We might not think about real estate as comparable to other sales positions often, houses are expensive, so are apartments, and cottages and even houseboats, so you obviously couldn’t sell one of them the same way as you’d sell say, a car, right? Or let’s go smaller, a t-shirt? Well, you’d be wrong, sales are sales are sales, whether it is a hot air balloon or something a clown twisted at the zoo, it has to be sold, and before it is sold, you need to bring customers to it. This is where this post comes in, marketing is critical to your sales as a real estate agent and below I have listed my top seven tips for how to best market yourself and your services as a real estate agent or any other type of sales person.

1: Collect Testimonials

If you and/or your business are good at what you do, you should have satisfied and loyal customers who probably have great things to say about you. It’s baffling to me how many times real testimonials, showcasing satisfied customers are not consolidated in one place. Your testimonials (ideally with pictures in front of their home – or for non-real estate agents, with their product) shows the value you provide and that you can deliver. Your testimonials should be found on your website, your social media (Facebook page). Taking it a step further than the digital world, I recommend printing out some of your best testimonials and keeping them neatly organized in a packet to provide to your prospects. (John Manacchio of HomeSmart Real Estate Professionals has mastered this.) This is a way to showcase that you care through the positive things that your past clients have to say.

The key here is that testimonials show you have experience, value, and that you know what you are doing. Your success in the past should be a sales tool for the future. 

2: Get Branded

Consistent and clever branding is a critical skill when it comes to making yourself or your company memorable. Make sure you have a logo, color scheme, website, and print design that are all cohesive and reflect well what the goals of your specific brand are. Don’t spend hundreds of dollars on t-shirts, don’t spend hundreds of dollars on promotional products that may be cool. Your entire branding focus should be on products that add value during your sales process. This includes business cards, brochures and door hangers, marketing material that will drive value for you, not attempt to build a brand overnight.

Once your brand is consistent and your lead generation efforts are beginning to pay off, branding yourself with swag or printing cool products like pens or stress balls can be a small reward before you kick things into the next gear.

3: Show Your Support for Your Community

As a local business your image in the community is critical to building and keeping up a client base, so consider doing some direct work in support of your community to help keep you visible and also make you feel great about the changes you can affect! You or your business can sponsor anything but the goal is maximum exposure while adding value and not wasting your money. Don’t drops thousands on sponsoring a fun run and giving everyone a t-shirt, but do invest in events that allow you to network with the community and exhibit your worth as a business to them.

Take some time to research the events your community comes out to in droves. Does your town have a famous fourth of July parade, are they known for their ice cream festival or monthly corgi meet up? Whatever it is, get yourself there and support it with your time (and if you can afford it and think it will be worth it,) money. Make smart investments in events that you are passionate about and that will allow you to network with the people of your community, this is what’s most important about this tip.

4. Networking, Networking, Networking

I shouldn’t have to scream this one but I’m going to. It’s all about the networking and outreach. To quote Chet Holmes “every salesperson should have at least 2.5 hours a day of brand-new prospecting.” (The Ultimate Sales Machine – if you haven’t read it yet – click here and buy it) Okay – so where do you start?

As a real estate professional, you want to maximize the number of people you speak with that could eventually be a lead. Utilize tip one and engage in conversation regarding your experience. Do so in a natural way that relates. A great example would be asking someone about their weirdest day at work and when engaging in conversation, relate to a weird sale that you’ve performed (one where the outcome was positive).

Networking events (Meet Up) are a great place to start. Additionally, focus on your partners. As a real estate agent speak to brokers that you have worked with or that you know of (Google Search: “brokers near me” if you need to). Introduce yourself or reach out to those that you know and ask of any networking events that could be of interest to you. In the event that you don’t meet potential prospects, you are still building your network.

(Quick Story – My favorite watch snapped and it sat in my drawer for months. One day I decided to leave work a bit early to finally get it fixed. I walked into a small jewelry shop where I knew it would be tough for them to fix it. I gave the person at the counter my card, as I always do (and as you should too) and an older gentleman, we’ll call him Dave (that’s actually his name, so it works,) heard them ask what I do and joined in the conversion. He mentioned that he was looking for someone to build a website and rebrand some of his material for him. Two years later, he is still a client and has referred over $30,000 worth of business to my company.) 

