Real Estate Pros Podcast: For Real People Working in Real Estate

In the beginning, marketing in real estate was dominated by advertising and that meant buying media. It meant buying space in newspapers and hoping consumers would notice before they turned the page. It meant buying time on TV and hoping consumers would keep watching when the show cut to a commercial break. 

But today, the more you shout and jam your advertising in front of people’s face, the less people are going to listen. While that might have worked years ago, those days are definitely over.

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we'll explore the history of marketing in real estate - how it was done and why it probably won't work on its own in the future.

Traditionally, only big brands and publishers had access to consumer data to sell their products or services. They use that data to be more specific to the people that actually matter to their business instead of what we typically do in real estate which is we try to convince everyone that now is the time to sell.

Today, small businesses like yours have this data at your fingertips, but sadly, very few real estate professionals are tapping into it. 

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we'll explore how real estate agents are using data as their ultimate marketing advantage.

According to the Public Relations Institute of Australia, there are 15 million active Facebook accounts here in Australia and the average user spends 1 in every 5 minutes per day on Facebook. That’s 4.8 hours every day!

The latest statistics from Facebook themselves show that almost half of those Facebook users only ever log in from their mobile device – up 21% year on year. Which means by this time next year, we could see two-thirds of people on Facebook using only their mobile device to log in to their account.

For you as a real estate professional in the age of 'mobile-first', the latest changes at Facebook open up a whole new set of tools to market and operate your business more effectively and more cost-effectively than ever before. 

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we'll explore three big changes to Facebook aimed to help improve the customer experience and marketing of your business.

"If you're not answering customer questions on your website, you could be losing clients you didn't know you could get."

More than two million searches on Google every month - in Australia alone - are real estate related*. Every day, more of us are doing hands-off, keyboardless searches. We already use voice to ask questions in our phones and we’re now talking to the dashboard in our cars.

Voice-based searches are on the rise and tech giants like Apple and Microsoft are in a race to be first-to-market.

The research into this technology so far shows that voice-based searches typically contain longer questions - so jamming a website (or your Google Ads) full of keywords is not going to cut it against a website that delivers a headline with the answer to a question that someone is asking.

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we’ll explore the growth of voice-based search and how you can position your agency at the top of the list when someone is looking for the answer to a burning real estate question.

You won’t go to a conference or seminar in real estate today without hearing a trainer, consultant or coach talk about the importance of knowing your ‘Why’. You might already know what it is for you, but is your 'Why' really big enough? Is it based on doing whatever it takes to succeed at the expense of the things you care most about?

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we explore a very simple formula for why we are inspired by some people, leaders, messages and organizations over others - and how you can create a more powerful 'Why' that will make you unstoppable in real estate.

In 2015, there was 2.5 million real estate related searches on Google in Australia – every month!

The best person to answer those real estate related questions is… you guessed it… you. You are on the front line of our industry. You are the person with all of the insight in your local market.

But the sad reality for real estate professionals is the overwhelming majority of search traffic is going to industry providers such as the major portals and news sites – not real estate agency websites. They are the ones answering the questions that people are asking.

The opportunity for you as a real estate professional is to become the leading informational provider in your local market by leveraging Google – just like the big players do.

And the best part is, hardly anyone else is doing it.

I recently gave a presentation at Elite Agent Magazine’s Transform program – joining John McGrath, Claudio Encina and an impressive panel of coaches – where I shared one simple strategy that – if done consistently over time – will dominate your competition online.

This episode of Real Estate Pros is thanks to the team at Elite Agent - watch the full video here.

In business today, it’s harder than ever to earn attention. We have to understand our consumers on a much deeper level in order to consistently create marketing that they want - instead of what we typically do which is create marketing that people simply tolerate.

If you choose to keep doing the same things over and over again without measuring them - but expecting a different result - I can’t promise that you’ll drive revenue and profit into your business.

But by measuring your marketing – as much as I know you do with your sales ratios – it will tell you exactly what you need to improve and it will earn you more clients and help you sell and manage more properties. Digital just happens to be a very good – and very affordable way of doing it compared with traditional marketing methods.

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we’ll explore the pros and cons of both print and digital marketing for growing your real estate business.

Think of the greats like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen or Aussie bands like Powderfinger – they know that if they don’t have an audience, they won’t have success. Not only do musicians work their butt off to grow their audience, but they work equally hard – every show – to keep their audience coming back and have that audience tell all their friends. 

Real estate is no different. Your success is limited without an audience of loyal fans and subscribers.You need to drive growth and retention of clients and prospects – that will always be the case for sales people and property management professionals. But are you trying to build something bigger? Does your marketing serve a purpose for your audience? Is there something more?

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we’ll explore the lessons real estate agents can learn from rock stars on how to build an audience around your business that will subscribe, purchase and sell with you for many years to come.

Read the highlights: www.stepps.com.au/podcasts

Over the past few months we’ve been presenting a series of digital marketing workshops for one of Australia’s real estate franchise groups.

What was surprising to me was that no matter what part of the country we were in, real estate professionals are having the same challenges when it comes to digital marketing. The same questions came up over and over again.

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we’ll explore the top five questions real estate professionals are asking when it comes to digital marketing in 2016 and some helpful tips from those who are succeeding to grow your business online.

Read the highlights: stepps.com.au/podcasts

What do current and prospective clients value these days? It’s most likely not your products or services. More likely today, they value experiences over anything else - and if you don’t offer compelling, differentiated experiences, your clients – past and present – will research, look, purchase and become a loyal customer somewhere else.

The little things in business today, make all the difference tomorrow and the more amazing experiences people have with other industries, the more they are going to expect it from businesses like yours and mine.

In this episode of Real Estate Pros, we’ll explore the industries who are setting the benchmark on customer experiences and the strategies you can apply to increase client retention and referrals.