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Recently, I mentioned SEO or search engine optimisation, and it got me thinking of how we can better market ourselves and when people are searching for real estate in our area, we come out on top of the listings.
You can pay an SEO expert to do this for you or maybe invest in media training, both of which are good but expensive ideas.
So I have come up with a few hacks and tricks you can do yourself.
When you watch the TV news or listen to the radio, there are always experts of some kind being asked for their opinion.
If you watch or listen long enough, you will find the same folks coming up time after time to talk about their favourite subject.
So how do you become your local expert and the go-to person when the media wants a comment on real estate, housing in general, or interest rates.
Why is it important anyway?
Having a higher profile means potential buyers and sellers will:
- Recognise your name
- Think of you when it comes to buying or selling
- Improve your search engine ranking
We are in this business to sell real estate. To do that, we need listings, and it really helps get listings if people know who you are.
Here are some things you can do.
- Offer to speak at local service clubs and associations. Everyone is interested in real estate and trends. The folks in the audience will be keen on finding out how their area is tracking. They want to know if prices are rising or falling. Who better to tell them about it than you? A PowerPoint presentation with some of your successes will enhance your talk. Every single person in the audience is a potential buyer or seller, and after your talk, they will all know who you are.
- Write a column for the local paper. You probably advertise with them anyway and they would be silly not to publish your thoughts. Keep content general and don’t use it to push a particular property.
- Keep a close eye on the news. When there are news stories affecting real estate with surveys, interest rates, or first home buyer schemes, send an email to the local radio, newspaper and TV news if there is one. Offer your services to comment and give them your mobile number. Say they can call you anytime (and I mean anytime – breakfast radio is always looking for people to interview at six o’clock in the morning).
- Join every Facebook group in your area and post regularly. Do not try and push specific properties. We want people to know who you are. The exception is if a unique property comes on the market, like the home of a famous person or one that has been built to look like a castle.
- Make sure your own Facebook page (and every other social media presence you have) has regular new posts. Again, be careful about pushing individual properties, although people will expect you to have listings posted. Try things like home buying tips, lists of things to do when buying or selling and anything else you can think of which will enhance your standing.
- Make sure your website is up to date and has frequent new material added.
If you do all these things and keep them up, you will find that when someone searches for homes in your area, you will magically appear at the top of the list.
Adrian Bo is a licensed agent and auctioneer, sales training academy founder and author.
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