Consistent Clients – Real Estate Marketing

It’s Back-to-School time, and for some people that brings to mind annual physicals. It’s also a great time to step back and do a check-up on your marketing systems. Last month we talked about creating a Marketing Calendar, and hopefully you started one. If you didn’t (and I’m hoping it was because real estate is picking up in your area and you were SUPER busy!), the fall might be a good time to start one as business slows down a bit.

Since I focus so much on building a referral-based business, here are some of the areas that I take a good hard look at:

Referrals-

Are you asking for referrals from most, if not all, clients?

If yes, how are you doing it?
In person? Through a mailer? By phone? In an email or autoresponder/newsletter?
Are you getting referrals? (whether or not they close with you?)
If you are getting referrals, are they closing with you? Do they seem like appropriate clients? If not, why do you think that is? Can you change how you’re asking in order to improve the type of clients that are referred to you?

If no, what method of asking for referrals can you implement immediately?

Testimonials -

Are you asking for a testimonial from most, if not all, clients?

If yes, how are you doing it?
In person? Through a mailer? By phone? In an email or autoresponder/newsletter?
Are you getting the number of responses you want?
Are you using them anywhere? (on your website, in printed marketing materials, in your email, etc.)
If you aren’t using them anywhere, where can you add them ASAP to get them up?

If no, what method will you start using immediately to get those?
Where will you put them once you have them? (on your website, in printed marketing materials, in your email, etc.)

Website/Blog-

Is the information on your website/blog current and relevant?
Are you getting traffic to your site (hopefully you have some form of analytics, like Google Analytics, installed)
Where is the majority of your traffic coming from?
Is it easy for someone to share your site with a friend? (via email, social bookmarking, or social networking sites?)
Have you closed any sales coming directly from your website?