04 Feb Back to Basics: 6 Steps to Building a Strong Real Estate Marketing Strategy
Being a real estate agent is a juggling act. You’re a salesperson, therapist, analyst, and – you guessed it – marketer.
If you’re just starting out in your career, it’s crucial to understand the basics of real estate marketing since it informs your strategy, tactics, and performance evaluation. And if you’re a seasoned pro, it’s always beneficial to get back to the basics from time to time and re-assess your real estate marketing strategy to make sure it serves your current business goals. Your empire needs a solid foundation, after all.
Whether you’re promoting a particular property or your personal brand on social media, everything you publish should be aligned with your primary business goals. You need some direction, otherwise you may be wasting precious resources on ineffective marketing. If you invest a bit of time in understanding marketing fundamentals, you can create a clear action plan that will drive business growth – hooray!
Follow the 6 steps below and you’ll have a strong real estate marketing strategy in no time:
Step 1: Develop a Value Proposition
Your value proposition doesn’t have to be complicated. It’s just a statement that tells clients why they should choose YOU. Make sure you understand how your services solve your client’s problem, the benefits of your services, and why these benefits are valuable.
Not only can you highlight how clients define your value, you can emphasize what makes you different from your competitors. For example, are you an awesome negotiator? Do you go above and beyond in your property marketing? Do you have a high quality referral network? Think about what makes you different from every other realtor in your city!
Step 2: Define your target audience
You’d be surprised at how many realtors skip this step. But if you nail this step in building a strong real estate marketing strategy, you’ll be lightyears ahead of most competitors. Knowing what you offer is crucial, but who you’re offering your services to is important, too!
Defining your target audience is a balancing act.
An audience that is overly broad will limit your own voice. You can’t be everything to everyone.
Now if you have leads that don’t quite fit the definition of your target audience, that doesn’t mean you have to turn them away. It just means that your one-on-one sales and marketing approach will be tailored to their unique needs.
On the flip side, if your target audience is too niche, you could lose out on potential business.
For example, if you specialize in condo units, but your city has a limited number of them, you could be limiting your business growth.
It’s important to be specific when defining an audience. Think about who your ideal client really is. Are they single or married? Do they have kids? What do they do for work? What is their annual income? What does their lifestyle look like? Do they prefer weekend getaways to the mountains or do they prefer trying new restaurants in the city? The more you know about your ideal client, the better your marketing will be.
Step 3: Craft Your Mission Statement
Your mission statement is just that: Your mission. Your goal. Your purpose. What you’re looking to achieve by providing your services. How you plan on achieving that goal. Once you’ve figured out who you are, what you do best, who you do it for, and WHY you do it, you can start crafting a mission statement. Your mission statement is basically your elevator pitch, and reflects your professional qualifications and personality.
As you progress in your career, don’t be afraid to change your mission statement to better suit the needs of the market and your personality as an entrepreneur.
Step 4: Select Valuable Channels
How do you plan on reaching your target audience?
With so many different channels to choose from, you might feel the need to be present on all of them.
But the truth is, you only have to be present on the platforms that matter, and in mediums that will really create an impact.
For example, if your target audience primarily consists of working professionals, creating bite-sized LinkedIn videos is a fantastic way to reach this time-deprived, career-driven group of individuals. If you work with seniors who are looking to downsize, make sure your website font is large enough that they can read property details comfortably. Serving growing families? Perhaps your next Pinterest infographic can include the top schools in the communities you specialize in. If you work with luxury clients, the expectation is that you provide the entire package: aerials, video tours, physical brochures, the works!
Be realistic about how much time and resources you can dedicate to each channel. Don’t forget that your primary focus is providing a 5-star experience for your clients, so if you need to outsource media, measurements, or content creation to a dedicated team, feel free to do so. You can leave the asset creation to the pros, so you can focus on what you do best: selling homes, of course!
Step 5: Maintain Consistency in Branding
What does your visual identity look like? Does it reflect your business and who you are a realtor?
For example, if you’re a luxury realtor, you may opt for sophisticated, elegant design styles with serif fonts to emphasize heritage and tradition in your brand. If you’re a family realtor, you may opt for warm neutral colour palettes in your online presence for a more approachable look and feel. If you’re all about taking a fresh, modern approach to business, you might incorporate bright colours and sans serif fonts in your marketing.
Whatever you choose, the key is consistency.
Make sure you’re using the same brand colours, fonts, tone of voice, and placement styles across all of your marketing – whether it be online or offline. A strong bio that’s listed across your digital assets, including your website, social media pages, and Google My Business listing will help you become more discoverable. Don’t forget to use a professional headshot!
Your brokerage most likely has a brand template that you can refer too when creating assets like social media posts and brochures, too. These guidelines are a great place to start. Even when provided with guidelines, however, keep in mind that there’s still room for you to personalize your marketing and to really make it your own.
Step 6: Add a Personal Touch
Who are you outside of what you do? This question may seem like a philosophical one, but we promise it’s relevant to your real estate business. Why, you ask? Well, people like to work with real people. There’s a reason buyers and sellers still actively seek out an agent – a real person – to aid in real estate transactions, despite the growing number of online services seeking to make realtors obsolete. In today’s world especially, people are craving a human connection, and that’s exactly what you can provide.
So how exactly can you humanize your brand and business?
By being yourself!
Do you have any pets? Post them on social media. What do you like to do for fun? Incorporate your interests into your video and blog content. Are you communicating your values in your messaging? Your clients want to work with realtors who share common values and interests! Don’t be afraid to show your personality. Being authentic in your marketing goes a long way in building trust.
When your clients realize that you’re a whole human being and not just someone who wants to sell them something, you’re able to form a closer bond with them, build trust, and form a long-term relationship that is much more sustainable for your business than one-off transactions.
The Sona Standard
First impressions matter, because sometimes they’re your only one. Whether you need property marketing assets that shines on the MLS or a social media presence that reflects how awesome you are in real life, we’ve got your back. Our data-driven creative team here at Sona Visual can provide you with real estate marketing that’s engaging, effective, and most importantly, real. Reach out to us at [email protected] to find out how we can help you stand out in a noisy digital world!