September 2016 - iDashboard Blog

Too Many Emails? Check Out These 6 Tips

When email took over from fax, not many complaints were heard. 20 years on from its inception, email has maintained its market presence as an efficient means of business conversation.

It has, however, begun to hold some professionals back in their day-to-day duties. Communication is a key part of any real estate agent’s job, but are emails holding you back from speaking with your clients? Follow these simple steps to cut down on the time you spend actioning emails.

1. Set an email time each day – and live by it

In the age of the smartphone, it’s far too easy to fall into the trap of spending all day, every day checking your emails. Without realising it, this might be impacting the level of service you provide to other clients.

Set up a time each day for contacting people and responding to emails in your inbox and stick to it. By doing this, you’ll save yourself from getting distracted by the endless stream of communications you’re no doubt receiving.

2. Create a system for responding to emails

When you’re wading through your inbox, try starting at the bottom and working your way up to the top. Whilst doing this, identify any queries or tasks that you can handle on the spot and action them. Any emails that require more work are best circled back to later on.

To make sure you don’t lose track of emails you’ve read, mark them as unread and categorise them with colour-coding. This way, when you circle-back, you’ll immediately know what type of task needs completing.

3. Refine your email subscriptions

Although not all newsletter emails are spam, it’s worth unsubscribing from the ones that you never read.

By spending half an hour of your time doing this, you’ll see a noticeable drop in the amount of emails hitting your inbox.

Another way to cut down is by reducing the amount of office emails that you receive. Speak with members of your management team to discuss setting up a social media feed for any work-related matters. Not only will it declutter your inbox, it’ll also help to build your internal culture and communication.

4. Turn off social media notifications

Although nice to know at the start, social media notifications start to become frustrating fairly quickly. When you’re constantly connected to your networks via smartphones anyway, is it really necessary to get an email every time you gain a new Twitter follower?

There’s no doubt that social media plays an important role in any real estate agency’s business, but constant email notifications aren’t always necessary. Turn these off in your social media networks’ settings to reduce your inbox load.

5. Cut back on words

No matter how much what you have to say matters, the people on the other end of your email are just as busy as you. Considering that they’re likely to skim-read your email for key information, cut back on the content and summarise the key points.

Make your point clear in the subject line so your recipient knows what you’re after immediately. Not only will this help you to save time sending emails, it’ll likely also speed up the response time you get.

6) Have a good old-fashioned meeting

When everyone in your agency has such mixed priorities, it can take days to get an adequate response.

Instead of sending endless reminder emails and forwarding previous chains over and over, try setting up a meeting. Although emails can work sometimes, there’s nothing better than getting everyone in a room face-to-face.

Facebook’s Algorithm – What Your Real Estate Agency Needs To Know

On a monthly basis, Facebook commands a crazy 1.65 billion monthly users. Since its conception, it’s quickly soared in popularity and now holds first place as the most popular social media site, accounting for 1 in every 6 minutes spent online.

Put simply – Facebook is huge and everybody uses it a lot. That likely means that your potential customers, both buyers and sellers, are spending time there. So, your real estate agency should be investing time in getting your message in front of them.

Whether your content actually reaches their news feeds, however, is down to the Facebook algorithm. This intelligent code determines what people see, how many people see it and where it appears on their news feeds. To say it impacts your business potential is a huge understatement.

In this article, we’ll take you through what we know about the algorithm and how you can improve your content to make the most of your social media presence.

What exactly is the Facebook algorithm?

Facebook has released information that the average user can see roughly 1,500 posts each day, but usually only looks at 300. Their algorithm is the culmination of factors with which Facebook cherry-picks those select 300 posts.

Until 2011, this algorithm was known as EdgeRank and took into account three main factors:

Affinity – how close are the user and the person that posted the content?
Weight – what action did the content take?
Time decay – when was the post originally made?

These three still make up part of the algorithm, but experts believe that Facebook now uses up to 10,000 others. That’s an impossible amount of factors to consider when you’re trying to climb your posts to the top.

