Characteristics of a Good Real Estate Agent

There’s a big difference between a mediocre real estate agent and a good real estate agent. Knowing what separates the two can make or break a real estate career. Good real estate agents get all the clients and sales.

 

There’s a lot of competition out there in the real estate field, so it’s crucial that you do everything possible to rise above the rest. To point you in the right direction, here’s a list of characteristics of good real estate agents:


♦ Good real estate agents are good listeners. They don’t judge the client or assume what type of property they are looking for. They listen closely to what the client has to say and show them properties based on what they discussed.

♦ Good real estate agents are educated on every aspect of real estate transactions. They know how to write contracts, show property, negotiate offers and secure a sale.

♦ Good real estate agents know how to find new clients. They work hard to drum up new clients no matter how many clients they currently have. They are always calling clients, placing ads and canvassing the area for new business.

Characteristics of a Good Real Estate Agent

♦ Good real estate agents have a backup profession. They know how difficult and fickle the real estate market is and, in their free time, will line up a potential career in a related profession such as termite inspection, home inspections and appraisals.

♦ During land deals, good real estate agents stay in constant contact with the surveying company so the survey is finished quickly.

♦ Good real estate agents learn how to use the internet to their advantage. They are proficient at social media and know how to drive traffic to their website.

♦ Good real estate agents only list marketable properties and tend to work with clients who are pre-qualified and prepared to buy.

♦ Good real estate agents take floor calls in their broker’s office.

♦ Good real estate agents limit the number of clients they work with at a given time in order to give each client the time and attention they need.

♦ Good real estate agents do their homework. They know the market in their geographic area inside out, including its market trends, values, schools, neighborhoods, restaurants, pros and cons, legal issues, and any hidden gems an area may have.

♦ Good real estate agents have a vast network of connections. Their list of connections includes other real estate agents and brokers, appraisers, mortgage loan officers, home inspectors as well as potential buyers and sellers.

♦ Good real estate agents are organized. Juggling multiple clients, properties and transactions is difficult but successful real estate agents find ways to keep everything in order.

♦ Good real estate agents are aggressive but polite. They know how to competitively market and sell a house and are quick to adopt new techniques and strategies.

♦ Good real estate agents are tenacious. They never falter and they never give up until they succeed.

♦ Good real estate agents are problem solvers. They don’t take no for an answer and come up with creative solutions to whatever problems or issues they may encounter.

♦ Good real estate agents are self-motivated entrepreneurs. Although they work for a broker, a good sales agent knows they are their own boss and must be self-disciplined, focused and determined to succeed.

♦ Good real estate agents are honest. The key to a long and successful career in real estate is a good reputation which can only be earned by always being honest and straightforward with your clients.

Know that you know what it takes to be a good real estate agent, get out there and get started!

Powerfully Simple Real Estate Postcards And Templates That Will Generate More Business

We talk a lot about online marketing and lead generation for real estate agents here.

Why?

Because it’s one of the best ways to build another stream of incoming leads.

Here’s the thing:

All of these ideas are meant to work together…

So today, I’m going to break down some tips that expose some of the best ways to use REALTOR postcards and templates to generate more business.

Direct mail and postcards are still generating as good of a return on investment as email. Plus, you
can start today…unlike an email list where you have to build up the emails overtime.


Let’s dive into Realtor postcards and templates to see how they can be used to generate more leads!

Tactic 1) Canvas An Area And Establish A Footprint With Real Estate Farming Postcards

Real Estate farming is a tactic where you focus all of your marketing efforts over a very small region.

Why does this work?

Well, you probably have some limit to your marketing budget. Right?
With real estate farming, you are able to create a stronger presence in an area you actually like to sell homes. Thus, REALTOR postcard marketing has an overall greater effectiveness.

Look at this:


If you’re going to spend $1,000 on REALTOR postcards this year, you want to focus on having those postcards hit the same people over and over again.

Why?

Because people need to see your message over 6 times on average before contacting you!

One-And-Done Marketing Efforts Are The Easiest Way To Fail In Real Estate

Here are some great real estate farming postcard templates for you to use in your postcard marketing:

1) PrinterBee’s has a good selection of postcards here
2) If you’re looking to design your own, I suggest using these as an influence and then creating your own with Canva.com!

Tactic 2) Grow Your Seller Leads With Expired Listing Realtor Postcards

Expired listings are great for finding leads.
But, they can sometimes be a chore to convert.

So, here’s a system that you can automate with a real estate virtual assistant in order to get more expired listings:

You can use this article to create a 12 touch program that you send to every expired listing near you.
And you’ll want to use a few Realtor postcards within that 12 touch program.

Why?

Research shows it takes 7-13+ touches before a lead converts

Source

The thing with these touches is that you need to have a reason to be getting back in touch each time.
So, that makes it advantageous to use postcards for some of your touches with expired listings.
I suggest using a letter for the first touch. And then experimenting from there with the rest of your touches.

If you’re looking for some examples of expired listing postcards, here are a few:

• Prospect Plus has 5 examples you can use in your expired listing system
• The Gooder Group also has a few postcards you can implement in your followup system

I recommend studying their ideas and then creating your own expired listing postcard with Canva.
This way you’ll be sure it matches your brand and is different than what all the other Realtors are sending.

Tactic 3) Shake Other Properties Loose With Just Sold Postcards for Realtors

Here’s an idea:

What’s the ultimate way to obtain trust when listing a property?
The easiest way to convince someone that you can sell their house is to already have sold a similar property.

