Marketing Tips for New Agents

Marketing Tips for New Agents

Congratulations on your new role as professional real estate agent! You’ve worked hard to learn all that goes into the complex world of home buying, selling, and leasing. You’ve passed a difficult test, signed on with a brokerage, and you’re ready for your first client. Now the work really begins.

If you’re like nearly every other agent, you don’t have a string of people waiting for you to help them buy or sell a home. You have to go find your clients and build your own portfolio of success. This can seem like a daunting task to agents just starting out. We’re here to help. Follow these suggestions for marketing your real estate services and let’s watch your business grow.

Get a New Website and Grow Your Digital Presence

Few things are more critical to the successful start of a business than investing in a good website. The days of Yellow Pages and newspaper ads are over. Fortunately, also gone are the days of needing to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on a good website that does everything you need. You probably don’t have much of a following yet, so a website is your best first impression tool.

Your new website should have at a minimum - Excellent images, well-written content, links to MLS search, contact options for you, and a way to capture leads who visit your page. SEO, Facebook ads, and blogging are important, but perhaps can wait until you have revenue coming in. Go ahead and set up a Facebook business page, and start posting as soon as you can make it part of your routine.

Get the Word Out

Your friends and contacts won’t know to send business your way if they don’t know you’re an agent. Announce it on social media and include a link to your website and social pages for your business. If you have contacts who aren’t connected with you on social media, send a group email about your announcement. If they are agents in another area, offer a referral fee. Many of us have contacts in our list we haven’t seen or heard from in a while. This could be a good way to re-engage, and a referral could come as a result of reaching out.

You may be advised to get business cards and pass them out to everyone you meet. If that is your style, by all means, share freely. If, however, you’d rather reserve your card for people who express a genuine interest, you may get a name tag with your branding. People can be curious and will ask you about it while you’re going about your daily life.

Get into Farming

We don’t mean planting crops and riding tractors. Farming is a strategy used in marketing real estate business that is especially beneficial for new agents. This is when you select an area, community, or neighborhood to target, learn all you can about it, and immerse yourself in the market there. The goal is to become the expert and go-to for all things related to housing and living in this area.

We work with many agents who have seen positive results from narrowing their target market in this way. We create websites that specifically showcase those neighborhoods and the agents’ expertise there. New agents can streamline their marketing efforts and budget by farming as a strategy. You may want to choose your own neighborhood to start, since this is most familiar. You could also choose a niche to narrow your focus, like military service members, condos, or senior retirement communities, which would steer your marketing strategy.

Build Your Contacts and Communication

As you begin working in the field, you will meet a lot of people. Consider everyone a potential referral, but remember to treat them like people, not targets. Make sure to get their permission or opt-in before adding them to your distribution list.  Set up your contact lists in groups so you can craft messages most relevant to them.

Consider sending an e-newsletter with valuable industry information and other content of interest to your audience. This could be done as a drip campaign, which automates messages to your lists. Your contacts will not only receive regular information, but will have you top of mind when they, or someone they know, needs a Realtor®.

Get in Touch

A ListingsToGo website is the perfect start for a new agent. Your web presence will be impressive, responsive, lead-generating, and affordable. Get in touch and get your real estate business started on the right foot with a powerful new website.