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Jess Lenouvel

Master Real Estate Content For Social Media With These 3 Types Of High-Converting Posts

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Are you feeling overwhelmed by social media? While social media can be a powerful tool to grow your real estate business, many agents feel lost on what type of real estate content for social media works best.

You might end up feeling like you’re spinning your wheels. You post and post…but nothing seems to bring in results.

Or maybe you’ve gotten so fed up with the ‘gram you just stopped posting altogether.

Sound familiar?

If so, you’re not alone. 

But today I want to show you how you can take your social media content from feeling like a giant waste of time to being your biggest lead generator.

It all starts with figuring out the right type of real estate content for social media. A lot of agents are currently getting the content piece wrong. and wonder why their social media isn’t converting any followers into clients.

Keep reading to know exactly what to post on social media to grow your real estate business. 

Why It’s Hard To Show Up on Social Media

Tell me if this sounds familiar…

You follow a ton of other agents on social media.

You see them promoting their services, and it feels sleazy, icky even.

And you think to yourself, “I so don’t want to look like that!”

But, you have no idea how to post in a way that feels good AND brings in sales. So you don’t post at all. 

It All Starts With Our Ideal Clients

In reality, your social media channels should be anything BUT constant promo feeds. 

Instead, they’re a place to serve up major value to your ideal client. This is where you want to go back and revisit your ideal client avatar.

You have to get crystal clear on who you’re speaking to. Because if you’re trying to speak to everyone, you’re speaking to no one.

Once you’ve gotten clarity around your ideal client, you can begin to craft content that will resonate with them. 

Whether you’re speaking to first-time buyers, move-up buyers, up-sizers, down-sizers, corporate women, or the LGBTQ community…you want to get specific. 

You want to make content uniquely tailored to their struggles, their desires, and their fears.

Where so many agents go wrong is they forget to put their ideal client at the heart of their content creation. 

Instead, their real estate content for social media is a mix of posts that appeal to them. Rather than thinking about what their ideal clients need to hear, they simply post what’s resonating with them in the moment. 

And what happens next is that instead of attracting ideal clients, they end up attracting other agents to their profile.

To avoid this phenomenon, make sure every time you post, you ask yourself:

Who is this for?
How do I want them to feel while reading this?
What kind of outcome will my ideal client get from consuming this content? 

That way, the real estate content you create for social media will attract perfect-fit clients…instead of your competitors. 

Real Estate Content For Social Media: The 3 Major Content Buckets

By now, you’re probably ready to get into the three types of content that will convert your ideal clients.

These content types are going to work one hundred times better than the typical real estate social media content you see.

Most agents rely on pictures of houses with banners saying “Just listed!” or “Sold!”.

There’s no value in those types of posts. All you’re doing is showing the world you have business in the hopes it’s going to attract more business.

What you need to remember is that social media is meant to be social. 

It’s about connecting with fellow human beings. 

In order to do that, there are three main types of real estate content for social media you want to be posting. 

These three types of social media content will help your followers get to know you, like you, and trust you. Which ultimately leads to them wanting to work with you.

The three content types you absolutely need are: 

  1. Authority-building content
  2. Social proof (case studies, testimonials, PR)
  3. Personal content 

Let’s dive a little deeper into each content type. 

Authority-building content

Authority-building content helps showcase your expertise to your potential clients. 

Think about content that educates and delivers value, as well as shows off your signature process. Your signature process is how you help clients get from point A to point B.

This type of content will help you become the go-to agent in your client’s mind. 

Social proof content 

Social proof content is going to be posts that feature case studies, testimonials, and PR.

When you post this type of real estate content on social media, it shows your followers that you know what you’re doing. You have a list of happy clients for whom you’ve gotten big results for.

It tells them you know how to get them to where they want to go. 

Personal content 

The third content bucket is personal content. 

And this is where so many agents go wrong. 

They don’t include any personal content, so their profile starts to feel very business-like, stiff, and corporate.

And that’s when you lose people. 

You’ve got to remember, when it comes to real estate content for social media, people don’t move 50 times a year. They only move once every 3-7 years.

And if you’re only relevant to your followers during a short period of time, it’s going to be extremely difficult for you to grow an audience. 

That’s where the personal content comes into play.

You want to make sure that you’re continuously relevant to your audience by sharing your personal beliefs, your personal philosophy, and your personal story.

You want to take them behind the scenes are share different things about your life.

Connect with them on a human-to-human level.

Often, I see agents feel a lot of resistance towards sharing their personal life online.