Think about it:

When you sell a property in a neighborhood, shouldn’t you be sending a postcard to everyone else in that neighborhood?

You’ve already proven to be successful in the area. And can even include data encouraging home owners to sell their home. That means your just sold postcard for Realtors can be quite effective at shaking loose other listings.

If you were able to secure a selling price that’s above average…

…or if you were able to secure a return on investment that might interest the other neighbors…
You could shake loose some potential sellers through a few Realtor postcard marketing campaigns.
You never know who just got relocated for work or is thinking of downsizing.

Here are a few examples to look at before building your own Just Sold Realtor Postcards with Canva:

Tactic 4) Spread The Word With Just Listed Postcards For Realtors

If you’re considering ways to use Realtor postcards, you should incorporate Just Listed Postcards.

Why?

Home buyers these days are typically searching for listings in a particular community.

And communities tend to consist of similar types of people.

So:

It’s only natural that the home owners in that neighborhood might know someone interested in

moving into the neighborhood.

Just listed postcards are a great way to introduce the current neighbors to the listing. And potentially find some new buyers.

Tactic 5) Marketing Postcards For Landing Pages

Finally, marketing postcards for Realtors are a great way to drive traffic to a website.

But:

You should not send traffic directly to your brokers site.
Why? Because you need to control the flow of traffic better!

Here’s an example of a real estate landing page that would benefit from a Realtor postcard campaign

— You could instantly feed more traffic to a page like this through realtor marketing postcards —


This is a great way to capture more leads per the traffic you drive to your web presence.

What do you think?

Are you going to startup some mailing campaigns?

Do you need to get some Realtor postcards printed quickly?

Let me know your comments below!

Need more qualified leads?

This Lead Capture Website Is Making Waves:

Real estate lead generation is changing. This is no longer 1980 where cold calling will get the job done.

You need a strategy for your website that changes the game in your favor.

Rainmakers...come out and play!

As a famous mermaid in a popular Disney movie once sung…. “I want to be where the people are”. This quote holds true especially when talking about real estate marketing. If you are marketing yourself or your team you need to get your message ‘where the people are’. Depending on your demographic, postcards, open houses and some older types of marketing simply might not be the places where the most people are anymore.

Enter Facebook. Launched in 2004, the social media giant now boasts over 1.28 billion* active users . Just for reference that’s about the population of China or 3.5 times the population of the US.
Now many real estate agents already use Facebook, but do you use it for business? Every week I consult with Realtors who tell me that they are on Facebook, and they want to use it for business but they either don’t know what to post or don’t have time. That’s why my team and I compiled a list of easy things to post on Facebook — things that WILL make a difference in your real estate business.

First things first: The Difference between your business page and your personal page.

Would you rather interact on Facebook with a business or a human being? If the answer is as simple to you as it is to me then the type of page you should use is simple. Businesses should have business pages, and individual sales people should use personal pages. Not only will you spur more interaction, Facebook will give you more publicity, here’s how it works: When you post as a business Facebook promotes your messages on average to less than 10% of your fans unless you pay. When you post on your personal page you can reach a much higher percentage of your friends based on when you post, and who is online in the 48hours around when you post.

Tips for What Realtors Can do on Facebook to Attract Business and Brand Themselves

1. Make friends methodically– add all past clients who you want to work with again as friends… this will end up being more effective than a CRM strategy and will cost you nothing (still add to crm).

1.5 (mastermind level)– time block 5 minutes on your calendar for every Friday to add everyone you met that week on Facebook and send them a short message. Simply adding people without messaging them is great but never establishes that you are up for easy communication.

2. A picture tells a thousand words– When you share a photo it usually reaches more people due to Facebook’s algorithm. Photos are easy to take especially if you have a smartphone and remember they don’t have to be professional grade photos.  After you take a photo always post a sentence or 2 about them. Here are some things you can take pictures of and share that will engage your friends and clients and brand yourself as a Realtor/professional/awesome person.

2.1  Take pictures of your family!! This humanizes you and ensures that you are posting more than just boring listings and realty stuff

2.2 Take pictures of the homes you are showing, not just listing. Focus on cool details of the properties, not always the front of the house, describe what’s cool about them. Don’t always include price, if people are interested they will ask.
2.3 Take pictures while you work– show how fun and awesome your office and co-workers are. Emphasize that the market is busy etc…

2.4 Take lots of pictures at closing!! Take a picture of your clients, with your clients etc, then share these and tag them on Facebook with congratulations. There friends will then see this, and you will be tied to it!

2.5 Pet Pics– Cats and sex are the 2 most searched things on the internet. People love pets. A cute or ugly animal will always get some likes/comments which will then draw attention to your other realty stuff or your profile. For an added bonus take pics of animals at houses you show and mention real estate in a positive way.

2.6 Streets/landmarks– Take a picture of a street/house/landmark and make people guess where it is located. We did this and whoever won got  a $25 gift card. Had over 100 people engage with us, all of whom were reminded what type of business we were in!

2.7 Throwbacks– We have all seen the “throwback Thursday”.. you post a picture of you when you were younger, people laugh and enjoy. Shows your personality!

2.8 Trends/memes– There is always some kind of trendy meme picture going around. Share/repost the ones you like. Don’t share anything offensive, but remember people like to laugh.

2.9 Profile Pic– switch out your profile pic from time to time, this gets even more free publicity than other things you share because it stays around longer.

