It’s 2018, which means the real estate market has gone digital.
If you’re a real estate agent and are still struggling with creating an online presence, you’re losing business. People have changed the way they look for real estate and you should stay in with the times.
In this article, we will show you why it’s important to have a strong online presence. What are you waiting for, let’s get started?
You Will Brand Yourself
As a realtor, you need a strong online presence in order to brand yourself. Your goal should be to be more than the average real estate company.
What you need is something that will define you and sets you apart from the competition. Potential clients have many options when it comes to choosing a real estate agent, but you need to give them a reason to choose you.
Let them know what makes you so special. Perhaps you specialize in selling properties that are attractive to younger buyers, then you need show you can sell them a lifestyle.
If you specialize in luxury homes, show your clients you will sell the best of the best.
How you market yourself online will become your identity and will help you succeed in business.
You should also show your clients, you’re an agent they can trust.
A Great Client Resource
Having a strong online presence as a real estate agent doesn’t only mean you’re there to help clients sell and buy homes. It means you should become the ultimate resource for people to get the answers to their questions.
If you have a strong online presence, make sure your website is a resource, not only a place meant for selling them a product.
Do this by showing them educational materials your clients would find useful and entertaining even before they require your services. You can do so by adding a blog section to your website where you post informative articles to show clients the ropes.
Add resources for clients to use such as mortgage calculators, first-time buyer resources, link to other helpful websites, and more. Also, making it easier for clients to get in touch with you and ask you questions if they need to.
Don’t make the mistake of only being available for those you think are potential clients. By being there as a resource will ensure even those who aren’t ready will think of you when they decide to take the next step.
Stay Current and Relevant
In the digital world, business gets conducted differently. Before the internet boom, perhaps people used a newspaper or drove around in order to conduct home searches. Now, most people in the market for a home conduct searches online.
If you haven’t started increasing your online presence for this reason alone, then you might risk losing business. Not keeping up with the current trends will only direct potential customers to seek out your competition.
In order to avoid this, you should always stay on track of recent market trends. Find out what it the latest in marketing tools for real estate agents.
Also, you should stay on track with internet tools such as ever-changing SEO tools to make it easier for your clients to find you.
Educate Clients
When you have a strong online presence, you’re able to reach more people. You’ll get more traffic on your real estate site, and this will increase sales.
However, you need to think in terms of how you can educate your clients further. Showing clients you care about building their trust will most likely lead to having customers for life.
Educate your clients by keeping them informed about the latest workshops with professionals in the field. Connect them with people who can share information with them about topics they care about.
Maintain your current and former clients informed of any market changes by sending them a newsletter with the information they will want to read. Don’t make it all about advertising, but make it about educating.
Also, keep in touch with them to give them personal updated on issues they find important or care about.
Grow Your Network
Having a strong online presence will help you grow your network and your business. The last thing you want to do is be a lone wolf when you can make connections that will benefit you and your customers.
You can take advantage of your strong online presence to find and recruit talent. If your business is growing you will want to hire people with a similar mindset and work ethic as you.
Why not use the internet to do so? It has never been easier to communicate with other people.
Grow your network of professionals to bring the best services to your customers. Build a network composed of insurance brokers, mortgage brokers, contractors, interior designers, and other real estate agents.
The better connected you are the more you can do for your clients. You can do so by writing about their services on your blog and linking back to their websites.
When your clients trust you, they will trust the products and services you recommend to them.
Increase Your Local Presence
If you take the time to work on your local SEO, your local online presence will boom.
More often than not, potential home-buyers look for houses in a specific area where they wish to live. If they want to live in Houston, they will search for “homes for sale in Houston.”
When you put the time into increasing your local SEO, you’ll begin to show up in more and more searches for real estate agents in the area.
Ranking high in the local search engine results could also make you the “go to” real estate agent.
All you have to do is make sure your real estate website is optimized and you know about the essential local SEO resources in order to support said searches.
