5 Simple Ways Modern Real Estate Agents are Using Online Marketing to Get More Clients on the phone without having to cold call

There are two ways to get new leads into your business, prospecting and marketing.  Today I want to focus on the best online marketing tips to get new leads into your business.   Learning how to properly market yourself and your business is a skill that takes some time and it’s important to invest in yourself and take the time to do this.  

If you are in any kind of business where you are selling anything, you are a marketer. 

You aren’t just a real estate agent anymore, your job is to bring in leads and in order to do so you must become a good marketer.

Marketing is about getting people to reach out to you.  If you get really good at this skill you can give up things like cold calling and door knocking, IF you don’t want to do them.

Here are some simple tips to get you started.

Tip #1 - Don’t focus on showcasing your brokerage

Don’t blast people with your brokerage's stats or listings or open houses, it’s ok to sprinkle it into your marketing but most people aren’t interested or are not yet at that stage where they are ready to buy one of your office’s listings.

Also, you don’t want to overdo it with your own personal awards from your brokerage either, again, it doesn’t really do anything for the audience it’s more of a chance for you to brag about your achievements.  Always be thinking, what’s in it for them? Does this help them solve a question or a problem? Value usually comes from education, inspiration or entertainment.

As a side note when prospecting (actively reaching out to people on social media)  don’t just send people unsolicited messages or links about your business, company, listings etc. 

The best thing you can do is put in the time to learn to get people to reach out to you, ask you questions or request to call you instead of hoping people with respond or show up to your event or open house.

Tip #2 - Decide on the perfect ideal client that you WANT to work with and speak to them in your marketing.  

This sounds simple but most agents do not do this.  Because anyone can be a client right? There is a pushback to narrowing your marketing messages because of a fear that you will be closing the door to other potential clients.  

So first you must choose your niche and target market and zero in on the person who would buy into this market.

With your marketing, you must speak to ONE person. If you try to speak to everyone your end up speaking to no one.

You get to choose who you work with.  If you feel like you have run out of options and there is no one left to speak to, you might have to do some work on your mindset  to realize that there is no shortage of leads. YOU control the ability to attract who you want in your business, that is really powerful.

That can be a whole other topic for another post but just know that with your marketing you must narrow your focus and only speak to one person.

Tip #3 - Start building an email list

You must start building an email list that you control and that you own. I cannot stress this enough.

Most people think marketing is just getting your name out there everyone, being visible on every corner or every newspaper and hoping that that visibility will get people to reach out to you.  This is more brand awareness than it is marketing.

To me, marketing is really about building an email list. It's getting people's contact information so that you can keep in contact with them about what you are doing.

Brand awareness is not marketing, it’s part of it.  The purpose for it is to also bring in leads which is  getting people's contact information but leads from brand awareness is harder to measure and quantify. 

It always boils down to the same thing, bringing in leads.  

Marketing really can be simple but we like to make it more complicated than it needs to be.

To start building an email list we have to start somewhere.  Online we are using modern technology to get people to enter their info in order to be placed on a digital list that you communicate with.

This is NOT  your facebook likes list, or your instagram followers or your youtube subscribers.  You don't own these accounts, they are free accounts, and they could disappear tomorrow. 

Social media for me is to move people from social media onto my email list and also to build relationships and increase brand awareness.

You can start simple with mailchimp, convertkit or the current CRM that you are using. But as a marketer you have to look at how much you are growing your contact list every single week.

No matter what platform comes out you don’t have to start from scratch, you will always refer back to your email list. The people on your list they are choosing to get communication from you.

It is the most important tool you will have in your marketing.

TIP #4 - Share behind the scenes with your audience

A big fear is running out of things to say to your audience, or not having enough content.

You will never run out of content if you take people with you as you go.

Whenever you learn something you have something to share with your followers on social media.  Whatever insight you get from a situation is an opportunity for content.

Because you’re a professional you will be attending events, trainings, within and maybe even outside of your company and even profession. Every single day you are probably reading a chapter in a book.  If you are passionate about your profession and what you do you will always be committed to getting better every day.

There is SO much information that we take in about real estate on a daily basis.  We take notes at a class or a conference and then tuck them away in a bin somewhere or the back of your desk drawer and never even look at them again.  What a waste!

Those notes and insights could be a years worth of content that you could be sharing.

Every single deal something new happens,  I don’t care if you have been in the business ten months or ten years. There is always something to share.

You want to be the source of their information.  The go to person when it comes to real estate and your niche specifically.

Content online is lead generation and lead generation is money. 

Create teachable content and be sure to include throughout a way for anyone to get onto your email list.  

This is online lead generation.

TIP #5 - Use video to share your content to warm up your audience quickly

Video is the best way to warm up cold prospects.  It’s also the preferred medium for most platforms.

You can also take the content and repurpose it in many different ways which is the best way to leverage your marketing efforts.

You don’t have to be fancy or have expensive equipment to start.  You don’t have to wait to have amazing lighting or your make up and hair perfect.  Just point the camera, press record and share what you have learned.

Under your video, have a capture page where you can collect the contact information of the people who enjoyed and maybe want more.

Don’t have  capture page?  Ask viewers to email you.

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Keep it simple, keep it short, just do it.

These tips are really the best and most simple ways to start establishing yourself online and to learn marketing so that you are actually getting people to raise their hand and requesting to speak to you instead of you cold calling a freezing cold prospect and trying to get them warmed up to you over the phone.

It takes some time and investment to learn the skills but really even with these tips you can get started today. 

Learn as you go. You don’t need to have everything perfect to start. Start and then improve. Adjust as you move forward.

Shift your mindset from being a realtor to being a marketer and this will change how you view getting leads online.  No more will you just aimlessly put stuff out on the internet hoping that something will stick.

If you found these tips helpful, share this post with another realtor that you think would enjoy it!