3. Talk about the areas you want to work in– Post about restaurants, parks, businesses and events that are happening in the communities which you work or want to be associated with.

3.1 Mastermind level– Do a blog on things going on in these areas and then share the blog– this will get you the added SEO as well. 

4. Tag away– Tagging people guarantees that they see what you post and as long as its not spammy is a great way to be outgoing on Facebook.

4.1 tag your business partners and affiliates, like your lender Treadstone! People love getting a pat on the back and will usually reciprocate back to you.

5. Birthdays– One of the easiest things on Facebook is to wish your friends a happy birthday. Facebook makes this pretty easy, try to say a little more than just happy birthday to really stand out.

5.1 Mastermind level– Take it to the next level and send them a personal facebook message and take it one step further than a birthday to see how they are doing and hopefully spur a conversation.

6. Numbers don’t lie– Go to your local boards website or similar tool and post helpful and TRUE statistics about how the housing market is doing in specific areas. People love to see this stuff. Engage people, and ask your friends if they think this is true in their neighborhood as well.

7. Pose a question to your facebook audience– People love being the expert and recommending friends, restaurants, and other services. Ask your friends what the best burger in your target community is, best Italian food etc….

8. Listen for a sec– Instead of posting something, comment and like the things that your friends are doing. This ensures they see a little notification and are reminded that you exist. Listen carefully for life triggers that might signal they need to make a real estate move soon… ie having a baby, changing jobs, etc.

9. Give industry tip/advice– Post something that most people don’t know about the home buying process…. frame it as a “did you know” or other important fact.

10. Curated Content– Share a great article that someone else shared– you will not only make them feel special for sharing what they posted but when you share good information that is relevant it brands you as an expert or information source.

10.1 — Articles on industry trends.

10.2– Articles on home repairs, gardening, staging, etc.


10.3– Local community stories/event.

11. Every month post the average sold prices for some of the communities you specialize in, it might take some math but its much more valuable than the aggregated types of data people usually share.

12. Want listing leads? — Create a page on your website (if software available) that lets people find out the value of their home. Then promote this on your business page– share it with your personal page– and then promote it from your business page with Facebook’s boost post tool. You can even narrow it down to pay to advertise only to people in select cities that you target.

13. Messages > email — In an age when everyone sends mass emails all the time, its just not enough to stay in touch with clients. Facebook makes people expect a higher level of communication.

Facebook message people individually and engage them in conversation. Typically you say hi, they say hi back, you ask how its going, they ask you how its going… here is the key– when they ask you how you are doing tell them how great you are and how busy you are because the real estate market is crazy and homes are selling for above asking price or some other positive realty stat. This refreshes the idea in people’s mind that you are a successful busy Realtor.

14. Dynamic Search Prospecting– This is definitely in the mastermind level but its good information for all. From your computer (much harder on smartphones/tablets) go to the search bar at the top of your Facebook screen. You can search for people in your target market and find people you know, kind of know, and don’t know who might fall in that market. For instance you could pull up all of the public profiles of “engaged people who live in Jenison, MI“. There are countless other ways to filter profiles but some common ones include: relationship status, city live in, hometown, college attended, place of work, job title, pages people like, the list goes on… You could start by searching for engaged people in your target market and then message the ones you have friends in common with first to see if they are going to be buying a home soon, if someone doesn’t respond, don’t worry, just keep trying… its all a numbers game.

15. The Other Inbox– this one isn’t so much a marketing tip as it is a tip for not missing out on leads. Facebook has a weird system of having 2 inboxes that they don’t publicize. To access it login from a computer or from safari on your phone and go to your normal inbox, at the top it should say “other” click it! Some messages from people you aren’t friends with or messages Facebook perceives to be spam may end up here, a big problem for sales people. Click here to read more on the topic.

That’s it for now– I think you all should have enough Facebook marketing for real estate to keep busy for at least a year.

Prospecting Magic! Real Estate Marketing Ideas For Daily Growth

Quick question: How many leads do you want to get per month 1 year from now?

I'd bet that number is higher than your current lead count. Yet, often times we struggle to make time for the marketing activities that will help us hit those goals. One of the things I constantly hear from agents no matter the real estate marketing idea is “I don’t have time for that”.
And I get it.

But what if there were ways to invest a very small amount of time today into an activity that would boost business in the future?
…would you do it?

I think most of you would. So, today, I’m going to be breaking down an entire year’s worth of marketing activities that only take a few minutes each. The cool thing is if you follow along with the plan, you will have invested so many hours into your business by the end of the year. Just think about what that can do…

Why do small daily tasks ultimately win over focusing on large wins? Because marketing is best done over the long haul. It’s a long-term game.

This checklist will force you to make small but daily improvements instead of gunning for HUGE (probably unattainable) major wins. 

Monday Activities: Traffic Generating Activities

The first thing every business needs is traffic. If you’re a Subway franchise, this probably means being located by a lot of car traffic. If you’re a Walmart in the 1980’s, you had to have a minimum county population of 5,000 people.

And if you’re an agent, you need a substantial number of people to see your signs, postcards, websites, blogs, and more in order to survive. These 50 tips focus on generating traffic or awareness of your brand.

