10 Online Real Estate Marketing Mistakes You Do Not Want To Make
Being a real estate professional requires you to wear many more hats than you might have originally predicted. Of course you need good communication, selling and people skills, but arguably one of the most important skills to possess that you might not have thought about is marketing. It is no surprise that most real estate agents do not have a Masters degree in Marketing. Agents typically fare well with training from their mentors or articles like this one, however, there are still many common mistakes made. To keep you up to date and well informed, below is a list of 10 Common Online Real Estate Marketing Mistakes not to make.
No Website/Self Made Website
Professionalism is huge in real estate and generating leads. If you do not have a website, or it is self made, you are running the risk of limited lead growth. It is certainly possible to create a beautiful self made site, however, without certain technical knowledge, your SEO will suffer and the chance of your website landing on page one of Google is slim. If you want to generate more leads and be seen, start with the WPL Pro platform for WordPress and think about the things leads want in a website.
Not Utilizing Social Media
Social media is not only for sharing photos of your vacation or posting funny memes. It is a place for all things, including precious leads. Let your personal connections know what you are up, as well as start pages specifically for your business. Whether you get likes/comments or not, people are reading. Eventually one of those silent followers could turn into a solid lead for you! For more tips on this, read How to Break Through on Social Media.
Being too invasive on Social Media/spamming
As mentioned before, social media can really propel you forward and lead all the competition. It is equally important to note that your behaviour on social media plays a huge factor in this. Being too invasive or spamming will waste your time and could actually do some damage. Examples of this might be posting listings and nothing else, spamming comment sections with your website links or being pushy rather than helpful. When posting in groups, commenting on posts, or sharing content be sure to ask yourself 3 questions.
-Is this relevant and helpful?
-Does this post serve others?
-Can this post create a dialogue?
If you can answer yes to all three, you have a green light!
Spending Too Much on Ads
Buying ads on facebook or elsewhere is one way to market yourself, however, you can easily do all your marketing for free! Some of you might not have the time or know-how, so I won’t say to cut out all ads, but take a second look at that budget. Can you cut some of your ads and invest that money in other lead generating technology? Stop spending too much on hit-or-miss ads and diversify your marketing strategies!
LUKE’S TIP:
Not Knowing Your Target Market
Your target market plays a key roles on the type of content you should post as well as which platforms. If you are an agent in a retirement community, you probably will not benefit from posting Boomerangs of your open house balloons on Instagram. Likewise, if you are in specializing in Luxury Apartments downtown, you do not want to be posting about your Top Favorite Backyard Patios on facebook. Your content and platform should match your audience and the leads you want. If you have never determined your target market, take a quick minute to assess the demographics of the people you are most likely to serve in your community.
No Strategy
Marketing online, especially on social media, is a huge way to get business, but doing so with no strategy is an even bigger waste. Every move you make online should have intention behind it. Every person you interact with online, actively or passively, is a chance at a lead or referral. Your best way to handle such a heavy responsibility is to plan.
Boring/Non-varied Content
Every website and every social media platform uses unique algorithms to determine the order posts will appear on people’s timelines. People have similar algorithms wired in their brains, subconsciously. Boring and non-varied content is the best way to get buried beneath all the other posts/search results, as well as ignored by the people that do manage to scroll past it. Keep things fresh and keep people interested with a mix of types of content. You have many more choices than you might realize. Between blogs, videos, live streams, photos, memes, gifs, polls, and discussions, you really have no reason to only be posting listings.
No Niche Blog
Blogging is not required, but is an easy way to generate traffic to your website as well as give you another option on content to post on your social media. The mistake people often make is being too generic or vague in their niche. If is better to start small and narrow and eventually grow out, than to be lost in the thousands of other blogs with the same topic. If you want ideas, check out 12 Real Estate Blogging Tips for Beginners.
No focus on SEO
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When you have a strong SEO, it means you are more likely to land on the first few pages of a Google search. Unfortunately, SEO is not as simple as having a pretty website. A lot of technicality and thought goes into a strong SEO ranking. If this is not one of your key focuses or concerns, then you are losing precious leads. Read 7 Tips to Build SEO Website for your Real Estate Business for more information and ideas to improve your score.
No Conversion Strategy/CRM
Last but not least, all your marketing efforts online are for nothing is you have no conversation strategy. This is one of the most crucial parts to your marketing plan. If you wait too long to contact a lead or do not know the right thing to say, you could lose them to a competitor. A CRM can help you significantly with this. It helps with managing your leads and giving you an easy platform to address them all. Never lose a lead again.
Any other marketing mistakes you can think of? Leave a comment below!
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