Mouth & Referrals (Network), and Traditional Methods (Marketing).
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As you can see in the image above, we’ve grouped tasks by type into four quadrants, which helps you keep track of the overall type of task your investing time in, as well as helping you self-identify whether you’re entirely overlooking a particular type of marketing. Until you have a firm idea what works best in your real estate business, you should at least spend a bit of time on tasks in all 4 quadrants, to be sure all the areas of marketing you need are being fully utilized.
Optimize Each Area Of Real Estate Marketing
Now let’s take a closer look at some of the activities in each of the 4 marketing quadrants we’ve created above and drill down into some basic steps you can take to improve & enhance each area:
PHONE PROSPECTING (CALLS)
Identify what kinds of leads you are going after and what kinds of calls you are making. Identifying what conversations you consistently need to be having and with whom is essential to your flowing pipeline.
Clarity in this area helps you and your team know what they need to be going after. You then need to identify Time on Task, meaning how much time is required in order to yield favorable results. Remember: it takes an average of 18 calls to actually connect with a prospect.
INTERNET & SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING (ONLINE)
Your online presence is extremely important. You need to be sure that you are as “out there” as possible. Make sure you cover all Social Media platforms and that you are consistently creating and sharing content as well as engaging your audience. Your websites should be up to date. Your lead capture funnels should also be updated frequently and managed them, and response would be as quick as possible. Use available technology to enhance your marketing.
Seven out ten homeowners are more likely to list with real estate agents who use video marketing for advertising their home. Only 11 percent of realtors have a blog. In 2018, 50% of home buyers found their home online, the average response time of Realtors to online inquiries is 44 hours, contacting a lead within the first 5 minutes of their inquiry raises the likelihood that they work with you by five times. You do the math…
WORD OF MOUTH & REFERRALS (NETWORK)
Your best source of business is your Sphere of Influence or your network. You can find a lot of business opportunities here. You can find it in the community within any charity, cause, or advocacy you are part of. Think of the people you know that you can talk to about creating opportunities. Ask for referrals and reviews from past clients!
Around 84% of buyers now kick off their buying process with a referral. After a positive experience, 83% of customers would be happy to provide a referral but are rarely asked to — just 29% of customers end up giving a referral. 100% of all age groups are most likely to find their real estate agent via a referral
TRADITIONAL METHODS (MARKETING)
Create a marketing strategy that covers both traditional and current methods. Identify what types of print media you need and what would be most effective for you and the neighborhoods you cover. Ensure that your materials are of good quality and have a clear message.
About 49% of all home-buyers use yard signs as information resources. Listings with sharp photos sell at or above list price 44% of the time. Direct-mail response rates have more than doubled since 2016.
As you clearly identify and outline each quadrant, you then need to be able to execute your strategy. As soon as you recognize which responsibilities need to be delegated, hiring the right people to implement these strategies is the next crucial step.
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Original Story: https://www.myoutdesk.com/realestatemarketingfordummies/