The majority of these factors are based on the behaviour of Facebook users and how they engage with different types of content. Facebook’s VP of product management for News Feed, Adam Mosseri, explained their need for the algorithm:

“When we launched News Feed in 2006, it was hard to imagine the challenge we now face – far too much information for any one person to consume. In the decade since, more than a billion people have joined Facebook, and today they share a flood of stories every day. That’s why stories in News Feed are ranked – so that people can see what they care about first and don’t miss important stuff from their friends. If the ranking is off, people don’t engage, and leave dissatisfied. So one of our most important jobs is getting this ranking right.”

What factors do Facebook take into account?

There are a couple of more simple factors that News Feed takes into account when ranking posts. When deciding whether or not to display your real estate agency’s post to someone, the algorithm considers:

Who posted it
What the content type is
When it was first posted
Its interactions

As we’ve mentioned, however, there are a whole lot more factors that get taken into account, with changes being made to them several times a week. Between Autumn 2015 and August 2016, Facebook had already posted 8 major updates.

How can you get your content in the News Feed?

Since everyone uses Facebook differently, all News Feeds are unique. The best bet that you have as a business on Facebook isn’t going to be focusing on optimizing your posts for the algorithm, because it’s an endless task. You’ll likely end up chasing your tale and not reaping many results from it.

Instead, you should be focusing on providing your audience with content that they deem as valuable. Offer them something that they find useful and they’ll be more likely to engage with your brand. They’ll also likely be happy to offer you their information, such as an email address, in exchange for that content.

As engagement grows, so will your organic reach. The more people you reach, the more leads you’ll bring in.

These Real Estate Giants Know Why Your Listings Aren’t Getting Clicks

Are you stumped by why some of your listings are getting clicks and others aren’t? When you put effort into visiting a home, taking specifications and photos and agreeing on a listing price, it can be frustrating to not see any fruit from your labours.

In this article, we’ve gathered information from three top portal bosses, who’ll give you the low-down on why you’re not getting any traction.

Photos are the key

After copious amounts of data gathering and analysing, three separate portal bosses have agreed on the same primary cause of low click rates – photos.
It seems overly simple but it’s true. Photos are the single-highest driver for getting traffic to listing pages.

If you’re adding listings to your site with no images, you’re not going to get very far. Think about it – who wants to view a property if they don’t have any idea what it looks like?

When browsing for homes online, prospective buyers like to window shop and flirt a little with the possibilities. Without images, you’re not giving them that chance. That’s what real estate giants Tony Blamey, Chris Meehan and Jason Spencer think, at least.

Homely co-chief Jason Spencer believes photos are a key way for buyers to single your property out.

“Beautiful photos stand out like you might see on an Instagram feed,” he says, “If we see an amazing property with incredible photos, we feature it, they get in our blog or social media and then when they get so many more views, so you’re not doing yourself any favours with poor photography. I don’t understand agents who only use thumbnails.”

Professional photography is key, but choosing the right person for the job is critical, so be sure to read our article How to Choose a Property Photographer Who Attracts Buyers. If the vendors budget does not allow for a professional photographer so you or one of your colleagues is going to do the shoot themselves, make sure they know the 7 Pro Tips To Nailing Your Real Estate Photography.

If your images are still not looking inspiring, try an image enhancement service, such as BoxBrownie, to find out more about this great quality but yet very affordable service, read our post on Boosting Your Property Marketing With BoxBrownie.

Mr Spencer also raised another key mistake that roughly 20% of agents who list on Homely make – adding business watermarks to their listing photos.

“It does them no favours, because it generally looks really poor and you spoil the search experience for the consumer, so we encourage people not to put watermarks,” he said.

So, adding photos is key, but how many photos should agents be adding? Domain Group COO Tony Blamey has the answer, believing the more the better.

“With mobile, we make it really easy to browse photos. As a consumer, I want to see as much of a property as I can,” he said.

