digital marketing

Create a Time-Saving Social Media Strategy for Your Real Estate Business

Sep 8, 2022

Without a strategy, your social media marketing plan may just be both a huge time suck and utterly unsuccessful.

Without a strategy, you are more likely to chase all those shiny objects that make social media so enticing.

Discipline is what it takes when you’re using social media to promote your business.

Do you have a social media marketing plan?

A social media marketing plan will help you stay focused on the reasons you’re using social media for your business. These reasons might include:

Consistent exposure for your brand.
To keep in touch with those in your sphere and remain top-of-mind with them.
Generate new leads.

The first step in your plan should be the judicious choice of which social media platforms you’ll spend time on for marketing purposes.

The Animal Series is shown above. To see more, Click Here.

Sure, it’s easy to fall back on the ones you most enjoy personally, but if you research those platforms, you may find that the audiences don’t at all fit those you should be targeting.

“… demographic data is key to understanding which networks and campaigns deserve your attention,” cautions Brent Barnhart at sproutsocial.com.

For instance, we’ve seen several online real estate agent advisors tout Tik Tok as a place to market your services. Yet nearly half of TikTok’s users are members between 10 and 29 years old.

More than half of Instagram users in the U.S. are between the ages of 18 and 34.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never had a 10-year-old or an 18-year-old reach out to me with real estate needs.

As a real estate agent, your target demographic is age 33 and older for buyers and age 43 and older for sellers.

Here’s a tip for you: While slightly more than 23% of Facebook users are between the ages of 25 and 34, 53% are aged 35 and older (statista.com).

Choose your social media platforms carefully based on the user demographics most similar to your target client.

Put that social media marketing plan to work

Schedule your social media marketing just as you would door-knocking, cold calling, or any other marketing activity. Determine not only what days you will post but how much time you will allot.

If you need help with setting up a strategy and then implanting it, visit hootsuite.com, sproutsocial.com and digitalmarketinginstitute.com.Remember, it’s called social media for a reason, so be social, not salesy.

PLUS: When you have time…below are some marketing tools to help support your success.

1. Put Your Real Estate Business a Step Above with Your Own Branded Magazine

Homes & Life Magazine is a customizable magazine with rich, full-color content and a sharp, professional aesthetic. It includes compelling, direct response-driven articles written by real estate industry experts combined with engaging lifestyle content. Send out Homes & Life Magazine in Just Minutes – No Minimums Required. Or we’ll ship it to you.

Homes & Life Magazine is the ultimate “Coffee Table Lingerer”! …and it costs less than sending a greeting card! – Click Here

2. The Free 12-Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do and when. Four key market segments include niche Markets, geographic farming, sphere of influence, and past clients. – Click Here

3. The BusinessBase, SOI building system

The most effective thing you can do to build a real estate business is to become more visible, more likable, and remembered more often. The BusinessBASE™ not only checks all of these boxes but is also a business-building machine. In two easy steps, you can begin to build a robust sphere of influence that will provide you a lifetime of repeat business and referrals. – Click Here

4. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan allows you to enter your business goals for this year and get a breakdown of how many prospects, listings, closing, and so on are needed to reach your goals. – Click Here

5. The Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

Ready to take a vertical leap in your real estate career? If you’re looking for inspiration…and the tools and methods to dominate a market and go to the top in real estate…you’ll find them in this free book. – Click Here

6. The Take a Listing Today Podcast

Watch the ProspectsPLUS!, Take a Listing Today Podcast for actionable content to help you get more listings. – Click Here

It’s Time to Take Another Look at Pinterest for Real Estate Agents

Mar 22, 2021

Last year, the folks at Chicago Agent Magazine conducted their annual survey, “Truth about Agents.”

When asked which business activities they planned on doing more of, the number one response was “Making better use of social media.” It’s a goal worthy of pursuing, but only if you plan on working on it consistently and intelligently.

