In an industry like real estate, marketing is everything if you want to stand out from the crowd. But, as any realtor knows, marketing yourself is no easy feat.
Despite the fact that there’s a boatload of tools and platforms available to highlight your services, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to creating the strategy that’s supposed to be the holy grail of your business.
So, if you’re new to the real estate game or you’re an established realtor looking to give this whole “marketing thing” a try, what are the exact steps you need to follow to see success? We’re glad you asked.
In this guide, we’re answering all the questions you have about marketing your real estate business, plus giving you 13 steps to take to create a killer marketing strategy that’ll actually win you more closings.
How to Market Yourself as a Realtor
The biggest piece of advice we have for starting a marketing strategy is nailing down the basics of your brand, including the positioning.
Think of your marketing strategy as an actual person, another member of your team that’s responsible for garnering positive impressions every time with prospects.
Meaning, every time people interact with your brand through marketing, the interactions need to be consistent with your brand’s personality.
How do you want your brand to feel when people interact with your marketing campaigns? Do you want prospects to feel a sense of luxury, easy going, or something more casual and laid back?
Nailing down the characteristics you want your brand to have makes it easier to create strategies since you’ll be able to allow your brand’s personality to shine through in every campaign.
That way, a sense of familiarity is established among your audience, which also increases brand loyalty and credibility.
13 Steps to Crafting the Perfect Marketing Strategy as a Realtor
So, now that you know why you need a marketing strategy as a realtor and how you should market yourself, now it’s time to look at the actual steps that go into creating a killer strategy that brings you leads.
1. Know Your Niche
The first step in creating the perfect marketing strategy for your real estate business is to know your industry niche.
Every realtor has a niche, and if you’re struggling to figure out what yours is, know that it’s always related to the services you offer and clients you help.
For example, here are a few popular real estate niches:
- Luxury homes
- Vacation rentals
- Retirees
- First-time home buyers
- Commercial
- Multi-family properties
Knowing your real estate niche is the first step for developing any marketing strategy for two reasons:
- It helps you identify your target audience
- It helps you speak to your target audience
Every audience (or client base) within these niches relate to different types of marketing plans and terms used for your campaigns.
For instance, retirees are going to have a different vocabulary and different needs than younger first-time home buyers. So knowing what your real estate niche is and the demographics predominant within that niche, it’ll be easier to go through the rest of the marketing planning process.
2. Set Up Your Realtor Website
Every realtor needs a website.
A realtor website is a major component to any marketing strategy since it serves as another contact route for prospects, and is another place to house your portfolio with listings.
Plus, your realtor website is a marketing tool in itself because of the wide possibilities you have to use your site.
A website is the perfect place to start a resourceful SEO blog geared towards informing prospects on the home buying or selling process, homeowner maintenance tips, and other useful content for them to read.
While your readers will appreciate the helpful content that answers the questions they have, it benefits you on the back end for the increase in search engine rankings.
Other than starting a blog page on your site, you can have other pages for prospects to use such as:
- About: Tell prospects who you are, who you serve, and why you stand out from the competition.
- Listings: The bread and butter of your business are your current listings. While you’re using other platforms to market your listings, a site page specifically for the properties you’re representing is beneficial for prospects by having the house information closely linked to your contact information.
- Contact: Every realtor website needs a contact page with a contact form, and it’s even better if you have a contact form on the home page, too. The contact page – and form – gives prospective buyers or sellers a place to leave their name, number, email address, and write a message to you to inquire about your services.
- Testimonials: Scattering testimonials throughout your site serves as another marketing tool for your business since it provides prospects with social proof that your business is legit and you have a history of satisfying clients.
The best part is that you can connect your site to your social media platforms. Most website hosting platforms allow integration through social media icons that link to your pages so site users can find your X (Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, or other platforms.
So, essentially, your website is a one-stop-shop for marketing yourself as a realtor, and is a must-have tool for your real estate business.
3. Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
Once you get around to setting up your realtor website, remember to optimize it for mobile usage, too.
Like your SEO blog, having a website that’s mobile-friendly improves your search engine rankings since Google rewards sites that are easy-to-use on phones, plus it lends a hand greatly to user experience (UX).
And, for the big kicker: mobile sites tend to see higher conversions (especially since everyone does everything on their phones these days).