Make the most of words

Onthehouse Group Chief Executive Chris Meehan urges agents to make the most of words – not only in the listing but also in the title. He believes that listings gain the most traction online when the words used work well with the photos.

“If I get an email, I want to know very quickly in the headline what the email is going to share with me. I don’t have any opinion on how long it should be, but it needs to be long enough to lead into a story, and the headline needs to match the images and also lead to the content. There needs to be a link between the three.” said Mr Meehan.

He also backs up Mr Spencer’s opinion that images are king and play the most important role in getting engagement on your listings.

“I think that people look at the photos before they read the content. They’ve got to be good, sharp images and if you hook them they may then look at the content, but they will probably judge the listing more on the photos than what you’ve written,” he said.

Give as much as possible

Although agents might think they’re gaining an edge by holding back information from their visitors, they’re actually doing themselves a disservice – that’s what Mr Blamey from Domain believes, at least.

He believes that, in today’s market where information is everywhere and all-available, holding back no longer works.

They’re hungry for information and want to be empowered to make a decision around that information. If they like the property they’ll make contact, so I don’t think withholding information works any more,” he said.

Onthehouse Group chief Mr Meehan agrees, thinking that buyers will in fact punish agents who don’t give them all of the information they want.

Follow these pieces of advice with your listings and you’ll be getting more clicks in no time.

Boost Your Property Marketing With BoxBrownie

How to make a sale for just $3. Incredible but true.

In fact it is even better as you can try the service absolutely free.

Sounds crazy we know but it is literally true. You see, it all comes down to grabbing the buyers interest at the first point of contact. If you miss this opportunity, you may have lost the sale for good. These days, that usually means reaching out from the computer screen and forcing the buyer to look at your property for sale.

With so many properties competing for those precious eyeballs, you need to stand out. That is where our recent discovery comes into play. We have found a local company Boxbrownie.com that can turn an ordinary image into a studio style ‘hero’ image for just $3. As incredible as it sounds, it is true.

They have a 15 point process that lightens shadows, straightens horizons and many more subtle touches to create stunning images from relatively ordinary photos.

Boxbrownie.com is a fully owned Australian company and is already being used by over 3,000 real estate agents world wide.

They have a range of services, which include:

Image Enhancement – $3

Professional quality photos are statistically proven to sell listings 50% faster, as well as being proven to drastically increase the sale price of a property. Home buyers spend 60% of their time viewing photos, while only 20% on the property description.

Turning Daytime Shots Into Evocative Dusk Shots – $5

One of their most popular edits is the day to dusk enhancement. Taking a good dusk shot is difficult unless you are a professional. So, they can take a daytime shot and convert it for just $5.

Adding Virtual Furniture – $40

Get rid of that empty, cold and abandoned feeling, fill your listing with stylish furniture which allows buyers to visualise themselves in the home. They can add furniture to any room in the house, as well as adding adding furniture to the outdoor areas.

Creating Floor Plans – From $30

Did you know 1 in 5 buyers would ignore a property listing completely if it didn’t include a floor plan? Buyers want to see the property layout, to visualise the flow of the rooms, how they fit in relation to others rooms and picture their furniture inside the home. They also offer coloured floor plans as well as 3D floor plans.

Removing Unwanted Items – From $20

Just getting ready to upload your latest listing and realised that you have found something that shouldn’t be in the shot! If something in the photo is ruining your shot, simply have it digitally removed. Maybe you want to remove the art work on each wall or declutter a bedroom. Removing extra items can help make a space seem more attractive and welcoming.

3D Renders From Sketch Plans For Property Developments – From Only $350

Bring a picture to life with a 3D render. Show a buyer just what a home or development will look like right from the plans, including the façade, possible landscaping and attractive lighting options. Buyers will really be able to see the potential of a home or development.

Check out their website for their full range of products and services. They offer endless reworks of images to guarantee client satisfaction.

From just $3 per image, you may be closer to your next sale than you think.

Boxbrownie.com offer a $10 free trial to new users so you have absolutely nothing to lose. Log on to Boxbrownie.com to start your free trial today.