They’ll tell me, “I’m a professional…my lawyer doesn’t show this kind of stuff on social media!” 

And to that I say – one, your lawyer most likely isn’t advertising as much. And two – your lawyer often isn’t dealing with such an important, vulnerable moment in someone’s life. 

Buying a house is one of the most important financial decisions your clients will ever make in their lives. And it’s often stressful, too. 

It’s expensive. It’s time-consuming. You’re packing up your whole life and putting it into boxes. 

You’re supporting your clients through an intensely emotional experience.

So it’s incredibly important that your content helps them get to know you on a personal level.

You only want to go through an experience like that with someone you genuinely like and connect with!

Social Media Imagery Do’s and Don’ts

Now that you know the three main types of real estate content for social media, you’re probably wondering…

But what kind of images should I post with these captions?

So let’s get into a few do’s and don’ts.

✅  DO post lots of pictures of yourself.

Now, I know this might feel weird, or even a little egotistical. I’ve felt the exact same way in the past. But when it comes to social media, people want to see YOU.

They don’t want to just see pictures of pretty houses. There are already dozens of massive inspo accounts devoted solely to posting pictures of beautiful homes.

People want to see you, they want to get to know you, and they want to build a relationship with you. 

Think about your favorite influencers. The people you feel you have a real connection with – even though you’ve never met them.

When you look at their profiles, they’re posting pictures, they’re showing up in videos, and they’re being themselves. 

✅   DO edit and brighten your photos

You don’t want to just snap a photo and post it. Instead, you want to brighten it so it shows up nicely in your followers’ feeds. 

Your visuals are often the first thing your followers notice before they even begin reading your caption.

So if your visuals aren’t captivating, they’ll simply scroll past. 

You want to make sure that your photos are light, bright, and airy.

It’s super easy to achieve this effect by using any kind of editing app, such as VSCO or Lightroom.

✅  DO take up as much space as possible within the feed 

When it comes to the orientation of your photos, you always want to make sure your photo is vertical.

If you’re scrolling through your feed, whether on Facebook or on Instagram, 99% of the time, you’re doing it on your phone. 

So from an imagery perspective, you want to try to take up as much space as possible. 

On Instagram, the ideal size for this is 4×5.

❌  DON’T post overly branded images 

I’ve said this many times before, and I’ll say it again: 

If your photo looks like an ad, people are just going to be repelled by it and scroll past. We don’t like being advertised to, especially when it comes to organic social media content. 

So many agents add a branded banner, design elements, or their logo onto their photos. 

Instead, you want to keep them as clean and natural as possible. 

That way, people will simply feel like they’re connecting with you…rather than being advertised to. 

Branding will only hurt your reach. 

Social Media Post Formatting Tips

When it comes to real estate content for social media, not only is your message important…but so is how you format it.

First things first, you want to make sure you’re using the appropriate hashtags.

Specifically, I’m talking about Instagram. Skip the hashtags on Facebook. Facebook tried to make them a thing a few years back and they didn’t take off. So if you include a blurb of hashtags at the bottom of your post on Facebook it will look a little spammy.

When using hashtags on Instagram, be sure to include some spaces after your caption so that they don’t distract from the main body of your post. 

Next, you want to make sure you’re using appropriate spacing for your captions.

No one wants to read lengthy paragraphs of text when it comes to social media. 

While you absolutely want to be creating long-form captions (think mini-blogs!) it’s so important that you space out your text so it’s scannable and easy on the eyes. 

And lastly, don’t forget to include a catchy hook to grab people’s attention.

The hook, or the first line of your piece of content, is by far the most important part of the whole caption.

The headline needs to entice your followers to hit that “Read More” button on Instagram and consume the rest of your content. 

So take some time to think of a hook that’ll have your potential clients thinking, “I’ve GOT to know what they’re going to say!” 

Next time you’re sitting around trying to brainstorm what type of real estate content to post on social media, use one of these 3 types of content. You’ll notice an immediate uptick in interaction and conversion from your ideal clients!

And if you’re ready to dive deeper into building an automated marketing system for your real estate business, you’ll want to learn more about The Listings Lab Method. Get all the details in our free guide, The Listings Lab Guide. 

5 Tips To Embrace Video Marketing For Real Estate

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So you know you’ve got to start embracing video marketing for real estate…but you’re letting your fear hold you back.

I talk to so many agents who tell me the exact same thing.

But intimidated or not, you *need* to start showing up on video if you want to grow your real estate business. In fact, Cisco estimates that video will drive 82% of all internet traffic this year, in 2022. 

