In the latest episode of the Icons of Real Estate podcast, we catch up with one of San Antonio's top real estate agents, Kyle Handy, as he discusses practical strategies to expand your real estate business and reach the pinnacle of your career as a realtor.
Throughout this article, we'll discuss some of the methods Kyle shared with us during the episode. Have you been wondering how to grow your real estate business? Here are some proven insights from a real estate expert and thriving property investment professional.Create a Business and Marketing Plan
Have you ever heard of a successful business in 2022 without a business plan? No? We haven't either.
If you're going to build a profitable real estate company, you're going to need a clear idea of the identity and direction of the business: values, mission, vision, and the standout offerings of your firm to your clients compared to your competitors.
Your business plan will help you answer these crucial questions. It'll define your short and long-term business goals, financial projections, buyer persona, product line, and KPIs.
Without a business plan, you're more or less running a company with hit-or-miss strategies and methods. But with a business plan, you have a definite idea of who you are as a firm, the direction you want to go in, and how you intend to get there.
Aside from a business plan, another thing you need for a successful real estate firm is a marketing plan. Marketing has rightly been said to be the only part of a business that never sleeps. That's because it's how you get your firm in front of your target audience and convert those prospects to paying customers.
With a well-written and researched marketing plan, you'll define your target market, marketing strategies, marketing budget, marketing channels, and marketing technology.
Rather than try everything and anything, your marketing plan helps you focus on lead generation across specific digital channels that connect you to your target customer.
Be in Social Media and Get Attention
Here's something you have to come to terms with whether you like it or not: social media is now a significant player in helping businesses connect with customers, generate leads, and drive brand engagement.
No matter how old school you are, not having a social media strategy in today's world is setting your business up for failure.
About 3.6 billion people use social media worldwide. That's nearly half of the world's population within your reach. You really can't pass that up by focusing on outdated marketing technologies.
Besides, virtually every other real estate professional is on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram connecting with customers. You'll fall behind the competition if you fail to use social media marketing.
With social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, you can run ads that reach a wider audience than you possibly could with traditional marketing. Facebook and Instagram live videos allow you to host live video tours/open houses weekly or biweekly (depending on your schedule).
Plus, with Instagram stories, clients can connect with and engage with your personal brand directly. Furthermore, YouTube allows you to create valuable educational content that establishes you as an authority in the industry and builds customer trust.
Kyle Handy Quote: Icons of Real Estate Podcast
On the internet, content is king. If you're going to reap the benefits of online marketing, owning a real estate website and running a blog with educational and relevant content is a crucial step to take.
According to a survey from the National Association of Realtors, 95 percent of homebuyers search for a home using online tools. In other words, most of your potential customers are using the internet to look for the houses they want to buy.
With a search-engine-optimized website and a blog, you can position your company right where prospects can see it and attract and engage more leads.
Blogging, mainly, establishes you as a thought leader and industry expert in real estate, making customers trust your business more.
Take Kyle's website, for example. While speaking on the podcast, he mentioned how shifting from being a jack-of-all-trades to focusing on his real estate website and the content on his blog helps him attract the right kind of leads and increase conversions.
If how to grow your real estate business is your priority right now, you might want to take a cue from Kyle and work on optimizing your website and creating customer-centric blog content.Create a Lead Magnet
If you're a frequent visitor to other real estate blogs and websites, you've probably come across a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a free offer you make to your customers in exchange for their contact information, such as their email address.
Once the client provides their email address, you add them to your mailing list as part of your newsletter/email marketing list, and you can interact with them directly and have better chances of converting them to paying customers.
If you've been struggling with converting leads to paying customers, creating a lead magnet on your website or blog might be the way to go.
But not just any kind of lead magnet works. While a lead magnet is a free offer, not every freebie is enticing enough to make a client trade their contact details. You need to make the right offer to attract your leads.
Examples of free magnets that work in real estate include neighborhood market reports, buyers/sellers guides, cheat sheets, free home evaluation, how-to guides, free webinars, and private training sessions.
Lead magnets are a great way to build trust and credibility with your new clients. Giving out a free resource shows you're more about helping them than just getting their money.