The Real Estate Marketing Ideas:

1. Schedule a week’s worth of Facebook posts with Buffer
2. Monitor Twitter for key buying/selling terms and reach out
3. Host a fun event and have your sphere invite their friends
4. Partner with local dog shelters to target other dog lovers (if you’re into dogs)
5. Schedule a week’s worth of LinkedIn posts with Buffer
6. Upload a listing presentation to SlideShare and share it to social media
7. Create a quick YouTube Video explainer video about your specific listing marketing plan
8. Schedule a weeks’ worth of Twitter posts with Buffer
9. Get a postcard and do Every Door Direct Mail
10. Buy coffee for the person behind you at Starbucks and start a conversation
11. Schedule a week’s worth of Google Plus posts with Buffer
12. Send a series of letters to FSBOs
13. Reach out to a local business you’ve worked with in the past for mutual marketing opportunities
14. Create a neighborhood board on Pinterest and invite neighbors to post on it
15. Send a newsletter to your list
16. Call 1 past client that you haven’t touched in awhile
17. Buy 3 past clients $5 Starbucks cards and include a small CTA for referrals or testimonials
18. Update or create your email signature
19. Create a quick YouTube Video explainer video about a neighborhood you’re farming
20. Boost a post on Facebook to get more people seeing your content
21. Post an ad on Craigslist for a property you are listing
22. Put together a market research survey using free Google Forms and send it to past clients
23. Put together a research survey for people that didn’t hire you and send it out to them
24. Write a quick 250 words of content on your website‘s neighborhood pages
25. Create a quick YouTube Video explainer video about the perks you provide buyers
26. Hire an admin or high schooler to delivery flyer’s door-to-door
27. Setup a small Facebook Ad budget to get more Facebook likes
28. Setup a small Facebook Ad budget to target seller leads
29. Target some expired listings with listing letters
30. Prospect expired listings on the phone with these scripts
31. Target individuals going through divorce with Facebook Ads
32. Purchase billboards and drive traffic to a lead converting website
33. Car magnets can provide additional branding
34. Reach out to the neighborhood associations and find ways to get involved in neighborhoods you want to sell real estate in
35. Create or order quick pop-by gifts
36. Offer free garage sale signs for additional marketing visibility
37. Volunteer at an event in a niche you’d like to dominate
38. Host a contest that generates contact information (preferably an email list) for your business
39. Give away freebies at open houses
40. Write 3 thank you notes for the past 3 people who’ve done a favor for you
41. Create a calendar giveaway
42. Start a home make over giveaway
43. Start marketing online better with an Easy Agent Pro LeadSite
44. Host seminars at local real estate investing meetings and give away advice
45. Reach out to local college programs to find young potential team members
46. Speak on a local radio show
47. Canvas Neighborhoods with door flyers
48. Door knock in neighborhoods you’re farming
49. Send out holiday postcards
50. Create a quick YouTube Video explainer video introducing your entire team

Tuesday: Sphere Conversion Optimization

After you’ve worked on getting more traffic, you need to work on building up your sphere of influence. Or your core group of business. These 50 tactics will help you generate more referrals and business from this section of your business.
Your sphere is probably the most important component to any business. These people need to be treated with care. If you pull this off successfully, a large number of your contacts will do business with you again.

The Real Estate Marketing Ideas To Curate A Profitable Sphere:

1. Choose a CRM – This is a simple step. But you must take it. There is no way to be successful in this business without a CRM to manage your contacts.
2. Decide on a followup schedule for your contacts and set reminders in your CRM
3. Touch your inner circle of referral business at least once per month
4. Schedule holiday postcards to go out in late November
5. Take a close contact out to lunch
6. Throw a party for your inner clients
7. Ask for referrals through email
8. Followup with clients after the sale – you can automate this through automated email providers and Google Forms
9. Join groups that have a similar demographic of your inner circle like Chamber of Commerce Events
10. Write a weekly or bi-weekly newsletter for your contacts
11. Get past clients to leave you a review on Yelp
    1. Here’s a script:
       Hi (name),

       It’s always my pleasure to email customers and thank them for their business because I realize that you could have chosen to do business with someone else. So again, thank you for giving me the opportunity to work with you.

       The other reason I’m writing you today is to ask for your feedback about your experience working with me. I generally use this feedback as a testimonial in my marketing material. Please take a few minutes to share your feedback so that I can improve as an agent. Simply visit (link to site) to leave your thoughts.

       Thanks again!

