Just because the market is skyrocketing doesn’t mean you can put building your profile in the ‘too hard’ basket. Caroline Bolderston explains why you need to build your profile now, and the easiest way to do it.
If there is one thing that causes frustration, confusion and often overwhelms sales agents, it’s their profile-building plan.
With so many parts of your business to focus on, it’s no wonder that profile building is often left to chance or done randomly.
The number of times I am asked for ideas on what an agent should be doing, the frequency of communication and what works best tells me, loud and clear, that a simple strategy is needed.
No matter what market conditions prevail, you must have a consistent marketing plan so that your community knows you are here, active and ready to serve them when they need it.
Just listed and just sold promotion is a major part of profile building, but you must have other strategic approaches to underpin this messaging.
The frequency of your messaging must be rock solid and create a constant branding presence in your core marketplace, regardless of the number of listings and sales you may or may not have each month.
THE FIVE CHANNELS TO MASTER
There are so many profile-building initiatives you can undertake so here is my guide to the five channels that will cover it all.
Channel 1: Social – three posts a week. Choose from a personal message, new listing/sale, video walk-through before and after styling, a slice of expert information or ‘did you know?’ video.
You can also share articles of interest and any community events you want to support.
Channel 2: Letterbox – this should have a minimum frequency of once a month with a pre-planned item.
You could rotate between an appraisal drive, a quarterly market report and a seasonal message about market trends.
Hit repeat each quarter and overlay these with just listed and just sold drops as they happen.
Channel 3: Inbox – this should have a minimum frequency once a month with a dedicated newsletter to build your profile.
In the newsletter, you can provide an update on market results, statistics, community news/events and feature local businesses or other professionals who support you.
Channel 4: Community – get involved in community events.
When you participate and support these events, more people get to know you for who you are, and you create memorable moments.
Try and do two a year.
Channel 5: Phone (SMS, voicemail and voice-to-voice) – leveraging your database via the phone is the final part of your profile building, not the onlypart.
The SMS, voicemail or direct conversation is going to be far more impactful for your profile because of the other channels that your prospects have been tuning into.
MAKE IT HAPPEN
An idea is just an idea without a plan.
Create a simple template with each of the channels outlined above.
Write the content idea and choose when you want to distribute the message.
Then, create a recurring meeting with yourself around the 25th of each month to finalise the items that are going out next month.
If it’s printed material, ensure you send it to be printed a week before you want to distribute it.
Then all you do is hit repeat each quarter.
GIVE YOUR PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT
So how do you get the content your people want to receive?
There are many industry offerings with libraries of content for you to choose from for your newsletters and social media posts, as well as easy tech, such as Activepipe, that can plug straight into your database.
Being organised with a clear plan is the only way to get ahead when building your profile and brand.
It can be hard to do it all yourself, so if you need a little extra help consider outsourcing the administrative side of things to ensure it happens consistently.