Marketing is all about capturing the attention of your ideal clients. And video content gets them hooked. 

If you feel resistant or uncomfortable about using video for real estate, don’t take it as a sign that you’re not cut out for video marketing. 

Instead, read on to learn about some tips and mindset shifts that helped me go from a scared, shy newbie to a video maven who’s 100% comfortable doing everything from IG stories, to live streams to video collabs and so much more. 

Everyone Feels Like An Imposter

Here’s what you need to remember when you start to feel like an imposter:

We all felt that way at some point in time. 

The other day, I thought back to the first live stream I ever did.

Oh boy…did I ever feel nervous! 

The sweaty palms, the feeling that I might be sick, and the absolute dread were intense.

While you might now know me as someone who’s completely comfortable in front of the camera, that wasn’t always the case. 

I got so nervous and uncomfortable about making videos, I’d actually go and record them on the roof of my building so nobody could see me. Not even my husband!

The whole reason I started reflecting back on my first live stream that day, was because I was actually going live in my friend Erica’s Facebook group, which has a massive audience. 

And you know what?

I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t even bat an eye.

It was just another meeting on my calendar.

Looking back at my video marketing journey, I realized just how far I’ve come. So if you’re feeling major imposter syndrome as you try to embrace video content, know you’re not alone.

You absolutely can push past these fraud-like feelings and experience the incredible business wins video marketing provides. 

Start Small

If you’re terrified of the idea of showing your face in any capacity, it’s probably not the best idea to jump straight into live video.

Instead, you want to gradually push past your comfort zone and start small. 

For me, this looked like getting into the habit of doing short Instagram stories.

Every single morning before my workout, I’d do a quick face-to-camera story. In the beginning, my primary goal was just to get used to speaking to the camera. 

After a while of doing daily Instagram stories, this soon led to me being able to record videos. Then it progressed into being able to record trainings. And fairly soon after that, I had built up the confidence to do live video.

Work on being 1% better than you were yesterday, and pretty soon you’ll find you’ve successfully mastered video for real estate!

Remember…Your Community Wants To Hear From You

When I talk to agents in The Listings Lab community, live video is the content type that scares them the most. 

But here’s what you need to remember about live video:

The people tuning into your videos are your most engaged community members. They’re your loyal fans!

They’ve quite literally signed up to hear from you. Rather than thinking of these people as an audience there to judge you, think of them as friends. These are your people. Of everyone on the internet, the people listening to your lives are going to be the least judgmental. 

When you begin to see video as a tool to create a deeper connection with your community and love on your people…everything begins to shift.

Stop Focusing on Yourself And Focus on Your People

We can have a tendency to get so caught up in our own insecurities. Our own fears.

We forget that this really isn’t about us. In fact, it has nothing to do with us, and everything to do with our community. 

Creating videos is about being of service. 

It’s about delivering value and nurturing your people. 

If I didn’t:

  • Go live and share my knowledge

  • Hop on stories and share wisdom

  • Host video trainings so that agents get the info they need to grow

Then I’m not giving my people what they want, and what they ultimately need.

If I refused to show up out of my own fear of being judged, at the end of the day, I’d be acting from a selfish place.

While of course, embracing video for real estate will drive massive business growth, it’s always an act of service, first and foremost. 

Practice, Practice, Practice

The next time you open up your phone to hit record, and instead you feel that gut-wrench in your stomach and close your camera app – I want you to remember:

It DOES get easier with practice. 

Confidence comes with competence. 

And if you’re not feeling confident, often it’s simply because you haven’t practiced enough. 

Mastering video marketing for your real estate business is just like any other skill.

If you were learning basketball, you wouldn’t be competing in the NBA on day one.

So why are you expecting yourself to be a pro before you’ve even recorded your first video?

You’ve got to continually practice, show up and build your video marketing skills. 

It’s easy to get caught up in perfectionism. But allow your video journey to be messy. Done is better than perfect!

Whenever we find ourselves holding back or procrastinating, it’s most likely perfectionism trying to rear its ugly head.

I challenge you to take one tiny action today to help you embrace video for marketing your real estate business.

Even if that just means recording a 1-minute video. 

The whole idea is to get comfortable talking to the camera. 

And the more you take these small steps, the easier it will become.

Pretty soon, video marketing will feel normal. 

The more that you normalize it, the less resistance you’ll feel, the less fear you’ll experience, and the less you’ll hold yourself back. 

Leave a comment on this post if these tips have encouraged you to start embracing video for real estate!

