11 ways to grow your real estate business › 2015 › 05 › ... · 5/11/2015 · advertising and...

11 Ways to Grow Your

Marcus Schaller

Real Estate Business

© Marcus Schaller | marcusschaller.com/realestate

There’s a point where even the most successful real estate agent can feel stuck. You’ve built a thriving business through hard work, grit and well-deserved referrals. You dedicate 7 days a week to your clients, pushing yourself to be everywhere at once…to do everything at once.

Yet despite your best efforts, you just can’t seem to break through to the next level. You’re trapped reacting to the urgent needs of the prospects in front of you today, with little time left to make sure your pipeline stays full tomorrow and into the future.

You’re not growing. You’re grinding.

If you want to grow, you need an effective, repeatable lead generation strategy that goes beyond referrals. Here are 11 ideas to help get you started…

Growing Pains1 Organize Your Marketing Goals, Options and Action Plan

2 Make Your Website a Lead Generating Machine

3 Create a Consistent Follow-Up System

4 Generate the Highest Possible Exposure for Your Listings

5 Grow Your Audience and Influence Using Social Media

6 Be Easy to Find in Local Directories

7 Create Targeted Pay-Per-Click Campaigns and Offers

8 Attract More Listing Leads Using Smart Direct Mail

9 Increase Your Local Exposure With Event Marketing

10 Become the Go-To Real Estate Expert for Local Press

11 Track Your Results to Help Focus Your Resources

http://marcusschaller.com/realestate/


A solid marketing plan begins with understanding your current situation, your future goals and the needs of your unique business. Spending some time up front to build a strong foundation will help make your marketing much more successful.

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1 Organize Your Marketing Goals, Options and Action Plan

Define your personal sales goals and identify target numbers of listing appointments and client leads needed to reach them

Calculate the average lifetime value of a new client and decide on an acceptable cost-per-acquisition and marketing budget

Identify quantifiable points of differentiation like personal sales data, average days on market and multiple offers received

Decide which marketing tools (website, CRM) you’re currently happy with and which ones could use improvement

Identify which marketing tactics are already working well…build on those first

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According to a recent joint study by Google and the National Association of Realtors, 90% of home buyers use the Internet to help find a home. In fact, real estate related Google searches have grown 253% over the past 4 years. And buyers don’t typically stop at the first website they find—they perform an average of 11 searches prior to taking action on any real estate site. That means that if they don’t find what they’re looking for on your website, they’ll move on to someone else’s.

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2 Make Your Website a Lead Generating Machine

Keep all website content, landing pages, listings and links up-to-date and accurate

Add property search functions, calculators and other resources buyers and sellers are searching for

Increase your search rankings by optimizing your site’s landing pages, keywords and meta descriptions

Create unique content to attract and convert more visitors into leads

Blog posts

Slide decks

Newsletters

Real estate reports, guides, tip sheets and ebooks

Infographics

Videos (listing, educational, testimonials)

Webinars

Podcasts

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http://www.realtor.org/sites/default/files/reports/2013/Study-Digital-House-Hunt-2013-01.pdf


There’s no point in generating new leads if you’re not able to consistently and efficiently nurture them into clients. Your database and follow-up plan is the most valuable part of your business, but like any system it needs to be managed every day.

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3 Create a Consistent Follow-Up System

Set up an efficient database that organizes leads by priority for consistent follow-up

Add new leads to database from online inquiries, open houses and referrals

Send new leads personalized follow-up emails to capitalize on interest and convert into appointments

Nurture lead pipeline using drip marketing campaigns (direct mail, email, newsletters, content offers, scheduled agent calls) to increase conversions

Schedule past client mail/email/greeting card campaigns to attract more testimonials, referrals and repeat business

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Advertising and promoting your current listings can be just as time-consuming as your personal marketing, but it needs to happen just as consistently.

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4 Generate the Highest Possible Exposure for Your Listings

Enter new MLS and website listings within 24 hours and keep information up-to-date across all online profiles

Submit new listing ads (print and online) and track placements for accuracy

Design listing/open house collateral (property flyers, property disclosures and local information)

Promote new listings and open houses to broker database

Prepare property images in Photoshop for print and online placement

Prepare listing marketing reports for clients

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Social media isn’t just about getting likes and comments. It also helps increase your reach by showing off your personality and sharing your expert knowledge of the area.