       Sincerely,
12. Get past clients to leave you a review on Google Places
13. Hand out 10 business cards everyday.
14. Partner with a mortgage banker to provide champagne and balloons upon closings
15. Write handwritten notes to every client right after they move in
16. Order HUGE thank you cards locally 2.5 FT by 4 FT and deliver them to clients a few weeks after the closing
17. Setup your LinkedIn profile with all the proper job descriptions
18. Invite all your past connections and friends to your LinkedIn page
19. Post daily tips to your LinkedIn Account. These 3 items will really help the number of people that see you on LinkedIn
20. Setup retargeting campaigns on Facebook for people on your email list
21. Setup retargeting campaigns on Google for people that have visited your website
22. Create a ‘look-alike’ audience on Facebook that is 1% similar to your re-targeting list and run ads to them
23. Use this SEO system to rank on the first page of Google for your number #1 niche. If you like horses, a good niche would be “Horse properties in XYZ City”
24. Write blogs on a weekly or bi-weekly basis that provide value to your inner circle
25. Create YouTube Videos that explain every step of the buying and selling process so you can provide extra value to your clients
26. Feature Great Images and Houses On Your Facebook Page
27. Work on your scripts to perfect your listing presentation
28. Hit your numbers daily for staying in touch with contacts
29. Send text messages to your contacts with cell phones
30. Use popups on your real estate website to get more people into your CRM
31. Write a free buyer guide to give away in exchange for contact information
32. Write a free seller guide to give away in exchange for contact information
33. Use Free home valuation tools to generate more seller leads
34. Send postcards to clients for birthdays
35. Try hiring a real estate virtual assistant to manage client followup
36. Send the ‘break up’ email to convert more deal leads into conversations
37. Use Zillow’s “Make me move” feature to find listings in those competitive markets
38. Use seller wanted ads on Facebook and social media to find listings in markets where you already have a buyers
39. Look at FSBO listings when trying to find houses for your buyers
40. Try using Google Ads on Keywords like “Zillow Austin” and “Trulia Austin” to find cheaper bids on keywords
41. Target real estate keywords through with your website to get more traffic
42. Have your real estate assistant (24/7 Digital Nomad) follow up with all past clients to get more reviews online
43. Hold networking events for your business clients to meet each other
44. Target investors through developing useful information online for them and providing value through helpful emails
45. Attend networking events and generate 10-20 new business contacts
46. Religiously add everyone you meet to your CRM and have a followup schedule
47. Update the look of your listing presentations and buyer presentations with Keynotes
48. Use DocuSign or DotLoop to provide a better transaction experience to your clients
49. Install Google Analytics to understand where your website visitors and clients are coming from
50. Start using an app like Mailbox or Google’s Inbox to get to inbox 0 more often.

Wednesday: System Building

Building Systems Is The Only Way To Get Your Real Estate Business To The Next Level 
If you’re looking to earn above the average salary in real estate, you have to buy yourself more time through teams.

Here are 50 real estate marketing tips that will help you grow your team, get more done, and thus earn you more money:

1. Write down exactly what you want to do on Facebook everyday
2. Write out the top 10 negative emails or messages you get from clients. Then create a scripted response to them
3. Create a formula that fits most of your blogging material and experiment with getting content created for you
4. Get one of your neighborhood pages to rank on Page 1 of Google, document what it took to get there, and find people you help you reach page one for your other neighborhoods
5. Define your followup system for inbound leads
6. Setup automated followup and scheduling emails through your CRM to book more appointments
7. Write down exactly what you want to do on Pinterest each day
8. Define the way your team will answer the phone
9. Set a blogging schedule and stick to it
10. Define your method for real estate photography
11. Create the followup system to get Yelp reviews
12. Create another followup system to get reviews on Zillow
13. Setup reminders to update all online profiles
14. Create ‘scripts’ that can be used to easily create real estate videos
15. Create a master growth plan that outlines when these systems will be created by you
16. Establish a 3 year personnel chart that defines what positions you need to hire
17. Write down the responsibilities for each position and how they interact with each other
18. Schedule networking events on a weekly basis in your calendar
19. Create a defined time to do cold FSBO prospecting
20. Create a defined followup sequence for expireds in your area
21. Once you master a task; find a way to have someone else do it within 2 weeks of mastery
22. Set a goal of adding one new marketing method per month
23. Find a mentor and use them to grow your business
24. Create a marketing plan
25. Develop a list of responses to common objections
26. Set a schedule for making updates to your website
27. Tweak your 30 second pitch for new leads
28. Write down two sentence responses to common questions clients ask
29. Memorize a list of restaurants to refer out for visiting clients
30. Memorize your list of referrals for home improvement related partners
31. Add local trade shows and networking events to your marketing calendar
32. Make sure your business information is accurate online and offline
33. Set a bi-annual reminder to check your business information
34. Regularly reach out to new contacts and businesses for new partnership opportunities
35. Make sure your CRM reminds you to have a major checkin with leads 1 month and 1 year after the transaction
36. Develop a referral system
37. Systemize the gifts you provide to clients upon closing
38. Establish a clear listing marketing plan
39. Write down how you’ll share listings on social media to get more attention to them
40. Create standardized real estate listing copy that is modified for each listing to ensure you’re listings always have great copywriting
41. Define what sponsorship opportunities your business will and will not support
42. Systemize the on boarding process for new team-members
43. Systemize the hiring and recruiting process for new team-members
44. Challenge yourself to always learn by taking new courses
45. Setup Google Drive, Evernote, or Dropbox with all the folders you need to keep yourself organized
46. Figure out your real estate tax document tracking method with a professional
47. Invest in a web lead generation system that helps you grow your business
48. Setup a daily schedule that you can religiously follow
49. Define the one number your business is going to track and set your goal for that number
50. Challenge yourself to learn one new thing about real estate law, sales, marketing, or transactions per day.

Thursday: Setup For Online Success: 50 Ways To Improve Your Online Image

When it comes to online marketing in real estate, the first step is getting everything setup correctly and attracting your first followers. This means getting 100 people to like your Facebook Page. Or uploading your first 20 videos to YouTube and getting 20 views on each of them.
These are first steps for a lot of agents.  But they can also get established agents a bigger book of business.  It really just depends what type of real estate marketing ideas you need right now.
If you’re looking to grow what you’re doing online, these ideas are for you.
If you’re already strong online, these ideas are probably already done in your case.