Have a CRM
There's no better way to seamlessly manage your lead generation efforts and automate your business processes than with a CRM.
With a real estate CRM, you can execute efficient customer profiling, track new leads and deals, simplify the creation and storage of vital documents (closing statements, deeds, and contracts), and automate administrative processes, such as phone calls and marketing emails.
The most crucial benefit of having a real estate CRM is how it helps you manage customer relationships and interactions, leading to increased lead conversion, customer retention, and more closed deals.
If you're investing in the marketing side of the real estate business, a CRM ensures you reap all the benefits of the hard work you're putting in.
Ask for Feedback and Reviews
If you want to know how to grow your real estate business, then getting feedback from successful real estate professionals who have been where you are and surmounted the challenges you're facing is the way to go.
Many real estate agents who have made it to the top often have a lot to share with other realtors that could help them perfect their craft. You'd be surprised by the insights you can glean from a fellow agent if you only ask. It's why networking is still one of the most valuable business strategies you can leverage for growth.
By building your network through connecting with other realtors individually and at networking events, you expose yourself to knowledge from seasoned real estate agents across different spheres that can help you get better.
But it's not just your colleagues who can provide you with valuable feedback. Friends and family members can also chip in with actionable pieces of advice.
Ask them vital questions, such as what they think about your online marketing efforts and how you can improve. Find out if they consider your business good enough to give out referrals.
Some of your friends who have been past clients can also provide reviews on how they think you can enhance your customer interactions. Their responses can give you a firm idea of where you're at as a brand and how you can move forward.
Optimize Your Website for Organic Search
There's no point in owning a website or a blog if you don't optimize it for search engines. Customers won't visit your website just because you own one. They'll visit because it shows up at the top of search results when they carry out a search query.
Did you know that 28.5 and 15.7 percent of Google users click on the first and second results on a search page respectively, but only 2.5 percent click on the tenth result? With SEO at the core of your content marketing efforts, you can increase traffic to your website or blog and, in turn, increase lead conversions.
However, not just any kind of SEO strategy works. Like every other type of marketing, your SEO strategy needs to target your specific audience. That means you'll have to optimize your website to rank based on your customers' location, demographic, and preferred home types.
The idea isn't just to generate millions of clicks (although that's great too), but it's more about attracting the right kind of leads that will eventually become paying customers.
Of course, SEO isn't an overnight marketing strategy. It takes time to get your website to rank high on search engines results’ pages. But in the long run, it's worth it.
Visit our YouTube page to watch the full podcast episode. You can also watch other episodes with valuable insights from thought leaders in the property investment market on growing your real estate agency.Notable Quotes:
“The biggest key to getting more clients is to focus on education, don’t try and always be that salesy person.” - Kyle Handy
“Whatever it is that you do, align with, or whatever you wanna get into, do one thing and get really skilled at it." - Kyle Handy
"Pick one thing and be all in on that one thing. Don't spread yourself too thin because then you're never be good at any one thing." - Kyle Handy
"Never stop learning and perfecting your craft." - Kyle Handy
"Teach somebody something." - Kyle Handy
About the Speaker - Kyle Handy
Kyle Handy is a San Antonio-based real estate agent with over a decade of experience in the property investment market.
Kyle kickstarted his real estate career in 2008, and by 2013, he owned his real estate brokerage – Handy Realty. By 2017, Kyle had built a successful brokerage and was one of the top agents in San Antonio.
However, his desire to build a "business that fits his life" that would give him more time to spend with his family led Kyle to join eXp Realty in 2017. Kyles has risen through the ranks at EXP Realty and currently leads a team of over 500 real estate agents across 34 states and 3 Canadian municipalities.
Over the last few months, Kyle Handy has focused more on building his online presence through his blog, YouTube, and Instagram pages, with a primary emphasis on creating content that helps other agents succeed in the real estate business just as he has.
You can reach out to Kyle on Facebook or Instagram.
Interested in getting more success tips from top real estate leaders? Watch all our podcast episodes on our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn for all the top industry updates on the real estate market or join our Facebook group to be a part of a community of real estate agents sharing valuable insights on the real estate industry.Connecting with Icons of Real Estate Podcast