And if you want to dive deeper into marketing for your real estate business, be sure to download The Listings Lab Guide where we teach you the strategies to continuously fill your pipeline and scale to seven figures. Download it here. 

Instagram For Real Estate Agents: How To Grow Your Business Without Spamming

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Do you want to know how to successfully use Instagram to scale your real estate business? 

Instagram marketing can be an incredible organic marketing tool for real estate agents. If you use it correctly, you can quickly build a community filled with ideal clients and become their go-to agent.

But if you focus too much on the wrong things when it comes to Instagram, your account will start to go downhill very quickly. Rather than being a lead generation machine, the only thing Instagram will be is a massive waste of time. 

Here’s what so many real estate agents get WRONG when it comes to Instagram. 

They focus on quantity > quality 

They believe they should focus all of their efforts on growing a massive following (oftentimes, at any cost). 

But having the wrong type of followers on Instagram (or any non-ideal followers for that matter!) is probably one of the worst things you could do when using Instagram for real estate. 

It’s not about having more followers, it’s about having the correct followers. 

If your followers are not relevant, they’ll only hurt your account. 

A big part of that has to do with the Instagram algorithm.  Let me explain!

How The Instagram Algorithm Works 

Here’s what happens when you post on Instagram. 

When Instagram first pushes out your post, it only gets shown to 10% of your followers. 

If your followers react to it (i.e. through likes, comments, saves, shares), then Instagram will show your post to the next 10% of your followers. It’s kind of like a sliding scale.

So what happens when you don’t have the correct followers? 

If you have irrelevant followers, people that aren’t actually interested in your services and will probably never work with you, your post will get zero engagement.

That first 10% of people your post is shown to won’t like, comment, or share because ultimately your content is relevant to them. 

And after that, your post’s reach tanks. Instagram stops showing your post to any new followers. 

But on the other hand, if you have fewer followers that are highly relevant followers, then your post gets picked up, and more and more people will actually SEE that piece of content. 

When you build a highly engaged following, it signals to Instagram that your content is valuable and pushes it out to new people. 

4 Ways To Use Instagram For Real Estate And Build An Authentic Following

So how can you build a genuine community of clients online? How can you use Instagram for real estate in a way that helps you connect with real potential clients?

Here are some tips you, as a real estate agent, can use to leverage Instagram.

Do Not Buy Followers

The fastest way to kill your reach on Instagram is to buy followers. This is the epitome of non-ideal clients. And because buying followers is against Instagram’s regulations, it could even result in getting your account banned. 

If your ultimate goal is to get more eyes on your content, you have to remember that it’s not about the numbers. 

While seeing a large following on someone’s Instagram profile might provide a little bit of social proof, at the end of the day the number of followers you have is a vanity metric.

Vanity metrics make us feel good. They make us feel like we’ve made it. 

But when all is said and done, a large following does nothing beneficial for our real estate business. All it does is kill our reach and prevent us from reaching the people we actually need to be reaching. 

So make sure to ditch any spammy practices to increase your following, especially if those practices include buying followers. Killing your reach on Instagram is very hard to come back from. There’s not much that can revive a dead account, and you may even need to start over from scratch.

Instead, stop obsessing over your numbers and focus on building a community of highly relevant, local followers in your area. You know, the type of people who might actually HIRE you one day! 

Delete Ghosts or Bots

Even if you’ve been super careful with curating an intentional following, it’s highly likely that you could still have some suspicious characters in your following.

I go through my account on a regular basis to delete ghosts, bots, and irrelevant followers. If they look like they’re not real people, or they look like they wouldn’t be a part of my target audience, I’ll remove them.

I do this because it’s so important to me that my content reaches the right people. I’d rather have fewer followers have 100,000 followers that don’t truly support me and my mission.

Remember, it’s about creating a curated community that’s going to interact with your content. 

Create Content to Attract the Right Followers

In order to build a truly authentic community, it’s important you create content that’s super targeted.

Your posts aren’t random. They’re not just ‘whatever you feel like posting’ that day. 

In order to create posts that will resonate, go back and revisit your ideal client avatar.

Create content that speaks to your ideal client’s hopes, dreams, fears, and struggles. Be a valuable resource for them and you’ll quickly find them engaging with your posts, tuning into your stories, and connecting with you in your DMs! 

Don’t Play The Follow For Follow Game

One of the spammiest ways you could use Instagram for your real estate business is playing the follow-for-follow game. 

Again, people who use this tactic are of the mindset that bigger is better when it comes to their Instagram following.

