How to step up your marketing game if you’re an independent agent

For buyers, this might not be good news because it means that property prices are getting unreasonably high, but for brokers, it means more profit. More and more people are considering entering real estate because it’s a prospective field and even existing brokers are quitting their jobs in agencies to pursuing an independent career. However, this brings about a unique challenge: how can you promote yourself on a fiercely competitive market and make your properties stand out? Marketing and promotional methods are very different from what they used to be ten years ago. Home-hunting platforms have changed and so has buyer behavior. Here’s how you can adapt.

If you’re not social, you’re out

Gone are the days when people would count on newspapers to look for homes. The folder newspaper with circled home offers has disappeared almost completely, making way for social media. Nowadays, when people want to buy a house, they start online and not on sites like Craigslist, as you’d imagine, but in their digital inner circle of friends. They ask their Facebook friends if they know of a house for sale or a good real estate agent, they post in homeowner groups and create Pinterest boards of their ideal home. This is why it’s very important for you to have a robust social media strategy set in place. Create social profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Instagram to connect with colleagues and prospective clients. If you have a website, it’s also a good idea to add social sharing buttons to all your properties so you or your visitors can easily share them online. You can also start ad campaigns on Facebook and promote your best properties to your target audience.

Stay in touch with your clients

One of the worst habits of real estate agents that clients hate is when you’re not responsive to their messages. Now, this bad habit is very easy to spot: Facebook displays a business’ response rate on their page, so if you take more than a few hours to get back to your leads, your reputation might be affected. Also, make sure clients always know where to contact you. Your contact details should be clearly displayed on your homepage, your social media pages should include details such as address, phone and e-mail and don’t forget about Google My Business. This is a free local business listing service from Google that helps clients find you more easily, especially in their area.

Hire a professional photographer to showcase your properties

We all know the difference between amateur and professional photography by now. And if you’d rather hire a pro to take pictures for your wedding, why not apply the same principle on marketing houses too? After all, this is a niche of product photography and can help your properties sell faster and at a better price. A photographer that has experience in shooting homes and architecture can make a simple house look desirable and a beautiful one look irresistible by using top notch equipment and professional photography techniques. You simply cannot rely on amateur photos taken with a smartphone camera to grow a personal brand and sell properties, because it does not inspire professionalism.

Traditional promotional methods still work, but you have to be very creative

House hunting might have moved online, but that doesn’t mean that traditional promotional methods are dead. They still work and they can be very efficient, but you have to think outside the box and give clients more than what they are used to. Handing out fliers on the street or posting printed ads in newspapers are highly unlikely to bring you any leads, but you might want to try these other methods instead:

Print promotional products. Bags, pens, T-shirts and notebooks you give your clients can be used to promote your real estate business and show that you care about details. Think of a fun, witty slogan and print it on wholesale T-shirts to promote yourself at any time of day. Offer these promotional products to your clients when they visit or buy a property and the chances of them recommending you to their friends will be higher. However, remember to include your website or phone number there so they know how to reach you.

Rethink your business card. As a real estate broker, you probably already have a business card already, but if it just states your name and contact details on a simple background, it’s time to consider a redesign. Have a look at these creative business card ideas that are impossible to ignore.

Write real estate articles in your local newspaper

Newspapers are not the most effective means of promoting properties because people do look for printed ads the way they used to, but that doesn’t mean that this traditional medium cannot help you promote yourself. If you can get in touch with a local newspaper and post real estate articles, you could become an authority in your field and clients will come to you instead of you contacting them. Local real estate articles are very relevant, because they provide insight into a market that your clients are actually interested in and, because newspapers often post articles both in print and online, you would get double the exposure.