Real estate investors have a lot of competition today. The internet made it much easier for investors to find homes nationwide, not just in their backyards. This makes the real estate industry much more competitive for real estate investors looking for the next best real estate investment.
So, how do you stand out and grab the business before other investors? You must showcase yourself as an authority and be the first to land the lead. Here’s how to get clients as a real estate investor and beat the competition.
How Real Estate Investors Get Clients
There are many ways to get more clients in real estate investing, including narrowing your audience and understanding your target market and their needs. Next, you’ll build your brand, show your authority compared to other real estate investors, and narrow your content strategy to be the first one to get the real estate leads.
Use the following ten steps to learn how to get clients as a real estate investor.
Define Your Target Market
You must not waste time marketing to just any audience as a real estate investor. Instead, you must narrow your target market and focus your real estate marketing efforts on the demographics that could help you get your hands on the residential or commercial real estate you want.
You’ll have a lot of competition, so the more you can narrow your audience, the easier it is to get the deals first before other real estate agents and investors find out about it. The key is to narrow your audience as much as possible to meet your demographics where they are most of the time.
Build Your Brand and Presence
You want to build a reputation as a leader in the industry and have a strong online presence. It’s your job to provide content that attracts house hunters and desperate home sellers to your real estate website.
Most people read reviews and do research online before deciding what to do with their real estate. To reach your niche client, you must use digital marketing, building a brand identity that interested home buyers and sellers can identify with, and remember when they are ready to buy or sell a house. Think of it as your personal brand.
To be a successful real estate investor, you must build your brand with the following:
- Have your own real professional website with information about your services
- Be present and active on the social media platforms your audience uses
- Use proper SEO tactics to get your website and social media sites found at the top of the search results over other companies
Any marketing materials you create should have the same brand presence. This allows your audience to get familiar with you and to be able to recognize you whether they find your website, social media accounts, or a flyer in the mail.
Develop a Content Strategy
A content marketing strategy is the key to learning how to get clients as a real estate investor and is what sets you apart from others in the real estate industry. As we said earlier, most people use the internet to research real estate opportunities.
Here’s the problem. If you aren’t easily found online, other investors will win the deals. It’s essential that you show up on the first page of the search engine results and beat out most investors in ranking.
However, this doesn’t mean slapping together a website or making sporadic social media posts, as it won’t help you attract business and won’t help your search engine ranking.
You need a strategy or a method to your madness. Your content marketing should have a strategy with relevant topics so you become the thought leader in the industry. A few ideas to include it in are:
- Create a real estate investing blog – An up-to-date blog with educational content helps prospective clients find you. If your blog post contains valuable information, utilizes a keyword strategy, and helps current and future clients see your worth, you may appear on the first page of the search engines. This helps increase awareness of your real estate business.
- Consider videos or podcasts – Consider implementing video marketing into your content marketing strategy about topics that may be easier to hear and see than read. Some people respond better to these materials than written blog posts, mainly to save time, giving you another avenue to get more real estate clients.
- Network – Networking for real estate investors means talking to anyone who comes into contact with individuals who could use your services. Connect with potential real estate clients on Facebook and Instagram. You can even network in person by attending networking events to find new leads needing someone to buy or sell real estate.
Engage With Your Target Audience
Many real estate investors set up a social media page but don’t give it the attention it needs, meaning they don’t nurture leads. They don’t engage with their followers to get new clients. To be a successful real estate investor, you want to show that you are the go-to person who can help with their needs.
One of the best real estate client engagement tips to get more clients is to give your social media pages a personal touch by showing behind-the-scenes footage. Show images of you selling or buying property to get more leads after showing your abilities.
You can also show pictures of you getting involved with the community. Show your audience you are a real person who cares about your clients and the community, too.
The best way to do this is to interact with your audience. Most platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram make responding to comments or direct messages easy. This is another way to get personal with your audience and let them know you are responsive.
This is important for most people when dealing with real estate investors because they want someone they know they can communicate with easily and who provides a cost-effective solution.
Leverage Referrals
Referrals are one of the best ways to find future clients. You can get a successful referral from satisfied existing clients and even social media. Never be afraid to ask for referrals because you never know who knows potential buyers.
- From former clients – If you have happy clients, they are likely to refer you to other individuals. Create incentives for your current and past clients to provide referrals to their friends and family for your services, and watch your real estate client referrals increase.
