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.
After all, real estate leads are the lifeblood of a real estate career, so if your real estate marketing isn’t generating any, you’re wasting your money. It is especially important that agents just starting out in the field begin generating leads immediately through marketing. Even agents who have been around the block can increase their income just by beefing up certain marketing efforts. Marketing should be a constant in the real estate field – even when money is short, you don’t stop.
In fact, if you’re low on money, it is because you don’t have enough clients to generate an income. And if you don’t have enough clients, it’s generally because you don’t have enough leads in your pipeline to convert to clients. And if you don’t have many leads well…that means you haven’t been doing enough real estate marketing! If money is getting tight, it is time to up your marketing budget and start generating 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 generate leads on your website. You can offer a free service, such as a “free home value report” or an in depth article that guides a consumer through the buying or selling process. All the visitor needs to do is fill out a simple form to get this information. This way they get what they want, and you get a fresh lead in the form of contact information gathered from your website.
Your internet real estate marketing should extend beyond your website though. Another easy way to get online leads is to sign up for a lead selling service. There are plenty of them out there, and they’re a good way to get fresh leads every month without having to do anything but provide a credit card number. It’s important to look into different services though, as some are better that others.
If the internet isn’t really your cup of tea, there are still many traditional real estate marketing tactics that attract leads. While many agents hate it, cold calling for a few hours every other day is a prime source for new, and often hot, real estate leads. Advertising your listings in local real estate magazines is also a great lead generating tactic. The only thing is, you have to make sure you leave OUT the price and MLS number of the home, or else interested buyers have no reason to contact you for more information!
There are literally hundreds of other fairly easy techniques to add to your real estate marketing portfolio. As long as you’re willing to work hard and put a little elbow grease into things (even the things you may hate doing) you can easily find new clients just about anywhere you turn. Take some time to go through your current real estate marketing plan and analyze each tactic. Remember, if it’s not generating leads, it’s no longer worth your time!
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