Building awareness and communicating actively to expand your buyers list is critical to building sales velocity and increasing listings. Here’s 20 Proven Real Estate Marketing Ideas to Expand Your Buyers List:
1. SEO
You have a website provided by your agency, but how well does it rank in online searches? If you google “property for sale” in your area, does your name and website appear in the first three results? It’s often said that if you are fourth or worse in search results, you’re invisible.
Thankfully there is a solution, Search Engine Optimization (SEO). By making changes to your website and completing specific tasks on a regular basis, your online presence will be more highly valued by the search engines and you will rise to the top.
However if that sounds daunting, there’s good news. There are SEO specialists who can do this for you, and a small investment today requires very little cost or maintenance action to sustain long term results.
2. Publish regularly on your blog
Producing regular and consistent content through a blog on your website is going to drive SEO improvements and more buyers into your database. Therefore you will become a source of information on local property news and trends for anyone looking for property. It will position you as an authority on all things real estate in your area, helping expand your buyers list.
3. Automate your email marketing campaigns
Many buyers know the type of property they’re looking for and where it is located. As a result, you can expand your buyers list by automating your new listing emails. Highly motivated and qualified buyers will appreciate your early communication about upcoming listings as it will allow them to get a jump start on the rest of the market.
4. Virtually stage listings
Do you find yourself listing vacant properties with dull and uninteresting photos? Consider the effect of virtually staging your properties on your buyers list. Virtual staging is the process of digitally adding furniture and decorations through photo editing software like Photoshop. This allows you to portray a certain lifestyle or theme for the property, without the expense of hiring furniture for the listing. Virtual staging services can place furniture in your vacant listing photos, boosting your profile as a Realtor who lists interesting and stylish properties.
5. Experiment
Positive attention is the name of the game. You want exposure for the right reasons and you want to incentivize buyers to join your database. Running information sessions on the house buying process is an ideal opportunity to expand your buyers list by capturing people when they’re ready to buy. Try a promotion that rewards buyers who attend an open home. Explore less traditional marketing techniques, like branded dog bowls or doormats for local cafes.
6. Partnerships
Buyers are not a faceless crowd of people, they’re individuals and many are active in the local area. Invite local businesses to collaborate with your listings. For example, a local florist could stage flowers in your open home which you can use for cross promotion. Invite a coffee van to set up in front of the property during open houses to drive traffic through the door, or work with interior decorators on staging a particular room. Not only will these local businesses get exposure and work from collaborating with you, when they are looking to purchase property, your familiar face will be top of mind.
7. Boost posts on social media
As a modern Agent you’re active on social media, but how do you get exposure outside of your existing network to expand your buyers list? Boosting interesting posts on Instagram or Facebook will increase your reach and drive buyers into your database. Choose a particularly interesting listing, or interesting photo of a listing, and use the Boost Post function to get more eyeballs on your posts.
8. Virtual tours
With the current pandemic and the cultural shift to a digital online world, Virtual Tours will become a must-have component of your property marketing. While this will reduce the risks associated with in person viewings, you’re also enabling your properties to engage with a wider audience while reducing the need for open homes.
Companies like Matterport produce camera hardware and software to create a virtual tour easily for sharing online.
People interested in a property can share your virtual tours with friends who are in the property hunt, expanding your buyers list. A Virtual Tour should be included on every property you list in 2022
9. Maintain your online presence
At least twice a year set a reminder to review your online presence and ensure your profiles on listing portals, social media and your website are current and up to date. Many of these platforms provide a profile to expand your exposure to thousands of new prospects.
10. Request referrals
When a listing sells well, take the opportunity to request a referral from the seller or buyer that reflects on your strong points. While referrals often come from sellers, if you include positive buyer testimonials in your marketing, others looking for property in your area will want to deal with you, expanding your buyers list and building trust within the community.
11. Produce video content
Video is the most engaging and powerful content for a Realtor. While you can commission high quality expensively produced videos for promotions, you can also create your own professional video content with a smartphone and a biteable.com account.
12. Guest appearances
Do you know people who are producing content in your local area? Historically Realtors would contribute to local newspapers however you will have better success expanding your buyers list through guest appearances on relevant podcasts, youtube channels and other local content platforms.
13. Share testimonials
A testimonial that is not shared is a testimonial that does not exist. Ensure your testimonials feature heavily on your website and in your social media. When you are expanding your buyers list, your testimonials are a strong first impression you can make with new contacts. When it comes time to meet in person, a buyer’s bias will tend to confirm the qualities they’ve heard about you, cementing your credibility and trustworthiness.
14. Stay on brand
Think about brands you interact with every day. Their content is consistently branded while the topic might vary wildly. Ensure all your communication is on brand by always photographing listings the same way. Use the same language in all your emails and social media.
15. Be mobile friendly
Is your website mobile friendly? If you’re appearing at the top of search results for listings in your area but your website is a desktop version squished into a mobile screen, you won’t be making a good impression. To expand your buyers list, ensure that anyone looking at your listings on your website is being served a contemporary mobile experience.
16. Consistently engage online
So you’re actively posting content on a regular basis. How are you keeping an eye on engagement with your audience? Commun.it will help you by highlighting when your content is shared, retweeted or favorited. You can even see who influences your posting and activity.
Arming yourself with this knowledge will help you build deeper and more meaningful connections with your audience.
17. Use CTAs
A Call To Action will drive qualified buyers to engage with your website, emails or social media posts. Without a call to action, the most well-written post or email is the equivalent of trailing off in a conversation. How will potential buyers learn more about you and your expertise if you don’t prompt them? A few well-chosen words can give you credibility, expand your buyers list and highlight your skills.
18. Doorknock
Yes, introduce yourself to the neighboring houses on the street. They may know buyers who are actively searching for properties. Providing an in-person update about the upcoming open home could be a trigger for them to alert their friends and drive more buyers to your listings.
19. Livestream your Opens
Set up your laptop with a camera to livestream your open home on Facebook. Buyers unable to attend in person can still share the experience and it gives them an opportunity to ask questions in real time. If there are lots of attendees, live streaming can drive buyers to take action in a seller’s market. So buyers will be incentivized to subscribe to your social media feeds to ensure they don’t miss out on any future opportunities.
20. Be unique
Your database of contacts represents the longest sustaining source of leads. Although it’s important to maintain infrequent but regular communication with your database, find something unique that you can give to vendors and buyers. A small high quality branded keyring for all successful buyers will remain in their possession by default for many years.
If your gift is valued, long lasting and unique, then it will help keep you top of mind for future listings.