For further information in the main stream media, click on the below:

Herald Sun

The Sydney Morning Herald

Boost Your Real Estate Sales Pipeline With These 5 Qualifying Questions

When leads are flying in left, right and centre, it’s crucial to be able to quickly distinguish which are hot, which are warm and which aren’t actually all that interested.

In a time-critical environment, however, this can be a bit of a challenge. The best method for getting the information you need is through open-ended questions, as they’ll help to give you a solid overview of their current situation and just how interested they are.

But which questions should you be asking? In this article, we’ll go over the top 5 most important questions that you need to cover with your leads. Follow these and you’ll be generating more business in no time.

1. Have you contacted other agents?

To decide a lead’s value to your agency, it’s important to get this question out of the way first. If you don’t, you could be investing time and money in helping them when you’re actually fighting an uphill battle against the competition.

If they are working with another agent, however, don’t be too quick to stereotype them. If they’re contacting you, there’s likely a good reason behind it. Maybe they’re just trying to broaden their scope, but it could also be because the other agent isn’t performing.

2. Why are you interesting in buying/selling?

By asking this question, you’ll be able to develop a clear picture of two key factors – motivation and timeframe.

If a client is highly motivated, they’ll likely want to get the ball rolling quickly, meaning you can move them through your pipeline at an accelerated rate. They’ll also be more willing to share information with you, meaning you’ll have an easier time working out how best to help them.

If the client is working with a tight timeframe, you can also qualify them as a hot lead. For example, if they’ve accepted a job in a new area and need to find somewhere within the next 3 months, they’ll be quick to move on any suitable listings.

3. What property types are you interested in?

This is a great question for understanding how committed a lead is to the buying process. If they’re invested in finding a new home, they’ll already have a clear outline in their mind of the type of property they’re after.

Winning hot leads all comes down to proactivity. If you can show the client that you’ll be working hard for them, they’ll be more likely to give you their business. Add them to any listings email updates you have and tell them they’ll be notified once something comes on the market.

With a Real Estate system like iDashboard, you can easily add your buyers property match specifications and the system will automatically notify them when your offices lists a property that may suit them. So simply set and forget, little does the buyer know, iDashboard has done this for you automatically.

4. Have you contacted a mortgage lender?

This will weed out the hot leads from the lukewarm. Buyers who are highly motivated will have contacted a lender (if needed) to find out what rates are on offer. They may have even already attained pre-approval.

If this is the case, work out if their loan type and amount is suitable for the types of property and neighbourhoods they’re interested in. If it is, then you’re in luck – find them their property type in the area and they’ll be likely to move quickly.

Asking this question can also enable you to refer this buyer onto a mortgage lender/broker if they are yet to speak to one, potentially providing you with an additional revenue stream.

5. When can we meet in person to discuss this?

Your leads might sound motivated over the phone, but this question will really test their willingness to move forward. Buyers will be better off coming into your office, but for sellers you could offer to swing by and provide them with a free valuation.

If they respond by saying they’d rather get in touch at a later date, they’re most likely a warm lead. Don’t push to set an appointment with them as they’re not ready to take any next steps yet. Give it a few weeks and get back in touch.

Qualifying your leads as hot, warm and cold is a vital step to boosting your lead conversion rates. Work these questions into your calls and watch your sales pipeline grow.

Looking for a way to record and track your leads? With iDashboard, you can easily add and manage your leads and buyers, so that no one falls through the cracks..

Revitalise Your Real Estate Marketing With These 5 Ideas

Each day, prospective buyers and sellers are swamped with marketing materials from local agents, trying to sign them up for their services.

Fortunately for you, the majority of these marketing efforts are dry and dull, giving you a distinct head start. If you follow these 5 tips, you can revitalise your real estate marketing and leave your competition in the dust.

1. Be an adviser to your potential clients

The key reason that people hire an expert in a particular field is that the professional is probably going to know more about the industry than they do.

This isn’t any different in real estate, as your clients will be looking for someone who knows their field. Be more than someone who facilitates viewings and opens the door – show off your knowledge and advise your clients on what’s best for them.

