With everyone staying at home and social distancing, how do real estate agents remain relevant with their clients and prospects? According to NAR, 90% of buyers say they will use their agents again. Yet, only 12% do, per Chris Stuart, CEO of HSF Affiliates, LLC. Agents and brokerages have the ability to improve that, and it exists with the contacts you already know.
According to Forbes, during the COVID-19 crisis, businesses will be focused on their digital strategy, because it may be the deciding factor in whether they survive the tough times ahead. So, what can agents and brokerages do to focus on their digital strategy? Here are a few things to consider when strengthening your digital marketing efforts:
1. Have a system to reach out to all your clients frequently, either via phone call, email or social. These are "free" leads, that go untouched if the transaction is over, or the buyer is not actively ready to shop. How do you find new clients among these contacts? Keeping in touch with your sphere of influence systematically, and strengthening those relationships, is key to having strength and remaining top of mind when we come out of this crisis. If you could use some help with staying in touch with your SOI, rezora is offering free Nurture accounts for the first three months. For more information and to get signed up, head to this page here.
2. The Rule of Seven - a cardinal rule in advertising is that someone must see an advertisement seven times before they buy. How can an agent cost-effectively ensure they're seen at least seven times? While they are many ways, one cost effective way is retargeting, or advertising to people who have already engaged with you. They may have visited your website, or they may have opened one of your marketing emails. To learn more about retargeting with rezora, see here. When done properly, they will now see your ads as they visit other sites around the internet, giving those important impressions only to prospective clients who've expressed an interest in what you do.
3. Promote yourself effortlessly - take a couple hours and schedule out a few light touches to go out to your sphere of influence. Whether it's passing along some Monday morning coffee recipes or sharing relevant resources, your contacts will see you're active in the market and doing business. Just set it and forget it.
4. Now is the perfect time to lean into video meeting software. Zoom is a relatively easy-to-use tool (even your least tech savvy clients should be able to figure it out!) that'll allow you to keep in contact "face-to-face". Offering a prospective client a $5 Starbucks gift card for a virtual coffee meeting, even just see how they're doing and gauge future interest in selling or buying, could end up being the kind of memorable effort that'll keep them coming back, and maybe even land you a few referrals.
There are many systems out there that can help you with these endeavors. Whatever you use, and by whatever method, connecting with and deepening your relationships with your contacts is a worthwhile effort when face-to-face contact is a challenge. You'll reap the benefits when things return to normal.
