You are passionate about real estate, knowledgeable of your local market, and ready to launch your particular brand of sales and service?

You need an online presence that matches your enthusiasm and helps you stand out in the massive crowd of Real Estate agents.

You need a website, a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and you need it all to work together. You need data to tell you what is working and what is not – and you need traffic – lots of it.

It can seem overwhelming to think about. How do you get that online brand going?

How do you know which keywords to use to optimize your visibility on search engines. You need great content on your pages that will engage people, make them share your name and get them coming back. Is there a way to know if your website or social media pages are even being seen? Are they being shared?  What are your competitors doing to get leads?

Where to begin?

Ever Real Estate Agent needs a toolset to help you create and maintain an effective brand online.

Here are some top picks of places to start. These tools are specifically designed to help manage your brand:  YOU.

1.  Website – Your Foundation

Well, clearly you need a website – the home hub to everything you do. It’s the place to capture leads and funnel them into your sales process.You might have people on your database who aren’t ready to sell – so how will you stay in touch with them over winter?

2. Email Marketing

Email marketing is still one of the best ways to reach out to numerous people at once. Just like SMS messaging, you have the ability to reach just one or thousands of potential clients with one approach. Intrigue the recipient with a subject line, get them to click open, and you have their attention.

Share a local news story that entices them to buy in the area, inform about reduced interest rates, promote open house locations this weekend, or offer advice to first time home buyers. You are demonstrating to potential clients that you care about their community and issues that are on their mind as they consider buying a home, not just offering your service to sell a home.

Campaign Monitor offers an great user interface, offering the features you want to easily automate your emails to your target customers.

With Campaign Monitor you drag-and-drop and pick from professionally designed templates. Everything is designed to work well on all devices. Campaign Monitor offers date and action based auto-responders to keep you interacting with your contacts.

This type of marketing will increase the likelihood of open and click activity, which is the whole point! More clicks, more leads, more buyers, more sales.

Campaign Monitor offers tiered subscriptions

for services starting at $9 per month, based on the number of contacts you have and the number of messages you want to send each month. For $9 per month you cover 500 subscribers and 2,500 emails. You select the level of service you need.

View some of Campaign Monitors most successful email campaigns here, and see why so many top companies and non-profits have chosen this great marketing tool.

3. Text Message Marketing

Keep new listings in the hands of your potential clients with this auto texting tool. Whether you need to send an SMS message to 5 or 500 people,

Textedly will keep you in contact.

Millenials are fans of text communication. SMS marketing is one of the most reliable was to generate leads, especially with young home buyers.

Easily alert your buyers to an open house or a reduced price. Textedly offer a 14 day free trial, and affordable monthly pricing for this outreach service. Textedly also offers analytics to you so you can see which text campaigns are working for you.

4. Create Content

Yes – if you’re going to be on social media you might need some graphic design assistance – now you could go and enrol yourself into a Graphic Design course and learn how to use the high tech software or you can use a tool like Canva  to get the job done.

They provide images and templates, so you can quickly get in there create your message, save it and the pop it onto FB, IG etc.

Make it pop and be ‘on brand’.

5. Share your Content

Buffer will automate the management of you online content for you, taking a huge load off your shoulders. Just drop your content in, schedule it, and boom out it goes.

Buffer offers more varied pricing based on your needs, starting with a FREE account for individuals or as little as $99 a month for agencies.

Buffer allows you to control the amount and frequency of posts, and offers you analytics to track your best performing posts.

6. Content Marketing

Want to know what is working and what is not? Buzzsumo can help you focus on your niche and search across social media to see what approach truly grabs the attention of the clients you are seeking.

This is analytics in a detailed way you can easily see and understand. View your most shared content. See what is trending, view backlinks and analysis of all social media outlets. You can also see analysis of  the content being used by your competitors.

Understanding where to put your time and effort will help you zero in on your approach and ways to tweak your brand as needed.

Bonus: Bonjoro

How about next time you communicate with your customer – you shoot them a video. Bonjoro makes this happen.

Bonjoro can hook into your CRM, and send your new leads, or JUST SOLD vendors a video about how awesome it was or is going to be working with them.

Now remember – it’s one thing to know what to do and how – but you need to get back to your job – selling! Hiring a pro will ensure you make the most of your time online and really make an impact in your community.

As we say here at Summit Digital says,”You did not go into business so you could stay up late updating your website.” With bronze, silver and gold levels of service to select from, you will find the ideal service you need at an amazingly affordable price.

Using a professional will ease your mind, free your time and ensure your branding never becomes stagnant.

Make sure someone is always looking out for your brand.