Follow-for-follow doesn’t make sense for any business, but it’s especially ridiculous for real estate agents. 

If you’re selling to a New York market and someone from Georgia follows you, why on earth would you follow them back?

This person will never become a client and is only interested in their own superficial growth on the platform. 

When you’re using Instagram for real estate, you need to focus your efforts on growing a local community. 

Instead of aimlessly following just about anyone, be sure to build relationships with potential clients in your market. You can find these people by searching for locations, on local hashtags, or just by checking out your followers and seeing where they’re from. 

Instagram can be a powerful tool for generating leads for your real estate business, but you have to use it intentionally. 

By focusing on quality over quantity, on authentic connections over spammy growth tactics, and by creating targeted content, you’ll be able to develop real relationships on social media. 

You’ll create genuine connections that may even turn into paying clients!

Do you want to learn more about developing a marketing machine that helps you effortlessly attract leads and fills your calendar with appointments?

Download The Listings Lab Guide for Exponential Growth 🚀

3 Steps Every Agent Needs To Be Successful in Real Estate And Grow to 7 Figures

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Are you wondering what it really takes to be successful in real estate? 

No matter where you’re at, it’s never too late to start growing your career in real estate…and scale it to seven figures.

There is so much potential to be successful in real estate. 

So I want you to know, whether you’re trying to scale your real estate career early on in your life or later in your life …

Now is your time to shine.

Having a sustainable career in real estate offers you an opportunity to take control of your life and make it your own.

But to do that, you have to be willing to truly innovate, invest in yourself, and go where no one else is willing to go.

You have to ask yourself…

Do you want to just do “okay” in life?

Or do you want to do great things? To have a real impact? To look back at your life, five or ten years from now, and think, I really did it!

If you want your life to look like the latter, keep reading to learn about three steps to be successful in real estate, hit seven figures, and grow a business that offers you financial freedom and fulfillment. 

Figure Out Your Why 

Whether you’ve been in real estate for a year, five years, ten years or more the first thing you need to figure out is your why. 

Why are you doing this?

Why is real estate important to you?

Why this business in particular?

Why service? Because at the end of the day, that’s what we’re all here for. You may have different reasons for getting into this industry – in the end, you’re a servant to your people. You’re a servant to your clients. And it takes a certain kind of person to be able to do that.

If your reasons for starting your business are superficial, it’s going to be extremely difficult to be successful in real estate. 

Those who create six and seven-figure real estate businesses have a heart for service. 

But here’s what you need to understand.

You can be a servant and a fire-breathing dragon at the same time.

Being of service is not the same as letting people walk all over you. Being a servant leader and being a badass business owner are two sides of the same coin.

Before you start scaling your real estate business, make sure you figure out the intrinsic reasons you want to make it happen. Forget about the money, success, or prestige. What is going to continually motivate you to serve your people – month after month, year after year?

Once you get that piece down pat, you’re ready to move on to step number two. 

Find The Courage to Show Up 

Especially if you’re starting to feel stuck in your real estate business, it’s likely you might feel like a bit of an imposter.

Maybe you *know* you need to be marketing yourself to bring in leads for your business but it feels like every day, you find a new excuse not to show up and put yourself out there.

I need you to know…

Every single day you let go of a piece of your business without promoting yourself, without showing up and sharing how you can help your clients. At the end of the day, you’re doing yourself, your business, and your family a disservice.

You’re helping no one by playing it small.

People need your services, and they need them badly. You’ve got lives to change!

It’s time to find the courage to show up. 

Every single day you’re not building your audience is a day lost. And when you look back on this time, you’re going to think, I really wish I’d started sooner. 

So today, I challenge you!

Whatever it is you need to do to show up, whatever it is you’re putting off because it feels big and scary and uncomfortable, make a commitment to stop procrastinating and take action.

When you’re building your real estate business, everything is going to feel scary. 

  • Live video is going to feel scary
  • Writing content is going to feel scary
  • Putting ads up is scary

But if you don’t do the hard things, how are your people ever going to find you? How are they going to know that you’re the person that they want to work with? That you’re the person that’s going to change their lives by supporting them through the biggest investment they’re ever going to make? 

It’s your time. 

Every day you stay in your comfort zone is another day you put off building the real estate business of your dreams. You must find the courage to show up and do the hard things if you want to be successful in real estate. 

Focus on Impact

The other day, I talked to one of our members in The Listings Lab who got me absolutely fired up.

She knows the kind of impact she wants to have.

She knows where she’s headed.

She knows the exact ideal client she wants to serve and she deeply connects with them. 

