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By Maddie Jostol
Marketing can feel like a necessary evil. It’s easy to get overly stressed, especially for new agents just getting into the real estate game. Being an agent is already a busy routine and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the endless options when it comes to marketing. Which strategies should you actually put effort into, and more importantly, how can you keep the cost down?
Here are five affordable ways to market yourself and your listings so you can continue to grow your business, without sacrificing a ton of cash.
1. Go digital
Don’t get us wrong, traditional practices such as hand-written notes can never be replaced. For your larger-scale marketing initiatives, however, keep your cost down by going digital. Leverage automation tools for sphere touches online rather than spending on printing and shipping, which can be very costly.
For example, when you create digital presentations for lead generation, it costs you nothing. Printing these presentations can get very costly (think $50-100 each), especially if you have them bound. Plus, if it’s digital, it’s always up to date and easy to edit.
2. Make your marketing efforts go further
Get more out of your marketing efforts through by targeting the right messages to the right people. When you have detailed insights about your contacts and you take care in updating your CRM, your life will be much easier come time to market.
This person likes to golf? Invite them to your charity tournament. That person prefers to communicate via email? Only use that medium. This group of contacts all have young children? Keep them in the loop with regards to family-related news and events in the neighborhood.
3. Leverage existing relationships
When you start your marketing efforts with those who already know you, it spurs word-of-mouth marketing. Those who know and trust you will keep you top of mind and are most likely to share your content and spread the word. We aren’t just saying this because we’re huge fans of the sphere marketing methodology, but because it’ll actually make your marketing dollars go further. When you market to someone in your sphere (invite them to an event, send them a piece of content, etc.), those efforts will be amplified as they go out and interact with people in their own sphere.
4. See what tools you already have
We know… you like to pick and choose your own tools. However, you end up training yourself and don’t have any integration between those tools. Consider the marketing tools your brokerage already offers you. You might be surprised at the tools you have at your fingertips that you never even knew about. They were hand selected for a reason, and you’re more likely to have access to resources and support if those tools are offered by your brokerage.
5. Reach the masses where it matters
Market to your audience in groups. For example, host casual community events, where you can connect with a large number of people in one fell swoop. This will keep your costs down and enable you to grow your sphere, all while positioning you as the real estate expert in your area.
If you’re looking to cast a wider net, try marketing on social media. Meet consumers where they already are. Get in the rhythm of advertising each new listing you win, then promote your business when you’re in need of some new leads. On social media, you can reach a massive audience with just a little spend.
For example, you might spend $79 to reach 3,000-4,000 people (depending on your audience and geographic area) on Facebook. Reaching that same audience with postcards would be very costly (think 10-20x the cost).
Then, the more you decide to spend, the wider net you cast – it’s that simple. Make sure you report back to your clients, that’s where the real value is. It’s an inexpensive way to exceed their expectations and show them you went above and beyond.