Although there is no mention of which platform these agents hope to devote more time to, we think Facebook is a safe bet.

Maybe 2020 will be the year you widen your social media horizons? If so, consider Pinterest.

Why Pinterest?

Women truly do make the world go ‘round.

“As a market, women represent an opportunity bigger than China and India combined,” according to Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre at Harvard Business Review.

“They control $20 trillion in consumer spending, and that figure could reach $28 trillion in the next five years. Women drive the world economy, in fact,” they continue.

Silverstein and Sayre call this “The Female Economy” while the folks at Pinterest refer to the women in the U.S. as “Deciders.”

Any agent who has carted buyers around to view homes for sale understands just how much power women have in the decision of which home to buy.

This makes Pinterest a social media platform ideal for agents.

Nearly 75% of Pinterest users are female (ominicoreagency.com)
The median age of Pinterest users is 40 (business.pinterest.com)
More than 40% of American females on Pinterest say they plan on purchasing a home in the next five years

Getting started is easy

The steps to get set up on Pinterest are easy:

Create a business account. It’s free. You can do so at business.pinterest.com. Click on the red “Sign up” button.
Upload your profile picture. Ensure that the photo you choose is “… something that catches people’s attention, clearly demonstrates who you are, and stands out in the visual realm that is Pinterest,” cautions Ryan Pinkham at constantcontact.com. He goes on to recommend that, to avoid the photo becoming distorted, keep to 165×165 pixels.

Create your profile. The trick with your profile is to make it catchy without being salesy. Ensure that your website URL is in there, preferably first. Here’s Massachusetts agent Bill Gassett’s profile:

Notice that he gets a link to his website in there first, which is perfect. We like everything about this except the last sentence. He won that award three years ago. Readers may wonder if, perhaps, his success is waning.

If you have something impressive and current to say, by all means, add it here. Ensure you also add your location somewhere in your profile.

Finally, you’ll want to “claim” your website or landing page on Pinterest. You’ll find an easy tutorial on Pinterest.

There’s more to learn about using Pinterest for your real estate business, but this should get you started. Happy pinning!

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Please reach out to our support team at 866.405.3638 with questions or if there is anything we can do to help you with your success.

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

The Real Estate Marketing Planner is a powerful 12-Month-Guide that strategically defines what marketing to do when. Four key market segments are included, Niche Marketing, Get More Listings, Geographic Farming, and Sphere of Influence. –Click Here

2. The Free Interactive Real Estate Business Plan

3. Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

4. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

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The Real Estate Mailing List Guide outlines the top tools for generating targeted prospecting lists including Baby Boomers, Empty Nesters, Investors, Lifestyle Interests, High-Income Renters, Move-Up Markets, and more. The Guide also defines done-for-you marketing campaigns to match these markets. –Click Here

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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Consistency and automation are the keys to success. Discover how effective direct mail marketing can dramatically increase your bottom line. Enter your statistics in our Free online ROI Calculator and click the ‘CALCULATE MY ROI’ button to see your results instantly! –Click Here

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is CRUSH-IT-Guide-3-d-298x300.jpg

The “Crush It” Guide includes easy steps to launching an effective direct mail marketing campaign, how to create a targeted prospect list, the perfect way to layout marketing materials for success, seven opportunities available to target in your area right now. –Click Here

Social Media Marketing Strategies For 2021 – Where to Spend Your Time

Dec 3, 2020

So, here we are, finally nearing the end of the year, and what a year it’s been!

COVID-19 disrupted many of the normal ways that agents do business. From completely virtual showings to drive-through closings in some areas, it’s hard to imagine the industry ever getting back to “normal.”

What does this mean for your 2021 marketing plan?

When talking to agents about their 2021 plans, the majority said, social media marketing will definitely play a role in their marketing strategy.

If you’re among them, make it easier on yourself by creating a section in next year’s marketing plan devoted to everything digital.

