Marketing is not easy for anyone or any business. Real estate is a great example of that. Have a real estate license and hoping to get a few clients this month? Marketing will probably not get you results that quick. Without a major budget, marketing takes time, especially in real estate. Even with a big budget, you have so much competition for the top of the page that you will literally waste most of your budget in the first month.
Realtors see effective marketing results when they use cost-effective methods that focus on repetition. Go where the audiences are, make sure your information is up-to-date on all websites and directories and offer information, not your services. Information will grab an audience faster than anything else.
Buyers and sellers right now want to know what’s going on in the market, what they can do to improve their situation, what questions to ask and more. When every other realtor in the area is trying to sell themselves, you need to focus on offering free information that benefits the client. Those are the realtors who see the best results.
Marketing Challenges For Realtors
YouTube, Facebook and other sites are great for posting and distributing valuable real estate information and guidance without costing you money. Making a simple video about the local markets and your experience, if properly loaded, can generate far more viewership and interest than some of the best marketing strategies. As you get started, you need to be aware of some major challenges:
- Website: Building a new website is great and you definitely need one. The problem is a new one can cost thousands of dollars. Instead, try to find options that are more affordable like leasing a website. Having a page under a broker site isn’t a bad start, but it can also minimize how much traffic you can generate on your own.
- Local presence: You are selling real estate locally so that means you need to build a local presence. Yes, Google and other top directories are a good start but you need to dive deeper. What little blog sites and Facebook groups get the best local viewership?
- Being different: How can you stand out and be different? Look at what the local competition is doing to give you an idea.
- Reaching 2 audiences: How are you supposed to market to people looking to sell a property as well as to those looking to buy? It’s tricky and you have to remember those are 2 different audiences focusing on different things.
- Competition: More than likely there are over 1,000 people with real estate licenses within 100 miles of you. That’s a lot.
- Location: If you are in a popular area and the market is strong, your competition is also going to be strong. However, it’s a lot easier to sell houses in South Florida than it is in the middle of nowhere.
- Reviews: Getting reviews when you are starting out is tough, but you need them. Whether it’s a new prospect or someone who has heard about you and wants to check you out before contacting you, having a strong online presence with great reviews will be your biggest friend in marketing.
- Being social without results: You should post multiple times a week to Facebook and Instagram and once a week to YouTube. From all this effort you should expect to see zero results for a while. It can take a year of regular posting before you see results so be patient but keep posting.
- Budget: The competition has a bigger budget. You cannot get results by spending a couple dollars where they are spending thousands. Look for different places to standout.
Marketing is about trial and error. It takes time to generate results. Money may speed things up, but investing in a strong marketing strategy is worth more than a huge budget. Focus on what you need to do to be a local success.