Making sure your site checks off all the boxes on being mobile-friendly is simple. Here’s all you need to do:
- Build Responsive Design: Make sure your site looks good on a mobile device. Typically, website hosting platforms have an option when you’re building a site to see how the design looks on a mobile screen where you can make necessary adjustments.
- Write in Short Form: Phone devices are smaller, which means your text should be, too. Don’t overload your site users with long-form text, but instead, lean heavily into short-form text with the exception being your blog page.
- Avoid Pop Ups: Pop ups are annoying on mobile devices and should therefore be saved for desktop usage.
- Used Big Buttons: Show your users what you want them to do with big buttons. Not only are they easier for users to see, but they make navigating the site easier as well.
- Keep It Simplified: Remember that mobile screens are smaller than desktops, so it’s best to keep your text and images minimal for this design.
4. Brainstorm Content Ideas
Everyone knows that marketing plans are always evolving, which means you should constantly be brainstorming content ideas for your strategy.
As a realtor, there are several different types of content you can (and should) create to market yourself and your business: video, blog, social media, and email marketing.
Struggling to come up with a plan? Here are a few ways you can search for content ideas that will relate to your audience:
- Keyword Research: Invest in a keyword research tool, or a free one, to see what keywords your audience is typing into search engines the most. Then, you can use those keywords to write a blog post around the topic, or use the keywords in your hashtags on social media.
- Study the Competition: Take some time to study the competition and note how other realtors are marketing themselves. What tools and platforms are they using? How are they connecting with their audience? How often are they posting? Analyze a few other realtors and then figure out a way you can mimic their strategies while making it your own.
- Answer a Question: Real estate is full of big purchases that come with big questions. Similar to keyword research, send out a survey to the public (or your social media followers) to see what questions they have about buying or selling a property and then create content around their questions, but don’t forget to give them an answer!
- Share Behind-the-Scenes: Take a break from the heavy real estate content to share what it’s like behind the scenes as a realtor. Share what it looks like in a typical job and you’ll be amazed at how many viewers will respond!
- Give Market Updates: Study the market regularly to see what new insights are out that homeowners need to be aware of. Are interest rates down? Are new houses being built in an exclusive neighborhood? Is it a prime-time for sellers? Share these insights with your subscribers in email or video content so they’ll act fast by signing up for your services.
- Update on Current Trends: Are there any current house trends your audience would like to know? Though you’re not an interior designer, you are affiliated with homes and their design, so search for current decor or design trends and educate your readers on these trends, plus show them any listings you may have that fit what’s currently in.
- Browse Testimonials: Sometimes the best content ideas are reviews from previous, happy clients. For the times you’re really stuck on what to share, browse through the testimonials you collect and use them as a post idea.
- Use Listings: Obviously, your listings should be a top place to turn for content ideas. If you’re currently representing a must-see property, showcase the home as a video walkthrough or picture-proof before giving viewers the directions they need to contact you for a private showing.
- Turn to Your Area: Sometimes the best content ideas are the surrounding areas to the homes in your real estate farming location. Go out into your community to find the best spots that make your listings the perfect place to live, and then inform your viewers on what the area has to offer.
5. Stick to a Consistent Posting Schedule
Another important aspect to creating your marketing strategy is sticking to a consistent posting schedule. Consistency builds trust with your audience while also building brand credibility, but the bigger reason to be consistent with your content posting is that it also builds a strong presence of brand awareness.
Brand awareness and trust are crucial elements for becoming a successful realtor since this will make you the first person thought of when someone needs the help of your services after interacting with your brand periodically and frequently.
Finding your posting schedule requires some trial and error first since you need to determine what time of day your posts get the best engagement, but once you do, it’ll help you stay consistent with any filming or creation you need before posting.
6. Get On Social Media
As we’ve already mentioned, social media is a must for any realtor, especially in this day and age where social media content reigns supreme to all others (though there’s still a place for direct mailers, which we’ll touch on later).
Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), and even LinkedIn are all great platforms for realtors to use to market their services and network, but you first need to set up your profiles on these platforms before developing a social media marketing strategy further.
7. Start an Email Newsletter
Believe it or not, email marketing can be a powerful tool for realtors to use, especially since it keeps your business fresh in the minds of prospects and is low-cost for you to use.
We love the idea of realtors starting an email newsletter since it gives you several ways to market your business or services that you can even integrate with other platforms.
