How To Get Clients In Real Estate

how to get clients in real estate

Today's post will cover the most effective ways to get clients in real estate.

If you're a real estate agent who's struggling to get clients on either the buyer or the seller side, the strategies and methods discussed in this article will help you tremendously.

Alright, let's get to it.

  1. Make a professional, SEO-optimized website.
  2. Run Google Ads.
  3. Leverage social media.
  4. Make useful content.
  5. Network with other professionals.

Get clients on either the buyer or the seller side.

Make a professional, SEO-optimized website

Before you do anything else, you need to create a website that looks professional and is built to rank well in search engine results.

Most of the client acquisition strategies we'll discuss later on in this post will rely on you having a website to send potential clients to.

And if you're going to make a site to help with these strategies, you might as well make it as good as you possibly can.

How to choose the right real estate website design

The website creation process has many steps; most are beyond the scope of this article, so we're not going to cover them here.

I do want to cover one aspect highly relevant to real estate client acquisition, though: the design of your website.

  • Optimize for mobile. More than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices. If your site isn't responsive ‒ meaning the layout changes when the screen size changes ‒ a large portion of your visitors will click away quickly.
  • Create landing pages for multi-unit listings. If you've been tasked with renting or selling multiple units in the same apartment or housing complex, creating a landing page for that complex can bring in clients on the buying side. This can be particularly helpful if you run ads on a listing, as it gives you an appropriate page to send ad traffic to.

How to make your real estate website faster

Having a fast website is incredibly important.

Not only does it improve your ranking in the search results, but it also decreases the number of people who exit your site because it's loading too slowly.

A fast website is incredibly important.

Here are a few ways to make your real estate website load faster.

  • Use an image optimization plugin. If you use WordPress, you can speed up your page load speeds significantly by adding an image optimization plugin like ShortPixel. It compresses images on the initial page load, which shortens load times and decreases the number of users who leave due to slow site speed.
  • Test your speed. Google has a free website speed testing tool called PageSpeed Insights. Use this tool to check how quickly your website is loading and to get some specific tips on how to improve it.
  • Choose a faster theme design. This is another tip specific to WordPress. When it comes to WordPress themes, not all are created equal. Some are faster than others. If you think your current theme is impacting your site speed, consider switching to an alternative and working with professional Website design Twickenham.

How to optimize your real estate website for SEO

No matter which client acquisition strategies you use, getting a high rank in the organic search results can only be beneficial.

Does your SEO marketing need a boost?

There are two primary levels on which you can improve your SEO: on the site level, and on the page level.

Site-level SEO tips

  • Get backlinks from authoritative websites. Google likes to send searchers to websites that have a high level of authority. Increase your authority in Google's eyes by obtaining links from established sites.
  • Eliminate broken links. If you have links to pages that don't exist anymore, you'll receive a small penalty in the search rankings.
  • Improve page speed. I already mentioned this, but it's such an important factor that it deserves another mention.

Page-level SEO tips

  • Target low-competition keywords. Whenever you post a new page or piece of content, you should be posting it with a specific keyword in mind. Make sure that the keyword doesn't have too much competition in the search results, or you'll have a hard time ranking.
  • Use a user-friendly permalink structure. Your URLs should be easy to read and give users a better understanding of what content a particular webpage contains. To do this, make the URL as short as possible and ensure it includes relevant keywords.
  • Include at least one image. Pages with at least one relevant image rank much higher than pages that only have text.

Run Google Ads

If you've got marketing budget, you can work with singapore google ads agency - CMO Media Lab to bring in real estate clients.

Getting started with Google Ads

To sign up for Google Ads, head on over to ads.google.com and sign in with your Google account.

Getting started with Google Ads.

Once that's done, you'll be faced with a rather complicated interface. If you want to learn how to bring in clients and money using this interface, I recommend reading Hubspot's Ultimate Guide to Google Ads. It'll give you an in-depth look into how to set up ad campaigns that generate clicks and turn prospects into clients.

