August 2017 - iDashboard Blog

New Stage Property Websites

Stage Property required a great new system to manage their properties and database, so after selecting iDashboard they required two custom websites to market their listings and services, that fully integrates with their Real Estate Software & CRM.

They required two websites, being a Chinese Language & an English Language website, to market to both their English clients and Chinese clientele, these sites can easily be switched between from the top menu.

This is where our custom website team stepped in, producing the new Stage Property websites, which are both responsive; working on Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones allowing their staff and visitors to access any, property any time.

The English version website can be found at stageproperty.com.au & the English version website is found at stageproperty.com.cn.

The new home page contains a great list of ‘must-have’ features, this includes:

Home Page Image with CTA
Home Page Services Overview
Featured Properties
Featured Projects
Custom Project Pages

We wish the team at Stage Property all the best with their new websites and look forward to our ongoing relationship.

If you are looking for a new website, wether you are starting from scratch or want to upgrade to a modern responsive design, contact the iDashboard team today.

4 Essential Areas Where You Should Be Focusing Your Real Estate Training

If “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” applies to your real estate agents, you’re barking up the wrong textbook. In fact, in the fast-paced world of Australian real estate, having the wrong attitude can backfire on you – big time.

Despite what you may have been told, you never stop learning. Choosing to think you do is a big mistake. Agents need to undergo continuous training throughout their careers so they can stay on top of the constant wave of fresh, budding talent entering the game.

Knowing which areas to focus on, however, is sometimes a case of too much work, too little time. If you’re stuck on where to start, here are 4 of the most important areas your agents need to be focusing on:

1) Industry Legislation

This is one you really don’t want to slip up on. You might think you know the ins and outs of the laws regarding real estate, but these are updated on an almost monthly basis. All it takes is one slip-up and you’ve left yourself open to some serious damage.

If your agents don’t keep up their knowledge, forms could be completed incorrectly and sales could fall through. It’s mistakes like these that hit the wallet hard.

2) Sales Tactics

You might have the best play in the game, but customers aren’t robots. They’re people, and they grow wise to sales tricks. Where fear of missing out might have worked a charm 10 years ago, buyers are now far more likely to know their worth and shop around the market for the best property for their money.

Whether it’s improving their listing language or buffing up their negotiating skills, your agents should constantly strive to improve their sales tactics.

3) Keeping up With Technology

Technology is altering the way agents, sellers and buyers deal with transactions, so your agents need to try and keep up with the industry as it changes.

It’s moving at a rapid rate, which means even experienced agents run the risk of being left behind if they don’t stay on top of key developments.

4) Economic Movements

Keeping updated on current trends by watching banks and economic forecasts is essential for any real estate agent. Your customers will be making some of the biggest financial choices of their lives, so it’s up to you to know the economy and help them through the process.

To be successful in real estate, knowing how and when the market could turn is a great weapon to have in your arsenal.

4 Tips For Fantastic Facebook Posts

The golden rule when it comes to Facebook posting, is that no two posts are ever equally created. With countless elements that go into crafting each post, it’s crucially important that you select the right ones to make your posts a hit – generating as many leads as possible.

It’s important to consider visuals such as images and videos, compelling content, tag lines and timing of your posts – as these will all impact on their success.

Remember, there is no “perfect” post for Facebook, but as a professional real estate agent, you’ll want to follow the following top tips to ensure you further the strength of your brand.

The following tips include information on how to get your content seen in the news feed, how to write stellar content, which types of content garner the most hits, and the role of timing your posts right.

1) Nailing The Content

Writing is a core skill of a real estate agent. Not just the ability to mindlessly fill out forms, but the ability to engage your audience and convey information in a unique way. This is ever more important on social media platforms, as it can have a big impact on how many potential leads you generate.

Don’t forget that Facebook is asocial media platform, so your audience is likely scrolling on their lunch break or in the evening, when attention-span may be short. Keep your writing short to fit in with this. Use headlines under 20 words and a maximum of 50 per description.

