Today, we’ll look at how to avoid what is known as “Hope Marketing”
- “I’ve heard that Facebook ads are pretty effective, so I’ll throw a few hundred dollars at it and give it a shot. Hope this works!”
- “Everyone knows that Zillow can get leads – it’s time I jumped on board – hope this works!”
- “I hope my PPC (pay per click) ads are bringing in some new clients!”
Of course, the commonality in the examples above is the lack of confidence in the ROI on these marketing tactics. “Hope Marketing” is something that the real estate agent “hopes” will land them some business, but it’s usually way off base or poorly executed.
You don’t have the time or money to misappropriate marketing spend or effort on what doesn’t work very well, so let’s take a look at the big picture.
Thinking back to the first email, we mentioned that most people will need a realtor at some point, but not a lot of people need a realtor at any one time. What does that mean for your business?
You have dozens or hundreds of “sometime later” leads who aren’t ready yet … and you don’t know when they’ll be ready. This means that your strategy for the “sometime later” leads should be to to be building build long-term, valuable relationships.
Tip #4: Leverage social media and search portals to direct prospects to your website and stay in touch.
How is this long-term, valuable relationship developed and maintained? Let’s look at the facts. According to Outbound Engine:
- 92% of small businesses report that social media is an effective marketing tool
- Content marketing generates 3X more leads than traditional marketing
- Email is 40X better at acquiring new customers than Facebook or Twitter
This snapshot of digital marketing statistics helps us zero-in on the most effective use of your time and money.
Social media, in all of its glory, doesn’t hold a candle to the effectiveness of email marketing when it comes to landing new business. However, in order to effectively leverage email marketing for real estate, you have to have email addresses.
While social media is an effective tool, you can’t use it to directly capture email addresses. Your website, however, can capture email addresses. That’s why we recommend leveraging your social media and real estate search portals to draw attention to and link back to your website. With Agent SITE, you can quickly be up and running with a website and customize it to include an email form so that prospects can stay in touch with you.
This approach still begs the question: how does a realtor build a solid social media following that will establish a valuable, long-term relationship with users?
Tip #5: Use the 80/20 ratio in social media and email marketing to build long-term relationships.
The beauty of the 80/20 ratio is that it works through any messaging platform that you’d like to use. However, we strongly recommend a Facebook business page (separate from your personal profile) to be your social media base of operations.
You’ll often find that the most enjoyable person at a party (or on your social news feed) is not talking about themselves a lot. They discuss events, lessons, facts, and other topics that pertain to those around them. They’re also engaging, asking questions and letting others do the talking.
The same is true for a real estate agent trying to build a following on social media. You have to be interesting to followers so they will keep following you and reading your posts.
80% of the time, post about real estate topics that pertain to your target audience – not what you’re offering or trying to sell at the time. The 80% consists of things like:
- Tasteful home décor ideas on Pinterest
- A link to a house-buying checklist (linking back to your website)
- New information about local neighborhoods (on your website, of course)
- A how-to guide on hosting an open house
- Reference material on cost-effective home improvements that increase resell value
- A chart or graph with housing statistics for your city
- Detailed answers to commonly-asked questions in your locality
The other 20% of your posts are where you’re allowed to talk about you – offers you’re making, homes you’ve recently sold, your latest listing, and so on. Be sure to highlight what the reader needs to do for these posts. Clarify a “Call to Action”, whether it be reading the story, subscribing to your email list, or looking at a property.
Today’s Action: Begin to implement the 80/20 ratio on your Facebook business page and create links on all of your (business) social media profiles to your website.
While ensuring that your online presence points back to your website is relatively easy, it’s not going to reach its potential impact on your business unless you are capturing email addresses. Contact Agent SITE to let us help set up a simple solution to capturing email addresses so that you can stay in touch with prospects.
