Takeaways:
- What I would do is create a video series on YouTube (you should already have a channel on YouTube for your business as well as your virtual tours).
- Your website should have a blog, and you should post those videos about the subdivision on that blog.
- Then you should cultivate a Pinterest page and Instagram to help further your SEO interests.
Most freshly licensed agents experience this I-am-going-to-take-over-the-world feeling of enthusiasm with their newly found career.
But after all of your business cards are printed, your website is live and Supra key is paid off, what next? That enthusiastic feeling can soon spiral toward a sense of being lost.
But don’t give up. Ask some of the other leaders in your organization for pointers. Join a real estate team or try to take some more classes.
Thomas Edison had a quote that rings true in real estate: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”
If you’re still lost, this is an excellent strategy for any agent to use to hit the ground running.
Here in Dallas, we have areas of homes called subdivisions, but that’s not the case throughout the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
But whether it’s called a subdivision, town, province, etc., the idea for this strategy is all the same.
Creating a marketing “blitzkrieg”
What you’ll need to do is a marketing “blitzkrieg” in your target subdivision. You’ll want to reach as many people as possible through the best sources.
For conversation’s sake (and because I just recently watched “Batman”), let’s call this subdivision Wayne Manor. So now that we’ve targeted our subdivision of Wayne Manor, where are we going to start? Well, the fastest and most affordable option will be from online marketing.
What I would do is create a video series on YouTube (you should already have a channel on YouTube for your business as well as your virtual tours).
I would do about six of them and title only five with phrases you think the community or future movers would search. I’ll tell you what to do with your sixth video later in the article.
Examples could be: “Best subdivision in Gotham City” (notice how I included the larger city that the subdivision resides in?), “Wayne Manor homes,” “Wayne Manor home prices,” “Wayne Manor Realtor,” “Wayne Manor real estate,” etc.
If you don’t know how to do any of this, there are plenty of Web design consultants who can assist, as this shouldn’t be too difficult of a job.
By naming these videos in this manner, you can hopefully capture some of the online traffic searching this particular community. You can also include these videos in what I’m about to advise on next, your blog.
Blogging is key
Your website should contain a blog — no ifs, ands or buts about it. Our company provides SEO services for real estate brokerages, loan officers and Realtors worldwide, so we strongly advise all of those clients to blog.
If they can’t, then we do it for them; that’s how critical the need is to have your website regularly updated. Just because you have a new listing up on your site doesn’t mean that your website is going to rank highly.
When you update your blog with the keywords of the subdivision you’re targeting, plus one of your YouTube videos to go along with it, you’re going to do well in the rankings for the keywords you’re going after.
If you post a blog article about best subdivision in Gotham City and within that blog you have a two- to five-minute video of yourself talking about the it, then it will be an awesome blog post that will generate traffic, views and, more importantly, leads.
There’s also a humanizing factor about posting videos of yourself for your blog.
Getting active on Pinterest
Another great source for marketing yourself and getting significant exposure would be to create a board on Pinterest titled “Wayne Manor.”
On that board, you can add great photos of the area along with all the info you can imagine. You can post facts about Wayne Manor, demographics, shopping and more.
This way when you conquer Wayne Manor, you can quickly create another board to target your next subdivision. Pinterest is an excellent ranking website that will get you a good mix of traffic you’re targeting.
Of course, one of the kings of targeted reach is Facebook, and it’s not to be forgotten. You can post your YouTube videos of Wayne Manor on your Facebook page and also add in some info into the posts as well.
But remember not to add too much because you have a limited amount of time to capture someone’s interest when they’re scrolling through their news feed.
Adding advertising to the mix
Additionally, I would target Wayne Manor by advertising to the specific demographic you’re targeting of 30- to 50-year-olds within that particular ZIP code.
There are more ways to tweak where you’re targeting within Facebook once you get in and get going. Now, I think this is the most important part of the Facebook advertising for Wayne Manor.
When you’re setting the URL to send the clicks from your Facebook ads, you’ll want to register the domain www.WayneManor.com then have a landing page that includes the sixth video that you created for Wayne Manor (I told you we had a use for that sixth video).
That last video will be a brief video introducing Wayne Manor and yourself. This video will be a great ploy for targeting that specific subdivision.
Snapping up your region on Instagram
The other social media platform I would encourage you to use in this strategy is Instagram. You can also easily link Instagram to your Facebook page, so your Facebook audience will also see your Wayne Manor photos in addition to your Instagram audience.
Using various hashtags such as #WayneManor, #WayneManorRealEstate, #WayneManorHomes, #WayneManorRealtor, etc., will also help your cause.
Also, by using Instagram and linking it to your Facebook page, you won’t have to update Facebook as much, which is a bonus.
Putting it all together
Once you’re doing all of the above in addition to other marketing — such as door hangers, mailers, advertising at shopping markets and other local periodicals — you’ll have a pretty instantaneous marketing blitzkrieg for that subdivision you’re targeting.
Of course, all of the above is for a Realtor on a limited budget, and it’s all free advertising strategies that require only your time — aside of Facebook advertising and domain name registry.
If you have more of a budget that you’re incorporating into your marketing, then you’ll have even better results — especially if you’ve got someone doing your SEO to put your website on page 1 of Google.
After you’ve dominated Wayne Manor, then you can move on to the next subdivision to duplicate this method and dominate. Remember, more and more millennials are at the homebuying age, so you must utilize the platforms that they do to reach them.
You must not be afraid to put in some sweat equity to get your business where you want it to be, because if you’re just waiting for people to call you miraculously, you’re going to be unsuccessful. After all, the best way to predict the future is to create it.
Andrew Molz is an expert strategist when it comes to merging social media with real estate. Currently, Molz is the managing partner at Dallas-based startups The Reputation Shop and 12 Rounds SEO; connect with him on LinkedIn.
