As a commercial real estate agent, you are your business. What makes you different? Let me show you some of the ways I showcase the ways I stand out so you can start brainstorming ways to show your clients why they’d love to be working with you!
Transcript
Hi, my name is Bucky Beeman, commercial real estate agent in Rochester, Minnesota, and I just wanted to share about some ways that I am marketing differently, and the ways that you could also market differently, whether you’re a commercial real estate agent, residential real estate agent, [or] in a different industry altogether. I think that these tactics can lead to more business, more brand awareness, in what you are doing.
Eye Catching Listing Alerts
And so, a couple ways that I am marketing differently is, one, I am not doing what everybody else does when it comes to listing properties and doing what’s called “Listing Alerts.” Every single one of my Listing Alerts, and I don’t know when this started, but every single one of my listing alerts, I try to make it where I add glasses to my face, some text up above, I’m pointing at a new building, and then I get into what everybody else does, right? The side shot, maybe a video… but I try to make it eye catching.
Because, my hope is that someone scrolling, which they’re probably scrolling fast, they have a lot of things to look at, their attention is in high demand from everybody else’s posts. I’m trying to get it to where someone might just stop where otherwise they wouldn’t stop if they just saw the text “New Listing” and the picture of the outside of a building. So, I do add eyeglasses – that’s just become my thing. Just today, I added a moving hat because the Vikings were playing.
How I find these different gifs is through the Story app within – the Story feature within Instagram. You can add different stickers to your picture, and that then turns it into a video, but you then can repurpose that to your profile on Instagram. So here I have the moving crow, the moving sun, I added the location of The Shack Bar, [which] is actually where the listing is at, and I had the glasses I always do. And then, when you scroll to the right, that is actually our listing photos.
Even within my listing photos, I’m adding different moving stickers such as the beer, saying “Cheers,” the lady dancing at the jukebox, the salon… I didn’t add any stickers on those. And it’s a healthy balance of moving items within your content, non-moving items… and so that’s one way that I’m doing it differently than others.
Market Updates – Engaging My Business Community
Another way that I’m doing it differently is I am going to businesses every single week. I have a videographer that I’ve worked with (a couple, actually) that have volunteered their time because it’s helped them meet new businesses. I’ve had to pay in some examples, some I have not, and it’s because it’s opening doors for them as well. And how I simply do it is I reach out to a business owner and I say:
“Hey, I do a market update every single week. Do you mind if myself and a videographer come in? We make a short video, it’ll help promote your business, it’ll help bring attention, obviously, to our business. And we just want to, one, learn about your business, and two, showcase your business.”
So here, we are showcasing a new detail business – two young guys that started The Detail Lab. And we probably spent thirty to forty five minutes there. Editing wise, I would guess it took up to an hour for the person that shot the video and then also edited the video. We do a short video of approximately sixty seconds, and he also creates – the one shooting and editing – creates a longer form that I put out on YouTube. And so that’s one way that I’m doing something differently. It’s just by getting other businesses involved, because by getting those businesses involved, it leads to more people finding my profile, finding out what I do as a profession, and giving attention to their business.
Ditch The Suit & Tie
Another thing that I do differently is that I, just myself I like twist ice cream cones, and I would say that so many people, especially in my business, it’s very much “suit and tie,” you know, you gotta be super professional. They don’t necessarily show some of their real life. And maybe you’re not comfortable in showing your family, but you’re more comfortable in showing something that you just like to do. So, for example, me eating twist ice cream cones. And so, I will put pictures of my ice cream at different places. When they don’t have twist ice cream, I gotta get the one with the sprinkles [and] the crunch cone. And then I call my ice cream cone something. I put the price of what that ice cream cone was. So this one, for example, was “The High Priced Hammer,” and it was $3.00. It was a small twist ice cream cone.
And I don’t know if it works, I just feel that it works because my business is growing. And by being different and by sharing unique things, it leads to people getting to know, like, and trust you online, which then converts to business long term.
Cross Posting Fun Bits
Another things that I’m doing that is different: I am taking my Bitmoji from my Snapchat. So here you go, here’s the Bitmoji, and I call him “Bitmoji Bucky,” and in the copy I said: “If you have not seen my Thursday Market Update this week #bitmojibucky wanted to let you know we are giving away muffins from Hollandberry Pannakoeken!” So I take that Bitmoji from Snapchat (you have to take the video or the picture), and then upload it onto other platforms. And it just adds another character, adds another angle of uniqueness to my content on a regular basis.
Repurposing Video to Podcasts
And, let’s see, last but not least I guess, this is something that I’m doing that is different is I am creating a podcast. And so, I do put links out to my podcasts, and how I actually record my podcasts is not always super professional. I do have nice mics, I do have a really nice setup. But in this example – so I interviewed somebody I’d met online that created a very cool app called Snappd. And I interviewed him over Zoom. So the same tool that I’m using right here, we did a video voice conference. His video wasn’t working, so it was just my video and his voice. And then it automatically (and I don’t know if this works on an unpaid version, I have the paid version) saves an audio clip that I then upload to this software called Audioboom.com. And then, by uploading it to Audioboom, it pushes it out to all the different places: podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, things of that nature, and it makes a nice clean link that I can put into the profile of my Instagram, I can put out on Facebook, I can put out on Twitter, and by doing so it just helps create another personable and unique piece of content. Because people, if they so choose, can listen to what I have to say and what other people have to say and learn about their stories.
So, that is some of the ways that I am creating differently as a commercial real estate agent. You can be creating very differently as well. Be yourself. Put out what feels right to you, and just watch your business grow over time, because people learn to grow with you and the way that you create online. They learn to trust you, they learn to like you, and next thing you know, they shoot you a message and want to do business with you. So, start being yourself and sharing it out on the internet.