Let your clients know about your local knowledge and give them some statistics on the area. You can make them feel more comfortable with the process by showing them you’ve got the ins and outs of the buyer-seller process weighed-down.

2. Nail your brand image

The theory behind ‘curb appeal’ is that first impressions count – this is especially true for real estate.

Put some time and thought into developing a brand image that matches your target audience and make it consistent across your marketing channels. For example, if your focus is on first-time buyers, make your brand more light, youthful and approachable.

If you want to focus on the luxury market instead, research the methods luxury agencies are using to represent their brands and think on how the methods could apply to yours.

Make sure you check out our 6 Quick Lessons to Help You Find Your Brand Voice as well as An A to Z Guide to Personal Branding.

3. Improve bios and presentation on review sites

Build your online personality by removing any cliche buzzwords that agents use. By doing this, the chances are that you’ll make your brand more welcoming and approachable to your target audience.

Never be afraid to show your brand’s true nature on your social profiles. Even if you’re a large real estate agency, it doesn’t mean you can’t still have a small business feel.

For assistance with this, read our 10 Must-Read Tips for Writing Great Social Media Bios.

Getting a bad review can damage your credibility, so make sure to you know our 6 Critical Precautions to Protect Yourself from a Bad Online Reputation or Review, but if you do end up with a bad review, it is not the end of the world, just make sure you don’t Ignore Customer Complaints.

4. Bring an end to one-off advertising

Instead of sending mail-outs when you feel like it, build them into a larger marketing strategy.

One-off marketing efforts often generate little return on investment and are rarely worth the money. By creating a full-fledged marketing plan, you’ll be able to accurately measure your ROI and identify the channels you find the most success in.

Some of the most cost-effective areas are email and content marketing , so if you haven’t got a marketing plan yet, these can be great places to start.

5. Create irresistible call-to-actions

If your marketing efforts are the line, CTAs are the hook that catches your audience and brings them in. CTAs are an integral part of any marketing strategy, as they’re the part that actually get your prospects into your sales funnel.

CTAs come in many forms. If you’re not familiar with them, spend some time researching them and be sure to work them into all of your marketing efforts.

Are you looking for a way to manage your real estate leads? Find out how iDashboard can work for you today.

Top Local Business Marketing Strategies Revealed By New Report

Finding a marketing strategy that works for your real estate agency often involves a lot of trial and error. New research that’s emerged in the business market, however, has found the #1 highest performing strategy that any local real estate agency can use.

The study, which surveyed just under 4,000 global businesses, has answered the question that’s been plaguing thousands of real estate agents – which is the more effective way to market my real estate agency, inbound or outbound? Take a look at the stats below to find out:

1. 75% of marketers globally favour inbound marketing vs outbound marketing

What’s the difference between inbound and outbound? With outbound, you spend your time hammering away at your audience, trying to get them to listen to you with methods such as advertising and direct mail.

With inbound, however, you attract leads by presenting them with value, which they receive in exchange for giving you their contact details.

For more information on the differences between inbound & outbound marketing, check out our article on A Practical Example of Outbound vs Inbound Marketing You Can Use.

2. Regardless of focus on inbound or outbound, the most overrated tactic was paid advertising

Although it was voted as overrated, this doesn’t necessarily mean it wasn’t still effective. Paid advertising can make up an integral part of any marketing strategy, but it’s not cost-efficient if used as a standalone option.

Paid advertising, instead, should be used as a supplementary method of driving additional traffic to your listings and site. It shouldn’t be solely relied upon.

Want to know more about paid advertising, read our post on How do Google Paid Search Results Work.

3. An essential aspect of marketing strategies is tracking your ROI and setting your budget accordingly

Despite the recent technological boom, businesses are still reluctant to start tracking their ROI (Return On Investment). Although the majority of companies now have a marketing strategy that incorporates digital channels, analysing the leads that are generated for each dollar spent is something many are lacking in.

