For the last few months, we’ve been in the middle of real estate’s busy season.
Every year, it’s the same story. From mid-March to late September, agents and lenders are frantically running from meeting to meeting, from showing to showing, and trying to keep up with the nonstop influx of paperwork that comes with it all.
But then it stops.
And while that sigh of relief may feel good for a few days, the reality of the slowdown in income eventually begins to set in.
We want to help ease some of that pain by providing you with a list of things you can do to ensure consistent business throughout the colder months.
By proactively marketing your business and nurturing your contacts, you can maintain a steady flow of customers throughout the slower seasons and bring in even more for the busy ones.
It all starts now.
1. Make a big marketing push now
You’re still super busy right now, so this tip may seem counterintuitive.
But the thing about marketing is it doesn’t always have immediate effects.
By doing a big marketing push right at the end of the busy season, you’ll be bringing in leads that aren’t going to be ready to buy for a few months.
Buying a home is generally not a quick process. All the red tape, the hoops to jump through, and the bureaucracy tend to take a while. Not to mention this is a huge purchase. People want time to think, to go over their options, and to change their minds for the twentieth time.
And in the middle of all that is you.
Whether you’re in mortgage or real estate, you know that this isn’t a decision that gets made overnight.
There’s nothing you can do to change the nature of the business, but what you can do is take advantage of it. Buy those ads, post to your social media, write for your blog, and promote your free content.
Then, by going the extra mile and catering your content to people working to buy in the fall or winter, you can help make their decision even easier.
Write a blog post about the benefits of buying/selling at the end of the year, design your ads to target potential customers who have indicated they’ll be buying in the next 3-6 months, and write social posts geared toward the same demographic.
By doing these things, you’ll show them you’re the person to turn to in order to get what they want when they want it.
They win, you win.
2. Nurture your contacts
When a lead enters your system, it can be easy to neglect or even forget them.
After all, it’s much easier to just hope someone decides to choose you as their agent or lender than to pursue them yourself.
However, continuing to market to people once they’ve indicated their interest in you is a proven method of success.
It also sets you apart from your competition in more ways than one.
First off, most agents and lenders don’t properly nurture their contacts. By doing so, you’re immediately one step ahead.
Secondly, it allows you the opportunity to continue to showcase your professional expertise.
Third, it gives you an easy way to keep your name and your business’s name at the forefront of people’s minds so that when they are ready to make a decision, it’s you they think of.
A great way to nurture your leads is through e-mail drip marketing. To do this, you can use a service like MailChimp to write, design, and schedule e-mails. Pipeline ROI also contains a drip e-mail feature and has tons of pre-written, pre-formatted content for you to share.
3. Get creative
When times get tough, sticking with the same things you’ve always done generally isn’t the way to go.
When it comes to lead generation and closing deals, the same is true.
Especially in the slower months, creativity can be key to bringing in business.
By starting to get those creative juices flowing now instead of later, you allow yourself to get in the correct mindset and set yourself up for success. Not only that, you’ll start those leads coming in that will be ready to buy in the coming months.
Creativity comes in many forms, so this has the potential to be a really fun part of your year!
Because there are multiple holidays that fall within the slow real estate season, you have great opportunities to play into those festive feelings and bring in business.
Using those drip e-mails to send out holiday cards is one way to do this.
Pipeline ROI provides you with multiple cards for different occasions to send out – some asking for business, others asking for referrals, etc.
Of course, you can also write, design, and format these on your own, both in our system and with other options. It just takes a bit more time.
But it doesn’t have to stop there.
Small gifts to your prospects (like a batch of homemade cookies) can also go a long way.
Again, it’s all about thinking outside the box and putting in the extra work to make your off-season a success.
4. Offer special deals
A great way to encourage prospective clients to make a move and to make that move with you is to offer special deals and discounts.
Everything in the real estate and lending game comes down to separating yourself from your competition. There are tons of agents and lenders out there to choose from. It’s up to you to stand out.
On top of all the other things we’ve mentioned in this list, adding a special deal on top of that can be the icing on the cake for a potential customer.
For example, let’s say you are a real estate agent who specializes in selling homes.
By offering a free home staging session to sellers, you can present yourself as an expert in your field and build their confidence in you as a professional.
Another, more traditional deal you can offer would be to lower your rate for the slow months. Discounted business is better than no business, and can bring in more money than you would have gotten otherwise.
Advertise these deals now, and give them an end date (like when the busy season starts back up again). This creates a sense of urgency that would otherwise not exist.
Again, home buying and selling is a slow process, but this technique can help to speed things up.
The keys to remember with all the ideas in this list are to set yourself apart from your competition, to start putting in the work now, even though you’re currently busy, and to get creative and think outside the box.
At Pipeline ROI, it’s our mission to provide you with the tools you need to be successful throughout every month of the year. With a comprehensive marketing platform that includes prewritten social media posts and social scheduling, drip e-mail capabilities with prewritten content, prewritten eBooks to offer clients, and much, much more, you have everything you need to make that big marketing push you need to start the slow season, all in once place.
If you’d like a free, live demo of our products, hit the button corresponding with your line of work below. We’d love to talk with you.