Let’s get into these online profiles you need to setup:

1. Setup a Facebook Page and invite your friends
2. Setup your Zillow Profile
3. Optimize your Google Places Profile like this
4. Create a quick local guide to the restaurants out-of-towners should visit
5. Reach out to the restaurants in your guide and seek co-marketing opportunities
6. Have a brand that matches your domain or URL online
7. Join 5 Facebook Groups Locally and post useful information in them once per week
8. Join all local groups on LinkedIn and post thoughtful articles in them
9. Create a Twitter Account: be sure to include your websites URL
10. Setup stock shareable graphics on Canva to use on social posts
11. Get your first 100 followers on Twitter
12. Setup your Instagram page
13. Setup your Pinterest profile
14. Join 2 group boards on Pinterest and start contributing to them
15. Setup your Google Plus profile
16. Create a YouTube Channel for your explainer videos you’ll be making
17. Get a website that has your listings, a blog, neighborhood pages, landing pages, and plenty of calls to actions
18. Create a Realtor.com profile if applicable
19. Setup your business on Yelp
20. Optimize your LinkedIn profile to high light your experience
21. Create a landing page for Seller CMAs
22. Create a landing page for scheduling appointments with you
23. Create a landing page for free buyer guides
24. Create a landing page for your testimonials
25. Setup a standard retargeting Facebook campaign to get traffic back to your website
26. Setup email response templates in Gmail with Streak or Hubspot’s SideKick to optimize response time
27. Create an email signature that specializes in getting referrals
28. Implement popups on your real estate website to start growing your email list
29. Setup Hootsuite, Buffer, or Social Sprout to start managing your social media campaigns better
30. Consider moving your real estate team over to Slack for better communication instead of using email, text, and phone as much
31. Setup a listings board on Pinterest
32. Create a ‘waiting list’ email list for your most popular neighborhoods of people who’d like to live in that neighborhood eventually
33. Research some basic SEO tips and setup a sitemap on your website for easy indexing
34. Add testimonials to your social media accounts
35. Setup custom images on social media.
36. Create a list of Keywords that are relevant to you
37. Find the top realtors who use your marketing methods and reach out to them for more ideas on how to market better
38. Write a definitive guide for buying homes in your area
39. Write a definitive sellers guide
40. Create a blog content creation schedule
41. Add social sharing buttons to your website
42. Get your first 10,000 real estate website visitors
43. Order a video intro to use on all your Youtube videos
44. Create a PDF that clearly defines the value of doing business with you
45. Invest in a quality microphone that you can use to create Youtube videos
46. Invest in a quality headset that makes you sound good on the phone
47. Get your first 10 backlinks to your website from associations with websites that you frequently work with
48. Get your first 100 Fans on Facebook
49. Upload 10 Youtube videos and get them over 20 views each
50. Write over 300 words of content on all your neighborhood pages

Friday: Online Marketing 2.0

1. Touch up your Zillow Profile
2. Create an About.me profile
3. Setup IFTTT to send you a text every time you get an email lead
4. Set a goal to grow your traffic by 20% this month through promoting your blog posts
5. Write 25 blog articles that address the common issues in real estate
6. Write neighborhood pages that actually give people a sense of the community
7. Get a guest blog published on a national site like Inman or RIS Media
8. Partner with a mortgage banker on a content creation schedule for your website
9. Create infographics with information about market updates
10. Write a roundup post that mentions top real estate related bloggers online to gain more exposure.
11. Comment on popular posts on social media with your insight to a particular blog post
12. Comment on other real estate agents blogs
13. Contribute occasionally to Active Rain
14. Write the occasional long-form post on LinkedIn
15. Create blog content that helps agents get started in real estate to help recruit more agents to your team
16. Educate sellers through blogs, video, and social as to why FSBO may not be the way to go
17. Create calls to action on the side of your blog that link to lead capturing landing pages
18. Create inspirational social media images of amazing places to live and amazing homes to look at
19. Create a SEO Pinterest Board that will rank highly on Google for SEO Terms
20. Partner with the local experts on real estate investing to get more investor clients
21. Claim and occasionally post content to sites like Storify, Bundlr, and Medium where you can create useful resources that then link back to your original resource.
22. Setup Google Ads for seller keywords in your farming neighborhoods
23. Setup Google Ads for buyers that link to your lead capture IDX pages
24. Create a “Best of the Area” award blog post that you award each year. You can then get the winners to share your website and link back to you
25. Invest a percentage of each commission check into real estate marketing ideas that are producing leads for you
26. Comment on the top agent estate blog posts daily
27. Share articles daily on Google Plus that you learned something from
28. Connect with all past clients, new leads, and other agents on LinkedIn
29. Produce one YouTube video per week and include calls to action to your website
30. Use tools like SpyFu to see what PPC ads your competitors are running
31. And a tool like Moz Open Site Explorer to see what backlinks your competitors have
32. Signup for a image program like Big Stock that lets you download images for cheap everyday
33. Curate lists of popular or useful articles on your website to get the attention of publishers and help your visitors learn more
34. Install and monitor your Google Analytics
35. Use a tool like Agency Analytics to monitor your SEO rankings
36. Integrate text message notifications when you receive a lead
37. Streamline CRM followup with marketing automation
38. Track all texts, emails, and calls in one CRM
39. Created dedicated blog posts or pages that high light your listings in a certain area
40. Update your social media bios to really represent your brand
41. Study copywriting and then review the past 15 emails you’ve sent to leads. Are they attractive?
42. Monitor open and click rates in your emails with SideKick
43. Get an auto scheduling application like ScheduleOnce to help you automatically book more appointments
44. Signup for Meetup and start attending local group meetups
45. Use Google Forms or another survey tool to get feedback about your services
46. Consider buying leads from a 3rd party source if you have proper followup systems in place
47. Hire a cold caller to generate leads for you
48. Create client testimonial videos
49. Consider using the Bing Ad network for cheaper clicks
50. Partner with an agent in a different state to mutually promote each other online

Saturday: Defining Your Brand – What is your marketing trying to convey?

