Laying the Groundwork for Your Digital Strategy

What is a digital strategy and why is it important?

A digital strategy is a plan for using digital tools and technologies to help your business achieve its goals. The planning begins with the end in mind and considers the many ways you interact with potential customers.  A good digital strategy should also include your offline channels and how those interactions and strategies can be optimized online.  

If you’re looking to grow your real estate business, and let’s face it, who’s not, then your digital strategy could include some of these types goals: 

• Increasing your brand awareness

• Growing your pipeline of leads

• Growing your market share in a specific area

• Increasing your price point

• Growing your team

• Attracting more of your ideal clients

• Increasing your close rate on listings

The exciting thing is that a good digital strategy can be implemented to serve a wide range of goals and it can be tailor-made for your unique brand and business. 

Here’s where many real estate agents get stuck.  Appealed by flashy offers and shiny objects, many have spread themselves thin across multiple tools, channels, and strategies that are taking up their bandwidth and not producing results.  Futhermore, these systems aren’t integrated and in some cases, working against each other.  This is what you want to avoid in your digital strategy.  

So, what do you really need to have in place to implement a digital strategy? You may be surprised that it only takes a few solid tools and systems that can be leveraged to work together to ensure your digital strategy's success. 

Must have #1 - Your Own Website.  

You must have your own website if you want to leverage the capabilities of digital strategies that allow you to capture leads, share valuable content, highlight your profile and testimonials, and retarget visitors to your website.  Pus, it really is an expectation of today’s buyers and sellers that they are able to learn more about you and validate your experience and reputation on a single website.  There are a range of options out there, anywhere from subscription-based sites offered by Agent Image to custom-built sites from Luxury Presence.  

Must have #2 - Business profiles on Instagram and Facebook 

On Facebook, you need to have a business page.  This enables business features and settings and will allow you to manage your advertising and view analytics.  You also need to have a business profile on Instagram.  If you have an Instagram account that is primarily for personal use, you can create a second business profile for your real estate business.  

Must have #3 - Your Database

It is crucial that you organize and manage your database so that you can easily communicate with your clients and prospects and track your activities.  Now, if you are starting out here, it’s ok to use something like a spreadsheet or Google sheet. As your business grows, you will probably want to look for a CRM that has more robust tools to help you track and manage your follow-up.  But, it’s important to start somewhere.  

Your database is the lifeblood of your business, and there’s no point in building your audience or generating leads if you’re not able to stay in touch with those who are already in your sphere.  When you build your database, think about all of your clients and prospective clients, and your contacts.  Who do you know that can be added to your database?  Friends, neighbors, other parents at school, people you know in the community, former coworkers, etc… 

So folks, that’s it.  That’s all you really need to get started with your digital strategy.  Stay tuned for more tips and best practices.  

And if you’re interested in learning more about a custom digital strategy from Arrow Digital Agency, please reach out to us at [email protected].  

Cheers!