Your agents need an active, authoritative online presence in today’s digital era – help them build one with this step-by-step breakdown!
Recently I met with an emerging agent who lamented his inability to secure his first listing despite networking, door knocking and advertising efforts.
Once we discussed different avenues to connect with potential sellers, I conducted an Internet search on his name and discovered very little. He did have a website provided by his brokerage; otherwise there wasn’t much I could find online about him. If agents come complaining to their brokers about how their businesses are progressing, one recommendation might include refining online presence as one means to improve progress.
Build Your Personal Brand
People do business with people they like and trust, which makes establishing a powerful personal brand all the more crucial today. A strong personal brand relies on three core factors which agents should incorporate into their online marketing.
Principles
Humans rely on principles for guidance. Ask your agents to consider what beliefs drive their work relationships and conduct of business activities – this answer could form the core of their brand.
Brokers can assist agents in understanding why they serve a specific niche, what services and/or activities they do/don’t offer clients and what causes or passions they advocate for outside of their work. From service, equity or wealth building – brokers should help agents communicate these principles as they live and work. Using them online presences to attract their ideal clientele.
Messaging All messaging an agent uses must correspond with their brand. Once agents understand their principles, brokers can guide them towards developing their pillars – acting as the North Star to guide all messaging in the right direction.
My public relations firm begins by helping clients identify five core principles they feel strongly about and using that to guide all messaging across media platforms; agents can do the same.
At first glance, aesthetics is what comes to mind when they think about branding; however, this should only be considered the final factor in the equation.
Attractive elements in online presence creation include color palettes, graphic elements such as logos, cover photos and marketing materials. When encouraging agents to craft an online presence for themselves, aesthetics refers to color palettes, graphic elements such as logos and cover photos that work across platforms; encourage agents to ensure all these components match to form a recognizable brand across all platforms. If your brokerage already has established colors, fonts and styles that work, consider creating a branding package for your agents to use.
Acquire Testimonials and Reviews
There are a few key differences between testimonials and reviews: Testimonials are usually solicited by agents while reviews tend to be written by customers themselves and posted on third-party websites such as Google Business Profile. Reviews also tend to only contain text content while testimonials can include any visual media as well.
Your agents should aim to use video testimonials as they can be more persuasive. Imagine this: when viewing written testimonials attributed to “Mike S.” on a website, how convincing do those appear? In contrast, viewing someone describe their experience working with an agent through a video can be far more authentic and convincing.
People tend to become anxious on video, so you should encourage agents to provide clients with some bullet points to ease their nerves and set them up to tell stories that demonstrate why the agent stands out from others.
Inform your agents that testimonials can be embedded on their websites, used in newsletters and social media posts, as well as creating a collage of their best testimonials to be posted on their homepages.