1. Get your logo redesigned (or get a logo)
2. Get a professional headshot
3. Define your brand identity
4. Get giveaways printed with your branding
5. Find a real estate slogan you can stand behind
6. Get reviews that directly backup your slogan
7. Be techy if your brand is techy
8. Make sure your website matches your brand and makes you hirable
9. Have niche pages on your website that define your brand
10. Have niche related video content on your website that is unique to your brand
11. Specialize in one thing over a long period of time to make your branding permanent
12. Repeat your branding on every piece of content you produce
13. Buy personalized cards
14. Invest in your personal appearance and clothing
15. Get partner logos on your website and social media platform for relationships that build your brand
16. Develop a personal guarantee that resonates with the type of client you want to represent
17. Repeat your branding message once a week on all social media platforms
18. Create consistent brand imaging on all social media sites
19. Invest in stationary that properly represents your brands image
20. Walk your clients out of your office to their car
21. Invest in unique real estate signs that sets your brand apart.
22. Sponsor a fundraiser and gracefully put your branding on various materials there
23. Find cheap local newsletters to display your branding in
24. Get business cards designed that represent your brand better
25. Come up with a real estate team name, logo, slogan, and business card that are all in line with each other
26. Keep the same real estate domain name for the duration of your business
27. Include your branding material in your email signature
28. Make sure your logos and colors match on all flyers you send out.
29. Strive to be interviewed on podcasts, YouTube channels, so that you can develop a brand that is bigger than yourself online
30. Take any local or industry specific speaking opportunity you can acquire
31. Separate your brand from your brokerage as much as possible
32. Repeat the same branding message on everything from pens, pencils, to balloons you have at open houses
33. Use custom banners and balloons at your open houses
34. Host free seminars to help out home buyers at community centers
35. Take local sponsorship to the next level by partnering with everyone from coffee shops to local farmers markets
36. Separate your flyers from others by using a higher quality of paper or using odd paper sizes
37. Ensure that everyone on your team uses the same style of your logo
38. Create brand specific flyer templates that separate your listings marketing presentation
39. Speak at local high schools to spread the word of your brand
40. Invent a real estate term and use it in several blogs. You’ll start showing up on the first page of Google for it
41. Struggling to stand out? Create a branded term for that service and define how you do it differently
42. Invest in high quality graphic design from day 1
43. Monitor mentions of your brand’s name with Google Alerts and reply quickly
44. Use the same headshot in every article, guest post, and social platform you signup for
45. Choose the 1 thing you want your brand to be known for and only focus on being the expert on that one thing
46. In your videos and blogs, develop an insiders only language that starts to create a community
47. Tie your brand to the type of clients you already like working with
48. Don’t change your branding frequently (or at all)
49. Invest in unique content as much as possible online to get the word out about your brand
50. Mention your brand’s message at the end of every blog post you write to keep your branding front of mind

Sunday: Establishing Frequency Of Sale & Continuing Education

Finally, you need to always be improving yourself as an agent to boost your business. These tips will help you stay relevant, and thus increase your frequency of sale. Here are some real estate marketing ideas that will help you get smarter as an agent.

1. Read a real estate marketing article about something you don’t understand.
2. Research and truly understand the ins-&-outs of your market
3. Take this course on getting your first 10,000 real estate website visitors
4. Take this free course on setting up Google Ads
5. Learn from Google’s Online Marketing university
6. Study Inbound Marketing with Hubspot for Free
7. Take CopyBloggers awesome course on Lead Generation
8. Learn from AppSumo how to get your first 1 Million Visitors
9. Study the in-depth workings of SEO from Udemy
10. Take a video lesson in about online marketing by Quicksprout University
11. Learn more about graphic design from Canva
12. Want more referrals? Check out Tyler Smith’s blog
13. Do you not take enough action to see success? Try watching Tom Ferry’s training videos
14. Want more tips for getting SEO backlinks? Check out Backlinko
15. Need advanced digital marketing advice? Digital Marketer has great content!
16. Want to get better overtime? Track your time with TimeDoctor. You’ll be shocked what you do
17. Are you struggling to get to the next level? Try journaling to find activities and reoccurring feelings. These might be the things holding you back

Let’s wrap this up…

If you haven’t figured this out by now, the point of this post is simple.

There is massive opportunity in real estate. And there are only so many things you can do to market yourself as an agent.

Know what that means?

There aren’t any secrets. If you want to make millions in this industry or if you want to make an above average salary, the route to success is through massive execution.

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?

Let me know in the comments below!

 

Habits of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent

Top producing real estate agents didn’t get to to the top overnight. It is not by sheer luck either. Perseverance and a set of good practices and habits carried out consistently with discipline are the factors that lead to top level performance.

Here are a few of the habits of millionaire real estate agents and the general practices that your top producing peers exercise to create their success:

Keep Up With Technology

Technology moves fast, tomorrow it will have already changed. When it comes to business, where your client’s attention lies is exactly where you need to be. Millionaire agents understand this. Take a look at their websites, their social media accounts and which new smartphone and tablet they are using.

It isn’t a coincidence that they are active on the very same platforms that their prospective clients are. Remember that the best sales strategies start with meeting your prospects where they are, and that means engaged with today’s trendy tech platforms and gadgets.
Technology is the easiest point of leverage for your business.