Use emojis to embellish, rather than having to add in lengthy descriptors. You can also tease the audience by only giving away four of your top ten tips. This will encourage them to dig deeper and read the full article – potentially generating you a new lead.

Your Guide To Creating Engaging Real Estate Content

2) Awesome Visuals

If you can combine great content with amazing visuals, you’re well on your way to creating the perfect Facebook post. It’s important to be able to use a variety of media formats on a post, rather than just images alone. Try mixing in videos, GIFs, blog links and other relevant assets.

Don’t just use the stock preview that Facebook generates when you create a post – make sure you spend some time tinkering with your media to get the best fit for the post.

When using video, remember that shorter videos tend to work best. The ideal length is under 60 seconds, as they prevent the audience from being deterred by its length. Facebook live is also a cool tool for generating interest in what you’re currently up to.

How to Select the Right Social Media Images for Your Content

3) Utilise The Facebook Algorithm

It’s estimated that in 2016, Facebook page experienced a 52% decline in reach towards customers. Understanding how the Facebook algorithm works can help to prevent the negative impact of this decline on your content.

The algorithm works by looking at each post on an individual basis. It then decides whether an individual will be interested and how likely they are to share the content. It will score a post based on the following 3 factors:

Who posted the story – if someone likes and comments, it will infer that you’re interested in it.
Number of post interactions – the more likes, comments and shares, the more popular and therefore more interesting a post is.
When the post was created – More recent posts are always given priority in the news feed.

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

4) Get The Timing Right

Establishing the perfect Facebook brand isn’t just about the content – sometimes it’s about the timing. The golden rule to follow is quite simple – post when people are most likely to be online.

Don’t ever post at night time when people are asleep, or when people are likely to be working. You can schedule posts to make it easier to distribute content during peak times, such as at lunch time and during the evening.

This is a crucial trick to Facebook posting, so if you can follow these four tips, you’ll be well on your way to posting the perfect Facebook content.

What Customers Want From Your Facebook Page

Using Instagram for Real Estate – Your Complete Guide

From Instagram stories to the recent boom in advertising options, it’s definitely a great time to be using Instagram for your real estate marketing.

But how can your agency get the most out of Instagram? In this post, we’ll cover everything you need to know, from setting up an account to growing your brand and driving those results.

How to Set Up Instagram for Your Real Estate Business

If you’ve yet to set up your Instagram account, don’t worry. You’ll need to create an account by using a secure email and password. After doing so, you’ll be redirected to a page where you’ll be asked to create a profile.

Your bio and username

To help boost your discoverability, you need to get your username on Instagram as close to your brand name and other social profile name. For example, if your agency is called ‘Sydney Real Estate’, try and aim for the same on Instagram.

In your bio, you’re given a short space to describe your business and what people can expect to see from your profile. If you have branded hashtags you’d like your followers to use, you can also use this space to let them know.

Your photo

It’s a good idea to use your agency logo for your profile photo. Why? Because not only will it boost your brand recognition, it’ll also help your audience to find you more easily.

Your profile photo will be cropped into a circle by Instagram, so make sure your logo will look good in this. Although the mobile app will reduce the image to 100px, choose a larger one to make sure it looks good on desktop view, too.

Get some followers

To finalise setting up your agency’s Instagram presence, follow some users. Find people relevant to what you do, as well as potential customers living within your service area.

Your demographic is likely to be different from other agencies, so make sure you know who they are before you start following them. If you’ve already got a Facebook presence or an email database, consider sending information out to them asking them to follow you on Instagram, too.

Work Out What You Want from Instagram

Before launching head-on into your social media efforts, you first need to work out what you want to achieve. Here are some examples:

Boost enquiries
Drive website traffic
Increase brand awareness
Add value for your customers
Attract talented realtors
Build relationships with industry influencers

Creating Your Real Estate Content Strategy

Browsing the platform, scrolling through endless city photos and liking them randomly works fine if you’re on Instagram for personal use. For your business, however, you need a much more defined marketing plan.

