This article was originally published on the Home Value Leads blog.
In real estate, the busiest start to the year is no doubt spring. With the potential number of home sellers and home buyers ready to get their homes on the market or to find their next home, it's a timely opportunity to ensure you get as many client testimonials as possible.
It might go without saying, but testimonials are one of the best ways for people to learn about the real estate services and expertise that you have to offer, firsthand from other home sellers and buyers just like them. Let's take a look at the ways that you, as a real estate agent, can collect your testimonials to start building your reputation in your market.
Past Client Testimonials
Past clients are a great place to start. Don't worry if you haven't collected any testimonials from this group. The great thing about the real estate business is that three or even six months after a deal, your services are not soon forgotten. A couple things that you can do to encourage testimonials to surface from the past:
- Send out a newsletter to all of your past clients. Include two separate ones for home sellers and home buyers. Create a survey in Survey Monkey or Google Forms and include the link for those. (Keep in mind that Survey Monkey has a limit of 100 responses and charges for more than 10 questions.) Your questions can be super simple, with a few that rate your service and a few that are long-form answers to give their personal prose on you.
- Use social media. Post a request with question like "Did I do a great job of helping you sell or buy your last home? My future clients and I would love to know. Please fill out this survey - it'll only take 5 minutes! Thank you so much in advance!"
Online Rating Sites
Websites and apps like Yelp, Google My Business and Facebook all offer an easy to use and prolific platform for collecting testimonials. If you are not already on any of these platforms (yikes!), then it's time to start your accounts today. Be sure to fill out as much information as possible about your business and to include photos and videos where you can.
Keep in mind that you will receive reviews that you wish you could remove. The best course of action to take on these is to answer them genuinely and professionally. Acknowledging shows that you are listening and care, which could bring your reputation up despite the negative review.
Invitation to Review
Once you have these online rating sites set up, you can, as in the section before that, include these links and call to review on your website, social media and any collateral that you send out to leads and clients. You can invite leads to check out your reviews once you have a few and ask your clients to leave their reviews. It's easy to ask people to leave a Google Business or Facebook review.
Yelp, however, has an algorithm that works to distinguish between solicited and unsolicited reviews. You can read their full discourse on this topic with tips on how to get reviews they will actually count. The takeaway is to not ask directly for Yelp reviews but to include a badge or call to action to check them out. Though it doesn't hurt to ask for Yelp reviews in person!
Website
You can also include a specific page on your website with a contact form form reviews. You can then use this link to send out to your clients. Once you have a collection of testimonials, you can add them to each page of your website (home seller reviews on your page touting your listing services and home buyer reviews on your home search pages, for example).
You can also repurpose the content by creating a blog post for each one or posting them on your Facebook page. When people fill out your contact form, you can include a thank you message that also asks them to post the same review on your online rating site pages and Facebook.
Make It a Habit
Don't let go of the opportunity to build your reputation as a real estate agent and leverage the marketing opportunity of client testimonials. Create channels for your past clients to review your services now and make it easier to turn your leads into clients.
Comments(0)