You should be taking advantage of both email marketing and social media marketing, but it’s important to understand how they work and what they do.
Email primarily helps you stay in touch with the people you already know and it can also build awareness. Social media primarily helps build awareness and build your online reputation.
If you think about the clients you’ve worked with over the past year, you’re probably doing your best business with people you already know. That’s why it makes sense to spend time and money nurturing those relationships with email marketing.
When you send an email, you know who the message is going to, who opened the email and what links they clicked on. It’s a great reminder to past clients about who you are and what you do and a terrific way to start conversations.
Include a call to action in your introduction. Prompt people to forward the email to anybody they know who is potentially making a move or is interested in the real estate market.
On social media, you begin by posting content that’s seen by people who’ve already connected to you, and you build awareness by having those people comment and like your posts. On some channels, people they know will be alerted to something with which they’ve interacted. The best thing a follower can do is share one of your posts – now your content is being shown to potentially hundreds of people who aren’t already connected to you.
Social media also does something that email does not: help you build your online reputation. We know when somebody is introduced to you, whether it’s through a Facebook ad or a referral from a past client, they are going to look you up online. When they Google you, one of the first things they’re going to see is your social media. They’re going to check out your Facebook page, they’re going to peruse your LinkedIn, they’re going to scroll through your Instagram. Having an active, engaged presence on social media goes a long way towards building an online reputation.
Ultimately, you really need to be using both email and social media, but you have to make sure they are working together for you. Here are four things you can start doing today:
- Include your social media links and an email signup link in your email signature
- Include your social media links and an email signup link on your website (if you already have these, your homework today is to test them to make sure they work)
- The next time you send out a newsletter, make sure you include links to your social media channels in your newsletter, then
- Post that email on your social media
If you have any questions about how to get email and social media marketing working for you, please get in touch!
Mark Brodsky has been working with Realtors since 2008, producing monthly newsletters and social media management. Send him an email or visit his website.