1) When you should be posting

You’ll need to create and stick to a regular posting schedule, but be sure to not overload your audience.

If you’re unsure of where to start, kick things off by posting at different times and intervals, and see which get the best response.

Once you’ve outlined the best times to post, create a content calendar to keep yourself on track.

2) Shift your content themes

You can keep your audience interested by regularly changing your content themes. For example, if you’re an agency in Melbourne, you can switch between city events, new listings, and customer testimonials.

3) Stick to your style

Does your brand have set style guidelines? If not, create some. We’ll discuss this more in the next section.

4) Define your engagement strategy

How often are you going to like, comment, and respond to comments on your photos? This is something you need to work out early on to keep on top of the process.

Avoid using automated engagement platforms, because more often than not, they come across as generic and put people off your brand.

Building Your Real Estate Agency’s Instagram Brand

Instagram is a visual platform, so you need to define your brand identity to keep your followers engaged.

1) Stay consistent

60% of brands on Instagram use the same filter over and over again. Although you might think this would make your posts look bland, it actually does the opposite. By doing this, you can craft a style that’ll make your posts easily recognisable to your audience.

When they’re endlessly scrolling down their feed, you want your followers to stop at your photo. If you’re posting great, recognisable content, they’ll be more likely to do so.

2) Set what you’ll be posting about

You need to work out what your posts will be based around. If you only sell waterfront properties, posting rural cottages isn’t going to get you very far.

Although you should stick to your subject matter, you should work around other content themes, too. Use Instagram as a way of giving your audience a look behind the scenes of your agency, posting pictures of your agents and any social events you may attend.

3) Set up a branded hashtag

Although it’s a visual platform, Instagram still has non-visual elements. One key way of nailing this side is with a branded hashtag.

This isn’t just about using your brand name with a “#” in front of it. Choose something that’s unique and defines your agency and what you do.

Instagram Hashtags – What Every Real Estate Agent Needs To Know

4) Relate to your followers

Although it can give you some ideas on where to start, your brand won’t get very far by simply copying other agencies. Work out who your audience are and generate content that tackles their interests.

Consider what content your audience share on Instagram, how they engage with your competition, and the successes your agency is having on other networks like Facebook.

Stepping Up Your Instagram Content Marketing Game

Snap a property shot, whack on a filter and post might have worked in the early days, but it just doesn’t cut it any more. To get maximum benefit from Instagram, you need to make the most of every little feature.

1) Pay attention to captions

Although great visual content should be your primary focus, your captions shouldn’t be neglected. They’re the vessels for your photos and add more information about what they are and why they’re interesting.

They’re a top opportunity to give your image context and even add a little humour in.

6 Essential Tips To Nailing Your Instagram Captions

2) Set up albums with photos and videos

Now that Instagram has introduced photo and video albums, you should be using them. They’re a valuable opportunity to categorise your posts and combine 10 photos and videos into 1. You can use these photos to tell stories about your brand in a way that works wonders for engagement.

3) Use Instagram stories to your advantage

Over 250 million people on average use Instagram stories on a daily basis. Since the content disappears after a short amount of time, stories afford you the opportunity to take risks and trial photo or video content you usually wouldn’t go for.

Although sticking to the plan is good, disrupting your brand and content guidelines once in a while is a top way of testing if other types of content work better than your current plan.

4) Work alongside influencers

Take a look at influencers who work within your industry and reach out to them. Start building relationships with them and look for opportunities to collaborate on content.

Think about giving them access to your account for a day, or look into sponsored content that they can share with their audience.

This is an excellent method of growing your following, because you’ll get your brand in front of a new audience you may not necessarily have been targeting before.