- Business owners – Let owners of local businesses in the community know of your services. Even if they don’t use your services, other professionals may need real estate services, and they can refer you, or you can trade referrals to increase your client list.
- Social media – Anyone can share social media posts, which will spread the word about your services without you trying. Create meaningful posts that people want to share, whether an existing client or someone who follows you, and you’ll get in front of a much larger audience without much effort and help you find new clients.
Network and Establish Relationships
The key to growing your client base is constantly networking and getting seller and buyer leads. You can network online and in person, such as at open houses or charity events. In both areas, you want to create and maintain relationships. The key is to know your audience’s contact expectations and use that to your advantage.
Here are a few ways to generate leads:
- Cold calling – Even today, cold calling is a popular way to build a real estate business. If picking up the phone and making a cold call isn’t something you enjoy, focus your efforts on search engine optimization so your blog posts and other content marketing pieces reach the right audience.
- Email marketing – Emails are the equivalent of cold outreach, but electronically. But just like you need a well-thought-out script for phone calls, your email marketing strategies must be strong to ensure your audience opens and engages with your emails. Just sending emails isn’t enough; without a strategy, they’ll likely end up in spam.
- Follow-up – Relationships aren’t built on one phone call or email. After the first contact with potential buyers or sellers, you must keep up the relationship by following up. This doesn’t mean following up and asking for the sale. Instead, continue providing value to your leads so you become a natural choice.
Utilize Targeted Advertising
The internet and social media make it easy to target your advertisements. It’s different from the old days, when you would create an ad to throw on the radio or TV and hope it eventually reached the ideal client. With online advertising, such as Facebook or Google ads, you can target the right demographics so only the people most interested in your services will see the advertisements.
You can also watch the analytics to see how your advertisements do, making changes to ensure the right audience sees your message.
Collaborate With Strategic Partners
Become the leader in a community, company, or anywhere else to attract clients, providing what they need. For example, create partnerships with other small business owners to collaborate and help each other market.
The key is to build authority to show your audience you are one of the industry’s most successful real estate investors who will provide them with what they need.
Speak at Business-Focused Seminars and Industry Conferences
Take advantage of opportunities to speak at events and speaking opportunities to get in front of people within your demographic. Use the opportunity to show the value of what you offer without selling. Provide sneak peeks of your services while providing valuable tips to your audience. You can also use this strategy online and offer a webinar to reach a larger audience.
Be Active in the Community
Community involvement is one of the best ways to show that you care about the people around you and that you aren’t just in business to make money. Attend as many local events as possible and offer free services, providing advice, getting your hands dirty, helping the community with a common problem or concern, and showing that you have common interests.
You can use the opportunities to volunteer your time or even offer free consultations to build relationships within the community. This works best when you join groups and get active in your community.
FAQS
How Do Real Estate Investors Prospect New Clients?
Real estate investors have many ways to generate clients, including email or content marketing, social media campaigns, and asking for referrals. The key to finding buyers and sellers is understanding your audience and who fits your target market best whether you are an existing or new real estate investor.
How Many Clients Should a Real Estate Investor Have?
The more clients you have, the easier the sales process is. However, some months will be better in the real estate industry. Continually marketing to individuals will help you keep a running pipeline that always delivers.
What Type of Feedback Should Real Estate Investors Seek From Clients?
Ask current customers about your process, timeline, and communication. Take the information they offer and use it to perfect your offering. This will get you new business and help increase customer loyalty for repeat borrowers and your referral business.
What Are the Most Effective Ways to Market a Real Estate Investor’s Services?
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all way to market a real estate investor’s services. The proper method depends on the target audience. However, most companies benefit from online marketing, including a solid content strategy and email and social media marketing.
What Platforms Should Real Estate Investors Use to Reach Potential Clients?
Most professionals find clients on Facebook and Instagram, but you can also find them on LinkedIn occasionally. Focusing on paid advertising like Google Ads is also important to reach the right audience. The key is to narrow your niche and figure out where your target audience spends their time.
Final Thoughts
Knowing how to get clients as a real estate professional is important as the industry grows. The stronger your marketing tactics become, the easier it is to be the authoritative figure in the industry. The key is setting yourself apart from others and showing value to your new clients to help them choose you over other real estate professionals.