Her story was powerful and she had strong personal motivations for wanting to support her clients, something I can strongly relate to. (So much so that hearing her get so passionate about her mission nearly made me cry!)

Because at the end of the day, human connection is what a career in real estate is all about.

It’s about how you, as one human being, are going to have an impact on the lives of others. 

It’s not just about having hundreds of thousands in the bank or buying yourself a Maserati.

That might be a tiny piece of one of your goals. But ultimately, you need to be able to answer the question, what are you going to leave behind? Who are you going to touch during your life? 

And if you continue to resist building a big, powerful, automated business for yourself, you’re going to have less impact. You’re going to touch fewer people. You’re not going to have that kind of influence on the world.

Building a big, powerful, automated business is the best way to have the maximum impact possible. You’ll be able to touch more lives throughout your time here on earth. 

So go out there and change the world!.

Serve your clients. Do the scary things. Push yourself and see just how capable you are of changing your life. 

In five years, you’ll look back on this moment and think, I’m so glad I decided to choose me. 

Being successful in real estate and hitting the 7-figure mark all comes down to the tiny actions you take each day to work towards that better version of yourself. 

When you show up, get uncomfortable, and don’t shy away from hardship, the reward will be so, so sweet. I promise. 

Xo,

Jess

Real Estate Referrals: Are They Really Enough To Grow Your Business?

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Do you rely on real estate referrals to grow your business? 

Referrals are treated like gold in the real estate community.

There’s this tendency to wear a badge of honor if you’ve built your entire real estate business based on referrals.

And don’t get me wrong – happy clients sure are nice. 

But at the same time, there’s a downside to relying too heavily on referrals in order to market your business. 

Here’s a bold statement …If you’re relying on real estate referrals to grow, you’re not treating your business like a real business.

Here are five of the biggest reasons why I believe you need to expand your business beyond word-of-mouth marketing if you want a truly scalable real estate business. 

You’ll Always Be in A State of Stress

I want you to think about it this way.

When you rely on real estate referrals for your marketing, you’re not in control.

You’re always going to be in a state of panic and stress because you never know where your next lead is coming from, or if it’s coming in at all.

Eventually, you may find yourself in a cyclical flow where one month you’re booked and busy and the next month your leads have completely dried up. 

When you build your business 100% on referrals, you’re essentially relying on other people to do your marketing for you. 

You have no control over how much business comes in or the quality of business that comes in. 

So rather than depending on referrals from past clients and your network, instead I want you to think of them as the icing on the cake. 

But your marketing, your predictable lead flow…that’s the cake. 

The referrals are always going to be there if you’re doing a good job for your clients.

The bottom line?

If you’re not taking control of your lead generation and making sure that every single month, you have appointments coming in, your revenue will always be unpredictable and you’ll never feel at ease and comfortable with your business. 

Real Estate Referrals Eventually Dry Up

If you think you can run a sustainable business for years with just your referral sources never drying up, here’s the hard truth,  it won’t work.

People only want to be asked to help build your business for so long.

It might be a bit of tough love for you, but it’s true. While they’ll lend support in the beginning, eventually you need to step it up and get things moving on your own.

And when it comes to your clients, you have to realize, you’re not going to please everyone. You could be an incredibly talented real estate agent who’s absolutely dominating your marketplace, and you’re still going to have the odd client who’s unhappy with your services.

If you have leads coming in from elsewhere, one unhappy client here and there won’t be detrimental to your business. But if you’re relying on every client you work with to spread the word about your services, you could quickly find yourself scrambling to fill your calendar.

Referrals Aren’t Scalable 

Whether or not you rely on real estate referrals to grow your business ultimately depends on your long-term vision.

If your ultimate goal is to build a small business, you might be able to get away with using mostly word-of-mouth marketing. 

But if you know you want more than a small business, if you want a scalable business, it’s time to start taking your marketing seriously.

Coca-Cola, Apple, and the most successful real estate firms worldwide all have referrals.

But at the end of the day, are they relying on their sphere of influence to do their marketing?

No. 

It’s time we stop treating building a referral-based business like it’s a badge of honor.

We have to come to terms with the fact it’s unproductive to rely on others to do your marketing…especially if you have a team.

You can’t scale anything without predictability.

If you aren’t able to predict what’s coming in every month, how can you possibly hire? How can you pay salaries to employees, employees who are putting their livelihood in your hands?

You can’t.

It’s time to say goodbye to the unpredictability of referral-based marketing and instead focus on building a lead-generation machine. 

