Just like the ever-changing housing market, real estate marketing has changed significantly over the years.
Unlike the days of newspaper ads, property books or “For Sale” signs, aspiring home buyers look online to find available properties.
And, when they begin their research, they start by looking for one thing: reviews.
Reviews have played an integral role in the way that consumers shop recently. In fact, 97 percent of consumers look for online reviews of local businesses before deciding whether they’d like to shop with that business.
And, since purchasing a home is one of the biggest financial decisions, your clients will want to make sure that your real estate business is trustworthy, has experience selling many homes or properties and that your real estate agents are dependable.
The bottom line is that you need a solid review marketing strategy to make an impact on buyers and sell more homes.
Interested in learning more? Here are three ways reviews can lead to more closings:
As a real estate agent, nothing is more rewarding than officially closing on a home and making that sale. But, even if everything is finalized, there’s still some work to be done; you must follow-up with your client.
After all the paperwork is completed and your client has had plenty of time to move into the new home, you should check on them to make sure that they’re satisfied with their home and that the transition process went smoothly.
Then, you should ask them to leave you a review online.
Since nearly 70 percent of people leave reviews when asked, if your customer is satisfied, they’ll most likely leave your real estate business (and you as a real estate agent) a review.
Also, be sure to encourage them to leave a lengthy, detailed review.
Sure, you want to get those 4-star or higher ratings. However, because consumers want transparency from businesses, 73 percent of people say that written reviews leave a much higher impression than just star-rating.
So, if your clients can be honest and say what really made them happy about the whole experience, it will greatly benefit your business and lead to more closings.
This may sound obvious, but you’ll also want to start getting into the habit of responding to your reviews regularly.
Hopefully, you have more happy customers than unhappy customers.
But, regardless of your clients’ satisfaction, you must respond to all reviews.
Think about it: other potential homebuyers looking at your reviews can see when you have or haven’t responded to your reviews. And, with more people judging businesses based on whether they respond to reviews and how quickly, you can’t forget to respond.
There are two other reasons why you should respond to your reviews:
The most important part of having a great review marketing strategy for your real estate business is to have all your reviews in the right directories.
Where are your customers looking for reviews? Are they looking at your Facebook page? Are they looking at your Google My Business listing? Are they using a real estate directory such as Zillow?
You’ll want to have plenty of reviews for each directory and platform to ensure that more customers find you.
Final Thoughts
There are a couple of different services that your real estate business may need, such as paid advertising, local search marketing or social media.
But, if you haven't been working on your review marketing strategy, you'll be missing out on many customers who will skim over your business's page and, more importantly, your house and property listings.
So, start planning ways to get those positive, detailed reviews and show the world that you have many satisfied clients!
And, if you need any assistance, we have a real estate marketing plan that can work for you!
Justin Dunwiddie, Content Contributor
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