For Your Website
All real estate agents need a website. And consumers are savvy online now, so a haphazard, slapdash, ill-thought-out, unnavigable website can lose you customers. Here’s how to have a website that keeps them coming.
1. Make Your Homepage Stand Out
Some visitors to your site won’t even make it past the homepage, so make sure it’s both eye-catching and informative. Hire a professional photographer to take stunning photos. Make sure it has an intuitive menu and a strong call to action. And, speaking of professionals, it could be well worth hiring a professional web designer to create your real estate website for you.
2. Create Incredible Listings
Every real estate listing on your website should pop. It should catch the eye and captivate it with its photos–again best-done professionally. It should contain all the pertinent information a buyer would want to know–bedrooms, bathrooms, yard, neighborhood, etc.
Today’s web-savvy buyers are also accustomed to taking virtual tours and viewing the property and its location on Google Earth and Google Maps. So, make sure your listings make it easy to access those features.
3. Generate Lead Magnets
Generating leads to your website requires generating lead magnets. These are free, value-added pieces of content like guides and ebooks that either attract viewers to your website or prompt them to give you their email addresses.
4. Don’t Forget Your SEO
SEO stands for “Search Engine Optimization” and it is one of the most powerful ways to get high search engine rankings. There are three main aspects of SEO to ensure you cover:
- On-page – Placing target keywords for each page in its title, metadata, body text, image file names, and alt text
- Off-page – Getting links to your site from other websites that already have high domain authority
- Technical – Making the site fast, secure, and responsive
For Your Social Media Marketing
Social media is a major part of many people’s lives, making it rife with real estate marketing opportunities.
5. Set Up Your Accounts/Profiles
Join Facebook, Linked In, and Instagram at the very least, if you’re not a member already. The accounts are free, and you want to make sure you grab your name before some poacher grabs it first.
Once you join each of these social media platforms, take the time to set up your profile at each, answering every last question and filling out every last field. The richer your social media pages are with information, the more people will visit, like, follow, share and engage with you on it.
6. Give Value
Make your social media profile and feeds useful to viewers. Don’t make everything an ad or a promotion; nothing will turn off a visitor quicker. Share tips on buying or selling a home. Discuss current market trends. Add the personal, human touch, such as showing you at work or giving a virtual tour of your office.
7. Use Hashtags
Everyone else does, so you should too. No, this is not peer pressure, it is a social media search firmament. Hashtags are one of the primary ways people search for new content on social media. If you use the right hashtags–meaning the ones your target audience is using to search for what you’re offering–your social media pages could be the ones to which they’re directed.
8. Add Social Share Buttons to Listings
Let your followers be your on-the-ground, volunteer sales–or, at least, lead-generation–force. Make it so they can easily share your property listings over emil and their other trusted social platforms.
To Market Real Estate Locally
A key component of any offline marketing strategies for real estate agents is local real estate marketing, as the areas around your properties are a prime source for potential buyers.
9. Sponsor Local Events and Groups
Consider sponsoring local sports teams, school events, or festivals. Then, you can get your name on programs, flyers, and, even, t-shirts.
10. Place Local Content on Your Site
When you promote your offerings on your website, don’t just promote the properties with their individual listings. Use your website as a platform to promote the entire town, community, and area in which those properties are located as well. Highlight neighborhoods, community features, and popular landmarks. And, don’t forget to include in your meta-tags and content on your site as well as your hashtags when sharing that content local keywords and phrases–such as popular local names and places people might search when researching an area to live.
11. Create a Google Business Profile
As mentioned earlier, one of the greatest determinants of the success of a local website is the effectiveness of its SEO. And, one of the most powerful and effective ways to improve your SEO is with a Google Business Profile. Having one makes it easier to find you in Google Maps, Google Search, and the Knowledge Panel. It also conveniently serves as an additional homepage for you. Visitors can use your Google Business Profile to:
- Call you
- Book an appointment
- Ask, answer and read FAQs
- Read consumer reviews
- Get a sense of your expertise
And, the best part is, it’s completely free.
Once you have a Google Business Profile, by the way, don’t just “set it and forget it.” Make it a regular practice to update your profile with new information.
12. Host Free Seminars
Offer free seminars educating people about the basics of home buying. Your name and marketing materials will be naturally associated with the offering and appear throughout, but you’re not actually selling or promoting anything. Just providing value.
13. Partner With Local Businesses
Get your name on a diner’s napkins by offering to pay for them to get made. Or, swap referrals with a local moving company.
14. Write Columns for Local Magazines
One way to establish yourself as an expert in your field and get your website and other business info out there is to become a columnist for local magazines. They’re always looking for quality content of interest to locals and would-be locals, and you’ve got plenty of that to offer. Besides writing about the current local real estate market, you can also write tips for buyers and sellers regarding topics of interest like mortgages, appraisals, and inspections.