The best digital marketers fish where the fish are

When researching where to spend your digital marketing dollars, it’s important to remember that:

You are a B2C marketer, not B2B. User statistics aimed at B2B marketers are useless for real estate agents.
You have a very specific target audience (Millennials and gen x, age 32 to 56 for buyers’ agents and gen x and baby boomers, age 45 to 75, for listing agents).
Your target audience of buyers earns a median household income between $102,800 and $110,900, depending upon age and location.
Your target audience of sellers has a median age of 58 and earns a median household income of $128,800.

Courtesy: NAR 2020 Generational Trends Report

The fish are hanging out on social media

If we had to choose just one digital marketing medium to spend the bulk of our time and money on next year, social media would be our choice. We will, however, be talking about some of the other strategies in upcoming blog posts.

Which social media platform does a real estate agent’s “fish” hang out in? For the past few years, Facebook was hands down the best place to drop your hook. And, not much has changed in that regard.

The platform is popular with Americans in the homebuyer age bracket (“79% of 30 to 49-year olds use Facebook,” according to SproutSocial.com.)
Listing agents will be glad to know that 68% of those age 50 to 64-years old and 46% of adults age 65 and older use Facebook.
Finally, Facebook users hit the sweet spot in household income as well, with 74% earning more than $75,000.

Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest

We’ve mentioned before that the time it takes to be and remain active on Instagram doesn’t typically translate into the number of leads and deals most agents need and want.

At least not now.

This could be due to the fact that the platform’s demographics just don’t fit your target audience. Instagram is most popular with users between the ages of 13 to 29 years of age.

Twitter is similar in that it is most popular with younger folks, especially those in the 18 to 24 age brackets. As ages rise, the platform’s popularity decreases.

Listing agents especially, should understand that just 17% of Americans in your target audience’s age range use Twitter.

Buyers’ agents may find spending time at LinkedIn lucrative. Join some groups, post some content, because the site is quite popular with 30-to-49-year-olds.

Pinterest is another time and labor-intensive platform, but its demographics fit tidily with your target audience. “The median age of a Pinterest user is 40,” according to Salman Aslam, founder and CEO of Omincore.

Check out these boards to help you decide if Pinterest is worth your time:

Consider hiring a social media manager to do the heavy lifting, freeing you to focus on other parts of your real estate business.

Send the Should I Stay or Go postcard from the Get More Listings Series to your Farm or an area where you’re currently prospecting.

PLUS: When you have time…here are some helpful resources we’ve made available to support your success.

1. Become a Neighborhood Brand

Become branded in a specific neighborhood with a 12X15 marketing piece sent automatically each month to an exclusive carrier route. Watch this video to learn more or Click Here.

2. The Free Real Estate Mailing List Guide

3. The Free 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is 2020-Planner-3D-999x1024.jpg

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Business-Plan-3D-Book-New1-270x300.png

Treat your business like a business it is vital to long-term success in this industry. Some agents may put together elaborate business plans, yet there’s something powerful about keeping it simple. Check out our one page Online Real Estate Business Plan. – Click Here

5. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

6. The Free Online ROI Calculator

7. The Free Real Estate Marketing Guide “CRUSH IT”

Choose the Right Real Estate Keywords for Better SEO

Oct 21, 2019

Who knew that decades after Sumner Redstone first declared it, that content would still be king?

Consumers want content that helps them make a more informed buying decision, whether they’re shopping for sneakers or homes.

Content that meets their needs is therefore not only of value to the consumer but to your brand as well, by positioning you as the trustworthy expert in real estate.

Even the most valuable content is wasted, however, if it can’t be found online. For that, you need the right keywords.

So, how do you find these nuggets that will hopefully propel you toward the top of search engine rankings?

The Just Listed postcard is available in the Postcard section.

Understanding what’s important to your audience – what truly matters to them (not to you or what you assume matters to them).

Who are you targeting?

