Being known socially does not equate to being known professionally. This is especially true for those who concentrate on lake property as a large portion of your potential clients and do not live in the community.
Personal branding and reach is key in engaging all potential clients. Investments in personal branding highlights your experience and expertise for local clients while letting all others know you are the person to contact regarding your lake.
Protect Your Personal Brand
Register your own domain and establish your on-line presence. Notice I did not say get a really nice page on your broker’s site. A brokerage incurs the time and monetary expense of developing a website to market the brokerage…not you.
Consider the odds of a client selecting you among all other agents on the brokerage site versus selecting you on your own site.
Get Active in Social Media
You don’t have to be on every social media platform. Choose those you feel best reach your potential clients. A professional Facebook page may be a great platform for engaging local clients while a fully updated and informative LinkedIn profile will provide the professional qualification of interest to others.
Link your social media to your website and stay active and updated. Nothing says quitter like an unfinished profile or page last updated in June 2013!
Industry Sites May Be Beneficial
As with social media, you don’t need to be on each and every one. Choose those that work best for you in terms of cost vs. exposure and quality leads. A portion of your marketing budget will be spent on this. Carefully plan where you want those dollars to go.
With all that said, having a great online presence will do little in terms of bringing clients, especially those who aren’t in the area, if you’re invisible on the web. If finding you isn’t convenient, you won’t be found.
One of the best ways to ensure clients do find you is working with a brokerage that invests in a real, national reach and is laser focused on your lake properties. Unfortunately, the brokerages that have the ability to do so are few and far between. When one claims to provide this, make them prove it. If they do, jump on that platform!
John Sims is the Director of Development at Lake Homes Realty