Tracking your ROI will help you to make better budgeting decisions in the future. It’ll also help you to identify which channels are most effective and might even hold some surprises for you. By knowing this, you’ll be able to reinvest in the highest performing areas of your marketing strategy.

4. All experienced marketers knew that inbound marketing is a long-term strategy

Although short-term results are possible from inbound marketing, the survey showed that experienced marketers knew that the strategy required time and dedication before it would gain full traction.

By analysing the previous decisions that had been made, marketers are able to make more educated choices in future, therefore boosting the results they see from their efforts.

If you want to know more about inbound marketing, make sure to read our article 4 Things Small Businesses Must Do To Succeed With Inbound Marketing Faster

5. Regardless of company size and budget, inbound marketing produced a higher return on investment than outbound

Although it takes longer to generate results, inbound marketing produces a significantly higher return on investment than outbound marketing. By creating materials that your audience deems as valuable to them, you’ll be able to build trust and brand authority within your market that lasts for an extended period of time.

With outbound marketing, your results are going to grind to a halt as soon as you stop paying.

If you need assistance with putting together a strategy for your website and social media content, check out our guide Step-by-Step Content Marketing Strategy.

Interested in more inbound marketing tips for your real estate agency? Take a look at our blog today!

6 Instagram Tips To Boost Your Real Estate Marketing

This feeling is surely familiar to you. You’ve invested your time in taking hundreds of photos of a property, editing the brightness and tweaking the perfect filter. You’re certain that it’s social media gold but after an hour, the response you’ve received is less than impressive. You can’t help but wonder: what happened?

Although the picture might have been perfect, the approach you took to Instagram marketing might not have been. If you’re interested in boosting your Instagram marketing success, take a look at the 6 quick tips we’ve created below.

1. Keep track of relevant hashtags to easily add them into posts

Hashtags are like a filing system for social media. By clicking on hashtags used within posts, users can easily access a page filled with similar content. This can work absolute wonders for your real estate business.

If you’ve just opened a real estate agency called Right Price Sydney, the likelihood is that people won’t be searching for #rightpricesydney. For that reason, you need to include other, more popular, hashtags in your posts.

Instagram search allows you to see how many posts have been made to a particular hashtag. Take a look at ones within your niche and make a notes of ones that could work for you. For more helpful hashtag tips, check out our helpful article Instagram Hashtags – What Every Real Estate Agent Needs To Know.

2. Don’t clutter your captions with hashtags

Adding hashtags into a post is a vital step for any real estate agency that’s looking for social media success. However, that doesn’t mean that they have to be cluttering up your captions box.

There are two main methods you can use here:

Method 1

Add any relevant hashtags as comments once your post has been published

Method 2

If you don’t have enough of a following to bury them in the comments section, add line breaks after your caption and before the hashtags to remove them from view.

3. Boost your reach by sharing posts on other networks

Although Instagram is one of the most-used social networks, if you’re not sharing your posts on other channels, you’re going to be missing out on potential engagement.

Publishing your posts to Twitter, Facebook and other social networks will give you that added boost. On Facebook alone, posts made using Instagram boost engagement by 23%.

This might sound difficult to action, but it’s surprisingly simple. Prior to making a post, all you have to do it select the social networks you’d like to share it with.

4. Only post when your audience is online

If your audience isn’t online when you post, they’re probably not going to see it. For this reason, it’ll benefit you to work out when your audience is online. Although there’s no secret answer to post timing, you can figure this out yourself with a bit of testing.

The general industry rule of thumb is the following:

Hubspot thinks: post Monday to Thursday any time except 3pm-4pm
Later (previously Latergramme) thinks: Wednesday at 5pm
Weekdays between 6am and 12pm

5. Struggling to create new content? Republish.

Back in Instagram’s younger years, Regramming meant taking a screenshot of someone else’s post, cropping it, reposting it, copying the original caption, then tagging the account that posted it first.

Fortunately, it’s now much easier than that. By sharing content from your followers and accounts you’re following, you can easily boost your online visibility whilst engaging with your audience.

