In the world of digital and mobile Advertising, it seems the task of marketing yourself as a real estate agent and staying relevant can be a never ending process. From social media to email marketing to mobile advertising to networking – how do you decide which is the most important and which you let fall to the wayside?
Firstly, they are ALL important! People like to be “touched” by different methods. Some people prefer to research on the web, while others prefer an email. Some clients prefer a text and others still want face to face. In our blog Time Management for real estate agents, we discussed the importance of block scheduling your time and week. Scheduling marketing tasks as a part of that schedule helps with maintaining consistency and making time for the various efforts.
For example, pick a day and time slot of 3 hours every week to plan the next weeks marketing material. If it’s Monday morning from 9 to 12 or Friday afternoon from noon to 3 – the actual day and time does not matter. What matters most is scheduling the time and sticking to it. Just get it done!
During this time here is an outline of the marketing items you can add to the block of time:
Email Campaign:
Create weekly email letter to go out to your database. Whether it’s a serious email about the real estate market, humorous or “fun” things to do around town email or just a here are the properties from the MLS this week; consistency and variety are key. Schedule the newsletter to go out and now it’s off your task list. By doing this, you can keep your audience engaged and informed, also this approach can seamlessly integrate into a real estate drip campaign for nurturing leads over time.
Social Media:
Create and schedule social media posts for the next week. One a day keeps the frustration away! Creating social media posts for one week will take about an hour depending on how many platforms you are on. About an hour per platform is a good start to create a few posts per week, per platform. Write them out in a word document, find pictures or articles to go with the posts and then schedule them for the next week so your social media isn’t a daunting daily task.
Blogging:
Write a blog and enjoy it! Writing is fun!! Blogs don’t have to be long. Real estate agents sometimes complicate the blogging process. Keep them short and interesting. Blog about trends in the real estate market, a property you have listed for sale or events going on for the week in your area. Give your clients and potential clients a reason to keep coming back to your blog for more information. Blogging as a real estate agent, will take between 30 minutes and an hour depending on the topic and research required to create the content. Remember blogs are only about 350 to 500 words. Simple and interesting is best.
Follow Up:
Take 30 minutes of during your Marketing time to follow up with everyone you met while networking from the week or week before, depending on what day you chose to schedule marketing tasks as a real estate agent. Send each person a “nice to meet you” follow up email and enter them into your database.
MLS
Adding new properties to your website and listings is a great way to market yourself and keep everything up-to-date. This process can be automated too by auto linking to the website. Take this time to check and ensure all properties currently listed are correct.
Texting:
Do you have clients who like to text? Use this time to send a simple “Thinking of you text” or mass text system to share a beautiful property listed for sale with your database. Texting is a great way to stay in the forefront of your clients minds and is much easier than a phone call. 97% of people open a text within the first ten minutes it is sent. A much more effective communication style than email!
Marketing for real estate agents can be fun and exciting, it doesn’t have to be a chore. If you aren’t in the position to outsource all marketing efforts, then use the scheduling system to add time into your schedule that allows you to get these tasks done quickly and efficiently. The items listed in this real estate agent marketing guide are examples of what tasks can be completed during this time; there may be others you prefer to work on. It’s a great way to stay on top of the Marketing items that will help propel your business to the next level.