Use Instagram Ads to Increase the Results You’re Seeing

Instagram ads are one way of getting some quick wins from the platform. If you’re looking for an initial spike in your results, such as gaining that web traffic or increasing your enquiries, Instagram ads could work for you.

Getting more Instagram Followers – Your Essential Guide

Stories Win Real Estate Clients – Here’s How to do it

We probably don’t need to tell you this – stories can be powerful ways to reel in your real estate clients.

Imagine this. You’re heading to meet a new client, with a large property they’re looking to sell. You’re armed with all sorts of information, including local market values and your trusty list of properties you’ve recently sold in the area.

You meet with them and let them have it. You present all the information, give them the stats you think they’re looking for, and sit back, waiting for them to offer you the gig.

But the offer doesn’t come through. Why?

Because you didn’t have a story. What you said wasn’t at all memorable, you didn’t back up anything you said with real-life examples and as a result, everything came across a big bag of empty promises.

If you had asked your prospective clients about their concerns and objections, then countered them with examples of how you’ve recently overcome them with other sales, you would have gained a captive audience. You would have locked in their interest. They would have remembered you when decision time rolled around.

Your storytelling abilities are what people remember about your brand. If you don’t want to fade into the distance, it’s something you need to get good at – and fast.

But how can you turn your experience, statistics and market information into a story? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Check out the 5 points below and you’ll be nailing your storytelling in no time.

1) Get to Grips with Who Your Audience Is

You might think a story is compelling, but if you’re talking about macroprudential policies to a group of first-time buyers, you’re going to lose their interest.

Take the time to understand who your audience is, then build a story around what they’re interested. Taking the group above, you could tackle their budgetary objections by how you managed to work with them to secure a gorgeous suburban property, utilising the first-home buyer grants & subsidies bringing it into a first-time buyer’s price range.

2) Know What Makes a Good Story

If you’ve been in the industry a while, you’ll already have a lot of stories. Working out which ones to tell, however, is a completely different deal.

Once again, think about who your audience are. Target your story to their objections. One useful habit to pick up is marking all your sold property addresses on a Google Maps account. Before you know it, you’ll have a large record of property sales, which you can tap up to jog your memory about deals you’ve made near your new clients.

There are two key story types known to be effective:

– The good vs. evil

Whether it’s about a difficult buyer or loose-cannon lawyers, everyone loves a good bad-guy story. If you can work yours around this type, great. Use it to your advantage.

– The overcoming an obstacle

Being able to relate to mistakes and how they’re worked out is a key aspect your stories need to have. Why? Because nobody wants to make mistakes, meaning they’ll likely heed your advice and listen in.

3) Go Back to the Basics

Knowing what makes a good story isn’t all about advanced techniques, engagement and intonation – some of the best tips are the most basic:

– Set the scene by mentioning the place, time, and who’s involved.

– Present the problem by mentioning the obstacle that needs to be overcome.

– Share the pinnacle moment where you overcame that obstacle

– Say what you got from it in terms of a reward.

4) Play on Your Audience’s Emotions

Any good story is one that plays on your emotions. It engages you, makes you feel involved with the characters, and leaves you asking, “what next?”.

If there’s an emotive angle to your story, use it. Tell you audience how you and your clients felt during the process, playing on any stress, sadness and fear you may have experienced.

5) Weave Stories into Your Overall Marketing Efforts

Stories are no longer just for sharing face-to-face. As more and more businesses take to social media to communicate with potential customers, you’re presented with a priceless platform for capturing attention, engaging your audience, and appealing to their emotions.

Publish your stories in short teaser snippets on your Facebook page, with links to the full article on your business blog. If you’re discussing home maintenance, don’t just give generic tips. Tie stories into it to strengthen your bond with your customers and vice versa.

New iDashboard Image Editor Tool

At iDashboard we understand that sometimes the images taken by an Agent or Property Manager, may not show the property in its best lighting or they may have even been taken by a mobile device, meaning the images need rotating or enhancing.

