9 New Year’s Resolutions for Real Estate Agents

New Year’s resolutions don’t just have to pertain to your personal life. Setting goals in both your personal and professional life can make all the difference.

The end of the year marks a good time to look back and reflect on your business’s progress as well as make a plan for moving forward.

These 9 impactful steps will help you start the new year with a bang and make this next year your business’s best yet!

1) Hop on the social media marketing bandwagon.

Newsflash agents- social media is the name of the game. Social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter are gaining more and more active users by the day.

That means having a strong and consistent presence on these channels is no longer an option, it’s a necessity. If you’ve been putting off marketing your real estate services on social media, it’s time to get started!

2) Increase your Online Visibility

People are no longer browsing the classifieds or flipping through the yellow pages to find the products and services they need. Your potential clients are finding the majority of their purchase information online. And so, that’s where you need to be.

Increasing your visibility online will boost your reputation, build credibility for your business and help prospects in your market find you.  

Don’t have your own website or landing page? You can set up a clean, sleek PropertySimple portfolio in a matter of minutes for free.

3) Become your own PR agency.

The best way to build trust and credibility online is to get other people talking about you. A third party vouching for you and your business is worth its weight in gold.

To get started, ask past clients, friends, and family to leave a review on your Facebook Business page. If you’re feeling really motivated, you could even try reaching out to some local news publications and pitching a story about your business. Treat your social media channels like your own little news outlet and be your own spokesperson.

4) Give yourself a Digital Makeover

Have you ever Googled your name? If you haven’t yet, go ahead and do that real quick. Fingers crossed it’s a good representation of yourself, as first impressions go a long way.

Just having your face plastered all over the Internet and across social media apps isn’t going to be enough. These are the places potential clients will look to form opinions about your services and decide if you’re the agent they want to work with. So, you’ll want to make sure your accounts are polished and in tip-top shape. Looking the part of an expert agent both on and offline will make all the difference.

Learn how to give yourself a digital makeover.

5) Offer FREE value to your audience.

More and more buyers are becoming privy to promotion. The key to marketing your business in this landscape of ad blockers and skeptical consumers is to provide real value to prospects, for free. Yes, we said free.

Sharing interesting and relevant content with your network will get the word out about your business, without explicit promotion.  Consistently putting free valuable real estate related content out into the world will build trust with potential clients and position you as the expert agent in your area.

6) Engage with prospects and clients in person and online.

Building and maintaining relationships has always been a key component in building a successful real estate business. As a real estate agent, you should always be thinking about connecting with those who live in your area. This is the secret to endless referrals.

This year, make an effort to attend local networking events and other functions like trade shows or fundraisers.  Reach out to and form relationships with community leaders and of course, make sure you’re engaging and following up with everyone you meet on social media.

7) Automate your social media posting.

Having a consistent presence on social media takes a lot of effort. Not only do you have to create content to share, but you also have to write copy for your content, post it multiple times a day to each of your different social media channels and then engage with your network. Ain’t nobody got time for all that.

Luckily, it’s no longer necessary to manage your social media networks on the fly.  There are tons of tools out there that you can use to automate your social media marketing, saving you time for the many other things on your to-do list.

8) Set a digital marketing budget.

Sure, running a complete and effective marketing campaign to promote your business will cost you, but it all depends on how you look at it. Here at PropertySimple we don’t see marketing as an expense. We see it as an investment.

Have you ever heard the expression, “you have to spend money to make money?” Well, luckily when it comes to digital marketing, you don’t have to spend too much to start seeing a pretty great return. Start by setting a budget you feel comfortable with, and then look into ways to invest in marketing wisely.

Did you know that PropertySimple will run a customized social media marketing campaign for you? Our Customer Success Team will be happy to tell you more about it.

9) Set goals.

None of the above tips will make a difference if you don’t commit and follow through. Don’t make the mistake of trying to do everything all at once. Instead, write down bite-sized, realistic goals for each day or week that will help you reach a larger goal for the month.

If it helps, use the buddy system and find someone else to set goals with. You can then regularly check in and hold each other accountable.

It takes guts to aim high and set big goals, but little by little, as you check things off your list, you’ll be one step closer to where you want to be.