Doesn’t it always come down to time?

When we talk to real estate professionals about what’s holding them back, we hear over and over: time. When the marketing engine isn’t quite humming – time. When past clients aren’t becoming future clients – time.

This is a business built on personal contact, and the better you are at consistently showing knowledge and authenticity, the stronger your business results. But how we stay in touch is changing, and so is marketing in our industry. The challenge for many of us today is focusing on the fundamental skills we need to drive real business.

Here are the 5 must-have marketing skills that you need to keep top of mind to build a high producing sales machine.

1. Good Content
To generate new listings and new sales, you need to attract new clients. That means content. This could be posts on your website, videos, even tweets – whatever forum you choose, effective lead generation happens when you give something of value. In today’s industry, you need to be a publisher and author. What to write? You’ve got lots of choice: market commentary, selling strategies, information about staging a home, neighborhood events. Great content builds trust, draws people to your site and also makes it easier for you to stay top of mind with past clients.

2. Focus on What Gets You to Closings
Despite everything you’ve got on your plate, you’ve got to live and breathe your sales funnel. That means understanding how much of your business comes from referrals, how much from new business, how long it might take for a lead to turn into a contact or client, and how you can grow each of those categories. Do you know, at this moment, how many of your leads turned into listings or sales last year? What about the source of each of your closings? The only way you can impact leads, opportunities and closings is if you are constantly reviewing the source of business.

3. Referrals and Recommendations
Are you tired of hearing about Facebook? I don’t blame you. Few of us will become a social media gurus, but that’s not really the goal. Facebook and other social media are a key part of establishing your personal brand, and they can be exceptionally powerful tools for collecting and sharing recommendations. Since referrals and recommendations are the largest source of new business, look for ways to streamline (and systematize) the process.

4. Measurement
If you aren’t measuring, you’re not marketing. Not all metrics are about sales: you can track visits, mentions, ad spend. The key is to develop a reporting habit and to create a set of measurements that make sense for you.

5. Technology
Technology isn’t going away, but it is getting friendlier. It’s time to embrace solutions that can actually make your life easier, and maybe even inject a little fun into the process. Look for solutions that are tailored to our industry, quick to set up, and allow you to gain more of that important asset: time.

If you’re looking for ways to deliver on your sales and marketing objectives, take a look at the breakthrough innovations that you’ll just have to touch to believe.