“When you implement something new as a solo agent, it can feel like turning the Titanic,” says Katie Lance, a real estate marketing expert and consultant. “You’re establishing a new habit.” That’s why she suggests that attendees of Inman Connect San Francisco this summer focus on implementing just one or two ideas that can grow into habits — and why she’ll be offering up her own tactics to adopt in a session covering zero-cost marketing strategies that yield leads and referrals. The conference is taking place July 17 through 20 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square, and Lance’s presentation will be one of several marketing-driven sessions designed to help you build your business.
If you don’t already have an email marketing plan, Lance will explain how to set one up for free. “Many agents and are operating with a database of less than 2,000 people,” Lance notes, and MailChimp’s services will let you send email to up to 2,000 email addresses and up to 12,000 emails a month — absolutely free. “It’s really simple, and you won’t need a graphic designer to create a template,” she adds. “There are mobile-friendly templates and an app so you can test them on your phone, and it works great.”
To help manage your new email marketing project, you can take advantage of one of several project management tools available online for free — Trello and Asana are two that Lance recommends. “If you want to implement something new, you’ll need a checklist for the steps involved. What will that weekly email entail? You’ll need to write the copy, put the links in, test and schedule it.” This can be outsourced to an assistant, of course — but that’s difficult if you don’t have a system in place.
Lance is also going to talk about social media marketing (including Facebook Live and Facebook Messenger), video marketing, and publishing content on LinkedIn or Medium to help build a following, in addition to a number of free tools you can use to support all of those efforts.
“For most things, you really have to give it at least a good six months to see if it’s working,” Lance advises. So don’t get discouraged if you don’t see immediate results!
Learn more about Lance’s tactics for generating and capturing leads at Inman Connect San Francisco this summer.