We are proud to announce the release of our New Image Editor, now you can easily edit your images within iDashboard, simply by clicking the pencil icon at the top right corner of the image itself.

The powerful, full-featured image editing user interface enables iDashboard users to edit their photos right within the image gallery, offering a bundle of great tools such as:

Enhance image colours with automated tool
Add Text Overlay
Rotate or Mirror
Crop
Resize
Modify Sharpness & Focus pPoint
Alter image Brightness, Contract, Highlights & Shadows
Add Effects/Filters, Vignette, Overlays, Stickers
Change image Saturation, Warmth, Tint & Fade
Free hand Colour Modification & Drawing tools

No longer do users need to use a third-party tool to modify their images prior to upload, this can all be done at ease within the iDashboard system.

7 Relationship Building Techniques Every Real Estate Agent Should Be Using

It’s no secret – the performance of your real estate business completely relies on the strength of your relationships. If you lose clients because of an average or completely unethical service, you’re going to struggle to get back on track.

So, what’s the secret to real estate success? Cultivating and nurturing long-term relationships with clients, instead of opting for one-off ways to earn some commission.

Check out the following tips for creating long-term relationships with your clients:

1) Up Your Communication and Service Game

Regular communication and high-quality service are two traits that are far too often lacking in real estate agents. Regardless of how busy you are, make both one of your top priorities. As a real estate agent, clients rely on you to keep them informed on any developments in their sales. Even if it’s just a quick email on the way to another viewing, feedback and regular progress reports will make you stand out from the rest.

2) Develop Your Resources to Earn Trust as an Advisor

If you can present added value to your clients, they’ll definitely be more loyal to you. This increase in trust will no doubt lead to boosted referrals to family and friends.

Any newsletters and blog posts you publish should be jam-packed full of useful, actionable information that adds value to your clients’ lives.

Think about it – they’re not looking to you for stuff they already know. They want expert advice on the real estate industry. Why not give it to them?

3) Always Be Honest

Honesty goes an incredibly long way. Even if it’s not good news, keeping your clients posted on developments will keep the relationship going far longer than if you try to cover stuff up.

Clients might not understand the industry perfectly, but that doesn’t mean they’re not smart. If they’re being manipulated, they’re going to know about it. Even white lies can damage your reputation, so keep your record squeaky clean with honesty and use it to build lasting relationships.

4) Do What You Say – Always

If you say you’re going to do something, stay true to your service guarantee and do it. It could be as simple as dropping them a one-line email after you’ve spoken with the buyer, but if you don’t do it, you’ll build a reputation of unreliability.

Once you’ve lost your client’s trust, it’s incredibly difficult to get back. Offering a loyal, dependable service won’t just help you keep your business – it’ll also boost the chance of clients referring your services to others.

5) Remember Clients are People

Clients are more than just a vehicle for your commission. You should take the time to understand their individual concerns and interests. Doing so will solidify the bond between you and it may even lead to repeat business.

6) Reward Loyalty

If a client has stuck with you for several years, that doesn’t mean they’ll be there forever. Keep their business by rewarding them with special offers, discounts and long-term client programs.

Remember – you’re not spending time prospecting to get their business, so they’re saving you money in the long-run.

7) Look at the Bigger Picture

If you can work hard to keep your clients satisfied, they’ll have no reason to look elsewhere for real estate services. Treat them well, take time to understand their objections, and provide them with the expert advice they’re looking for. You’ll have a bag of loyal long-term clients in no time.

Win More Repeat Business With These Top Tips

As a real estate agent, you need to more than just inbound marketing if you want to guarantee long-term success. Every now and then, you need to head back to the very source of your business in the first place.

In 2012, repeat business accounted for an average of 21% of real estate agents’ business. That’s a significant chunk of your commission, and it was even more for agents who’d been in the industry for over 16 years, who came in at 40%.

