🏡 The Real Estate Marketing Update - Edition 06

Read time: under 5 minutes

Welcome back.

We have a theme throughout this week’s edition, which we think you’ll recognize very quickly. It’s something that every highly successful Realtor has figured out and we want to help you do the same.

If you missed our previous editions (we have released five so far), you can check them out here.

Or, if you’re caught up, let’s jump right in.

Scroll down for one actionable tip, one handy tool, and one essential news story that will impact your lead generation efforts.

This edition’s recommended tool buries the lede here, so we’ll jump right in…

Social proof is the unsung hero of high conversion rates.

If your real estate website is not converting, and you’ve already checked the other primary boxes (strong branding, loads quickly, great content, enticing CTAs, clear value proposition, etc.), then it’s probably lacking enough, or the right kind of, social proof.

Social proof refers to the tendency of people to conform or take actions based on the actions of others when they are uncertain about what to do.

It plays on our need to belong and fit in. We tend to make decisions our peers approve of to gain acceptance. This behavior doesn't just apply to our public persona; it also affects who we hire and decide to work with.

Before you say to yourself…

“I already have testimonials on my website, and it’s still not converting.”

You cannot just throw up some written testimonials from random people on a page or section tucked away on your site and expect those to convince prospects to contact or hire you.

You need to use social proof properly - and everywhere.

Here’s how…

Earning and collecting all of these is just one part of the strategy. The other, equally important, part is knowing how and where to use them.

Thankfully, using them is much easier than acquiring them.

Just follow these simple recommendations to get the most out of your hard-earned social proof:

We are confident your conversion rates will improve if you do these things.

So, don’t just stop at asking for a written testimonial on a site you don’t control (i.e., Zillow or Google). You’ve worked hard for this social proof, so make sure you own and leverage each one as much as possible.

If you’ve done all of these things and are still seeing low conversion rates on your website (less than 3%), reply to this message, as we’d love to help identify the issue.

Almost half of the U.S. population listens to podcasts regularly. This captive, receptive audience is locked into your voice for over 20-30 minutes.

Rephonic is a fantastic tool for finding the best podcast appearance or sponsorship opportunities to promote your business. Or, if you already have a podcast that you’re looking to grow, then Rephonic can help with cross-promotion as well.

If you’re interested in adding podcasts to your marketing mix, then here are some ways we recommend getting started:

We love podcasts and all of the opportunities that they offer to everyone involved on all sides of each episode. If you ever want great podcast recommendations (possibly ones you should target) or feel like sharing your favorite listens, reply to this email.

Google recently announced that they will pay Reddit $60M per year to license their data, which they will use to train their AI models.

“Over the years, we’ve seen that people increasingly use Google to search for helpful content on Reddit to find product recommendations, travel advice, and much more. We know people find this information useful, so we’re developing ways to make it even easier to access across Google products. This partnership will facilitate more content-forward displays of Reddit information, making our products more helpful for our users and making it easier to participate in Reddit communities and conversations.”

What does this mean for you?

As a consumer, you need to know a couple of things. First, Reddit URLs have become even more commonplace in Google’s search results, especially in their AI-generated results via Gemini. Second, you should be extra vigilant about what you share on Reddit, as there’s a chance that your content could be something that Google shares in the future.

As a real estate professional, you need to start thinking about Reddit as a legitimate channel for lead generation. You most likely will not generate leads directly from Reddit threads; however, it can be a fantastic source of targeted traffic to your website and an authority builder.

Subscribing to and engaging in relevant Sub-Reddits can unearth content opportunities (e.g., questions that people need answers to from a local expert) and give you valuable insights that can be used to improve your conversion funnel.

An example of the latter would be spotting a trend for a resource people keep asking for and offering that as a giveaway to hook new leads and/or pull existing leads through your funnel. One idea would be a checklist of uncommon but valuable questions to ask a listing agent when touring a property.

The other and most directly impactful takeaway from this news for Realtors on Reddit is that heavy involvement and engagement there could help your SEO. You could build up your organic traffic by using Google indexing, ranking more Reddit URLs, and including their content in SGE (AI) results.

Do you use Reddit? Reply with your favorite sub-reddits, as we’re always looking for new communities to join.

Thanks for reading.

See you next week.

The Real Estate Marketing Update Team @ imFORZA