Google Ads tips for real estate

Target specific locations

Real estate is a location-centric industry. Most of your potential clients will already be living in a particular area. Use the Google Ads geo-targeting capabilities to zero in on your most likely clients.

Optimize landing pages with photos and videos

When potential clients view your landing page, they want to see stunning visuals of the property or home you're promoting. Indulge them by adding high-quality images and videos to your page.

Create and promote a lead magnet

A lead magnet is an offer that potential clients might find interesting or valuable. You give this offer to anyone who visits your website in exchange for their contact information, which typically comes in the form of an email address or phone number.

In real estate, a great lead magnet would be an informational piece explaining the benefits of a particular listing or home. Not only can this type of lead magnet get you the contact info of interested people, but it will also convey the value of the home or property you're trying to sell.

Leverage social media

Social media is an excellent place to find clients in any industry, and real estate is no exception.

While there are client acquisition opportunities on all the social platforms, I'm going to focus on the two most significant options: Facebook and YouTube.

How to use Facebook to get real estate clients

With more than 2.4 billion monthly active users, Facebook is the largest social platform in the world. No matter where you're located or what types of clients you're looking to target, there are plenty of opportunities on Facebook.

Use Facebook to get real estate clients.

Here are a few of the most effective ways to get real estate clients through Facebook.

Engage with local groups

If you want free access to people who live in your area of operation, joining a local Facebook group and interacting with the members is a great way to get it.

Start a Facebook business page

If you want to build a following and gain access to the Facebook Ads service, you need to create a Facebook business page.

It's pretty easy to do. Just go to Facebook.com/business and select "Create a page" in the upper right-hand corner. Once that's done, fill in the account information fields with the relevant info. Add a profile picture, a cover photo, a bio, and contact information.

Run Facebook ads

Now that you have a Facebook page to work with, you can start running Facebook ads.

The best Facebook ad campaigns are pretty sophisticated. They involve high-level marketing tactics like remarketing, different ads based on the buyer's position in the sales funnel, and split testing different headlines and descriptions.

However, you don't need to be perfect to bring in clients. It's pretty easy to set up a landing page and show it to people who match your preferred demographic and location data. You can also work with a Construction Reputation Management service to improve your online reputation.

How to use YouTube to get real estate clients

With more than two billion monthly active users, YouTube is close behind Facebook in the user base competition. If you have some video creation chops or the funds to hire a professional videographer, you can use YouTube to bring in potential clients and convince them to hire you. If you’re new to property letting, letting agents can guide you through the process and help you avoid common pitfalls.

Here are a few YouTube tips specific to real estate client acquisition.

Post video tours of your listings

Posting high-quality videos of your listings will help you attract clients on both the seller and buyer side.

If you make a good video, sellers will see how impressive you made other homes look, and they may ask you to help them sell their homes.

Buyers will also see the videos, and they may end up renting or buying one of the homes you're showing.

You should know that you can't just post these videos on YouTube and expect them to get views. Unless you already have an established channel with a good number of followers, you'll have to drive traffic to the video from other platforms.

One way around this traffic problem is to merely use YouTube as a host and embed the videos on your website. This way, potential clients will still see your videos even though you're only focusing on growing your site.

Share tips about buying and selling

Flashy video tours aren't the only kind of content that can bring in clients. Leverage the knowledge you've gained in the real estate business to create helpful and shareable content.

Run YouTube ads

Driving organic traffic to your videos is great, as it's free. However, you can skip the slow buildup that comes with an organic approach by paying to place your videos in front of people.

YouTube is arguably the best platform for video ads. If you have an idea for a video ad that you think will attract clients, upload it to YouTube, target your ideal client, and give it a small ad budget to see how effective it is.

Make content

The amount of high-quality content you've produced will define how successful your client acquisition efforts are.

