​8 Common Real Estate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

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A realtor’s work is never done, right?

It’s hard enough being an entrepreneur without the marketing pitfalls slowing our already-slow progress.

Online marketing seems especially endless with its distractions, contradicting opinions on best practices, and the various Alice-in-Wonderland style rabbit holes to suck us in for hours and days and weeks.

​I’m passionate about marketing and about realtors growing their online presence. So my little heart breaks a little when I see busy, hardworking people accidentally make these common marketing mistakes.

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8 Common Real Estate Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

1. Talking About Yourself Too Much
   
   Despite the sense of fame our Facebook friends give us, people don’t actually care about our personal interests and opinions. Not really.  Sure, they might be curious or even slightly amused occasionally, but ultimately people want to know what’s in it for them.
   
   Why should they read your posts or follow you in social media. What’s the benefit to them?
   
   The answer is to be about your clientele. What do THEY want?
   
   If it’s how to maximize their home’s sale value with minimal renovations, tell them that. If it’s help understanding real estate transaction terms, help them. 
   
   If you have people asking you the same question over and over, it’s a good indicator of what they want from you. Be the answer.
   
   
   
2. Not Talking About Yourself at All
   
   Most of the time though, particularly among realtors, there’s an aversion to talking about themselves. I get it. As professionals and entrepreneurs, we want to make a great impression, attracting everyone, and repelling no one. When we decide to say anything then – to share a Facebook status or write a blog post - we desperately want to say safe things. We don’t want to stick out, or risk offending or alienating anyone.
   
   The problem with playing it safe though and trying to fit in, is that we become chameleons, blending into the background of other bland people doing bland things. It’s those brave enough to show their personality – who they really are – that become attractive.
   
   As consumers, we want to connect with people, not businesses or information.
   
   As the business person though, it’s terrifying to risk being authentic. The risk is far greater than personal rejection by friends, colleagues, and strangers too – it can also cost us clientele.
   
   But, if you think about it, it’s actually a positive thing to alienate people who judge or dislike you. (Would you really want to work with people like that anyway?)
   
   By attracting only the kinds of people who appreciate your character and personality, you might just save yourself a few headaches! We only need to be brave enough to risk it.
   
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3. Thinking You’re Really Smart
   
   Entrepreneurs are determined, resourceful, hardworking people. They wear many hats and do many jobs. Everything, really.
   
   And that’s a problem when it comes to marketing.
   
   So many times I’ll encounter clients who reach out, desperate for content marketing help, and then ignore my input, disregard my skill and experience, and instead tell me what to write and how. Ironically, real estate agents are also often told by clients how to do their job.
   
   Headstrong people lose out on some of the best help their business could get, by acting like others don’t know marketing like they do.
   
   Newsflash: You’re not that smart.
   
   No one is. We all need each other.
   
   Businesses need advisors, coaches and mentors. Heck, even a freelance business writer needs writers on staff. We just don’t know everything. And even if we did, we sure don’t have time for everything! Team work isn’t weak, it’s smart.
   
   
   
4. Doing Everything
   
   Which brings me to this next point. Even if a person did know how to do everything in each aspect of their business, who has the time?
   
   The entrepreneur must wear many hats, and is thrilled by the challenge, but it can keep us spinning our wheels, running in circles, and working harder for less.
   
   It doesn’t have to be this way. There is such a thing as delegating.
   
   One client added a team member to her business, and it changed her life. But handing over the reins on some stuff was really hard. Because she did though, her professional photos demonstrate her professionalism – both in the product they portrayed, and in her ability to swallow her pride and delegate to other capable people.
   
   
   

5.Use Facebook as your Main Hub

This one really bothers me. (Which is why I wrote about it here) Unless you’re buying targeted ads, Facebook is marketing roulette. Did you know only about 2% of your Facebook page followers see your posts? (This post features great insight into why, and also on what to do about it)

Worse than that, instead of directing traffic to your own website, Facebook and whoever else’s links you share get all your hard-earned traffic.

Don’t waste the effort and time it takes to produce content by dumping it into the Facebook abyss. Invest that content in your own website instead. From there, you can share it to social media, directing traffic to your site where you know everyone who arrives there will see your content, and you can influence where they go and guide the conversation.


6.Use Gimmicks  

We teach people how to treat us.

Likewise, our marketing will determine our clientele.

Branding yourself as a provider of high-end products and extreme value will garner more of a high-end clientele and likely alienate others. Branding yourself with off-the-wall gimmicks, deep discounts, or draws and freebies will attract a less loyal clientele. They’ll want to be entertained or get free things. And if that’s your ideal clientele, fine. But if it’s not, beware your branding.

Start with the end in mind. Who you attract is who you’ll end up working with.



7.Take Your Own Pictures

I have to stop to tell you a sad story. There’s this cute little boutique café in a small town nearby that has some potential. But the owner has made the terrible mistake of taking her own photos of their food. Suddenly her home-baked pies and cheesecakes are repelling online prospects. Honestly, some of the photos are downright gross. (It’s hard to make a bowl of cream soup look good!) And it breaks my heart because a little tweak – a little delegation to a professional – could help build her business instead of send people away.

Photography is an art. Let the pros do it! For everyone else, there’s terriblerealestateagentphotos.com.



8.Don’t Blog

Have you ever looked up a local company to find out something specific – about an event or product let’s say, and were disappointed to discover no current information? That’s the result of a misguided belief that if you build it, they will come.

Static business card websites do not attract customers.

Search engines rank based largely on content, so the search rank of such sites is low. (Do you ever look beyond page 2 of the search results? Few do.)

To rank higher in search engines, your site needs to prove itself relevant and worthy.

But there’s more.

To rank higher in search engines, the content needs to:

* Be Consistent
(frequency is not as important as consistency)

* Be Relevant
(keyword stuffing or content that does not match the headline is filtered out by search engines. Create excellent content.)

* Be Scanable.
Heads and subheads, lots of white space, and lists make for easier online reading. (Online readers scan, they don’t sit and read heavy blocks of text as in a book)
 
How many of those got you?
(I’m guilty of a few myself.)
The good and bad news about blogging and building an online presence is that it’s an art. We’ll keep learning, developing our skill, and improving our results.

Action Points:

1) Choose just one of your mistake areas to work on in the next week. What changes did you notice?

2) Help your friends and colleagues avoid these mistakes too, by liking and sharing this post! 



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