On this edition of “Keeping It Real,” a recurring podcast series on Inman, Peter Lorimer discusses how to market and ensure the longevity of your business from content creation to targeting to door-knocking.
It’s possible to future-proof your business. For starters, let’s talk about digital portals that serve leads. These portals can eat into your margins and, ultimately, hinder you from being the captain of your own ship. And we can all expect these portals to become more and more expensive as time progresses.
However, I come bearing good news.
We don’t need to rely on these portals to bring us leads. We can procure them ourselves. There are some extremely underutilized systems that allow real estate agents to garner more leads and get more business.
Leaping into these platforms is the only way to get onto the path of entrepreneurial real estate. It starts (and ends) with getting in front of your clients.
We don’t sell houses. We sell trust — and we earn trust by putting ourselves out there (authentically and consistently).
Facebook and Instagram are horrifyingly underutilized. How can you utilize these platforms? Create original content. Content where people can understand exactly who you are and what you’re about. I have a strategy that I consistently execute, and it has brought me around 80 percent of my business.
Here’s the strategy (in a nutshell):
- Create interesting original content (don’t be salesy, and maybe don’t even mention that you’re an agent)
- Target your ZIP code with original content via social media
- Push properties to your targeted ZIP code via social media
- Buy your leads from Zillow
- Door-knock
This is going to put you in front of people. If you consistently implement this strategy, people will begin to recognize you. When you roll up to a listing appointment, you’ll have already established a bit of trust.
Transitioning away from geographics and into demographics, we can take this strategy a step further. You can mine the data of those in your circles.
For example, my son is in a karate class. If I wanted to, I could find out who his classmates (and their parents) are and mine their data. Then, I would create a custom audience on Facebook and market to them through Instagram and Facebook with my original content and my business.
If you’re serious about your work, social media should never be something that you get around to. Listen in to my podcast above to explore all my top marketing tips for real estate agents.
Peter Lorimer is the CEO of Beverly Hills, California-based PLG Estates.
