Ever wonder, “How do I promote my real estate business?” Whether you are just starting out, or have been a real estate professional for many years, marketing your business can sometimes be a challenge. Let us show you a few ways to promote your real estate business that are proven winners!
Business Cards
The most basic marketing tool you have for yourself as a real estate agent is your business card. Creating one that is effective (meaning memorable) should be your first goal. A few years ago, the more information you put on your business card, the better. Not so in today’s world, so overburdened with too much information.
Today people are looking for efficiency. Don’t make them search your card to find the best way to contact you.
Don’t Overwhelm Them or Yourself!
If you have a business card that lists two or three email addresses, your website URL, an office number, a cell number, your physical address, your LinkedIn account, and multiple social media accounts – you have just overwhelmed a new client when you should be making it easier for them to contact you.
Let’s face it… you don’t have time in your day to monitor all those potential modes of contact. This means that it’s likely that you will miss something incoming from your client or potential client. Obviously, that’s not good for business!
Customer Service Comes First
The most important information on your business card is not every way to contact you, but rather your preferred method of communication. If you despise texting and tend to put off responding to texts, don’t put a text option on your business card! If you hate talking on the phone, don’t advertise a phone number. If you know that emails tend to get lost in the deluge you get every day, don’t promote an email address. If you are seldom in the office, don’t put a physical address on your business card.
You may be stuck with “requirements” from your particular agency about these things – like your agency’s “main” number or physical address and so forth. If that’s the case, print that on one side and put your personal information on the reverse! Simply deliver it with a smile and “this is all the information you will ever need (showing them the front) to reach the XYZ Agency, but the failproof way to reach me immediately is here (and flip to the back).”
How to Expand Your Real Estate Business? Know Your Market!
If you have niched your market (always a good idea from a marketing standpoint), then you will have a better idea of how to best reach your clients.
How you customize your business card (or the back of your card) will depend on your target market. If you are working with retirees, you may want to be sure you have a phone number that you answer front and center. If you are marketing your real estate services to first time homebuyers, you will probably need a text-friendly cell number that you respond to immediately.
As you know, younger clients tend to prefer no-touch ways to contact you – text and email – whereas older clients often prefer to speak to you in person or by phone.
Organization for the No-Niche Agent
If you haven’t niched, you may need to create several different versions of your business card to better serve a variety of clients. If that’s the case, be sure you have a business card case that has dividers for each type. Consider one of the metal accordion “credit card wallets” that will hold 5-10 cards in each section. They are sleek, look professional and will keep your organized while keeping your cards at the ready in your pocket or purse. Another option may be a wallet style case for your phone divided for credit cards that will permit a few of each type to fit in each slot.
How Do I Make My Real Estate Business Stand Out? Be Creative!
Want to list just the basics? Use a lot of white space to draw the client’s eye to the important stuff while eliminating all the extras. Help them to focus… on YOU… for their real estate needs. Use a photo… so they can remember your face and associate it with your name. Print your name, the word “Realtor” and your cell phone number. That’s it!
Alter The Size & Shape
Don’t stick with traditional sizes or shapes on your business cards and let the way you do business dictate the style of your business marketing. If you just want your name and number (and maybe a small photo or logo) consider a “mini” business card (2.75”x1.13”).
Don’t Be a Square… Go Square!
Want to integrate your business card into your digital marketing efforts? Great! Select a square business card with traditional information on the front and use the back for a QR code that leads to the contact page on your website, a downloadable V-card, or a newsletter sign up! (Just be sure you tell them what the QR code does: “Download My V-Card” or “Get My Newsletter” or “Contact Me!”) This will enable you to collect customer information to permit you to promote your real estate business through digital marketing in the future.
Get Glossy and Shiny
If you have a particular bit of information on your card that you want to “highlight” do it with a spot UV treatment that will offer a little more dimension by raising that section up to make it punchier. Or, add a little gold or silver foil to the information on your card that really needs to sparkle and shine!
What Type of Marketing is Best for Real Estate?
Beyond your business card, you may want a more “evergreen” and lasting approach to marketing. Consider developing promotional items for your real estate business.
Everyone loves free stuff! There’s a tiny hit of dopamine (the natural feel-good hormone) when you get something as a gift. And if you are the giver, that happy feeling is associated with you! It’s great! But you want to make sure your marketing efforts don’t get stuffed in a drawer or donated, right?
Here’s how to make yours the item that people keep and use – and by doing so, become partners in your marketing efforts.
Three Paths to Effective Promotions
1. Make it Useful – This should be your first choice. A useful item gets used. A used item gets seen and a seen item advertises to the recipient as well as everyone around them. In this category you could consider pens, notepads, phone chargers, magnets, letter openers, bottle openers, etc.
2. Make it Beautiful – Create something that is beautiful in itself or that makes your client’s environment more beautiful. (Extra points if the items is BOTH useful AND beautiful!) Think of a totebag with an appealing design that includes your information on the bottom, or on the side, a fancy or cute design on a coffee mug, or even a packet of flower seeds for their yard!
3. Make it Unusual (or crazy entertaining) – Think humor here. Think Inspiration. Couple this with useful items for extra marketing credit! A mug or a coozie with a funny saying on one side and your business information on the other? Yes! A totebag, a rubber jar opener, or even an inkpen with little humor or inspirational quote to make it more effective? Absolutely!
No matter how you choose to market your real estate business, keep your preferred contact information front and center, be creative, be responsive and have fun with the process!
Need help deciding how to best reach your clients? Reach out to us!