We speak to agents every day who say their business comes from repeat & referral. But have you ever thought about how many referral clients you might have lost without even knowing? Gone are the days when your name alone is enough for referrals to get in touch, especially now that the younger generations are in the market to buy and sell homes. Nowadays, the first thing a buyer or seller will do when they get passed your name is look you up online. Even if your name, number, and address are written down, laminated, framed, and handed to a referral, they will still look you up. They want to know: What is your marketing like? How will you advertise their home for you? How experienced are you? What kind of agent are you? How active are you online? What have other clients said about you? Your website should do all of these things! It’s the first impression a new client gets of you and your ability to buy or sell a home.
Showcase Your Credibility
Purchasing a home is one of the biggest financial decisions someone can make, and there are a lot of options out there when it comes to choosing a real estate agent. When a past client refers someone to you, that’s great! Word of mouth referrals come with a lot of trust, and it’s a great first impression, but now the work is up to you.
Where do people turn to when they want to get a sense of what it’s like working with you? Reviews and testimonials. People will try that new restaurant if everyone else is saying great things about it, but they'll avoid it if everyone is saying that the service was disappointing or the food wasn't great. It’s exactly the same for real estate. Your reviews and testimonials act as a pool of glowing recommendations that a referral can comb through to feel comfortable working with you.
Don’t have enough of these? Read our guide on how to get more online reviews!
Builds Customer Relationships
Social media is all about building relationships. This is true for both individuals and businesses. Social media gives your brand a voice - it makes your business more human and relatable. Since human beings connect with other humans, not just faceless companies, it’s important to give your business a heart.
There are likely thousands of real estate agents in your area, but your personality and ability to build a relationship with someone is the reason they decide to work with you. Instead of a first impression being made in person, your referrals are making that impression based on your online presence. Similarly, a beautiful and strategic website can represent who you are as a person and can make customers feel a certain way about you before they even meet you.
Keep Up with the Competition
There are so many benefits to having an online presence that most real estate agents are already hard at work building a presence of their own. Since clients expect you to be online, being non-existent online can sometimes be as damaging as having negative reviews. When you lack a digital footprint, people may wonder why and even question whether you are a real person with a reputable business, let alone one that might help them.
If you haven’t started on your online presence, then you might be risking losing out on business every day. Not keeping up with the current trends will only direct potential customers to work with your competition.
As you can see, a strong online presence is the perfect compliment to a strong referral business. If that sounds overwhelming, let us know, we can help!
Next up: Read our article on how to follow up with your online leads to find out how to turn those referrals into clients.