The moral above is that networking is best when it happens naturally. It’s also about consistency. Had I not always passed my card out, had I not proactively explained what I do and had I not took a chance to walk into this small store, that business and client would have never been. It’s all about Networking, Networking, Networking.

4: Make Sure Your Photos Are High Quality

Good photographs are critical to creating a memorable brand that is recognized as professional, especially when you are someone selling high ticket items usually driven by looks, a shoddy camera photo isn’t going to cut it. Spend the money to hire a professional photographer with a great camera to take pictures of you, your business, and everything your business sells, it will bring in views and those views well bring in sales.

This also includes the product that you are selling. How your houses (or product) is showcased matters. The listings uploaded on MLS with multiple high quality photos may not seem like they stand out that much. However, those with poor quality photos do. Invest in having a photographer take pictures of the homes you are putting on the market or purchase a camera and practice. Compare your pictures to listings with high quality pictures.

5: Tell a Great Story

Making a great sale isn’t just about presenting the features and benefits of your item or service, it is about creating a narrative and building a story that makes a customer aware of the potential of their purpose. Particularly as a real estate agent, being involved in the community is critical as it communicates that you are knowledgable about an area and will work hard to find a home that suits your particular client best. Tell your clients about everything your product can give THEM , and how it will affect their lives positively. Make them see themselves in a new home, driving a new car, eating a fresh orange, wearing a cool balloon hat, whatever it may be.

When a real estate agent can proactively answer questions, drive the client in the right direction, and also explain what the customer doesn’t like or may not like, they provide them with a sense of trust. When I was looking at two family homes, my agent and I met with numerous other agents and it was very clear as to who the successful agents were. My agent understood my wants, likes, dislikes, deal breakers and needs. I was picky in the process of selecting my agent. It was clear when meeting the selling agent that they didn’t care to spend anytime understanding my story so they could properly tell me a story I could relate to, and that was less appealing to me.

Spend the time with each customer and relate to their needs and wants regardless of where you rank them in your priority or potential bucket. 

6: The Importance of Social Media

I’ve posted about social media frequently here and in the digital marketing tips section at J&R Marketing. So I’ll focus on the basics. First, social media is a platform that should not be avoided. When used right it should and will be your number one lead generator outside of referrals.Many businesses think it’s about connecting with friends and reaching out to people and asking for referrals, but with social media is the platform – your content is the key.

Here is a quick-start to drive business your way in the long term. You must stay focused and consistent. I’ll focus on Facebook for this post because of it’s popularity and engagement factor: 

• Create your Social Media Page (you need to have a personal page and then create a business page from there.)
• After you have created your page, manually invite all of your friends. This is time consuming, but required.
• Understand that your social media page is about adding value to the people that like your page, it’s not about you.
• Reread the statement above and drill that into your head as hard as you can
• Start providing value to your followers by sharing news, updates and tips that can help them (the more it relates to your industry the better – but as a real estate agent, any professional information that adds value will help.)
• As you are providing value, make sure they understand that you are an experienced professional, share real estate related tips, facts and/or quick stories.
• When you make a sale, post about it, explain what happened. Make the post about the people buying the home, not about how you sold it.
• Rinse, Repeat. Rinse, Repeat. Do this over and over again. Don’t post too frequently, don’t post too infrequently. (There is no right number but I recommend twice per week at the minimum and 3 times per day at the maximum)
• Occasionally share your page, promote your page, promote your posts to maximize the followers you have and maximize the value you add.

The above is the best way to build your brand properly on social media. Those tips have worked for numerous brands of all size. There is no trick, it’s just about being relentless and consistent, and that’s where most people fail!

And That’s All Folks

These tips and tricks aren’t rocket science. Some of them you are already doing, most of them you know but all of them you are most likely not consistently implementing. Start focusing on these quick 7 tips to increase your amount of prospects, leads and sales.