Photo credit: Maurice Williams

When it comes to marketing your real estate business, much has stayed the same but a lot has changed. That’s a great thing! Today, there are more ways than you can count to advertise your listings and services.
Let’s look at some key strategies that every agent and realtor needs to consider when marketing their services.

Online Directory Listings

When you start any marketing campaign, it’s imperative that the website you’re advertising has been added to the typical directories such as Google My Business, Bing Places, and online Yellow pages. Even if you’re utilizing a page from the root directory of your website, don’t forget to include the primary site.

This helps future clients continue to locate your online advertising pages even after you’re well into your marketing campaign.

Create Traffic

This is not an encouragement to jam up the highways and freeways. It’s not that kind of traffic. We’re talking about website traffic here. And though it’s a pain to deal with traffic while in your car, it’s absolutely crucial to create traffic for your business.

Merely paying for quality online work is the beginning. You now need to generate traffic to the pages you’re marketing. And just like flavors of soda, there are many ways to do this.

Start with Google Adwords, Bing Ads, and Yahoo Localworks. From there you can level up to affiliate programs and SEO website advertisements. If this sounds a bit confusing or as if it’s in another language, do some research about all of this. Talk to the professionals and ask them to explain how this helps create client traffic.

Also, look at how other popular sites in your field are gaining an audience and be prepared to negotiate for your services. Prices for this vary significantly, so arm yourself with knowledge.

Client Testimonies

Maybe the most powerful tool in your online marketing is also the oldest tool in the shed: word of mouth. And it’s important to include client testimonies on your marketing pages as soon as you can. Prospective clients acquire trust and will relax if they see that you are a trusted agent in the area.

After each closing, prompt your clients to offer you a recommendation in their own words so you can use your past successes to gain future successes.

Learn How To Tell A Story

Every house has many stories to tell. Every potential client has decades of stories to share. Your work is helping clients see how their next home will help tell more stories.

Just like a professional writer or storyteller, marketing your services requires a bit of finesse and compelling language. Let your prospective clients know that you’re offering something unique. Let them know that you bring something to the table that your competitors don’t. Let them know what perks are available if they choose to work with you.

If being creative is a challenge for you, find help crafting the narrative of your business. There are freelance and professional writers that work specifically on helping others create a compelling picture of the work you’re doing. Find them, hire them, and let the magic begin. Many agents have a hard time selling themselves. Don’t let this trip you up!

Photo Credit - Elio Santos

Photo Credit – Elio Santos

Make It Easy

One of the most important aspects of selling yourself and your services online is often the one that gets overlooked the most: don’t make it difficult to navigate your online marketing pages.

If you are leading future clients to dull, obtuse-looking pages, potential buyers may check out immediately. Don’t work hard only to lose clients based on generic, boring pages. And don’t make your pages complicated to use. That’s the number one cardinal sin of online marketing.

The easier it is for future clients to navigate your pages, the better. If buyers are scratching their heads wondering what to click on next, you’ve likely lost their business. Don’t leave them guessing. Instruct them exactly what to do and make those pages splash with creativity and simplicity.

Imitation Is Flattery

We all learn from those that came before us. And we try to improve upon what has been done. That’s the definition of natural progression. So, pay attention to the agencies in other places that are knocking out of the park and see what you can learn from them.

In some ways, they’re setting the pace for everyone else. And all you need to do is pay attention. They’ve already paid big bucks to develop great online marketing strategies, so you can learn by proxy.

Don’t feel bad if you think imitating a competitor in some ways is the best way to go. Odds are, it is. Especially if they have a trusted name in the community. Just be sure to make your marketing unique to you, because you have to make yourself stand out as much as possible.