As the New Year swings into gear, agents throughout the industry are reviewing last year’s accomplishments and planning their efforts for the months ahead. Many agents like to dive right into creating marketing materials, ordering collateral, placing ads and investing in new client lead gen.. Before you do, take some time to think about making your marketing investments as strategic as possible. Here are a few best practices:
1. Commit to email
Despite the availability of numerous marketing channels, email remains the cornerstone of an effective digital strategy. A recent post from RE Blog sums it up by saying “email marketing is hands-down one of the best ways to keep your real estate brand top-of-mind with prospective clients”. Many other sources say pretty much the same thing, and for good reason. Industry leader RISMedia provides these important characteristics of email that make a compelling case as to why it should remain a centerpiece of your strategy:
- Consumers prefer email
- Email provides a great ROI
- Email is great for generating return clients and referrals
- Email makes it easy to localize
2. Know where your leads come from (hint – it’s your existing client list)
If you’ve been agent for any time at all, you know how valuable your client list is. In fact, leveraging your list of clients is the most powerful way to build momentum in your pipeline. This recent post by Todd Bradley is super helpful in building the case for focusing on referrals and nurturing your list.
What if you’re just starting out and don’t have a contact list? Well, DO NOT go out and buy one. Bought list are junk and they seldom achieve results. Plus, they’re the kind of short cut that builds bad habits. Luckily, there’s a wealth of information and best practice out there on building your list. As a start, try these ideas from FitSmallBusiness.
3. Expand from email into other channels
As you enhance your email game, remember that you are building content that can be repurposed into other channels. One of my favorite industry leaders, Hubspot has this to say “rather than using email as an isolated tool, your marketing efforts will be far more successful if you properly integrate email marketing into as many marketing channels as you can”. This means utilizing the email content you’ve developed and extending to your LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest accounts. Also, seriously consider Display Ad Retargeting. We’ve been promoting this channel ever since it became integrated into the rezora platform and are seeing some impressive results.
4. Stay on top of metrics
Finally, you should measure, and monitor, every marketing investment you make. For email, a simple guide to metrics is available on our Resources page. You can also take a look at this basic guide to Marketing Metrics from Zillow. The key is to execute your marketing efforts (not literally), measure their effectiveness and adapt your efforts as you see results.
In closing, we are super excited for you as we kick off 2017. Most analysts predict a strong market and we are standing by to help as you work to build your business.
Link(s) to Additional Resources:
- https://www.outboundengine.com/blog/9-pro-tips-marketing-ideas-for-real-estate-agents-in-2015/
- http://rismedia.com/2016/04/03/why-email-marketing-must-be-a-priority-for-real-estate-agents/#close
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/importance-client-referrals-real-estate-todd-bradley
- http://realtormag.realtor.org/sales-and-marketing/feature/article/2015/01/3-ways-rookies-can-boost-their-client-base
- http://fitsmallbusiness.com/real-estate-lead-generation/
- https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/integrate-email-campaigns-marketing#sm.001x3rg4i10dddzvs84115phgbbsr
- http://www.rezora.com/blog/topic/retargeting
- http://www.rezora.com/hubfs/v2/resources/How%20Tos/Understand%20The%20Dashboard.pdf