Many people approach content from a quantity over quality perspective.

Don't do this. Writing a single high-quality blog post will bring in more clients than ten sub-par posts.

Anyway, here are a few tips to get you started in real estate content creation.

Make high-quality content.

How to write real estate blog posts

Make posts about buying or selling homes

Many real estate agents find clients by writing posts about questions people who are buying or selling homes are typing into Google. Get your business in front of these people by writing informative blog posts that answer their questions.

The easiest way to figure out which questions people are asking is by using Google's Autocomplete function.

Go to Google's home page and type in the start of a search query. A list of suggested search terms should appear in the dropdown menu.

These search terms are what other people are typing into Google. If you write a blog post targeting one of them, you're guaranteed to be writing a post about something that people are actively looking to read about.

You aren't guaranteed to get views on one of these posts, though. Google Autocomplete is only the first step in the topic selection process.

Once you have a list of terms people are searching for, you need to check the search results that are currently showing up for those terms and check if you have any hope of ranking.

If the results for a search term are populated by helpful posts from authoritative websites, you're going to have a hard time breaking into the results.

But if the results contain unhelpful posts or results from forum websites ‒ Quora and Reddit are two common examples ‒ then the search term is ripe for the picking.

Use unique examples from your experience

Any realtor can make a blog post about buying or selling homes.

What differentiates you from the rest of the pack?

Want to learn how Dr. Shalabi was able to gain 77 new patients?

If you've been in business for a significant length of time, you'll probably have a story or example to back up whatever topic you're discussing.

Maybe you had to sell a home with excessive water damage. Or perhaps you got a buyer to drop their bid by 35%. If you've had any noteworthy sales or failures in the past, use them to educate people who read your posts.

How to make real estate videos

While both blog posts and videos are examples of content, they require very different skill sets and pieces of equipment.

To write a good blog post, you need to be a decent writer and have access to a computer.

To shoot a good video, you need to have a firm grasp of film technique, persuasive speaking (if you're featured in the video), and proper lighting knowledge. You also need a camera, a microphone, lighting equipment, a computer, and some decent video editing software.

Shooting a proper video is beyond the scope of this post, so I won't get into the nitty-gritty here. To compensate for that, here are a few great resources for shooting your own real estate videos:

Network with other professionals

Referrals are an excellent source of clients. Not only are referred clients free to obtain, but they are often much more motivated to hire you than the average person who finds you through the internet.

You can't get referrals unless you have someone referring people to you, though. The next few tips will help you find places to connect with other professionals. I'll also provide a few guidelines on how to interact at networking events to maximize your chances of forming terrific relationships.

How to network effectively

  • Practice your elevator pitch. Your first words to a new person should be who you are, what you do, and why you're attending the event. Form a script before you go and practice it to make sure you've got it down pat.
  • Get there early. The early bird forms the best relationships. By getting to the event early, you can seek out who you want before the crowd gets thick.
  • Ask questions. Everyone likes to talk about themselves. Ask them questions they would find interesting instead of running around promoting your services to everyone who will talk to you.

How to network effectively.

Where to network

Here are some of the best places a real estate professional can network. Note that this is not a complete list but comprises the most effective locations.

Conferences

Real estate conferences are an excellent place to connect with other professionals. To find real estate conferences in your area, search for "Real estate conference [current year] into Google. A smorgasbord of options should appear.

Local networking events

Local networking events work better for real estate agents than they do for many other professionals, mainly because most of your potential clients will be local to your area.

Your community

You don't have to go to strictly labeled networking events to find clients or referrals in your area. Any community engagement can go a long way toward building a stable base of local clients.

Additional Resources

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Shawn Manaher
Shawn Manaher is the founder and CEO of Ignite Marketing. He's one part local business growth specialist, one part campaign strategizing ninja, and two parts leader of an awesome nerd pack. He won't eat pancakes unless you call them flat waffles.
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