If you haven’t regrammed before, however, there’s still some etiquette involved. We suggest you scratch up on this prior to getting stuck in.

6. Use Boomerang to create top video content

You can level-up your Insta-game with video content and engage your audience in ways that still images will never be able to do.

Video posting used to be an arduous task, but since Instagram has added Boomerang into the mix, it couldn’t be easier. Since adding the software, Instagram has broadened its maximum video length to 60 seconds, giving you a whole load of free time to get your agency’s message across.

Boomerang allows its users to capture videos up to 20 frames in length and then produce them in an engaging play-reverse format. If you’re looking to promote property listings through Instagram, Boomerang could be a great way to show off their best features.

Looking to boost your number of followers? Make sure you read our post on Getting more Instagram Followers – Your Essential Guide.

Are you looking for a new way to manage your real estate leads? Find out what iDashboard can do for you today.

8 Crucial Ways That Social Media Can Help Your Real Estate Business

5 years ago, marketing experts thought that social media was a teenage phase that would just blow over. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

Standing at over 3 billion users to date, social media has become one of the biggest – and most influential – weapons in any real estate agency’s arsenal. So, if you want to find out how you can use social media, look no further. We’ve prepared this article to show you just that.

1) Develop insights into your customer’s behaviour

As social media platforms have evolved, so has the value they present to businesses. Behind the 500 million daily tweets and 4.5 billion daily Facebook likes, there’s a whole lot of data for your business to sink its teeth into.

Social media can provide your agency with a wealth of information about your target audience – everything from the neighbourhood they live in to when they last shopped on Amazon. This presents you with an immense power to target your campaigns specifically to who you want to reach.

2) Build your brand authority

Having your agency on social media will make it easier for your audience to connect with you. Remember – in real estate, everyone is a potential client. By building a presence on social media, you’ll help to increase the authority your brand has in the industry.

Coupled with a content marketing strategy, when the time comes for them to move property, your audience will be that much more likely to trust your services and go with you.

3) Execute powerful social media advertisements

Gone are the days of billboard advertising. Social media ads are a cost-effective means of getting your brand out there and distributing valuable content to your audience.

As mentioned in the first point, you can increase your ROI by targeting exactly who you want to reach. For example, if you’ve had an influx of houses for sale in Sydney, target people over the age of 30 who live in the surrounding suburbs. If your ad isn’t getting the results you want it to, you’ll know about it immediately and can chop and change it in real-time.

4) Boost your conversion rates

By keeping in regular contact with your audience, you’re going to strengthen your brand authority and build the relationship that they share with you. It also provides a window for delivering great customer service, too.

You shouldn’t underestimate the effect that building relationships on social media has. One study in 2015 found that over 70% of companies using social media reported an increase in sales within 12 months.

5) Deliver a memorable customer experience

In the digital age, the majority of your customers will expect you to be on social media. The primary reason for this – support services. A Social Media Benchmark study found that over 67% of customers seek customer support via social media.

If you’re not there to answer their queries in a timely fashion, the majority of your customers are going to have unresolved issues. This, in turn, can lead to loss of repeat business.

6) Boost online traffic and search rankings

Arguably, the biggest benefit of social media is its ability to drive serious web traffic. By sharing web-hosted content on your social media profiles, you can channel your audience to web pages of your choosing. From there, you can capture their information with sign-up forms and build a list for your email campaigns.

The benefit doesn’t stop with web traffic. If your posts get shared by your audience, Google’s going to take it into account. These are known as social signals and, if you can generate them, you’ll be rewarded with higher search rankings.

7) Target your posts by geographical location

One of the biggest issues real estate agencies have on social media is segmenting their content. Sure, some of your audience might be interested in properties in Melbourne, but it’s likely that the majority of them are going to live within 80 kms of the area.

By targeting your posts to precise geographical locations, you can ensure that you’re reaching the relevant audience. Some social media tools can even automate this process for you, allowing you to target certain posts to specific countries automatically.