Are you ready to take control of your marketing so you never have to worry about where your next lead is coming from? 

Learn all about The Listings Lab Method to help you sustainably scale to seven figures and beyond. 

Get your free The Listings Lab Guide here. 

5 Common Pitfalls Agents Make When Choosing Their Ideal Client Avatar

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I’ve got to dish out some truth for you.

A lot of real estate agents *think* they know their ideal client avatar.

When in fact, they really don’t.

I believe the reason so many agents avoid choosing a niche is because of fear.

You’re scared that if you niche down too far, you’ll lose business. Sound familiar?

But that’s not the case, in fact, it’s exactly the opposite. Niching is the foundation of all marketing, not just in real estate marketing.

You HAVE to know who you’re speaking to – and why you’re speaking to them in the first place.

What are their struggles? What are their wants and needs? What is their core problem? And how can you solve that problem for them?

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but I’m going to repeat it again…

If you’re speaking to everyone, you’re speaking to no one.

You need to get to know your clients on a whole other level. Learn how they speak, how they communicate, so that you can properly connect with them.

Getting clear on your ideal client avatar will help you do exactly that.

There are tons of articles online about how to craft an ideal client avatar, but in this article, I want to focus on five common pitfalls I see most agents fall into when it comes to choosing their ideal client.

But first, let’s get into what it really means to choose an ideal client avatar…

How To Niche Down And Choose An Ideal Client Avatar

When I talk about the importance of having a niche, many people tell me, “I have a niche! I do listings in a certain area!”

Listings in a specific area is not a niche.

Here are some examples of effective niches that some agents choose to work with so you can get a better idea of what I’m talking about.

  • Empty Nesters

This is an incredible niche for agents. Empty nesters are people who had a big home, their kids have moved out, and now they’re left with a ton of empty space. They have a specific set of needs for their next move. Maybe they’re looking for a fresh start, they want to downsize, or they’re looking for a home that will accommodate their needs as they get older. This is a segment of the market you can get to know well.

  • Divorcees.

I actually have a client right now whose niche is women going through a divorce. She works with these women specifically and helps to support them and empower them in their next chapter, finding a place that feels like home after a tough transition.

Your niche might be an area that you have skills and knowledge in, or it might just be something you connect to on a personal level. Maybe you’ve even gone through a personal experience, struggle, or transformation that you now want to help others work through.

Just remember, the longer you continue to say “I do listings and buyers” or, “I do commercial and renters”, the longer you’re avoiding picking a niche.

And without a niche, your marketing is going to be generic and only add to the noise of invaluable content that most people ignore.

You might even feel like you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall because you’re not able to form a real connection with the clients that you’re looking to target.

If you want to avoid that feeling and develop marketing that effortlessly attracts perfect-fit clients, keep reading to learn about the most common ideal client avatar pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Being The Generalist

Everybody wants to be Oprah.

Everybody wants to be that person who can speak to everyone and dominate their entire city.

Now, you might be able to do that over time. But especially in the beginning, you’re going to need to niche down so you can cut through the noise.

When you’re in a market with tens of thousands of agents and you’re using the same message as everyone else, you’re just going to get lost in the crowd.

You need to speak to a specific group of people with a specific problem they need to solve. And speak to them in their own words.

You have to remember the capture of attention is marketing gold.

The capture of attention is that first moment where someone stops what they’re doing and thinks…wait a second, who IS this person?

If you’re trying to speak to everyone, your ideal client avatar, the person you’re dying to work with, is never going to have that moment.

Being the generalist will leave you proving yourself, discounting your services, fighting with other agents for listings, and feeling like you’re no different from anyone else.

You need to offer a specific solution to a specific problem.

Falling Victim to “Unicorn Syndrome”

There’s this phenomenon that goes on in the real estate community that I like to call “unicorn syndrome”. It’s where agents think of the real estate industry as so special and so different than any other type of business.

When in reality, that’s not the case at all.

Real estate is really all about human connection.

You have to remember: your business and your clients are not the exception to the rule.

When you fall victim to unicorn syndrome, you believe that proven marketing strategies, such as niching down, won’t work for you. Because you’re special and different.

But here’s some tough love… your business is *not* that special.

Businesses have operated on the same principles for 1000s of years. The principles of marketing and crafting a powerful message that resonates have been the same since people were selling skirts in the town square.

The main reason things have changed is that we now have access to incredible technology at our fingertips to help us spread our message.

So if you’re an agent who has a relevant, powerful message, you have the ability to reach your perfect ideal clients at scale because of things like online advertising.

