3-Steps to Marketing your Real Estate Business

“I have lots of great ideas but don’t know where to start, so I just don’t do anything,” one real estate agent told me about her marketing.

Another told me she’s just switched careers from a corporate job to real estate but can’t quite get a consistent marketing system going.

A mortgage broker tells me she built her business on buying leads but that doesn’t work anymore, and she wants to do things different now.

Often, I hear from real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and other service professionals – either new to the business or those wanting to modernize their marketing – that they don’t know exactly what to do and where to focus their energies and resources, let alone how to get organized and keep up with consistent marketing. Can you relate? If so, this post – which really is a mini-training – is for you.

In this post, I lay out for you the system that I’ve been using with my clients and in my own business. The goal here is to build a sustainable business with a consistent flow of leads and opportunities from your current network as well as grow your network in new ways as you become known for your unique offering.

This system works, but success doesn’t happen overnight. With consistent, authentic, thoughtful practice you can build a sustainable business full of great clients you’ll enjoy working with. My system is the way to build your business using modern marketing strategies in a crowded, noisy world where the old ways of marketing are becoming less and less effective, even as they grow more expensive.

I’m passionate about this subject because I love helping women just like you grow your businesses. I’ve spent the last 14 years helping mortgage loan officers, real estate agents, and other professional service businesses keep in touch with their networks and reach new ideal clients. This is a totally do-able system that I’m practicing in my own business and have implemented for my clients.

Okay, let’s get started!

Step 1 – Assemble the tools.

If you’ve been in business for any length of time you most likely have most of these tools but if you don’t, take the time this week to get yourself properly set up. Here’s the list of what you’ll need. Check off the ones you have:

• Website with blog feature – where you can post blogs, videos, podcasts.

• Email Marketing Service Provider – service you use to store your email list and send email campaigns (like MailChimp or Constant Contact).

• Landing Page Builder – may be included with your email service provider such as MailChimp.

• Social Media – I recommend using Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. For extra credit you can also get set up with a social media scheduler such as Buffer or Hootsuite. These tools make it easier to stay consistent with your posting.

Step 2 – Focus on your ideal client and unique offering

Getting this step right will transform your business and up-level your marketing. Guaranteed. To be successful in modern marketing, you need to know exactly who you are communicating to. And it’s not everyone. This is also why buying canned content will not help grow your business, it doesn’t create that ‘connection’ or relationship with your network. Your people want to hear from you, personally.

As a real estate agent, you may think your ideal client is anyone who wants to buy or sell a house. But, it’s not. Remember, if you’re marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to no one. In targeting your marketing to your ideal client, you are not excluding anyone from working with you, you are instead seeking to attract those you are best able to help.

Create a profile of your one ideal client. Think of your one favorite client so far and create a 360-degree profile of her. Once you know your ideal client, you can use her language to speak to her and it becomes so much easier to develop content valuable to her.

And hand-in-hand with knowing your ideal client is knowing your unique awesomeness. This emanates from your “why” (watch Simon Sinek’s video). Why do you do what you do? What lights your fire for your business? Who and what kind of people do you love to work with? What are the unique skills, interests, location, that you want to build your business around? Who are the people you love to serve? Is it first-time homebuyers, real estate investors, or empty-nesters? Answer these questions and you will be well on your way to focusing your unique value offering.

Step 3 – Build your Plan and Schedule

Finally, once you’ve assembled your tools and know who you are communicating to, below is the schedule to follow going forward:

Once per week:

New content – Publish one new piece of content for your ideal client. This can be a written piece or blog post; a video; or an audio post, like a podcast. It doesn’t have to be long, it just has to offer value to your one person. Post it to the blog feature of your website so you can tag and organize it, which will help people find it and search engines will index it.

Send an email – You will also be promoting that new piece of content with your entire network, starting with your email list. Send them a short, personal note about your new piece of content with a link to it.

Promote your new content on social media – Post about your new piece of content on all your social media channels using a scheduler, like Hootsuite or Buffer, if you choose. Get creative and do some Instagram stories or Facebook stories or use images. Let your personality shine through and have some fun with it.

Once per month:

Create Freebie – To go along with one of your posts for the month, create a helpful freebie – like a checklist, worksheet, guide, cheat sheet, or eBook – which will help grow your mailing list. A good freebie is the perfect companion to your content piece, not just a regurgitation of your post. For example, if you have a post about how to prepare to buy a home the freebie could be a checklist of 5 Steps to Take to Improve your Credit Score. Once you’ve created your freebie, post it to the media library of your site or in your Google Drive.

Create a Landing Page – For your freebie, create a Landing page in Mail Chimp or in your desired Landing Page provider. Keep it simple. Along with your Landing Page you’ll need to create a welcome email to welcome new subscribers. After they’ve received the initial welcome you can add them to your weekly email list.

Why is this system important? Creating deeper relationships with your network will insure that you remain top-of-mind with those you know and attract new connections, building a consistent flow of leads to grow your business. Remember, it’s great to have social media fans and followers, but you do not own those connections, your social media channel does, and the way the social media revenue model works, you will always have to pay for ads to get access to your ideal clients. So, use social media to begin relationships, have conversations, engage, and let people know about what you’re up to; but encourage folks to sign up for your e-mail list as much as possible. And offering freebies is a great way to give value and encourage people to become part of your list.

Yes, I hear what you’re thinking, this is great deal of work. Step-by-step you can do this! And I’m here to help. You and your growing business are worth it! I’ve done it. My clients have done it – with my help. And you can do it too! It will not happen overnight. It takes time. Schedule at least 30 minutes – ideally an hour – each day to work through this plan.  Take a month to set up your system and begin implementing step-by-step. If you hit a snag, let me know, I can help. And make sure to sign up for email updates as I post weekly about this program to help support you on your journey.

Keep in mind, each step is important and builds on the steps before it, so the plan is most effective when done step-by-step and in order. It’s just like building a house; you can’t skip steps, or the house isn’t going to be solid and stand the test of time – or a stiff breeze. If you would like further support in setting up your marketing system, reach out. I offer done-for-you services and coaching to help you along. New this year, I will be teaching this system beginning in the Fall of 2018. You can get more information and sign up here.

Cheers to your success!

xo, Melissa

I love helping women in real estate, mortgage, and professional service businesses, grow their networks and remain top-of-mind, while building a business that reflects their true character. I offer done-for-you services, coaching/mentoring, and courses (beginning Fall 2018). You can learn more and find other helpful articles about marketing your business at my website.

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