Can we all agree that working with real estate clients is easier when the field of clients is narrower? To shoot an arrow, hoping it hits “anyone who wants to buy or sell a home” isn’t a strategic business move.

Generalists have a tough time getting to know their audience. Specialists, on the other hand, will find that task ridiculously easy.

Determine who you are targeting, right down to their age, marital status, and income. This is the only way to figure out their intent when they hit the internet to search for real estate-related topics.

Their intent?

Semantic search.

If you want to watch smoke come out of your ears, dive into the meaning of that phrase.

Boil down all the tech jargon, however, and “semantic search seeks to understand natural language the way a human would,” according to Aleh Barysevich at SearchEngineJournal.com.

It involves, among other requirements, an understanding of searcher intent. Google uses your location (much to our dismay, often) and searches history to come up with what the engine assumes is our intent when we type in a query.

Google’s Hummingbird update (2013) aimed to ensure that pages that better match searcher context and intent will rank better than pages that repeat context-less keywords ad nauseam,” according to Barysevich.

Two years later, Google released RankBrain, which sought to add to the search engine’s understanding of user intent when conducting a search.

The Just Sold postcard is available under the Postcard section.

Obviously, the days of packing vague keywords into content are long gone. Today, agents need to know their audience and incorporate the keywords that they use.

Keep it local

You do realize that all the common real estate keywords lead to Zillow, right?

Despite knowing this, agents are still trying to outrank the behemoth for broad real estate terms, such as “how to sell a house.”

Plug that term into Google and not one of the results on page one is from a real estate agent’s website, despite agents being the most knowledgeable about the process.

And, is the process of selling a house the same nationwide? Of course not. Many aspects of the home sale vary by region. In California, for instance, the seller must provide a California Natural Hazard Disclosure Statement to the buyer. This isn’t required in other states.

Which brings us to the importance of local keywords. Even if you made it to page one for “how to sell a house,” the chances are high that most of your visitors won’t live in your local market.

Aim strategically, starting with local keywords.

Choose your words carefully

Real estate agents tend to refer to homes in various ways:

Real estate
Property
House
Home

From our experience, most agents prefer the word “home.”

How do real estate consumers describe an abode?

“Sell my house” is searched more than twice as often as “Sell my home,” according to Google Trends.

“Sell my house” also receives more than three times the clicks as “Sell my home.”

The same holds true for buyers; “Buy a house” gets twice the clicks of “Buy a home.”

See? It pays to know your audience and how they search.

But we put our research to the test by choosing a random city, Charlotte, North Carolina.

“Buy a house in Charlotte, North Carolina” is an impossibly competitive keyword phrase. All the usual first page hogs dominate page one of the search results.

Add a tail to that already longtail search term, however, and there is hope.

The search phrase “Buy a house in Providence Park, Charlotte” includes two real estate agent websites.

Here are two more very basic real estate keywords to get you started:

How much does it cost to sell my house in [localizer]
How to buy a house in [get hyper, hyper-local here, with subdivision and city name]

The Just Listed Property postcards are available under the Postcard section.

In the end, the best way to find out the words your visitors are using to find you is by checking your site’s analytics. Then, feed them into Google Ads to determine which variants receive the most clicks.

Send out the Multi-Photo Just Listed postcard in the surrounding area of your newest listing.

Need help targeting the perfect niche of buyers or sellers? Use our mailing list too l to create the ideal list (it’s easy) or call our support team for assistance at 866.405.3638!

PLUS: When you have time…here are Free killer tools to help your success this year!

1. Become a Listing Legend Free eBook

2. “Get More Listings” Free Online Webinar

“Get MORE Listings & Begin to Dominate Your Market!” Free online webinar. Learn the 3-7-27 strategy for explosive growth, why 95% of agents have less than 20% market share, and how to become the agent everyone competes against. – Click Here

3. The 12 Month Done-For-You Strategic Marketing Plan

4. The Free One-Page Real Estate Business Plan

5. The Free Online ROI Calculator

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