8) Create and develop relationships

Social media isn’t all about the sales pitch – in fact, it’s a relatively bad channel to try and sell anything directly. It does, however, present a fantastic opportunity to communicate with your audience in a social, informal setting.

Building a social media presence for your real estate agency gives you the chance to speak with customers before, during and after their experience with your brand. It also gives them a podium to share their experiences with their personal networks.

This isn’t all. Social media has a huge amount of benefits for your real estate agency waiting to be discovered. Create your accounts and start boosting your online business today.

Video On Social Media – Real Estate Marketing’s Hottest New Trend

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

To be in the real estate business you have to embody the spirit of the entrepreneur. It’s a place for thinkers, creatives, and master business people alike. Making a profit in real estate is not just about selling a property or home, it’s about selling an idea. It’s about creating capital within both the location of the home, and the world around it.

When it comes to marketing real estate, you’re not actually selling a collection of materials that have a roof and plumbing and hopefully a bed, you’re selling a lifestyle. You’re selling the street where the client will walk their children to school. You’re creating memories in their local bar or café. You’re designing a future life for someone around that town or city.

Thankfully, the world has moved on to more than printed pictures in a glossy magazine. Now real estate agents can create entire moments through everyone’s essential device – their phone.

So, if you want to boost your game and start making life happen for your clients, it’s time to move up from square footage and into the real world. Let’s talk about convenience, commuting, and creating a new life through the joys of social media.

Snapchat

We know what you’re thinking. Snapchat is a young person’s’ game, certainly not the demographic that are buying homes.

Not quite.

Like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, Snapchat is on its way into the palms of the over-45 demographic. Trends show that in the next 2-3 years, Snapchat will be as prevalent as Facebook and as cool as Instagram. Being on board with this trend now could make your business the paradigm in social media real estate.

Okay, so what else is awesome about Snapchat?

Most importantly people pay attention to this little app. The videos disappear in the blink of an eye, and users know that. This means your viewers are more likely to concentrate when they watch your clip. They are absorbing what you were seeing in that home, designing a life for themselves and wondering, “Hey, what if that was me…”

Whilst you’re traipsing around homes and neighborhoods, sight-seeing on behalf of your client, you’re creating entertainment for them to watch in the comfort of their own home. If there’s a local restaurant within walking distance of the property, show your clients and fan base what they could be doing on a Friday night if they just bought that house.

You can even throw in a geofilter to add validity, or just for the fun of it.

Finally, Snapchat is one of those apps like Facebook: made by a young guy who is now a billionaire. You may have heard that story, but if not then let us explain why this is relevant.

Snapchat is growing among the elite top earners in the world; these individuals are usually aged somewhere in the 30 – 45 range. They love flair and are in constant competition with their online peers. This is yet another demographic that realtors should be playing to.

Facebook Videos

Advertising on Facebook has been around for years. However, their live stream video function is very, very new indeed. If you’re in real estate you should have your own Facebook page by now. If you don’t, it’s not too late for you. Advertising on Facebook is second to none, so start there.

You all remember that show MTV Cribs? For some of you younger agents it might even be what inspired you to get into real estate. Well now, thanks to Facebook’s live streaming option, you can create your very own version of Cribs with – you guessed it – your own phone.

Using Facebook Live

With your own virtual open house, Facebook Live allows you to show prospective clients around a house from the comfort of their current living room. They can ask you questions and you can reply – live.

With the nonstop lives of the post-recession market, not everyone has the time or want to go to viewing after viewing. Facebook Live allows you to do your job, whilst allowing your clients some extra freedoms. No more tailoring your traditional viewing around work and the school run – do it over breakfast.

Developing your social media presence is the key to a successful online real estate business. We’re still a year or two away from this becoming a norm, so get ahead of the curve and create your content now. Design your style, find out what works for you and, as always, don’t be afraid to experiment.

If your looking for ideas for what types of videos you should be doing, check out our helpful post on 10 Video Styles That Should Be In Every Real Estate Marketing Plan.

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