Give Exceptional Client Service

The sale is in the experience and this is an understanding that millionaire realtors know very well. The Client Experience is the determining factor for the future of your business. All the hard work, prospecting, marketing and showings in the world will not matter much if the client experience doesn’t keep them around, get them to repeat business with you and send you referrals.
Responsiveness, follow up, doing the little things (remembering birthdays, the client’s kid’s birthday, anniversaries of both marriage and home purchases) and doing exactly what you commit to will improve the client’s experience with your business. Want to be a millionaire real estate agent? Start doing exactly what millionaires are doing… which is everything to exceed the expectations of their clients, every day.

Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

How do you earn millions of dollars in commissions as a real estate agent? You don’t! Your delegated team does the “work” while you build and maintain the relationship with your clients that leads to the sale.
All of the administrative paperwork, email follow up, prospecting calls, marketing materials and non-commission-generating activities are delegated to your staff.
Thousands of top producing agents across the country are delegating virtual to further their leverage their time, their expenses and results. Want to have a prospecting assistant generate leads for you? Set up a FREE Consultation to discuss what your business goals are and how a virtual assistant will get you there.

Area Experts

Do you know your market? You would be surprised by the information that a top producing agent will know about their given market, the surrounding cities, community involvement and so much more. Be the expert in your area, get involved in the community, and get to know the major players in other industries as well. The movers and shakers in your market will be a wealth of knowledge that you can extract and use.
Go back to the schoolyard days and “make new friends.”

Set Specific and Measurable Goals

A goal is useless if it isn’t highly specific and measurable. Millionaire real estate agents know what they want. They really know, down to the stitching in the leather of their vehicle.
Begin setting goals that create emotion in you, then get detailed on what would give you the end result you’re aiming for. Then take it up a notch. Get crystal clear about what it is that you want to accomplish in your business, how many deals, what type of deals, what type of clients you want to work with, what area you want to master, and what end result you want to see hit your bank account.
Then create measurable actions that you can take, track and evaluate every day, week, month, quarter and year. Be meticulous and most importantly, be discipline.

Be Self-aware

Self-awareness is a topic that is rising to the surface more and more lately. Guess whose talking about it? Yep, the top producers in every industry and ideology.
Being self-aware is about knowing who you really are. Not the standard response, “I’m a real estate agent” or “I’m a father of 2,” but seriously knowing what makes you tick. What is the voice in your mind always right about? Why do you do what you do? And, this is critical, what are you good and what do you suck at?
Going back to delegating… knowing yourself, especially what your strengths are, should be the driving force of your daily actions. Why waste time doing what you are not amazing at? You can delegate the mundane tasks that eat your time and focus for only $8.60/hr.
Leverage your strengths, outsource your weaknesses and be self-aware.

Position Yourself for Every Opportunity

How do top producers land every kick-ass deal? They’re always in the right place and the right time aren’t they? Is it fate or could it be that they position themselves to be right where they need to be, on purpose?
Opportunities are everywhere and deals come from some of the most unpredictable sources. Millionaire agents position themselves to be ready for such opportunities in many ways. Going back to being area experts, they are join the community, they engage and build relationships that often yield additional relationships and deals. They also know when the market will move, that offers insight that the majority of agents miss.
Do you have the time for every opportunity? Most likely you don’t, but the millionaire agents do. They have more time to focus on opportunities as they outsource those non-commission-generating activities. How are you going to see that huge listing opportunity when your head is buried in paperwork and marketing materials?
You won’t, but your millionaire competing agent will.

Take Advice From Experts (Coaches)

It doesn’t matter the industry, all of the most successful business people on earth have experts that they take advice from, whether a mentor, coach or an expert in a particular area of their business. If you’re taking the top producing agents in your market out to lunch on a monthly basis, you’re crazy.
How about taking out an appraiser who is top dog in your area? I would bet he has insights to properties that agents are missing. Which banker does more deals for clients in your area than anyone else? Take them out and learn how to move sales through more efficiently.
Top producers ask a lot of questions and listen more than they speak. As salespeople we have a tendency to speak too much and the power of success is in listening.

Morning Rituals

What do you do in the morning? A study was done on the morning rituals of the most influential and successful business people on earth. What did they all have in common? Consistency, meditation and future-pacing.
They all had very consistent morning routines and almost all of them included some form of meditation, whether sitting in silence and just listening to surroundings or really going within the silence and into a higher state of consciousness.
When each were about to begin their day, they all future-paced what it would look like. From standing up and heading out the door, to the first phone call, to the result of that call, to the lunch appointment, to closing a deal, to cashing the check. Each day started with the end in mind. “Here is what my day will consist of as I see it laid out.”

Take “Off-Time”

Life cannot be all about work without play. Burnout is a common issue among motivated salespeople. We like to work our ass off, but often at the expense of our own health. It’s important to take time away, shut down, and really be “off.”
When you are a millionaire agent, time shifts and becomes an ally instead of an enemy. The idea that there isn’t enough time in the day, that is for those who don’t leverage themselves and their business well. The one constant and only equal that we all have in this life is TIME.
Take some of it off and let work be. If you’ve delegated as you should, then your business could run itself… I guess it’s time to book that consultation isn’t it?

*Call 24/7 Digital Nomad© 405.928.8467 to discuss your specific needs, to find out more about pricing and to get on track with your real estate administrative needs!