Just remember: wherever you’re located, whoever your client is, whatever your services are, you are not the real estate unicorn. Don’t let this excuse hold you back from honing in on your ideal client avatar.

Just remember the basic, foundational principles of marketing still work.

Not Using the Language of Your Ideal Client

When you go to craft your ideal client avatar, one of the best pieces of advice I have is to go out and actually talk to them.

Whether it’s in person, on Zoom or you just pick up the phone and give them a call, make it a priority to start having conversations with your ideal clients.

Talk about their problems, their struggles, their desires.

When you do this, not only will you be able to craft your services around their needs, you’ll also learn to speak their language.

Sometimes as experts, we think we know what our clients want and what they’re going through. We’re so sure we understand the problems that we solve.

But in fact, we actually don’t.

The best thing you can do as an agent is to speak to your ideal clients to understand the language they use, so you can craft a message that resonates with them.

You’ll be able to speak in their own words, rather than using any industry or expert lingo.

When you speak to somebody in their own words, the person feels as if you’re seeing into their soul. As if you’re right inside their head. And can connect with what you’re saying in a deep and profound way.

Your clients will start to see you as someone who truly understands them, rather than just somebody who’s marketing to them.

Not Updating Your Ideal Client Avatar

An ideal client avatar exercise is not something you set and forget.

It needs to constantly be updated as YOU and your business grows and evolves.

Your ideal client avatar is going to change, your experience is going to change and your understanding is going to change as you work within your marketplace.

The more you work with your ideal clients, the more you’ll be able to refine your ideal client avatar.

Once you start working with a certain type of client over and over again, you’ll gain clarity on something you didn’t realize in the beginning.

You’ll want to take note of any changes or shifts in your ideal client. Make it a point to revisit your ideal client avatar every couple of months and update it based on your personal growth, experiences, and knowledge you’ve gained.

Focusing Too Much on a Large Audience Rather than a Small Targeted One

So many agents think the answer to success lies in growing your audience bigger and bigger and bigger.

They think they need 10,000 followers and a massive email list to have a successful career in real estate.

If you’ve ever felt this way, here’s what you may not have realized about this ideology.

Typical conversion rates are between 1-3%.

With this kind of marketing, you’re attracting cold leads.

But when you focus on a smaller, more targeted group, and develop a real connection with them, everything changes.

The conversion rate on the niched group is going to be astronomically higher.

And a big part of the reason for this is because this group of people already knows, likes, and trusts you.

When someone already feels like they know you, they don’t mess around. You’re not just another agent to them.

You won’t find yourself in a situation where your client is interviewing six other real estate agents, trying to figure out who will give them the best commission break, or who will give them the highest listing price.

Instead, they’ll already be sold on YOU.

When you’ve brought someone into your world through your marketing, oftentimes there won’t even need to be a listing appointment.

Instead, your clients will jump straight into, “When are you free and when can you come to see my house?”

They already know who you are, what you do, and what you specialize in.

Heck, they even know you have a Corgi and love taking your kid to soccer practice and that you don’t work on Sundays.

They already see you as a friend, even though you’ve never met. And that kind of relationship is a thousand times more powerful than having a massive cold audience to sell to.

Remember, it’s not about the numbers, it’s about how deeply you’re connecting with a *specific* type of person.

Focusing Too Much on Scaling Your Marketing Efforts Without The Foundation

Don’t get me wrong, omnipresence is definitely one of the sexy parts of real estate marketing. All of a sudden, you get to be everywhere, almost like you’re a celebrity. You’re showing up in all the right places, you’re on people’s newsfeeds 2 to 3 times a day, and you’re building authority as the expert.

But before you get to the fun, sexy things, you’ve got to build your foundation.

If you try to skip to omnipresence without first becoming relevant, constantly seeing your message across all platforms is only going to annoy your audience rather than build a connection.

When you haven’t taken the time to perfect your ideal client avatar, every single thing you build on top of that is a house of cards.

It doesn’t matter how good your intentions are, how much money you throw at fixing your funnel, or what your ad spend looks like. At the end of the day, if your messaging is off, if your ideal client avatar isn’t spot on, nothing else will make any difference.

Take your time on this piece and get it right.

Think of your ideal client avatar as your entire marketing foundation.

By putting in some hard work to craft your ideal client avatar the right way, you’ll STOP hunting for leads and start to effortlessly attract perfect-fit clients every single day.

Do you want more support with generating qualified leads for your real estate business? Download my free The Listings Lab Guide to learn how to fill your calendar with appointments in no time!

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