If you want to be truly successful, repeat business has to form part of your marketing strategy. Here’s how you can integrate it and start reaping benefit from it:

1) Add a personal touch when thanking clients

If you’ve completed sales recently where buyers have been overly happy with your service, nice work. You can, however, do more than simply tell them their business is valued – you can show them.

Send letters to your clients after completion along with a gift. This doesn’t have to be expensive, just a point of reference to keep you in their minds. You should be careful to stay within any laws surrounding gift-giving, as the last thing you want is to wind up in legal trouble.

2) Speak with them offline as well as online

Social media is a great method for communicating with past clients, but visiting them in person can help put a face to your name.

Find out about their interests and check up on how they’re doing in the property. If you can avoid being overly promotional, you’ll help to solidify a bond that’ll increase your chances of attaining repeat business. Make sure you don’t overdo the sales aspect, because clients definitely won’t want to see you if all you do is talk about when they’ll need representation again.

You can also do this by sending monthly or quarterly email updates, asking for feedback on how your clients are doing, as well as keeping them in the loop with any notable business developments.

3) Make the most of social media

Email marketing and face-to-face communication aren’t the only ways off staying in touch. Social media can be a powerful tool for driving repeat business, too.

Research shows that using social networks to communicate with your audience makes them significantly more likely to use your services in future. Use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to convert your former clients into brand evangelists and they’ll start recommending your services to friends and family.

4) If you can’t win repeat business, get referrals

If you can’t get repeat business from your clients, not all is lost. Your potential customers are increasingly likely to check out your reviews online before enquiring, so give them something to see.

Ask previous clients who’ve been happy with your service to leave you a review online, detailing what they like about how you conduct business and what benefits they’ve seen.

Have you used techniques that have resulted in a rise of repeat business? Share your secrets with us in the comments box below!

New Pat Rice & Hawkins Website

Pat Rice & Hawkins required a new website to go along with their change in real estate systems.

The team at iDashboard worked with them to build a custom website that offered the styling and functionality they were after. Our team proudly produced the new Pat Rice & Hawkins website, which is completely responsive; working on Desktops, Tablets and Smartphones allowing their staff and visitors to access any, property any time.

Their custom website offers specialised features such as:

Pop-out contact forms
Pop-out media galleries
Grid, List & Map property results viewing
Team Profile Type Ordering
Video on home page

We wish the team at Pat Rice & Hawkins all the best with their new website and look forward to our ongoing relationship.

If you are looking for a new website, wether you are starting from scratch or want to upgrade to a modern responsive design, contact the iDashboard team today.

10 Tips For Real Estate Bliss

Being successful in real estate isn’t all about profits and numbers – it’s about being genuinely happy in the job. Happiness is a differently shaped lock for everyone, so the key is going to be different too.

Being happy in your job as a real estate agent, has a wide variety of benefits – including the motivation to work harder and to strive for a more successful workplace.

Here are the top 10 tips for finding real estate bliss:

1) Getting A Good Night’s Sleep

Although easier said than done, getting the right amount of sleep can be essential for maintaining physical, emotional and mental strength. Sleep keeps you alert, responsive and will determine how much stress you can handle in a day.

2) Take Time For Self-Reflection

Taking the time to reflect on decisions you’ve made is hugely important as a professional. Whether it’s free-writing, making a to-do list, meditation or yoga, reflection is essential to self-growth as a professional. It’s also a great way for you to relieve stress.

3) Take Regular Breaks

Taking breaks during the working day is important – no matter which style of worker you are. Taking regular breaks is essential for giving your mind a moment to rest up and get ready for the next bout of work. It can lead to increased clarity of thought and will help to boost workplace happiness.

4) Smile – It’s Infectious

It might seem a little weird, but forcing a smile can actually make you feel happier – releasing endorphins and making you a little more upbeat. Smiles are infectious and if you can pass the good vibes on to a colleague then you’ll have a happier workplace overall.

