When you work as a real estate agent, an inconsistent schedule is a fact of life where the market ebbs and flows and your workload shifts in tandem with it. It can depend on both the time of year and what’s going on in the world.
The market may be slower right now, but we all know that won’t last long, and eventually real estate sales will pick up with more steam that ever.
But if the market’s slower, what do you do?
Ultimately, as an agent and a marketer, you should see this as an opportunity where you have some time to update your marketing and improve your overall processes and systems, and you should be using this downtime to reinvest in your business.
If the market is slower for you, here are some things you can do to set yourself up for success when things pick up:
1. If you dislike or don’t use your current CRM, change it.Â
Most agents will tell you that they don’t like their CRM or that they hardly use it, but of course, they all know they need it.
Some downtime offers a great opportunity to look at new CRMs, and to go through the process of moving your contacts over and setting up new systems.
Moving over to a new CRM is always a big task, especially if your business has been around for a long time and you have a big contact list.
That said, spending more time working from home and less time on the road can grant you the opportunity to take a big-picture approach to these changes.
2. If you can’t be found online, start building out a solid SEO strategy.
Planning, researching, and implementing a solid SEO strategy is a lot of work; work that you likely didn’t have time for during the busy start of the Spring market.
You should start with research, learn more about the benefits of introducing a paid search and organic search campaign, and then build out your strategy for both.
We have a detailed article right here that can help you get started building your search strategy.
More and more users are going to be turning online during a slow market, assessing their options and doing their research. You’ll want to ensure that you build a maintain a prominent voice in that discussion.
★ Want to learn more about SEO strategy? Have a look at these posts:
- Optimizing Your Content for Humans (And Not Just for Search Engines)
- Writing Content for SEO as a Real Estate Agent
- How ‘Dwell Time’ and Quality Content Work Together to Improve SEO
- Understanding SEO Titles and Meta-Descriptions on Your Real Estate Website
- Download Our SEO Strategy Building Guide for Real Estate Agents
3. If you haven’t posted content in a while, write a stockpile of blog posts.Â
Remember: your SEO strategy is deeply tied to your content, so now is a good time to sit down and write a lot of blog posts if that’s something you’ve been putting off.
Whether for buyers, sellers, downsizers, or investors, try and impart as much wisdom as possible during this key downtime.Not only will it help your content rank more organically on Google, but it can also continue to build your website into an archive of helpful resources for future clients.
If you dedicate an hour a day to producing new content, you’d be able to build a solid stockpile of posts that you can release to your audience once everything picks up and you’re busy.
★ Want to learn more about content strategy? Have a look at these posts:
- Why Agents Should be Investing in Their Real Estate Blog Strategy
- Writing Successful Real Estate Content that Converts
- Building and Managing a Real Estate Content Lifecycle Plan
4. If you have a lot of content, craft an eBook or downloadable materials.
If you have a strong blogging strategy, then one of the easiest eBooks to make is one that’s made up of curated content from your website.
All you have to do is take your blogs, remove the links and any reference to other blogs, and provide them in one handy booklet. This is a great piece that clients can take with them (on their desktop) and can keep around as a consistent touchpoint for your brand and available services.
If you don’t have any blogs, you can also outline your unique buying and selling process to have laid out in an eBook, too.
During this time, clients and potential clients will be looking for guidance. Downloadable content can play on that desire and can assure them of your expertise at the same time.
★ To have a look at all of our downloadable, free content for real estate agents, have a look at our free resources page right here.
5. If your marketing material needs work, put together a plan to revisit it all.Â
Our Marketing Audit service was designed specifically to collect, analyze, and game plan for an agent’s marketing materials now and into the future.
If you were to lay all of your marketing materials out on a table, would you like what you see? More importantly, would your potential clients?
Your marketing materials are a direct representation of you, your business, and your brand, often before people have even met you. If you have the time, consider your marketing materials and what’s hitting the mark along with what’s missing. Or, reach out to us to begin the discussion. We’d be happy to help.
6. If your website is dated (or if you don’t have one at all), begin the process of getting a new one.Â
A slower market is the perfect time to revamp and reimagine your website. Why is that? Because strong and strategic websites require a lot of thought and time to do properly.
There’s no doubt about it, planning and building a new website is often a big undertaking. So, when it’s slower, you’ll have more time to sit down and plan out a solid strategy around what you need to make your website successful.
Think about your brand, your value proposition, and what materials you’d like to cover. Then, leverage the expertise around you to determine what users want to see, what gets them to engage, and what gets them to convert. This is the perfect chance to think ahead of your competition and to put yourself in a position to succeed when the market picks back up.
Your Marketing Deserves A Deep Dive
At the end of the day, the market will return to normal, and agents everywhere are going to be busy again helping people buy and sell properties. Some downtime in a slower market can really give you an opportunity to look at what’s working, what isn’t and implement new systems and processes before it does.
It’s your golden opportunity to better understand your target audience, your brand, and what strategies you can implement to make a lasting impression.
Want to plan your digital marketing strategy on your own, and set your business up for success? Download our workbook: ‘The Digital Marketing Planning Workbook’. It’s a self-guided, interactive workbook, where you answer questions about your marketing goals, brand and content strategy, lead generation plan, and a lot more, to get insight into the effectiveness of your overall digital marketing plan. And, it’s free to download.