Easier for Clients to Find You
Let’s say, someone tells a potential client about your real estate services. The potential client forgets the name of your website but remembers your name.
If you have a strong online presence, your potential client will be able to find you because your name will appear in every search.
You need to make sure every potential client is able to find you no matter what. These days people rarely look for real estate agent’s photos on bus benches or in newspapers and magazines.
They look for real estate agents using search engines such as Google. The more you’re involved with your online accounts, the more visibility you get.
People tend to go by the search engine results that show up on the first page, so it should be your goal to be there.
Also, keep in mind having a website is not enough to make you more visible to clients. You need to have a strong presence in the social media world.
Stay Ahead of Your Competition
You wouldn’t want to do something because someone else is doing it, but in this case, you should. The competition is always looking for ways to stay ahead, and you shouldn’t be the exception.
If you don’t look for ways to increase your online presence, your clients will go to those you do.
Clients do not want to spend hours conducting research and searching for agents. They will most likely go to the ones that make themselves visible.
This should be something you should always stay on top of. Remember, however, to stay true to your company values.
You shouldn’t compromise your brand in order to gain more visitors and followers.
Show Your Clients More Options
When you have a strong online presence, you will show your clients they have more options.
The key is to continuously deliver them with new and exciting listings. Remember that your website will be the first place where they will see a home listing.
When you provide them with many options, you will broaden their criteria. Perhaps they didn’t have a clear idea of what they were looking for until you showed them something completely different.
Make sure your online listings show quality photos and videos. That way customers can narrow down their choices and you won’t have to conduct as many in-person showings.
If you only show the properties with the most potential, you will have more time to focus on getting more customer and growing other aspects of the business.
Benefit from a Top-Notch Website
You’re always told not to judge a book by its cover. However, these rules don’t always apply to websites.
When a visitor to your website doesn’t like what they see, they will go somewhere else.
If you want to have a strong online presence, you need to deliver your visitors with a professional and easy to navigate site.
Answer these questions: Does your website look professional? Does your website make others want to explore it further? Does your website load fast? Is your website optimized for mobile devices and mobile-friendly?
If you answer no to any of these questions, you could be hurting your online presence.
In order to help you with these issues, you should get a professional website designer. If clients see you invest in your business, they will want to invest in you.
Start a Blog
Once you have the design pinned down, you should take it to the next level. Create a blog page in order to deliver content to your visitors on a regular basis.
Not only will the content help you drive your SEO results, it will also help you deliver engaging content your clients will want to share.
Newsletter
What a better way to keep your customers coming back than by sending them a newsletter packed with informative content.
The purpose of a newsletter is not to flood their inbox, but to share the latest news with them.
Ask for their permission before signing them up to your mailing list. If they receive information about a listing they’re interested in, they will visit your website.
More Advertising Opportunities
If you’re a real estate agent, then you know you have to always find ways to advertise your services.
Being present online means more opportunities to do that. You can take advantage of many types of online advertising such as through Facebook Ads or Twitter.
Marketing campaigns using these services can turn out to be more affordable and efficient as an expensive campaign through an ad agency.
You also have a few more options such as pay-per-click and banner advertising.
if your presence is strong, then you will have more places to advertise and drive more business back to your site.
Social Media Presence Means More Business
Since we touched upon advertising through Facebook and Twitter ads, let’s talk about the importance of followers.
A strong social media presence can make a world of difference. However, it doesn’t mean you should be on all of the social media outlets.
You should pick and choose the ones that will be the most effective. For your real estate agent page, you should pick between the ones you’ll get more out of.
If you pick all of them you might not be as engaged as you need to. Using a photo-based media platform such as Instagram or Pinterest will help you gain followers based on the visual appeal.
Showing people photos of their dream homes can translate into more sales and an increased business.
Ready to Increase Your Online Presence?
As a real estate agent, a strong online presence is necessary to succeed in business in this digital age. It will allow you to stay ahead of the competition, show up in local online searches, and give you more opportunities to advertise.
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