The number of successful agents that have not embraced the digital age is really surprising. A lot of them rely on their old tactics because they’ve worked well in their business to date, but there’s no question that those agents are losing market share to younger agents that have embraced technology as part of their business.

Here are 6 things that every modern real estate agent should consider doing online right now:

Building an Online Review Strategy: Most consumers will start their search for an agent online. Even if they’re referred to you, there’s a good chance they’ll research you online first. Having a lot of positive reviews online from a credible source is absolutely key as part of your online lead generation strategy. Not only does it look good to the consumer when they search for you, but it also helps with some of your organic search results. So where should you get reviewed? The answer is everywhere and anywhere. Facebook, Google, Zillow, those are all great places to start (even Yelp, which I’m personally not a fan of). Consumers are all different, and they trust different sources when making decisions, so the more places you’ve been reviewed, the better.

A lot of agents struggle with asking for reviews from their clients, so it’s important that you have a strategy around getting them. In most cases, you’ll have the best chance of getting a review immediately after the transaction closes.

Building a Local Search Strategy: One of the most searched keyphrases now is: near me. For example, pizza places near me, dentists near me, and yes, even real estate agents near me, so it’s really important that you can show up in those searches. To do that, you’ll want to appear really local in a search engine’s eyes, so make sure you have an up to date Google Business page, with all of the information completed and several positive reviews. As well, anything else you can do on your website or online strategy to appear more local will help as well.

Building a Digital Nurturing Program: A lot of people that visit your website online probably won’t want to do a transaction with you immediately, and having a way of nurturing them is key to ensuring that when they are ready to make a decision about who to work with, they think of your brand. A nurturing program can be complex, but it should really be planned out to cover all of your bases through email drip campaigns, retargeting advertising, automated follow-ups, and any other way you can be a reminder to your clients online. The more things you can do to stay top-of-mind with your potential clients, the better the chances that they’ll contact you when they’re ready to make a decision.

Improve Your Team Communication Strategy with Slack: If you have multiple people on your team, and you’re using a combination of text messages, email, and bridged phone calls to communicate, then you need a better strategy to be more productive. Easily, the best solution there is out there is Slack. It’s a highly customizable collaboration hub that moves all of your communication into one place, which will allow you and your team to share information more easily and instantly, stay up to date with the day-to-day of the business, and generally, make everything easier. It’s easy to set up, easy to use, and the base level is free. Once you incorporate Slack into your daily team communication strategy, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. 

As well, some savvy agents should consider adding their clients to their Slack workspace to make things easier, and more instant, around communication about their transaction. 

Get Into the Voice Space: Alexa/Google, what’s my news? If you use a voice device, chances are that you’re using the news service where each day you get a curated list of content read to you. And if you don’t use it, it doesn’t change the fact that a ton of people do. Currently, the options for real estate content in voice is minimal, so you have a real chance of getting ahead of everyone else in what is sure to become the next huge space. The point is, since a lot of people are using voice devices more often, you should try to secure your place there before everyone else does. Click here to learn more about building a real estate voice content strategy.

Have a Targeted, Beautiful Website: If you don’t have a modern, custom, beautiful website that is built with your target audience in mind, then you’re falling behind, period. A lot of consumers will make an opinion of you simply by visiting your website and judging you based on that, likely without you even knowing it. Without a strong online presence and modern website at the core of your digital strategy, you’ll be behind the other agents that invest in their online strategy before you. 

Author: Andre Bodnar

Founder, Business Development

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