5) Plan Ahead Financially

Having financial plans will help to make you happier, because you are less likely to run into money troubles this way. Money troubles will put a dampener on your mood and can cause long periods of stress.

6) Develop Relationships With Clients

We often take happiness from the feeling that we’ve done something great to help others out. If you practice this mantra with your clients, you’ll build great relationships that you enjoy exercising. This will make your job much more fulfilling on a daily basis.

7) Improve Yourself

Getting stuck into work is great, but perhaps you should consider setting some personal goals. Getting into running or perhaps spending time with family and friends more often will help to give your life a sense of balance – being all consumed by work will put a cap on your level of happiness.

8) Use Technology To Increase Organisation

Take time to consider whether the latest app or techno-thingy is actually going to benefit your company in terms of organisation and productivity. If it does then go for it, but if not you may find yourself in a digital battle to get a refund on an app or subscription – causing unnecessary stress.

9) Learn To Say “No”

According to Warren Buffett, the difference between being successful, and very successful is the ability to say “no”. People who are very successful will say “no” to almost everything. Real estate agents are busy people, so sometimes saying no will prevent you from being spread too thinly.

10) Join The Community

Joining the real estate community will put things into perspective a little for you. Seeing how other people handle life’s challenges, and the support systems in place will give you a boost. Joining the community can also lead to new relationships that can strengthen and improve your daily life in the industry.

5 Social Media Lead Generation Methods You Need to Know About

Before diving into the methods of lead generation on social media, it’s worth taking a look at leads themselves. What exactly is a lead? Well, a lead is a potential customer who’s expressed an interest in one of your business’ products or services and has offered their contact details to gain more information.

These leads can then be passed directly onto the sales department, or actioned yourself using a content marketing campaign. This can be an essential part of the lead cultivating process, as over 90% of business decision makers say they don’t respond to cold calling.

So, how can social media work for lead generation?

There are several methods you can use to generate a sustainable flow of leads through social media.

1) Gated content link sharing

Gated content is how the name suggests. It’s content that’s protected by a virtual gate, which users can pass through after providing some information about themselves, such as contact details.

Promoting gated content on social media is a great way to build a picture of who your customers are. It’s also a massive help for finding out which ones are genuinely interested in what you have to offer.

2) Create and run social contests

These don’t have to be huge, budget-intensive spectacles, but the prize does have to be valuable enough to gain people’s attention. It should also be valuable to the people most likely to be interested in your services, not just everyone. Giving away an iPad is great, but it’s not targeted to real estate. Consider a more relevant prize, such as offering a select number of sellers free marketing campaigns for their properties.

3) Advertise on social media

Organic social posts can bring leads in, but they’re rarely going to get the reach that paid ads will. Paid ads will also let you target your customers based on a set of niche criteria.

For example, if you work in Sydney, you can set your social ads to only be shown to people within a 20-mile radius of the city centre. Tie this in with your gated content and social competitions to maximise the effects.

4) Utilise Facebook custom tabs

Your real estate business page on Facebook is a top place to start generating actionable leads. A recent social media study found that 66% of millennials use Facebook to look for coupons, discounts and contests, which is great news for marketers because these are all excellent lead generation tactics.

Tabs are small menu items located in your Facebook business page’s left column. Although your page will already have some standard tabs, you can now customize these to highlight any special contests or giveaways you might be running. If you don’t have a developer in your office, don’t worry – there are plenty of apps available that’ll help you set up custom tabs in no time.

5) Use hangouts, live video and webinars to showcase recent properties

If you’re looking for a way to offer extra value to your audience, webinars, hangouts and live videos are great methods to try.

You can either make your webinars gated to drive leads, or you can win them in other ways. One successful method is opening the webinar to a wider audience 100% free, then present offers throughout.

The same can be done with live sessions. Try out a live video or webinar teaching your viewers how to maximise their property value and plug your services at the same time.

Latest News

Our Services