Low Or No Cost Marketing For Agents 2016

The financial burden on agents and their business is always a going concern as most of us feel like the costs of being in real estate just keep going up year after year. One of our most popular posts year after year is the no or low cost marketing strategies for agents and this year we want to thank our good friend Tyler Zey and his group at www.easyagentpro.com for this fantastic content on how you can make a huge impact in real estate marketing without spending the huge dollars!

“Always believe that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.” – Abraham Lincoln

A new year has arrived and with it comes unlimited possibilities to grow our business and become even more successful Realtors. We also have an opportunity to look back on the previous months and consider the things that worked to propel us towards our goals, as well the initiatives that might have fallen flat.

Whatever your resolutions, one thing’s for certain when it comes to becoming the best agent you can be: you’ve got to be on top of your marketing game.

Whether you’re celebrating the completion of your first year as a Realtor, or coming up on a five-year anniversary, there’s always room for improvement.

So to get you started here are some must-have marketing ideas that will set you on the right track to make 2016 the best year yet!

So, what are you going to do first?

These marketing ideas are sometimes easy and other times challenging. Are you going to take the energy to execute on them today?

Before you go, take a few minutes to read through these last five ideas that cover email, web content, video, and social media marketing ideas.

Email Marketing

Real estate email marketing is all about the value proposition.

From your customers view point, your email has to make their job easier. It has to grab our attention, align with our interests, conform to our desires, and then tell us how to act.

The average time spent on each email is very short. It’s typically 15-20 seconds, according tomarketingsherpa.com.

This means your email has to perk that attention and then drive home value very quickly.

Fortunately, it’s not that difficult to write great emails. I honestly believe that so many people are doing it poorly that you can easily make it a competitive advantage in your business.

Here’s A Free Real Estate Email Marketing Template:

• Attention Grabber Opening: State your clear and concise value proposition. It has to get their attention yet describe what you do honestly.
• Custom Interest Poke: Social media makes this really easy. Perhaps you can add something from their Facebook or LinkedIn page that they posted recently. People love to hear about themselves. You’ll see a vast increase in the number of responses after you start customizing each email for the person.
• Provide Value: Maybe these are links to blog articles that you KNOW help potential clients. Maybe it’s just a pdf attachment to help them buy/sell their house. Maybe it’s interesting information about the area they are interested in. Whatever your value is, it will help your email stand out. People will actually start saving your emails if you can provide something they cannot easily find elsewhere.
• Call-to-action: Finally, don’t forget your call to action. Examples: “When are you interested in brainstorming ways to sell your property?” “You can reach me at [insert phone number]. I can’t wait to hear from you.” etc.

These email tips will help you sell more real estate. Although the game has changed a bit in the past few years, real estate email marketing is still the best way to stay in touch with clients. Now, you simply have to provide the most value to people in order to see the most return via email.

This is also a great time to talk about marketing automation. Software platforms and technologies that automate marketing will save you time and make your marketing more effective.

Right now, in the year 2016, it’s estimated that marketers (this means you too) are spending 50% or more of their time generating content and marketing automation is worth $5.5 billion, making automation marketing one of the top lead generation tactics.

When it comes to email marketing, I recommend starting with Get Response. And, you can start FOR FREE!

Get Response is an industry leading email and auto-responder. You can very easily setup a drip sequence to cultivate leads. This is a MUST for Realtors in the 21st century. You need to be cultivating leads through an automated sequence. Sign up for our Free Real Estate Marketing Course then sign up for the $15/month (after a free 30 day trial) with Get Response.

Want even more email marketing tools to grow your production? Try these.

Facebook Marketing

Instead of talking about social media marketing at large, I’m just going to focus on the platforms that you need to make sure you’re incorporating into your daily routine.

And Facebook is at the very top of that list.

Keep in mind that simply having a Facebook page and posting to it a few times a week isn’t enough. In fact, if you don’t utilize Facebook like the valuable real estate marketing resource it is, you’re wasting your time. And we simply cannot have that.

So, here’s the deal.

The whole point of your real estate Facebook page should be “Give to Get.” You want to give 3 things to your audience before you ask for anything in return. Keep this principle in mind and you’ll see great success. For example, post 3 articles that genuinely help people buy or sell. Then ask for their business.

Oh, and get this, you can automate posting to Facebook to see even more results in less time. Find out how here: 3X Your Website’s Social Media And Google Rankings With These 2 Real Estate Marketing Tools

Also, when was the last time you actually updated your Facebook contact info? When you first create your Facebook page, you may be in a hurry and not completely fill out the contact info. Go check your page now and make sure it’s 100% accurate.

