Why Real Estate Agents Should Have Their Own Branded Website
Even in this day and age of digital everything, there are still some real estate agents holding out on launching their own branded real estate agent website.
“I’m doing just fine without one,” they say.
“My brokerage lists me on their website — that’s good enough,” they say.
“I don’t have time and I can’t be bothered,” they say.
We say — excuses, excuses.
All real estate agents should have their own branded website.
Scratch that.
All real estate agents NEED to have their own branded website.
Here’s why.
No Real Estate Website = No Real Estate Agent
When you’re looking for something — a landscaping service, a new refrigerator, flights to Paris — where do you start your search?
If you’re like most people, the answer is probably online. Google.
That rings true for people looking to buy and sell homes, too.
According to the National Association of REALTORs® in the U.S, just under half of all prospective buyers start their home search online.
A whopping 99 percent of millennials (a generation that all agents should be marketing to) use websites during their home search.
If a curious buyer or seller can’t find your website during their search, guess what? You might as well not exist.
Your website is the first stop for someone who’s curious about your services. It’s where they’ll come to learn about you, what you offer and what level of experience you have, and then decide whether you could be the right agent for them.
When you don’t have a real estate website, you can’t give those people what they’re looking for. They want information now; they don’t want to track down your phone number to hear your pitch.
This also applies if you’re letting your profile on your brokerage’s website do the talking for you. Without complete control over what the page looks and sounds like, you can’t give potential leads the full picture of what you’re all about.
Which brings us to our next point…
A Real Estate Website Is the Most Important Step in Building a Personal Brand
Without a real estate website, you’re going to have a difficult time building your personal brand.
And without a personal brand, you’re going to have a difficult time standing apart from your competition.
A personal brand is what helps you distinguish yourself from other real estate agents in your area. It’s how you present yourself to the world and the perception that you create for other people. It’s the impression your audience has of you.
Your website is the first and most important step in building your personal brand as a real estate agent. For three reasons.
- It’s where most of your leads will first find you
- It’s where you get to have complete control over how you look and sound
- It provides all kinds of opportunities to convey your personality, values and expertise — through your website’s design (layout, fonts and colour palette), your messaging, the voice and tone of your writing, photography, and so on.
Without a real estate website, you have no control over what information potential leads may find about you online. Having a website lets you decide what kind of story you want to communicate.
A Real Estate Website Is the Foundation For All Other Marketing Efforts
Without a website, you’re limited when it comes to the kinds of marketing efforts you can take advantage of.
Online ads are out of the question. What would they link to? Your phone number? You could try to make a go of it on Instagram, but where would you send followers who want to learn more about your services? And forget e-newsletters; you’ll have no way of signing up subscribers.
Once you build a personal real estate website, a whole world of marketing opportunities open up.
Facebook Ads and Instagram ads.
And more.
A Real Estate Website Is the Best Way to Generate Leads
When prospective buyers and sellers turn on their laptops and open their phones, they’re usually looking for one thing: listings.
Your website can give them what they’re looking for.
IDX is a website feature that lets agents add MLS search capability to their websites. That means visitors can search for, browse, view and even save listings directly on an agent’s personal website, rather than using the MLS.
That’s hugely powerful. IDX keeps visitors on a real estate agent’s site for longer, encouraging them to look around and take an action, like signing up for newsletters, sending an email or requesting a free evaluation.
It’s an amazing lead-generating tool. But you need a personal website to do it.
Are you a website-less REALTOR®?
What’s holding you back from launching your own real estate website? Tell us below.
