Realtors: Why use Referral Marketing
17 August 2018
Unless it’s a balanced market, there’s often stress on one side of the transaction or the other.
In a buyer’s market, for example, your seller clients worry, “Will our home sell in time? Will we get enough money from the sale? What if our home doesn’t sell?”
In a seller’s market — which is at record-breaking levels in many areas these days — your buyers are concerned and thinking, “Will we ever find a home in our price range? What if we find a home we like but there are multiple offers? How do we compete?”
A big part of your job as an agent is to help clients ease that stress by working with them to successfully buy or sell — or both.
How do you do that?
Surprising, your real estate marketing plays a major role.
Obviously, you want your marketing to generate real estate leads and attract real estate referrals. But your real estate marketing also needs to consistently communicate to prospects and clients that you’re the kind of agent who cares.
To use a popular expression, your real estate marketing needs to build your “know, like and trust” level with your contacts.
For example, say you’ve been staying in touch with residents in a neighbourhood you’re targeting. You’ve been smart about your geographic farming strategy; mailing residents a high-value geo farming newsletter each month and building those relationships in other ways.
Now, one of those residents is ready to sell — and buy another home. But they’re stressed about the market. Who are they going to call to work with them?
Chances are, you.
When times are tough, people tend to gravitate to those professionals they know, like and trust. That new prospect trusts you because you’ve stayed in touch and provided helpful advice and information along the way. They feel less stressed because they’re dealing with you and not a stranger.
Your relationship-building real estate marketing approach made that happen.
The same holds true with past clients. When you stay in touch and continue to build those relationships — by mailing a monthly real estate newsletter, scheduling an annual visit, and adding value in other ways — that client is likely to call you again for their next move. For them, you’re the stress-free choice.
In addition, those clients will be much more likely to recommend you to their friends and neighbours. So you get more real estate referrals.
Even for new prospects who don’t know you yet, they’ll feel less stressed — and be more likely to hire you — if they see you’re the type of agent who values relationships.
Takeaway: Review your current real estate marketing system. Is it positioning you as an agent that values and builds relationships? If not, get this advantage working for you today.