For instance, did you just upload a super helpful new blog post on the top home maintenance tasks homeowners need to complete for the fall? Inform those in your email list by sending out an email with a link to the live article on your site! Or, use your email to inform subscribers of an open house you’re hosting exclusively for them.
8. Don’t Forget Direct Mailers
Even though we’re big fans of a social media strategy, we love a direct mailing campaign just as much.
Successful realtors know that marketing strategies incorporate various campaigns and various outlets, and direct mailers still have a place for real estate marketing in this present day.
This method gives homeowners something tangible to hold in their hands and is a nice break from the mundane bills that normally flood their mailbox.
9. Always Engage With Your Audience
Whenever you post content on social media, don’t just post and vanish. What makes marketing campaigns for realtors even more successful is when you take the time to engage with your audience by responding to comments or direct messages.
This engagement boosts your brand’s credibility and loyalty since it shows your audience you care about them, which makes them feel understood. The best rule of thumb to follow is to stay online for thirty minutes to an hour after posting to respond immediately to any comments or messages before taking a break and coming back later in the day.
10. Optimize for SEO
The best type of content for your marketing strategy is content that is found.
In order for your content to be found and perform well is to make sure it’s optimized for SEO, which luckily, is easy to do (other than making sure the content you create is actually valuable).
Whether you’re posting content on social media platforms or your website, here are a few tips to follow to optimize your content for SEO so it’s easily found:
- Perform keyword research and use high-ranking keywords
- Make your content engaging and exciting
- Reduce the fluff in written content
- Include meta title and meta descriptions
- Build backlinks
- Write high-quality content that wins the featured snippet
- Align content with search intent
- Add hashtags for social media
11. Incorporate Hashtags
In case you haven’t noticed, hashtags are a big deal for marketing, especially when it comes to social media (so no, to answer your question, hashtags aren’t dead).
Hashtags operate like keywords on social media platforms, and make your content found by the right audience.
Think of it this way: you’re a realtor who’s just posted an uh-mazing video about killer new homes in your real estate farming area that are perfect for first time buyers.
To play Captain Obvious, your audience is anyone who is trying to buy their first home.
So, as you write a catchy caption in the caption block, hashtags you’ll want to include at the end could be:
- #firsttimehomebuyers
- #homebuyingtips
- #firsttimehomeowners
Hashtags on social media platforms like Instagram are searchable. When someone uses the search bar and types in one of these hashtags, the goal is make sure your video ends up being the first or one of the first videos found.
12. Use Videos & Pictures to your Advantage
No realtor marketing strategy is complete without videos and pictures. It’s true that, compared to written content, pictures and video tend to reign supreme for its engagement, which is why you should definitely include these content methods in your strategy.
The best part is that, as a realtor, you have plenty of opportunities around you to use as ideas for picture and video content. Here are a few examples:
- Open houses
- Showings of listings
- Attractions or amenities in the area
- Answering homeowner questions
- Giveaways
Real estate is an industry that thrives on visuals. Afterall, clients need to see homes they plan on buying, so why not entice prospects with eye-catching visual content that makes them want to reach out for a private showing?
13. Keep Your Marketing Client-Focused
Remember that no matter what you post as part of your content strategy, the goal is to keep everything client-focused.
Meaning, tracking analytics is important so you know the type of content that resonates with your audience the most.
The goal of your marketing strategies should always be to improve your prospects’ life to some degree. Content should engage, educate, and inspire your audience while leading them to you.
The worst thing you can do is post content just to post. Content within your marketing strategies need to have some kind of direction.
If you’re stuck with trying to determine how to make your content client-focused, ask yourself these questions:
- What do I want my audience to get out of this post?
- How will this content piece push my services?
- What information do I need my audience to understand?
Posting marketing content with your audience in mind shines through and appeals to your audience by making them feel valued and heard.
Once your audience feels this way, you’re one step closer to landing your next clients.
Conclusion
As you can see, there’s a lot that goes into creating a killer real estate marketing strategy. But, remember that no matter what your campaign looks like, it’s important that you track the analytics and performance.
Analytics and performance will show you how well your content is performing (or not performing), so you can make necessary changes to crank out content that truly resonates with your audience.
And, if you ever find yourself interested in starting a direct marketing campaign, the right analytics like Cole Information’s Realty Resource can bring you directly to prospects that align with your campaign goals.
