Selling homes is easy… in theory… but sometimes growing your practice feels like a slow grind instead of a fun adventure. You see the winners making millions every year and wonder, “what do they do that I don’t?”

In this post we’ll outline 7 real estate marketing tips that you probably haven’t heard – at least not in this way.

 

1. Licenses Don’t Get You Leads…

 

7 real estate marketing tips that you probably haven’t heard 1. Licenses Don’t Get You Leads...Click To Tweet

 

Wouldn’t it be nice if all you had to do was pass your test, tell a few people and BAM! You’re getting leads left and right?!

 

Unfortunately that’s not how it works. Your new practice is unknown with no communication lines or relationships built. And since selling someone’s home is an emotionally charged decision, there has to be trust between you and the homeowner – and trust takes time to build. In real estate, you’re selling yourself more than anything else. So begin building rapport with people in your community ASAP – even if you don’t have your license yet.

 

If you’re wondering where to get started, join the local rotary, volunteer, and join the chamber of commerce. Start “digging your well before you’re thirsty” so to speak. The more you hone in on building trust and relationships, the more referrals and home sales you’ll ultimately get – which will build a solid practice for you.

 

2. Blogging Works – If You Know How…

 

7 real estate marketing tips that you probably haven’t heard 2. Blogging Works If You Know How... Click To Tweet

 

After a long day of prospecting and holding a phone to your ear it can be hard to sit down and write a blog. After all, real estate’s a competitive industry and what would you write to separate yourself from the pack?

Plus you’re tired so is it really worth it? These are the inevitable questions that will come to mind when you sit down without a strategy.

 

First let me say this, never sit down and write whatever you feel like writing. That rarely works and often does nothing but waste valuable time you could spend doing things you love. When you write blogs, it’s a strategy designed to bring more traffic – traffic that buys homes.

 

Now that that’s out of the way, your goal is to write about things people are actually searching for. I know what you’re thinking, “how do I know what people are searching?”. Easy. Go to ubersuggest and type in a seed keyword. Let’s use “real estate” as an example.

7 Real estate marketing tips keywords

Ubersuggest immediately let’s us know that we don’t stand a chance of ranking for that keyword. But if we click on filters and enter a keyword difficulty “max” of 20, it shoots us back some easier keywords to write about.

Target real estate keywords

A few lines down we see the keywords “real estate terms”. It has a search volume of 2,400/month and difficulty of 15. Now we’re cooking. At this point I would create a page on my blog covering different real estate terms and insert local keywords into that page for local SEO purposes.

 

For example, if I were writing about the term “adjustable rate mortgage” I might include something like “if you live in LA, we recommend [local business] for your mortgage” or something along those lines. Targeting larger terms as well as local terms helps you show up locally as well as nationally when people search these topics.

 

To be clear, this took me all of two minutes to find this keyword. I recommend starting with something even easier than this if you can because making a dictionary of real estate terms would be a time consuming project.

 

For a few more ideas:

 

  • Check Quora to see what people are asking about in the real estate threads
  • Look at books on amazon – go to the table of contents and see what topics they cover – then write about those topics
  • Try Hubspots blog post generator
  • Try using real estate Infographics to create content

 

3. Buying Ads Doesn’t Guarantee Leads…

 

7 real estate marketing tips that you probably haven’t heard 3. Buying Ads Doesn't Guarantee Leads... Click To Tweet

 

There’s a reason ads managers make good money – because running ads that actually generate positive cash flow is technically difficult.

There’s several parts that need to work in conjunction and it requires you not only know how to run ads but also have landing pages, quality copywriting, and know how to target the correct people. Jumping on ads – whether Facebook, Instagram, Google or other, will take some learning and you may lose money during that process.

 

Fortunately you can start learning how today with the free information Google and Facebook Put out:

 

 

4. Carefully Consider Your Domain Name – And Never Sell It!

 

7 real estate marketing tips that you probably haven’t heard 4. Carefully Consider Your Domain Name and Never Sell It...Click To Tweet

 

A word to the wise – buy your domain and don’t get rid of it.

The more aged your domain is, the more it’s “liked” by Google for SEO purposes. When you buy a new domain, Google keeps you in a sandbox for the first 6-18 months and won’t reward you with any substantial traffic no matter what you do. With that said, choose a domain that’s brandable and easy to remember so you can keep it forever. Keep it simple so people remember it, make sure it’s a .com extension and don’t be overly specific.

 

Good domain example:

  • Californiaagent.com

 

Bad domain example:

  • Best-pomona-real-estate-agents.com

 

Tips for choosing a domain name:

 

  • Aim for as few words as possible
  • Keep hyphens and other characters out of the name
  • Make it memorable
  • Keep numbers out
  • Make it a .com extension

 

5. The Big Guys Focus On Listings…

 

7 real estate marketing tips that you probably haven’t heard 5. The Big Guys Focus On Listings... Click To Tweet

 

Here’s a secret many beginning agents don’t know – the top 5% of real estate agents aren’t driving people around in their car.

Instead they’re focused on getting listings. Why? Because you can handle 4-5 times as many listings as you can buyer deals. And if you’re wasting all your time driving clients to houses that they’re not buying right now, there’s no way you can make the same money as the big guys.

 

6. Automate Gift Giving To Get More Referrals…

 

7 real estate marketing tips that you probably haven’t heard 6. Automate Gift Giving To Get More Referrals... Click To Tweet

 

This is probably the best tip on this entire list and one that I’ve seen my friend land dozens, if not hundreds of referrals from.

When a client closes, send them a gift – we all know that. But, continue sending those clients gifts – especially if they spent big money. For every holiday send them something that reminds them of you and asks for referrals.

 

And as clients send you leads, increase the cost and quality of those gifts. For example, if someone sends you a referral that closes, send them gifts every time. And as they send you more referrals, increase the money you spend on their gifts during the holidays. To make it easy, create a tier system:

 

  1. 1-3 referrals = bronze and $50 / gift
  2. 4-6 referrals = silver and $100 / gift
  3. 7+ referrals = gold and $150 / gift

 

That’s a rough idea but you can use that to keep track of clients in your CRM. And when holidays come around, quickly sort for bronze, silver and gold clients.

 

7. Social Media Works – When Done Right…

 

7 real estate marketing tips that you probably haven’t heard 7. Social Media Works, When Done Right... Click To Tweet

 

Everyone promotes their latest home for sale on social media.

And it does work but there’s only so much people will engage with a post about a local home for sale. However, promoting your area, posting memes about your area and writing about things to do locally will get higher engagement. This gets people involved in your page so that when you do post about a home for sale, it’s reaching a larger audience and likely to get higher engagement which could mean more sales.

 

Conclusion

As a real estate agent, and especially a new agent trying to build your practice, these 7 tips can take you to 6+ figures fast if you apply them consistently. Just remember, leads don’t magically appear. But if you blog intelligently, learn to run ads, focus on gaining listings, leverage social media, and reward your clients you’ll have a thriving business in no time.

 

Now over to you, do you have any questions for us or is there something we didn’t cover? Let us know in the comments below!