I often get asked about what the best real estate marketing strategy is, and the answer is not going to be super exciting. The best real estate marketing strategy is marketing the people you already know.
Don’t get me wrong, as there are some real estate marketing strategies that kick ass if you have the skill set to do it, but there is only one real estate marketing strategy that works for everyone regardless of how long you been in the business or your “tech” skill set.
The most reliable and consistent source of clients will always come from the people you know, not strangers. I want to define first by who I mean “Database”, because I’m not talking about.
- Leads from your website
- Purchased lead or data sources
- Opt ins
- any kind of list in your CRM you created from open house sign ins or Facebook ads
The Best Real Estate Marketing Strategy Is Marketing The People You Already Know
I’m talking about marketing the people you already know or say hello to in the grocery store. What if you had the ability to stay let every single one of your Facebook friends know you were in real estate? How much more business could you do if people STOPPED “forgetting” you were in real estate?
The real estate business is based on relationships. When the market crashed in 2007 who do you think received all of the REO(foreclosure) accounts, the top agent in the area or the one who had the relationship with the asset manager?
The top agents in your market who sell the most new construction, do they get their developer listings from cold calling or are they getting them from relationships they have?
There’s an agent in your office RIGHT NOW you cannot understand why is selling more homes than you are, but guess what, they are just more popular than you. The only things that EVER separates the top real estate agents and the bottom feeders is their network or a database.
WHY?
The vast majority of real estate agent business comes from referrals or repeat clients. You can interview any top producer in your area and the vast majority of them have one thing in common, a large referral based business.
What Makes A Good Referral Real Estate Marketing Strategy?
They might not be the sharpest tools in the shed, but they are the most popular and generally the only thing that separates you from the top producers in your area is that more people know what they do than what they do. They are more popular than you right now, but that’s it. Real estate marketing, in my opinion is a giant popularity contest because of the statistics above.
[click_to_tweet tweet=”Instead of trying to generate a bunch of leads, why don’t you generate a bunch of attention with the people you already know. 10-15% of them are moving this year but all of them have ability to refer you one client right now” quote=”Instead of trying to generate a bunch of leads, why don’t you generate a bunch of attention with the people you already know. 10-15% of them are moving this year but all of them have ability to refer you one client right now”]
Real estate will always remain a people business because people hire real estate agents they KNOW, LIKE, & TRUST.
There is so much clutter in the world today around real estate lead generation, but in reality the majority of business is right in front of us. Real estate agents get referrals from their database, not strangers. We get repeat business from satisfied past clients, not from people we don’t know!
Marketing Your Relationships Is NOT Based On Mathematics, It’s Based On Theory
Everything I’m not talking theory, it’s factual and here’s why;
- 10- 15% of the people you know this year are moving, but how many of them can you get to use you? This means 10-15% of your Facebook friends, IG followers, people you run into, people you newly meet, and every conversation you have.
- 100% of the people you come into contact with, you’re connected with on social media, or even newly meet have the ability to refer you at least 1 client in the next 12 months because everyone knows someone who’s moving.
So what if instead of spending thousands of dollars trying to get a complete stranger to respond to one of your advertisements, you stopped spending money on lead generation, and instead invested that into “reminding” everyone you knew that you were in real estate?
You don’t market your database for their direct business, you do it for their referrals. Direct business is a by-product of marketing your database, but that’s not the primary reason to do it in the first place.
Buyers and sellers want to work with a Realtor they know, like, and trust. Our relationships are the most profitable aspect of our business. The one thing that CANNOT be outsourced is creating a human connection with your database. There is no real estate marketing strategy, gadget, device, or technology that can replace YOU! It’s your trust that people buy, but it’s your job to remind them that you are in real estate, because as you already know, they tend to forget.
The Best Real Estate Marketing Strategy Conclusion
A real estate marketing strategy focused around “reminding” everyone you’re in real estate is essential for running a referral based business.
Focus on building relationships first and the rest will come. This is not rocket science. Build your database and then keep your brand in front of it using multiple channels. It’s really that easy.
If you’d like help implementing an attraction based real estate marketing strategy, you don’t need more leads, you need more dudes. If you were interested in marketing your database with video, then schedule a demo now and see how it works.