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5 Grow Your Audience and Influence Using Social Media

Reach an audience of potential clients by publishing news, tips, photos, videos and other content to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram and Pinterest

Connect with local community influencers (construction companies, lenders, escrow officers, investors, mortgage brokers) to increase exposure and attract referrals

Host and moderate Facebook and Linkedin groups to grow your network

Use social monitoring tools to connect with people looking to buy or sell in your area

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Many people begin their search for a listing agent on Google, using keywords like “real estate agent in (city).” Often the top search results are profiles in local directories like Yelp and Google Local. The great news is that most of these directories are free. They just need to be optimized and kept up-to-date.

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6 Be Easy to Find in Local Directories

Optimize local directories and review site profiles including Yelp, Google My Business and Yahoo Local

Update profiles on real estate listing sites (Zillow, etc)

Continue to add new local directory/online listing profiles to increase exposure

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Pay-per-click advertising platforms like Google Adwords can be one of the most targeted and cost-effective ways to reach the exact types of clients you are looking for. But there’s no shortcut to a profitable campaign. Even though you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad, it still takes testing to develop the types of campaigns that bring in high-quality leads.

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7 Create Targeted Pay-Per-Click Campaigns and Offers

Set up Google AdWords, Facebook, Bing, Twitter and Linkedin PPC campaigns (budgets, geographic targeting, scheduling)

Create targeted landing pages and offers to attract the right clients

Write A/B split test ads

Manage click bids and daily budgets

Analyze, retest and optimize campaigns to improve click-through and conversion rates while lowering cost-per-acquisition

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Are postcards and other direct mail campaigns worth the money? It depends on the relevance of your offer and who you’re targeting with your mailings. The right offer sent to the right homeowner at the right time can be one of the most effective ways to attract new listings.

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8 Attract More Listing Leads Using Smart Direct Mail

Repurpose existing content offers to increase direct mail response rates

Source cost-effective direct mail marketing vendors including list brokers, printers and mailing houses

Build mailing lists and create special offers for FSBOs and expired listings

Create direct mail/email lead generation campaigns to initiate lucrative corporate relocation service relationships

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Real estate is a people business, and the more targeted opportunities you create to meet the people in your key demographic, the more conversations you’ll have that can lead to a sale.

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9 Increase Your Local Exposure With Event Marketing

Plan and promote local business networking events to increase personal referrals and connections in the community

Create Meetup groups to connect with your targeted local market

Plan and promote local seminars to attract first time homebuyers, FSBOs and other potential clients

Arrange speaking opportunities to local organizations

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Everyone loves to talk about real estate, and local news media are constantly quoting real estate experts. Raise your profile by connecting with journalists and building relationships that lead to media exposure.

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10 Become the Go-To Real Estate Expert for Local Press

Write and submit guest blog posts and articles to increase exposure and inbound links for SEO

Compile and promote online and print press kits

Set up and update expert profiles on PR sites like helpareporter.com

Write and distribute newsworthy press releases

Connect with real estate show production companies to develop appearance opportunities

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The 80/20 rule states that 80% of your results will come from just 20% of your effort. By tracking your best sources of new clients, you won’t waste time and money on marketing tactics that make little difference to your success.

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11 Track Your Results to Help Focus Your Resources

Use analytics to measure your response rates, website traffic, sources of new business, lead engagement and conversion costs

Use marketing metrics to test new approaches and improve results

Use software that helps make sense of the numbers (Google Analytics, etc)

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Marcus Schaller is a sales and marketing professional with over 20 years of service industry experience. He specializes in developing content-driven lead generation campaigns that open the door for quality conversations with the right prospects.

To see how he can help you attract more clients and continue to grow your real estate practice by freeing you from day-to-day marketing tasks, visit

marcusschaller.com/realestate



11 ways to grow your real estate business › 2015 › 05 › ... · 5/11/2015 · advertising and...

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