There are tons of fields you can fill out on the backside of your business page. The more you write there, the better!

While you’re at it, take just a few minutes to search for a Facebook group or two to participate in. Seriously. Don’t ignore Facebook groups! There are typically 30-40 active Facebook groups for every major city out there. Joint them and become part of the conversation.

Finally, did you know the average blog can convert 2-10% of its visitors into leads? You need a website that has fresh content written by you in order to fully use Facebook. Facebook is where you share your best articles. And then the traffic from Facebook turns into leads once they hit your blog.

The best thing you can use your real estate Facebook page for is promoting the content you write on your blog. Writing content is the #1 most effective way to get leads off of your website. Facebook ties directly into this. You can post all your content on your Facebook page. The blog gives you things to share and talk about with your followers. It also gives you another avenue for directly engaging with them.

Last thing, if you’ve already got your 2016 ad budget in place, I’m sure you’re curious about Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads For Real Estate are a great idea! They will get you tons of leads. Check out this step-by-step guide to setting up your first ad. While your monthly ad budget may end up costing as much as you paid for your license, it’ll soon start paying for itself.

Content Marketing (Your Blog!)

Seriously, it’s the year 2016. Your website needs a blog. 90% of all home buyers start their search online and pretty much 100% of them use online research methods throughout the process.

And did you know that websites without a blog get 4-6 times less Google search engine traffic?

Just look at how much Zillow or Trulia invest in online content. They do it because it yields major results.

My company, Easy Agent Pro, can setup a website for you that converts 5-10% of its visitors into leads, click here to see how it works.

You simply need a website setup that you can post content to. And you need to have lead capture setup.

At this point, having a blog isn’t an option, it’s a requirement, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have options for how you create this content.

Try these tips if you don’t like writing:

1) Record video answers to common real estate questions and pay someone on Fiverr to transcribe them for you. This will give you high-quality video content and blog content in minutes!

2) Outsource the writing of blog content. While this isn’t my favorite, you can easily have someone create blog content for your business!

3) Leverage the power of others. Do you partner with lenders or companies? Ask them to contribute written blog content on a regular basis.

This is also an excellent time to consider how your website is performing via mobile. 27% of the traffic to Easy Agent Pro is from mobile devices. That means my site needs to work on an iPhone, Android, and Windows phone just as much as it needs to work on a PC.

This is not debatable in 2016. Emarketer suggests that the number of smartphone users worldwide will surpass 2 billion this year.

You’re really going to miss out on tons of leads should you not have a mobile real estate website.

Pinterest Marketing

Every Realtor should be on Pinterest. Seriously. If you want to grow the leads coming into business, Pinterest is really the way to go. The site sends more traffic to websites than Facebook and Twitter combined. And the average demographic on Pinterest has an annual 6-figure income. These are people you want to sell houses for.

Here’s the data from analytics.pinterest.com for a Realtor who just started using Pinterest:

Pinterest is thriving right now and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, it’s projected to thrive even more in 2016. And it’s literally the best place to spend your time and energy. This network was made to drive traffic to websites. It literally only takes 2 clicks on a picture to end up on your real estate website. That’s amazing!

Most social networks try to keep people on their website and away from yours!
This just isn’t true with Pinterest. And because of that it’s a great way to capture leads.

Video Marketing

Did you know that listings using real estate video marketing tactics receive 403% more inquiries than those that don’t?

That’s a lot more potential buyers!

Plus, video can increase the understanding of your value proposition by 74%!

All this means one thing:

You need to be making videos!

Here’s a great outline to follow when doing real estate video marketing:

Video production can be intimidating, but it doesn’t have to be. Your main priority is simply to be helpful. You don’t need a Go Pro or Canon EOS Rebel (at least not yet) to make effective, quality content that will actually help your viewers.

So grab your android, iPhone or iMac–you can even record and upload a video from your webcam, or create a photo slideshow– and commit to creating your first video today!

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Too often I see an agent pick up a marketing idea…take it for a test drive. And then stop. That’s not how marketing works! Marketing works over time…with dedication to making the idea more effective. Because marketing is best done over the long haul. It’s a long-term game.

Stick with it and I promise that if you execute on these ideas you will see results! And, they’re essentially cost-free. So really, what’ve you got to lose?

I’d love to hear what marketing ideas you’re loving this year. Let’s chat in the comments!

Strength and courage,

Wade

check out www.agentsboost.com for more tips and ideas