Quality marketing drives business growth, but creating it can be overwhelming for busy real estate agents, especially amid a summer selling season that never ended. These seven marketing tools have helped me drive growth in my own real estate business, and we’re using them to help our agents as well.
1. MoxiWorks
MoxiWorks offers a massive range of services, but one of its most valuable offerings to us is its automated marketing. When you take a new listing, it pulls details and photos from the MLS and instantly emails you marketing materials, like a just-listed postcard, a “take one” box flier and professional social media posts that will help you highlight the property.
The simplicity of immediately having professional marketing pieces available is immeasurable. MoxiWorks has a suite of services, including CRM and presentation builders. If you are looking for ease of use with a professional flair, MoxiWorks is the place to start.
2. Content scheduling apps
The easiest way to avoid the overwhelm that comes with marketing is to schedule your social media content using tools such as Hootsuite or Buffer. You can build a calendar that stays consistent and gives you the ability to systemize your content.
A few of the daily consistent content concepts might be:
- Monday Motivation where you would share a quote.
- Tuesday Tips could include tips on the homebuying or homeselling process.
- Wednesday Market Updates could consist of valuable information on any developing trends.
- Highlighting Heroes on Thursdays could be when you share people who are doing good things in your community.
- Friday Favorites could include a favorite home on the market for the week or a favorite neighborhood.
- Sharing Saturday could be when you share about your favorite local business.
There are infinite ways for you to build rapport with your audience by answering questions and sharing insights about the real estate market, but the social media platforms are crowded with lots of content.
Your ability to generate creative and engaging content will increase your followers, nurture trust and help you grow your business. Consistency is vital, so systemizing your content will help you strategically market your properties.
3. Testimonial Tree
Testimonial Tree automates the process of gathering online testimonials by emailing clients immediately after closing to request an online review. Testimonial Tree makes it easy to collect client testimonials that you can share on social media, review sites (such as Zillow) and your personal website.
Online recommendations are one of the most effective forms of content marketing. According to TestimonialTree’s website, research shows that 88 percent of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Online reviews are critical to business growth now and into the future. Testimonial Tree streamlines the process of gathering these reviews.
4. Homebot.ai
This platform partners agents with lenders and generates a comprehensive property report emailed to the client each month. Think of an account report from a brokerage like Merrill Lynch. They provide detailed descriptions of the account with in-depth analysis and charts. Homebot.ai does a very similar report for the prospect’s home.
The comprehensive monthly report includes the home’s current value, any outstanding loan amounts, current interest rates, perceived equity, refinance options and potential payment changes. It also compares 15- versus 30-year loans, home equity values and how that equity could benefit the property owner.
These monthly reports provide an opportunity for you to provide a detailed analysis of the prospect’s home every month, helping you stay top-of-mind. This product is perfect for past buyers, homeowners who have mentioned they will be selling in the future, homeowners in your farm area, or anyone you know who owns a home.
If you’re looking for a high-quality and consistent way to add value to homeowners, then Homebot.ai is for you.
5. Canva
Canva allows users to create professional graphics easily. Whatever you’re looking to create, Canva has tools and templates that will help you share vital information in a professional format, and the platform even has a free version.
We’ve used Canva to create everything from email signature lines to Facebook page banners. Canva eliminates the need to be a graphic designer to generate good visual content. If you’re looking for a professional and straightforward digital design with ease of use, Canva is for you.
6. YouTube
YouTube is the No. 2 search engine globally, and it was bought a few years ago by Google, which is the No. 1 search engine. That means that if you’re posting videos that will answer people’s questions, it will also help them organically find your content.
YouTube provides the opportunity to generate motivated traffic that you can’t get in other places. There are four main ways to make your videos stand out on YouTube:
Title
The first step is to make sure you have the right title based on what people search.
Keywords Everywhere is a browser add-on that helps identify the best search term for your title. It tells you how many times a month the specific title is searched per month, helping identify great search terms. Another excellent tool for the title is TubeBuddy. TubeBuddy gives you a ranking for your title, from poor to excellent.
Tags
The second way to optimize your videos on YouTube is through the tags. When inputting your video on YouTube, you can put in up to 500 characters of tags or search terms associated with the content of this video.
TubeBuddy provides a tagging tool that will share the best tags for your video to increase organic traffic, which is a great way to make sure your video shows up in the suggested videos and organic search.
Description
The third way to optimize your video is through the description. Write your description in a pattern that flows, but include as many of the relevant keywords that describe your video as possible. Doing so will again help your organic reach.
Thumbnail
Last is the thumbnail. The thumbnail is the picture that shows up on YouTube. I would suggest finding agents in other markets that are having success on YouTube and modeling their thumbnails.
The critical parts are to have an eye-catching photo and text that makes the browser want to click through to your video. Canva, mentioned above, has solid YouTube thumbnail templates if you are wondering where to create them.
People look to Google and YouTube when they’re trying to solve problems. If you can insert yourself into the organic traffic related to your audience, you’ll naturally grow your business.
7. Outsourcing
You didn’t become a real estate agent to create social media calendars or do other related tasks; you became an agent to sell real estate.
If there are specific tasks you don’t want to do, outsource them to someone else. Websites such as Fiverr and Upwork make it easier than ever to hire someone who can create videos, work as a virtual assistant or manage your marketing.
Don’t lose the valuable momentum you’ve created by getting bogged down in administrative and other tasks. In the time it takes to complete them, you could hire someone who is already skilled in those areas and free yourself to do other essential tasks that will move your business forward.
Be intentional about the growth of your business, and take steps every day to keep your business growing. Use these seven tools to improve your marketing and build momentum for your real estate business.
Jimmy Burgess is the Chief Growth Officer for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida in Northwest Florida. Connect with him on Facebook or Instagram.
